Derek William Dick, better known as Fish, ended a 45-year career with his Road To The Isles tour, an extended romp through his entire musical back catalogue. The end of the road for Fish has been well planned and re-planned: the singer originally begun the process of bowing out back when Covid 19 hit the UK, postponing his tour and forcing a strategic rethink. His final album, Weltschmerz, released in 2020, felt like the work of a musician and lyricist making his final offerings.
With such a rich output to plunder, and having toured the record previously, perhaps it’s not surprising that tracks from Weltschmerz are entirely absent from the Bristol Beacon show, making up less than 5% of the tour’s material overall. Fish is obviously impressed with the new look Beacon, renamed to avoid basking in the history of Edward Colston, a merchant who made his name through slave trading.
Whilst Fish’s lyrics are a highlight of any gig he plays, his voice, never the strongest, grows weak at points during the set, suggesting that parting ways with touring is a sage move. But any frailty in the Scottish singer’s vocals is made up for by a spirited performance by a band all intrinsically linked with Fish’s solo career: Mickey Simmonds, keyboards, was there back in 1989 upon going solo; Robin Boult, guitars, joined him shortly afterwards. Also present are Gavin Griffiths, drums, Liz Antwi, vocals, and Steve Vantsis, bass, who has acted as Fish’s regular musical sparring partner towards the end of his time in music.
Importantly, the sound is crystal clear, ensuring Fish’s poetic musings shine through the progressive rock pomp. Whether writing deeply personal odes, or political historical story-songs, the “writer who sings” finds chinks of light in often dark subject matter, a metaphorical representation of Leonard Cohen’s “crack in everything”. It’s not all heavy business, though: lighter moments such as the country-tinged ballad ‘Just Good Friends’ break up the delivery with sentiment, the duet showcasing the superb talents of Antwi.
Opening with the same notes that announced the arrival of his solo career, in ‘Vigil’, the set gathers momentum with ‘Credo’, the first singalong moment. Touching on almost all points in his solo oeuvre, it is still a bold move to end the main set with a multipart epic from perhaps Fish’s most overlooked solo album. The six-part ‘Plague of Ghosts’ sees the band leave the stage, one by one, to a crowd still chanting the song’s “make it happen” final refrain. Given many in the audience wouldn’t have been familiar with this material prior to the concert, it’s a strong sales pitch for some of the artist’s most “difficult” material. Its no surprise that Raingods with Zippos, the album from which this is taken, is sold out at the merchandise stall.
Throughout the set, the weighty material is interspersed with light-hearted banter with the band, and fans. The on-stage camaraderie and obvious bonhomie of the musicians means their interpersonal exchanges never feel forced or dull, and when addressing the crowd, Fish usually has us all in stitches. With the singer’s voice croaking, he relieves himself of some phlegm into what he describes as “the cup of shame”, jokingly threatening to empty this over anyone present who calls for ‘Grendel’, the much-loved Marillion B-side!
Of course, for every die-hard fan in the crowd, there’s another with a passing acquaintance to Fish’s solo material really here to hear their favourite 80s Marillion numbers. Tonight, and throughout the tour, Fish is generous in this respect. Mid-set he introduces ‘Incubus’, one of his former band’s more complex and demanding offerings. Incredibly the crowd sing along to every line; “as you crawled out of the alleys of obscurity, sentenced to rejection in the morass of anonymity” a reminder that we’re dealing with a singular, dark, lyrical perspective, here. Imagine then the mood as Fish rounds out with the tunes we all really wanted to hear: ‘Kayleigh’ and ‘Lavender’ sound all the brighter and more poignant for this being one of the last times their lyricist will belt them out.
The encore also includes ‘A Gentleman’s Excuse Me’ and finally ‘The Company’ (“our song,” as Fish puts it on the night). The crowd and band visibly moved, the singer announces “I’m Derek William Dick; I’m Fish for two more weeks,” and exits the arena (over two hours and 20 minutes after arriving on stage) with many a tear in the eyes of beholders, his life’s work approaching completion.
