Fish - London Review

The last few years have found Scottish singer Fish in a nostalgic and reflective mood. After releasing one of his best ever solo efforts A Feast of Consequences in 2013 and touring heavily off the back of it, his last couple of tours have seen him take a look back into his Marillion past. While Marillion material has always featured in his setlists over the years, the last couple of tours have seen it dominate. 2015 saw Fish take Marillion's seminal 1985 release Misplaced Childhood on the road for the last time to celebrate the album's 30th anniversary, and this year sees him giving 1987's Clutching at Straws the same treatment. Both albums are huge milestones in Fish's long and successful career, and it seems fitting that he should give them both some more time in the spotlight again before he retires. His Farewell to Childhood tour was a huge success and it seems like this current run will also prove lucrative. So far he has only covered the UK with this show, but I would assume that 2018 will see Fish and his band venturing further afield. Speaking of Fish's band the line-up is the same as the majority of the Farewell to Childhood tour, with John Beck (keyboards/vocals) back in the band after his broken arm incident to join forced again with Robin Boult (guitar), Steve Vantsis (bass guitar/vocals) and Gavin Griffiths (drums). There is an addition to the band on this tour however, as vocalist Doris Brendel has been added to the line-up to provide backing vocals and occasional wind instruments when required. The addition of female backing vocals really added to the overall sound of the band, and Brendel's presence certainly helped Fish out with some of the more demanding vocal sections. That being said, Fish sounded very strong vocally throughout the show which was probably aided by him having a fairly quiet year on the music front. The show in question that I saw was at the lovely Islington Assembly Hall in London, which seems to be a real haven for mid-sized rock acts these days, and was the second of a three night residency. As expected, the show was sold out so there was a large crowd gathered in the venue throughout the night and the atmosphere was excellent.

The start of the show was tinged with disappointment however as the scheduled support act, the excellent French progressive rock band Lazuli who I was looking forward to seeing again, had to pull out of the rest of the tour due to illness. I had assumed that there would be no support band as a result, but this was not to be the case as singer/songwriter David Ford took to the stage at around 7:45pm. Being a single individual without a backing band I expected this to be your generic acoustic guitar-wielding act, but Ford was certainly a lot more than that. Throughout the set he turned his hand to guitars, keyboards, harmonica, and percussion which led to a diverse set. Many of his songs involved looping, which allowed him to give the impression of having more musicians on stage without the use of a backing track. Seeing this done well is always impressive, and it seems that Ford is a master of his craft. While the songs themselves were not always the sort of thing I would usually listen to, they were enjoyable and performed with plenty of passion. It was clear too that a Fish crowd was not the usual sort of people he would perform to, but by the end of the set he had seemed to win quite a few in the audience around and he received a healthy amount of applause as he left the stage at the end of his set.

By the time Fish took to the stage at 9pm the place was packed and he received a warm welcome as he walked out to the electronic beats of The Voyeur (I Like to Watch), a rarely-played number from his debut solo album Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors. The song is quite an upbeat number, which ensured the evening kicked off with a bang. Beck's keyboards really helped to drive the song, and Fish was clearly enjoying singing the song again after so long. As with the Return to Childhood shows, the evening opened up with four solo cuts before delving into the Marillion material. Another song that has not featured in the set for a few years, Emperor's Song, was a welcome addition with it's poppy atmospherics, before the industrial-tinged Circle Line helped to inject some attitude into the proceedings. Fish was uncharacteristically quiet during the early part of the set, and only stopped to talk to the crowd after the third number where he introduced the politically-charged ballad State of Mind, which saw Boult strap on an acoustic guitar as Fish spat out the lyrics. The rest of the main set was made up of the material found on the Clutching at Straws album, although it was not played in the original running order. At first I thought that this might hamper the experience somewhat, but I did not find that to be the case. Misplaced Childhood required it, as the songs all run into each other, but this is not the case with Clutching at Straws and Fish often stopped to talk about the songs and tell little stories about how they came to be. The opening trilogy of songs, with the personal favourite Warm Wet Circles occupying the middle spot, remains one of the greatest album openings of all time and it was great to hear Fish sing them once again. There were a few of the songs here that I had not heard him perform live before, including the bouncy Just for the Record, which featured more excellent keyboard work from Beck, and the gorgeous ballad Going Under with Boult's atmospheric guitar playing. Songs which feature in Fish's sets more regularly like Incommunicado and Slàinte Mhath still hit the spot however, with the latter in particular really getting the crowd going with plenty of clapping and singing. Sugar Mice is still one of Fish's best ballads, and the lyric is packed full of excellent imagery. It was also a bit of a guitar showcase for Boult who, despite being quite a different style of guitarist to Marillion's Steve Rothery, took his own take on the legendary guitar solo. With that little breather passed, the set ended with two of the album's heavier pieces. White Russian is lead by a great groove, which saw Vantsis really driving the song with his bass, and the lyrics are some of Fish's more potent. It is a heavy song thematically, and one that still rings relevant despite being thirty years old now. The album's closing number The Last Straw brought the main set to an end, and the band walked off to a huge round of applause. There was time for more however, and there was one more rabbit pulled out of the Marillion hat with a performance of the B-side Tux On, a song which had not been performed live prior to this tour. This led into the second half of the song Perfume River, one of the highlights of the excellent A Feast of Consequences album. After another quick walk off stage, the band came back once more for a devastatingly powerful version of The Great Unravelling, again from Fish's recent solo album. This turned into one of the evening's highlights for me, and really highlighted the skills of all six of those on stage and it was a fitting end to an excellent evening of live music. The setlist was:

The Voyeur (I Like to Watch)
Emperor's Song
Circle Line
State of Mind
Hotel Hobbies [Marillion material]
Warm Wet Circles [Marillion material]
That Time of the Night (The Short Straw) [Marillion material]
Just for the Record [Marillion material]
Incommunicado [Marillion material]
Torch Song [Marillion material]
Slàinte Mhath [Marillion material]
Going Under [Marillion material]
Sugar Mice [Marillion material]
White Russian [Marillion material]
The Last Straw [Marillion material]
-
Tux On [Marillion material]
Perfume River
-
The Great Unravelling

As Fish moves ever-closer to retirement, any opportunity to see the big man live has to be taken. This was another excellent concert from the Scottish singer, and one that showcased some of the best material, both past and present, that he has ever been a part of.