Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Location: Estragon / Bologna / Italy
Concert date: 11/30/2007
Attendance: 100
Ticket price: 20.00 €
While more than half the population of our ever-less-green little country on the sunny side of the Alps was busy buying up the latest copies of the newspaper Delo just so they could get the freebie tucked inside, the hottest music item in our wonderful land right now (Magnifico’s new album, that is), the three of us, hopelessly ignorant outcasts when it comes to Slovenian music charts and social trends, set off for the heart of Bologna to catch one of the bigger prog rock events to land across our western border lately. This time around, the Italians were being honored with the presence of the legendary Fish, still best known as the former singer of the cult (neo) prog rock outfit Marillion, with whom he scored the biggest commercial successes of his career. He has stayed on good terms with them, even though he won’t hear a word about a possible reunion. Despite the long shadow of his old band, Fish has been going solo for nineteen years now, an established and respected musician in the prog world who has put out a string of solid-to-very-good albums in that time, with connoisseurs singling out his debut “Vigil In a Wilderness Of Mirrors” (1989), “Sunsets On Empire” (1996) and his latest, “13th Star” (2007), as the best of the bunch.
The expected showcase of most of the new record, however, took a back seat on this tour to material from the classic Marillion album “Clutching At Straws” (1987), which was also his last with the band. It turned 20 this year. After last year’s unforgettable encounter with the legendary highlander in Augsburg, where he played the entire Marillion classic “Misplaced Childhood” (1985) live, along with a few other Marillion hits and some of his solo stuff, this was our second Fish show. To be honest, going in I never expected this one to match or even top the Augsburg gig, but I did fairly expect great takes on some Marillion classics, a theatrical stage show and the kind of atmosphere that only this hugely charismatic musician can deliver, one of the few who can combine the clown and the martyr in a single stage performance.
We finally made our way into the half-empty Estragon hall a bit after ten (the last time we’d been there was in April, for Marillion). The “souvenir” prices were, as usual, outrageously inflated. For a limited edition of Fish’s solo album, for instance, the swindlers wanted a whopping 28 euros, which was seriously way too much. Opening this time were The Watch, modern Italian symphonic prog rock revivalists, who turned out to be a pretty fitting choice, even if (for the demanding prog gourmets) not exactly the most original. Still, they were pure balm for the ears compared to last year, when Fish’s blessing brought us some young British singer-songwriter who, apart from her undeniable good looks, had nothing worth mentioning to offer musically with her “whining”. The Watch, who are under the more-than-obvious influence of Peter Gabriel-era Genesis (in my opinion they could easily pass for a very decent Genesis tribute band), delivered solid symphonic progressive rock featuring an almost authentic 1970s keyboard sound and a stage setup shamelessly similar to what Genesis had in their prime.
They mostly played material from their current album “Primitive” (2007). That legendary keyboard sound from the original Tony Banks school, the one most prog rock connoisseurs still prize above all, owed a lot to the fact that, to my big surprise, there was an ancient mellotron among their instruments, something that’s getting harder and harder to spot even at prog rock gigs these days. Keyboardist Fabio Mancini proved it wasn’t standing there just for decoration, and that he knows how to use it. Singer Simone Rossetti, who looked suspiciously like a young Gabriel, not only because of the poetic tone of his voice but also thanks to his skin-tight black shirt and bell-bottom trousers, showed an enviable command of English for an Italian, though he’ll have to keep working on his vocal range. And, despite a few attempts in that direction, he was of course nowhere near the charisma and theatrics of his great idol. Guitarist Ettore Salati also copied Steve Hackett’s stage approach a bit too obviously, sitting on a stool for the entire set. Stylistically, too, his playing couldn’t do without Hackett’s trademark tapping and soft, classical-leaning lines in the individual passages.
The one who stood out most for the uniqueness of his playing was bassist Marco Schembri, who used a stick and so broke up their audio-visual image as a sort of Italian Genesis, since he didn’t remind anyone of Mike Rutherford in the slightest. It’s always nice to see someone besides Tony Levin (King Crimson, Peter Gabriel) and Trey Gunn (UKZ, ex-King Crimson) using this demanding stringed instrument, but given that Schembri didn’t show anything all that special on it, it was there more as an unusual instrumental curiosity, or simply so nobody could accuse them of criminally ripping off Genesis. Drummer Roberto Leoni was likewise more than obviously inspired by Collins’ drumming technique, though he’ll have to eat a lot more porridge before he gets anywhere near that level. Their set flew by quickly, with no encore, and in the end they earned applause even from me, which doesn’t happen all that often with support acts. I can say The Watch proved to be real pros and warmed us up well for Fish, even if their approach amounts to little more than a good imitation of Gabriel-era Genesis.
Fish announced his traditionally theatrical performance with a variety of stage projections. So before his band came out, we got to watch a countdown of the years from the release of “Clutching At Straws” (1987) all the way to 2007. Mixed in were parodies of some of the fan questions Fish has been facing for years, like the ones about a Marillion reunion and his (non-)performance of the cult 20-minute Marillion epic “Grendel” (originally from their first EP, “Market Square Heroes”, 1982). Besides old footage of Fish with Marillion, they also ran the major events of those years, each with a pretty juicy comment written underneath. The other big gag of the evening was the DJ spinning the Beatles classic “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band” while the members of Fish’s band were already on stage, which was surely planned. The jokes were over in an instant, though, when a towering figure marched out authoritatively, as usual draped in an Arab scarf, and took center stage. Standing before us was a friendly, laughing giant who, being a true pro, wasn’t thrown in the slightest by the rudely gaping emptiness of the hall, but actually seemed to enjoy it and delivered a performance as energetic as you’d expect from a stage presence of his caliber.
Fish and his crew opened, somewhat unusually given that you’d expect the lion’s share of “Clutching At Straws”, with the Marillion classic “Slainte Mhath”. Then, via an energetic “Circle Line”, Fish steered the show toward his solo material, dominated by tracks from the current album “13th Star”. “So Fellini” (Fellini Days, 2001) and the new “Square Go” also left a good impression, but among the solo numbers the standout for me was the epic “The Perception of Johnny Punter” from “Sunsets On Empire” (1996), inspired by the tragic events of the Balkans’ recent past. The stage projections reflected that too, showing footage of war scenes from the time. They blended superbly into the mood of the performance, which is stuffed with raw riffing as well as subtler moments. This is where the Fisherman first really showed off his theatrical chops, wrapping his Arab scarf around his face during the long instrumental section and playing a sort of Islamic fundamentalist. He stood there petrified for a while, which was in sharp contrast to his otherwise pretty lively stage approach. Judging by his choice of solo material, Fish has lately been into somewhat darker, heavier-sounding stuff built on almost semitone metal riffs (one of the few “newer” prog acts the mighty Fisherman has a good word for is Porcupine Tree, so some of the newer influences surely come from there). I’d guess that also reflects his current, rather woman-unfriendly mood and his eternal search for his “true star”, which runs through the concept of his current album.
This time around Fish had a few lineup changes compared to last year, such as new rhythm guitarist Chris Johnson, whom we got to meet after the interview. Chris bragged that he’d already been to Slovenia, so he instantly recognized our gift of Karst Teran wine and assured Fish we weren’t planning to poison him. The young guy proved a good partner on guitar for old tomcat Frank Usher, and chipped in with backing vocals here and there too. There was also someone new behind the drums whom we hadn’t seen in Augsburg: Gavin Griffiths, former drummer of Mostly Autumn, a band the Fisherman, I suspect, no longer wants to see or hear after his failed engagement to their singer. On keyboards this time was none other than the almost cult prog rock keyboardist Foss Paterson (who has also worked with Camel and Jethro Tull), who successfully proved himself the ideal keyboardist for Fish’s backing band. Old fox Frank Usher, the only one who’s been with Fish since the very beginning, confirmed his reputation as one of the more overlooked guitarists in modern prog rock, the kind people don’t usually talk much about. Bassist Steve Vantsis is also a longtime member of Fish’s band, and boasts of having contributed a big share of the ideas for “13th Star”. During the show Fish introduced each of them and made it clear who the boss is the moment some of them deliberately started picking fights and “beating their chests”.
After hitting the peak of his solo numbers with “Manchmal”, also from the current album, seasoned with dark mood and guitar passages dressed in semitone shirts, he made a completely unexpected return to “Clutching At Straws” material via “Hotel Hobbies”. The crowd welcomed that move more than warmly too, because as good as most of his solo numbers were, it has to be admitted that most of us came to enjoy the stuff from that Marillion classic above all. “Hotel Hobbies” gave the already noticeably drowsy crowd a proper jolt, and from then on, at least in the front rows, people got actively involved with the band and managed to rescue the concert atmosphere in a pinch. Fish fended off the dampened crowd energy, a result of the embarrassingly low turnout, with a heavy dose of his trademark humor, which included social, soccer and sexual allusions as well as some unabashed self-parody. More than once he joked about the poor attendance, saying “he really likes this special atmosphere of extreme intimacy and that we can now get to know each other by name”. Unlike last year, when he spoke almost exclusively in German between songs, this time I could understand him with no problem at all despite his thick Scottish accent.
Fish and his comrades then surprised us with a masterful version of the classic “Warm Wet Circles”, which Fish hadn’t put in his live repertoire for a very long time. The crowd even warmed up to the point where the most fired-up fans tried to imitate the original female backing vocal harmonies at the end of “That Time Of The Night”. So there were a few loyal fans after all. Around then, and in other spots during the “Clutching At Straws” material, you could tell that in his old age Fish can’t, and doesn’t even want to, chase the high notes he had back in the Marillion days. With “Dark Star”, which I think is one of the best things on his current album, Fish and his band briefly jumped from the 80s back into the present. When it comes to instrumental parts, atmosphere and Fish’s charismatic stage presence, that was, along with the aforementioned “Perception of Johnny Punter”, surely the best moment of the night among his solo numbers. Before “Sugar Mice”, which was another highlight of the evening, Fish half-jokingly, half-seriously reminisced about the time when “he was still young and had some hair, but now he’s an aging bloke who wouldn’t wear a wig or implants for anything, because that leaves him with less time, which he’d rather spend lighting cigarettes than combing”. Fish is still almost as passionate a smoker as he is a drinker, even though during the show he was working through bottles of water, saying that “even a fish needs water”.
The next moment he complained that they’d lost their previous waiter on one of the trips, so his role was taken over by none other than Fish’s teenage daughter Tara. Out marched a sweet 16-year-old girl with a tray, who will surely grow into an attractive woman in the next couple of years, and served drinks to daddy Fish and the other uncles in his band. Tara also diligently handled the sale of her dad’s “souvenirs” before and after the show. “Sugar Mice” thus replaced “Incommunicado” as the moment of Fish’s set when, by tradition, Fish and his crew swap the water bottles for intoxicating drops. Anyone the “sugar mice” failed to send into delirium was surely done in by the excellent version of “White Russian”, a song that will always be relevant in a world of still-undiminished waves of intolerance and racism, and which Fish, despite dodging the high notes, sang superbly in his own dramatic, harrowing way. An encore followed with the somewhat unexpected “Cliche”, which is basically a pretty average love ballad. That could easily have been a big letdown, but after Fish’s sudden exit the backing band stretched it out and played a great instrumental coda, above all through Usher’s superb “Gilmour meets Latimer” guitar solo. That completely won me over, unexpectedly, and made for yet another of the loveliest moments of the night.
After his unexpected absence, Fish did make it back on stage, changed into a soccer jersey with his name on it; all he was missing was the usual glass of whisky and a straw. Everything was set for the long-awaited main “party” number, the rowdy, fan-chant, slapstick “Incommunicado”, which was also the last song of the night. If the atmosphere properly bloomed anywhere this evening, it was during this always fun and witty Marillion classic, where Fish, just like in its video, briefly turns back into that lovable little drunk who just got back from a soccer match between Scotland and Italy and is drowning his disappointment at the bar after the defeat (the traditional soccer feuds got a good few laughs that night too). Fish and his comrades also made sure to dance, as is obligatory. Even Chris Johnson, extremely calm during the regular set, treated himself to a few jumps in the air here. The crowd’s enthusiasm didn’t die down even after Fish had thanked them and said his goodbyes from the stage. Sadly, we were deprived of two numbers that were on the tour’s regular repertoire. In the end Fish gave the poor turnout a bit of a slap in the face, and despite the roaring ovations in the front rows, he didn’t come back for the encore that was supposed to be “The Last Straw”. He also dropped “Vigil In a Wilderness of Mirrors” from the set. Still, I wasn’t disappointed in the slightest, and I can say Fish somehow managed to deliver what I expected of him, even though the first encounter with him was undoubtedly better, but with me it’s almost always the case that the first time I see a given act stays in my memory more fondly than the next.
Some people were quite a bit more critical and complained after the show about the PA being too loud, especially at the start. That didn’t bother me much, though I agreed it was obviously set up for a bigger crowd than the one that showed up. My bigger criticism would go to the poor stage lighting, which was often used inappropriately, especially when it came to lighting the main protagonist of the evening. And I can’t get past being appalled at the criminally low turnout (around 100 people) for one of the few solo artists in rock who still makes his music with heart and soul and always rewards the audience with the maximum of his abilities, no matter the circumstances. I’d rate this Fish show as very good, not phenomenal like the one in Augsburg, but still more or less in line with my expectations overall. Especially after the hole in the crowd had pointed to something much worse before the start. This time his stage show was set up differently than last year, so he didn’t play a classic album in full, but left out a few pieces and wove in some solo numbers, which alone made repeating last year’s atmosphere impossible. On top of that came the catastrophically low turnout, which decisively affected both the atmosphere and the fact that his set was cut short by a second encore.
At the end of the interview Fish even sarcastically quipped that, thanks to our “valiant” promoters, he can’t go sightseeing in our country. Given the absurd turnout for his show in Bologna, I’d rather not imagine how many people would show up if some promoter with suicidal financial leanings dared to bring him to our neck of the woods. Even with Magnifico as the opener, a jam-packed hall would, by the most optimistic estimates, have shrunk to about fifteen souls by the time Fish arrived. Welcome to the small but real world of sub-Alpine polka kids, Sunday beef soup and turbo folk, where the only fish anyone wants are the ones in Mercator’s offer.
Setlist
1. Slainte Mhath
2. Circle Line
3. So Fellini
4. Square Go
5. Perception of Johnny Punter
6. Manchmal
7. Hotel Hobbies
8. Warm Wet Circles
9. That Time Of The Night
10. Dark Star
11. Sugar Mice
12. White Russian
—encore—
13. Cliche
14. Incommunicado
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