Fish, a closer look at a very inspired and inspiring human being

This month, we reflect on the reissues of Fish’s studio albums. In this article, we highlight some sides of Fish that make him stand out. With his solo work, he emphatically shows that his work with Marillion was only the prelude to where he wanted to go in music. The difference between his last album Weltschmerz and his last album with Marillion, Clutching At Straws could not have been greater. The explanation is not nearly as complex as you might think.

Rocker and poet
When you consider that he was the once frontman of the most successful neo-progressive rock band, he might have chosen to continue within the same mould. That’s something that doesn’t suit Fish so much. Whatever he does, he emphatically chooses to go his own way. Vigil In A Wilderness Of Mirrors was certainly still partly in keeping with his work with Marillion musically, the differences were already apparent. When you consider, just listen to Songs From The Mirror, with songs he listened to a lot as a boy, that Fish loves rock like The Who, Argent or The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, in addition to progressive rock, it’s not surprising that he doesn’t always reflect the prog map in his music.

Fish’s lyrics are a class by themselves. Whereas, especially on the first Marillion albums, he still sometimes indulged in exorbitant language, over the years he has started to write much closer to the skin. The ease with which he does this, the way he weaves words into vocal lines, make his lyrics particularly impressive even without music. A song like Garden Of Remembrance from Weltschmerz is about Alzheimer’s. It simply reads like a poem. Of course, this development was already noticeable in his early years as an artist, so also with Marillion, his ability to express himself has especially become stronger. Rose Of Damascus from the same album also underlines that.

Social and political views
You can’t get around Fish in his lyrics. He has great social commitment. From Marillion’s debut for which he wrote the lyrics of Forgotten Sons, via State Of Mind and Internal Exile from his solo debut, The Perception Of Johnny Punter from Sunsets On Empire, including Innocent Party on Field Of Crows, an important part of A Feast Of Consequences and from the latest album as well Waverley Steps, Fish is socially moved and doesn’t hide it. The dividing line between social and political engagement may sometimes be thin, the most emphatic political stance being the way he looks at Scotland’s position. Fish is a member of the Scottish National Party (SNP) and strongly favours Scotland as an independent country within Europe.

Commitment to work, to fans
The reissues in The Remasters and Deluxe series are all special. A lot of attention and time has been given, you can see emphatically, to all of them. Fish’s accompanying lyrics alone are all very profound, and then he also had interviews recorded for some of the reissues. How careful can you be as an artist? That’s not all, the shipping of the English and other copies outside Europe is taken care of by Fish and his wife from home! Just the two of them, occasionally assisted by Tara, Fish’s daughter. That says a lot about Fish’s devotion to fans. Whether it was the most lucrative choice he could ever make, you may wonder, but this gets to the essence of who Fish is. Simone and he put this dedication into what they do, so they certainly don’t see it as factory handling orders.

Acting, creating, inspiring, connecting
It’s not that singing and making music are the only things that inspire him in his life for Fish. Besides music, he has also made strides in the field of acting; he has already played a number of roles as an actor, both in Zorro and in the series Jute City in 1991, and these later became more and more. You could also say that the way he made gardening around his current home part of the online broadcasts he made weekly from his home for his fans from 2020 is also a form of creating. Those broadcasts started during corona but continued even after corona. Where at first they came in place of gigs and thus were also an outlet for Fish, it became a weekly programme that people stayed home for and in which Fish also often shared music with Simone and/or guests, news about reissues, the upcoming tour or of a personal nature. It was a connecting programme that brought Fish closer still to his fans. On 30 August 2024, the last Fish On Friday presented itself.

New horizons?
When the tour is over, Fish and his Simone will move to Berneray. One of the Hebrides where he will retire and enjoy the nature around them. Whatever exactly the future holds, Fish will no doubt take up the gauntlet to continue being creative as well. If only to write his autobiography. In the meantime, we have the tour to look forward to. Fish is warmly invited to enjoy it extensively afterwards. The way he has distinguished himself as a singer with great loyalty to his fans is very special. When the tour is over, it will be the farewell of an extraordinary singer and a socially engaged human being.

Want to know more about Fish? Then read the 3 parts of WiM’s 2019 interview with Fish. You can find the first part here.

Photo: Kai R. Joachim