I had mixed feelings when I heard Fish was going to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Marillion’s 1985 concept album “Misplaced Childhood” by playing album live in it’s entirety. Although many fans consider it to be their masterpiece, it’s never been one of my favourite Marillion albums; I have always preferred the underrated “Clutching at Straws” and “Fugazi”. And in the 17 years since Fish and Marillion went their separate ways, Fish has built up a solid back catalogue of his own solo work. Would Manchester Academy 2 see a triumphal revisit of past glories for old time’s sake? Or would Fish’s diminished voice fail to do the old material justice, and result in a pale shadow of what had once been?
Support was a female-fronted local band, The Haights, who played 70s-style hard rock with a funky edge. If they’d been Scottish, they might have been an early version of the band Frozen Gold from Iain Banks’ novel “Espediair Street”. They played a short but entertaining set, making up in enthusiasm what they lacked in experience.
The hall was packed by the time Fish took to the stage, launching straight into the highly-critical-of-America anthem ‘Big Wedge’. This managed to pack a punch even without the horn section from the original recording. His version on the second line, with “I’d just cleared immigration JFK-K-K” isn’t going to win him any friends in the Red States! This tour the band consisted of a returned Frank Usher on guitar, Steve Vantsis on bass, Tony Turrell on keys, John Tonks on drums, and a second guitarist and backing singer whose names I didn’t catch. Not quite as tight as the last time I saw Fish, back in 1999, but good enough.
The first half of the set was a greatest hits of his solo material, with most of the favourites, including ‘Credo’, ‘Brother 52′, ‘Goldfish and Clowns’ and ‘Family Business’. Fish’s voice held up most of the time, but did go ragged on one or two occasions, which made me wonder whether it would hold out for the whole show.
There was supposed to have been a ten-minute interval, but since things were running a few minutes late, the band remained on stage while Fish engaged in some banter with members of the audience. He told us how much he both loves and hates the film “Still Crazy” (about a 70s band on a comeback tour), because so much seems true to his own career. He keeps seeing “signs”, he told us. Behind the venue is a small park, and he saw a magpie that afternoon. This was A Sign, he told us! Of what?
The second half of the show was what many of the punters had really come for, the complete “Misplaced Childhood”. This was the point when the crowd really erupted. Large sections of the audience were singing along to Fish’s impenetrable and deeply personal lyrics. (My brother likened them to obsessive Morrisey fans; Ouch!) If Fish’s voice had been slightly shaky earlier on, he recovered his strength now, from the eerie ‘Pseudo Silk Kimono’, through the hit singles ‘Kayleigh’ and ‘Lavender’, the dark and twisted ‘Bitter Suite’ and the anthemic ‘Heart of Lothian’. The band made a good job of reproducing Marillion’s complex music, with Frank Usher making a credible stab at Steve Rothery’s guitar parts.
Call be a heretic, but I’ve always felt the first side of the original LP contained all the best moments, and the second side dragged a little. So it was tonight; although it still has it’s moments I think I’d rather have heard Fish’s later epic, ‘Plague of Ghosts’.
Having already overrun the official curfew, there was time for just one encore. I was expecting Fish’s traditional encore, ‘The Company’, but the big man decided to go right back to the dawn of time and treat the audience to a rousing version of Marillion’s very first single, ‘Market Square Heroes’. Are you following me?
Overall, a good show, if not quite a great one. Fish’s voice will never be what it was twenty years ago, but it was far from the disaster I feared it might be. The band continue on tour in England (but surprisingly not London, or Scotland), then to south America before returning for some more European dates in the summer.
Official Fish Website www.the-company.com
