Fish on Friday – 14 March 2008 – Guildhall – Gloucester

Review & Photography by Judi

The support for this evening's entertainment was an Irish band called Glyder: Four lads from Ballyknockan (do the Irish know how to name their towns or what?!) what a surprise! – I hadn’t expected them to be so good! To be honest I hadn’t really given them a thought at all – how rude of me!

So they arrived on stage, looking terribly young and terribly indie rock! Three guitars and a drummer with lots of hair and lots of black! – ok, ok Dave Ryan (drums) doesn't have lots of hair! But what he lacked in follicles the other three made up for in spades!

They opened to plenty of smoke and a rocky number called Gamblers and I quickly realised I had been wrong to just ignore the support act for the evening and for that matter in my initial judgement! Pete Fisher (guitar) plays like he really means it and looked like he really loved being up there – I don’t think the grin left his face all night! (that or he had started celebrating St Paddy's day before he came on stage!)

The vocals of Tony Cullen (vocals and bass) and Bat [yes...really!] (guitar and vocals) worked well together and as a band they had a well rounded sound.

Their set list was written in black marker pen on a page from a music magazine – how rock and roll!! (although my daughter says its not rock and roll, it's just being environmentally friendly – recycling and all that and you don't get much less rock and roll than that!! sigh!!)

Glyder were enthusiastically energetic and I greatly enjoyed the set. Their My Space page says they are influenced by "pure rock" and it has to be said that there were definite Thin Lizzy undertones but they were still fresh and original. Unlike many young rock bands the lyrics were not repetitive and there wasn't a thrash scream to be heard -always a bonus in my book! I can see them going far! They have two albums so far – the self titled debut album and "Playground for life" and based on this gig I certainly intend to pick up a copy of at least one.

Glyders Myspace

So after a short break for Glyder to clear their gear and for Fish's crew to reset the stage...

Enter stage left Mr Dick himself! Ooh how excited was I about this? – I have been looking forward to this gig for a long time – since...ooh some time last year when we tried to book tickets to a gig in Bristol only to realise the site we were looking at was out of date and it was a previous year's gig we were trying to book for!!

Misplaced Childhood was my favourite album for the longest time!! I have to admit, musically speaking, Fish is a big hero of mine, his philosophical and political lyrics arouse in me an urge to be a dissident and his romantic lyrics make me want to open my heart, be in love and write poetry! And here he was in front of me – and I am lucky enough to be front and centre! In fact if I reached out I could practically grab hold of his green tartan pyjama trousers! (well I bet they aren’t REALLY pyjama trousers – but I have a similar pair at home in blue and they are definitely PJs!!)

The first thing Fish did was to introduce the band – usually at gigs the band doesn't get introduced till the end so I thought that was a nice touch.

I have never seen Fish live before so my first impression was "How tall???" He is a big man!! Followed by "Hey is that the same scarf he was wearing in the 80s? It must be minging by now!!"

They opened with Slainthe and quite quickly the audience began pelting him with hot cross buns!! So I thought – blimey the people of Gloucester aren't very friendly are they! But it turns out there is a story behind the buns (I should have known!) – Whilst doing a gig in Fife, the joke of the evening was... "How does "how does an elephant ask for a bun?"..."gissa bun" (hmm... it is a visual gag and you can't see what I'm doing but trust me it is funny!) Anyway buns have been de rigueur ever since – there is even a song! Oh and Fish threw the buns back with apparently deadly accuracy!!

Slinthe was followed by Circle line – and things got a little surreal at that point (because the buns weren't surreal enough!) – there is a line in Circle Line " Navigator, need a navigator, a navigator, need a navigator." at which point a blow up alligator started doing the rounds of the audience and Fish obligingly changed the song lyrics to "Alligator, need an alligator, an alligator, need an alligator"!

The majority of the time Fish seemed really focused on the task at hand and never seemed to stand still – even when his feet are still his head and arms keep going. He and the "boys" in the band obviously enjoyed themselves playing this gig. There were some real crowd pleasers such as Circle Line, Warm Wet Circle, So Fellini, and Faith Healer.

The Band:
Fish - vocals
Frank Usher - guitar
Steve Vantsis - bass
Foss Paterson - keyboards
Gavin John Griffiths - drums
Chris Johnson - guitar

They finished the set with White Russian and all dutifully left the stage. "Alligator need an alligator" took the place of calls for an encore - but it did the job and back they came to play a sensitive and hauntingly beautiful version of Cliché and this was the highlight of the night for me (it is my all time favourite Fish song!). The guitar playing from Frank Usher was poignantly tender.

They then played 13^th Star – this song obviously doesn't have the history for me that Cliché does but it appeared to mean a lot to the band; it seemed to me that there was a stage full of wistful faces (or maybe they were just tired!). This was followed by an energetic version of Incommunicado. The Alligator made a comeback appearance during this number – making it all the way to the stage this time!

The final number of the evening was Clutching at Straws. Maybe it was because they were on the last number or maybe because they have had quite a long time to get really comfortable with this number but this was the most relaxed the entire band appeared all night.

The Gloucester Guildhall is an intimate venue and Fish was very engaging; he made you feel that he was greeting old friends and talking directly to you! The quote of the evening from Fish to a drunken lass who was yelling that she loved him..."Yeah, I love you too... that's how I got into trouble the last time!"

I have been listening to Fish for about 20 years and to my [untrained] ear he still sounds like silk with a Scottish accent, having lost nothing from the timbre of his voice. Although it does seem to me that he has gained a depth and richness that I hadn't even noticed was lacking before.

As for the pizza rating – yes definitely go and see Fish in concert – you won't regret it... Now where is the nearest pizza shop? I need to get one on the way home!

Jx

Fish - Search for the 13^th Star Tour – My Space page -