Fish - London Review

Clearly not content to only do one round of UK shows celebrating the 30th anniversary of Marillion's seminal fourth album Clutching at Straws, the band's former frontman Fish scheduled another run of shows to once again showcase the whole album live a mere year after the last tour. This time however, the UK shows came at the end of a longer European trek, which has seen Clutching at Straws performed in full each night, with new material from his upcoming final solo album Weltschmerz making up the rest of the set. This was actually supposed to be the case last year, but at the time the big man was somewhat behind with the songwriting for the upcoming album so no new songs were sadly featured. Since then however, it seems that Fish has been extremely prolific in the songwriting department. There are now talks of Weltschmerz being a double album, and with an EP containing three new tunes and some live material now out, Fish is clearly ready to get down to the serious recording of the new album. This is great news for Fish fans, and if the three new songs on the A Parley of Angels EP are anything to go by then Weltschmerz is sure to be a perfect final bow for him. No doubt there will be a few more hiccups before the new album finally sees the light of day (there always is with anything Fish attempts!) but until then we will have to make do with the three new tunes and this current tour! As with the 2017 shows, the UK tour was reasonably extensive and saw Fish again playing reasonably large venues. The shows he has done in recent years which have been very Marillion-centric certainly seem to pull larger crowds than his more 'traditional' solo shows. While it is a shame that there are clearly many out there are who are not all that interested in his solo work, it is great to see him playing to larger crowds once again before he finally retires in a couple of years time. As with the last tour, it made the most sense for me to head to London - to the Islington Assembly Hall which seems to be his London venue of choice currently. The show I attended was the first of two nights at the venue and, as was also the case last year, the place was packed out. The large crowd helped to create a strong atmosphere at times, but also led to the evening's biggest draw back. Sadly Fish shows have always been plagued with loud-mouthed and uncouth 'fans', but this one has to be the worst that I have attended in that regard which was a real shame.

Opening the show was former Violet Hour frontwoman Doris Brendel and her band, who ran through around 40 minutes of melodic rock that had distinctly punky edge. Brendel, who once again sung backing vocals with Fish's band, and her band all looked the part in their steampunk-inspired outfits, and their music was full of quirky twists and turns that kept their set somewhat interesting. Brendel's voice has a slightly rough edge which naturally allowed her to rock out, at this also helped to give the songs their spiky edge. It was also the best part of the set as, while the songs played were certainly enjoyable, I found the hooks and melodies throughout were not quite grabbing me. There first couple of songs played were strong, but throughout the rest of the set I found myself gradually losing interest - with the occasional little moment pulling me back in. Lee Dunham (guitar/vocals) was the most expressive person on the stage, with the exception of Brendel herself, and he helped to shake up many of the songs with fluid and exciting guitar solos. Despite plenty of charisma and charm, Brendel and her band ultimately failed to win me around. There were some strong moments, but on the whole the songs just did not properly grab me which was a shame.

After half an hour or so, the lights dimmed and Fish's band slowly trooped onto the stage. Foss Paterson (keyboards/vocals) immediately launched into the distinctive piano intro to Slàinte Mhath, and the venue erupted with cheers as Fish took to the stage beaming. Paterson, who has re-joined Fish for this tour, joined an otherwise-unchanged band. The UK shows have come at the end of a lengthy European run, so the band were really firing on all cylinders after a couple of months out there together on the road. The first audience sing-a-long of the night came at the end of the opening song, before a distinctive percussion loop heralded the introduction of Man With a Stick - the first of four new songs played. The new songs were very different from the style that Marillion employed on Clutching at Straws back in 1987, so did stick out somewhat in a set that was largely tinged with nostalgia, but they still mostly shone. Man With a Stick features some extremely dark lyrics, something which Fish has always excelled at, and a great bass groove from songwriter and long-time bassist Steve Vantsis. Despite the new material largely impressing, it was many of the old Marillion numbers that really stood out. The Hotel Hobbies trilogy will always be some of my favourite early Marillion pieces, and seeing Robin Boult (guitar) launch into the cutting solo section of Warm Wet Circles was a treat. He might not be Steve Rothery, but Boult has proved to be a great ally of Fish's over the years and his muscular take on the songs really suited Fish's current voice. Vocally, Fish did not sound as strong as last year, but this was probably as this show fell at the end of a fairly lengthy tour. He still carried the material well however, and having Brendel to harmonise with certainly helped him out somewhat.

The only somewhat flat moment in the set was the lengthy new number Little Man What Now? which just not seem to really suit the vibe of the evening. It is quite a meandering piece that never seems to quite get going, and sadly it prompted many of the crowd to chatting and push back and forwards to the bar. Sadly the second half of the set was plagued by a lot of this behaviour, with many of Fish's song introductions being totally ruined by crowd members shouting out inane things and loudly talking with their friends. There was a funny moment which led to a portion of Lavender to be played off-the-cuff, but the rest of the interjections were tedious and extremely rude. Fish was clearly getting very annoyed at times and I do not blame him at all. Luckily the music still shone, with the biting White Russian really standing out about two-thirds of the way through, and Sugar Mice seeing the crowd singing in all the right places and another strong Boult solo. Another highlight however was the final of the four new songs Waverley Steps (End of the Line), which is another lengthy piece but this is one that really holds the interest. The keyboards from Paterson throughout were excellent, and the lyrics - that deal with depression - were very moving. This led into a rousing version of The Last Straw which brought the main set to a high-energy close. There were still two more Clutching at Straws-era tracks to go, so of course the band would come back - even if large portions of the crowd really did not deserve an encore! The b-side Tux On was the first encore to the played, before the bouncy single Incommunicado allowed everyone to let off steam one last time before having to leave. The setlist was:

Slàinte Mhath [Marillion material]
Man With a Stick
Hotel Hobbies [Marillion material]
Warm Wet Circles [Marillion material]
That Time of the Night (The Short Straw) [Marillion material]
Little Man What Now?
Torch Song [Marillion material]
White Russian [Marillion material]
Just for the Record [Marillion material]
C Song (The Trondheim Waltz)
Going Under [Marillion material]
Lavender [Marillion material]
Sugar Mice [Marillion material]
Waverley Steps (End Of The Line)
The Last Straw [Marillion material]
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Tux On [Marillion material]
Incommunado [Marillion material]

Despite large portions of the crowd who seemed to want to spoil the show for everyone else, this was a strong performance from Fish, and his band, which seems him slowly inching towards retirement with his head held high. I am looking forward to getting my hands on Weltschmerz when it is released next year, and the inevitable tour that will follow promoting it!