FISH

Any prog fan worth his salt would know that Fish was the frontman of neo-prog legends Marillion, and that he left after the fourth. Now it's one thing if you wanna say that Marillion's overrated. It's another thing to say that Marillion got better after Fish left, largely because they were willing to expand. I've gone as far as to say that Marillion were writing quite samey albums that largely followed a certain standard. But REAL boldness, is saying that Misplaced Childhood, the single most popular neo-prog album of all time, is too poppy to be neo-prog. Now I'm fairly well-versed in post-Fish Marillion, and how they were finally allowed to expand their sound into other territories. For Seasons End, that seriously helped. So I was quite surprised by the RYM genre-tagging of Fish's debut album, bearing a much more diverse set of tags than any of the Fish-era Marillion albums.

This album is extraordinarily wild. Vigil was an excellent neo-prog opener that shows you what you'd expect from the full Fish, collecting everything in the first four Marillion albums in a nine-minute epic. But I didn't expect new wave touches and mellow samba touches in the next two songs. Unfortunately, pair this with the adult contemporary single, A Gentleman's Excuse Me, it gets to the point where a "prog" tag is questionable. It seems that radio success is something Fish was quite worried about after Misplaced Childhood. He DID leave Marillion for monetary and legal reasons. And the best part? Most of these tracks are very catchy, even though that means they're also quite accessible. Songs like Family Business and State of Mindget you moving as much as they get you thinking about the style. In fact, during Vigil, I was thinking to myself, why the hell didn't Fish do stuff like this with Marillion? There's only one weak song, ther adult contemporary Gentleman's Excuse me. In stark contrast to everything else on the album, there's no rhythm in the instrumentation, and nothing weird or wild. Pop single.

Okay, so this went without progressive rock tendencies and may be closer to progressive pop for the long run, so I'm gonna say it: even though this is easily more neo-prog than Misplaced Childhood, I wouldn't call this prog rock, so no neo-prog tag. Prog pop? Sure. Pop rock? Yes. And why? Because it's blatantly obvious that this album, while exceptionally creative and consistent with a perfect flow, is a cashgrab. A really GOOD cashgrab. Creatively speaking, this album is much more well-handled than anything he did with Marillion, and maybe even better than Seasons End.

The first album released by Fish as a solo artist is 1990's 'Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors', a record whose critical and commercial success allowed the further continuation and development of Fish as a solo artist, following his Marillion exit, of course. Now, whether this could have been the fifth Marillion album pertains to mere speculation and to be honest, we can retrospectively conclude that it does not matter an ounce. What makes 'Vigil' important and beautiful is the fact that this is a very eclectic, bold and romantic neo-prog album with a lot of eighties production values that above all, sounds like the consistent effort of a proper band despite being a solo album with a range of guest musicians contributing to it. It is perhaps Fish's ability to craft great songs and to write vibrant melodies, or it might also be the inherent poetry and depth within his lyrics that seal the deal, but there is an element of divinity to this album.

The music dares to tread a relatively similar ground to what Derek W. Dick had done with his former band over the course of the past couple of years but we also see an expansion and an interest in folk rock, hard rock as well as pop, with progressive remaining the underlying direction for the music overall. With a commentary on consumerism, politics and interpreting personal conflicts, Fish had created a very introspective, far-reaching and musically exciting work that establishes him as a force to be reckoned with. This album also produced fantastic tracks like 'The Company', 'A Gentleman's Excuse Me', 'The Voyeour', View From The Hill' and arguably Fish's greatest hit - 'Cliché', but really all songs on here are memorable entries, all moving and profound. Not to mention the gorgeous painting of "The Hill", a crop-out of which serves to be the album cover, we hear metaphors about it all throughout the LP, part of the general thematic framework of the album.

Preliminary to this review, I have often asked myself whether I am the right person to write this. I have a special connection with "Internal Exile" (1991), Fish's second solo album after he left Marillion. The feeling those nine songs evoke in me is something unparalleled. I received the CD as a gift when I was transferred from the hospital to a rehabilitation center 200 km away, five months after my cerebral infarction. Fortunately, I had a great time there. It was a lively and bussy children's rehabilitation center where at least a hundred children were treated and where the staff was extremely nice. A toddler often called me grandpa and when the older kids were at school I shared the attention of the medical staff with her. That was the setting in which I listened to "Internal Exile" almost daily. Excuse me for seeing things a bit more emotional. For me, the CD is the soundtrack of the start to a new life, but I'm not here to reminisce. Let's talk about music lads.

According to many "Internal Exile" is a hit and miss album with some good, a bunch of reasonable and a few weak songs. Obviously I am a bit more positive. "Internal Exile" is varied to my opinion.

In contradiction to the past I had no clue whatsoever of the meaning of the album title nor the lyrics. In my "vital" years I would have sorted those things out to the max. Then I would probably have read somewhere that the title refers to Fish's feeling of being an outcast in his own Scotland. Fish is a supporter of an independent Scotland and therefor he is depicted as a Scotsman on the cover. Also I would have discovered then that the lyrics of Credo deal with his concern about globalization. In Tongues Fish sings quite bitingly, only later on I understood that he is angry with his former record company EMI. The great thing about Fish is that he always knows how to write great lyrics.

During the seven months stay at the center, I had to make do exclusively with the musical offering of the album and that was much to my liking. On "Internal Exile" Fish brings a passionate mixture of prog rock and Celtic music which emerges in a raw guitar-oriented sound that at times resembles the Marillion albums "Misplaced Childhood" and "Clutching At Straws". Also there are ballads and even pop songs to be heard. The songs are composed in a song-like thought and it is precisely the overload of catchy hooks that gives the album its strength.

Convincing opener Shadowplay lights up my fire the same way as Assassing of "Fugazi" did. Especially the swirling part with the thunderous Celtic drums is a real assault on your taste buds. My rehabilitation doctor even observed unexplained contractions in my muscular system, but enough about me. The subsequent Credo also has such an infectious vibe. It is a slightly more accessible song that, partly due to the starring role that Fish himself performs, has become a crowd favorite during live performances.

That Fish always knows how to put down a sparkling ballad with his expressive voice can be called a blessing. On "Internal Exile" he presents no less than three ballads, two great and one questionable. Just Good Friends (Close) is a nicely compelling song with a haunting vocal line and a delicious guitar solo, while Dear Friend also reaches the tops of bliss, but Favourite Stranger can only be described as functionally meaningless. Let me explain. The languid song is caught between a cool ballad and a smooth pop song with a funny set of words, a nice piece of accent and a killer chorus. In order for both neighbors to come out well, it is wise that the intermediate track is not too spectacular. Voilà Favourite Stranger.

I think the absolute best song on the album is Tongues. In my mind I participated in the wolf sounds of Fish many times. An entertaining song with a groove that drags and steams. The title track Internal Exile is a special one. We hear pretty smooth folk in a style where violin, accordion and whistles predominate. Especially the fast violin runs stand out. On LP this is the last track. On CD there is an additional song, With Something In The Air, a cover of Thunderclap Newman. Honestly I must say that I have never been bothered by this skinny track with its disco drums.

All in all, "Internal Exile" is an album that has kept my tempers excessively busy. It helped me a lot with accepting my fate.

He could have been you He could have been me He could have been anybody But he was born lucky

Originally posted on www.progenrock.com

Review Nº 790

Derek William Dick, better known as Fish, is a Scottish singer, songwriter and actor. He achieved prominence as the lead singer and lyricist of the neo-progressive rock band Marillion from 1981 until 1988. With Marillion he recorded four studio albums. In his solo career he explored contemporary pop and traditional folk and rock, having recorded eleven studio albums. Music critics have acknowledged Fish for his voice, which has been described as both "distinct" and a "conflation of Roger Daltrey and Peter Gabriel". About his lyrics they have been generally praised as "poetic prose".

"A Feast Of Consequences" is the tenth studio album of Fish. The line up on "A Feast Of Consequences" is Fish (lead vocals), Elisabeth Troy Antwi (backing vocals), Robin Boult (guitars), Foss Paterson (keyboards), Steve Vantsis (bass guitar), Gavin Griffiths (drums) and many other artists, as guests, in several musical roles.

It has been six years since the last Fish's studio album, "13th Star" and this one, "A Feast Of Consequences". This new album has taken time to put together with Fish wanting to make sure that it was top notch both lyrically and musically but also in the illustrations and design. Fish spent a weekend at The Somme in the First World War battlefields in France. It inspired him to write the "High Wood" suite and helped to develop the illustrations and artwork of the album.

"A Feast Of Consequences" has eleven tracks. The first track "Perfume River" opens the album and really sets the tone of it. The song has two distinct sections. The first part is an atmospheric progressive rock piece with some excellent rhythmic drumming from Griffiths and swriing keyboards from Paterson. The second part is a more up-beat rock section led by an acoustic guitar. Vocally, this is the best Fish has sounded in quite a while. The second track "All Loved Up" is a much more straightforward song. It's a cynical look at the current culture of being a "celebrity" and contains Fish's trademark black humour. It's a pop rock number based around a simple riff from Boult. It's just a really melodic song that makes a statement about today's society. The third track "Blind To The Beautiful" is a real nice acoustic number. This is the first song on the album to prominently featured Elizabeth on the backing vocals. She harmonises well with Fish. Towards the end, there is a really good violin solo from Aidan O'Rourke that personifies the melancholy of the song. The fourth track is the title track, "A Feast Of Consequences". This is another straight ahead rocker based around a neat riff from Boult. All three main components of this song are excellent. The main verses have a nice groove. The pre-chorus backed by the piano is delicate and that leads nicely into the catchiest chorus on the album. The "High Wood" suite is the centrepiece of this album, indeed. It's composed by tracks, "High Wood", "Crucifix Corner", "The Gathering", "Thistle Alley" and "The Leaving". The first part, "High Wood", which, after a gentle intro, is pretty dramatic with some spiky guitar work and almost orchestral keyboard parts, leads beautifully into the second part "Crucifix Corner". Atmospheric is a good word to describe the opening of it. Fish's voice and the piano intertwine well as the song slowly builds up and it's not long before Boult's big guitars come in. During this section, Fish's vocal melodies are possibly some of the best that he has ever come up with. My favourite part of the "High Wood" suite is perhaps the third part, "The Gathering". From there, the album moves onto "Thistle Alley" which is very different from "The Gathering". It's a very dark piece that sees Fish almost approaching metal territory, in places. The fifth and final part "The Leaving" sums up the suite. It's a very poignant and intelligent piece, certainly very emotional for him. I have to congratulate Fish, as the "High Wood" suite is easily the best series of songs on the subject of war I've ever listened till now. The tenth track "The Other Side Of Me" is a typical Fish's ballad. Elisabeth's vocal contributions on this song are again excellent and feature the first proper guitar solo from Boult on the album. The eleventh track "The Great Unravelling" brings the album to a close very well. I really like the call and response vocals from Fish and Elisabeth and the really atmospheric keyboards. It also has the best instrumental break of any song on the album as Boult finally cuts loose for a really monster solo, which is the last thing you really hear before "A Feast Of Consequences" ends, indeed.

Conclusion: I must confess that I'm not completely comfortable to talk about Fish's solo musical career. In reality, I'm only familiar with the first two studio albums of him, "Vigil In A Wilderness Of Mirrors" and "Internal Exile" and his live album and the DVD "Return To Chilwood", besides this one. So, I really don't know if "A Feast Of Consequences" is his best solo work, as I've read before as the opinion of some critics. But, what I really know is that, overall, this is just a brilliantly written and constructed album. It's quite long, but it's so well paced that it just flies by without every feeling boring or contrived. I must say this is an album that still is growing on me and that's another thing that makes this an excellent album. Will we have to wait another six years for another album? Who knows and only time will tell us, really.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

Review Nº 701

Derek William Dick, better known as Fish, is a Scottish artist from Edinburgh. He's without any doubt one of the leading singers in the neo-prog sub-genre. Fish is mostly known from the band Marillion, but he has a glorious solo career too. With Marillion, Fish released four studio albums "Script For A Jester's Tear" in 1983, "Fugazi" in 1984, "Misplaced Childhood" in 1985 and "Clutching At Straws" in 1987. As solo artist he released eleven studio albums, "Vigil In A Wilderness Of Mirrors" in 1990, "Internal Exile" in 1991, "Songs From The Mirror" in 1993, "Suits" in 1994, "Sunsets On Empire" in 1997, "Raingods With Zippos" in 1999, "Fellini Days" in 2001, "Field Of Crows" in 2004, "13th Star" in 2007, "A Feast Of Consequences" in 2013 and "Weltschmerz" in 2020, his swan studio work that is the subject of my review.

This is the final album of a great man, a great man who walks with a stick, like that guy in the song "Man With A Stick". He worked on this album for five years. More than ever, pensiveness, mental exhaustion and melancholy define Fish's songwriting. The themes of his final compositions are very dark but very human too. In magical and picturesque images he becomes painfully sympathetic and palpable, a man hurt and disillusioned with the world. In the background there's the political and social rollercoaster ride of the last few years, with the Scottish referendum, the unfortunate Brexit, Trump and the corona pandemic. And he didn't know it at the time, but the invasion of Ukraine was still missing. So, all the pain, all the depression that resulted from it couldn't fit on a single album because he had so much material to present to us as his final testimony, a testimony of some regrets and things that remained to be done, his world of pain.

So, "Weltschmerz" is the eleventh studio album of Fish and that was released in 2020. The line up on the album is Fish (vocals), Doris Brendel (backing vocals), Steve Vantsis (guitars, keyboards, bass and programming), Robin Boult (guitar), John Mitchell (guitar), Liam Homes (keyboards), Foss Paterson (keyboards), David Jackson (saxophone), Mikey Owers (brass), Craig Blundell (drums), Dave Stuart (drums) and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (strings).

The album opens with "Grace Of God", two different pieces strung together, a clever guide to what follows. It offers a powerful opener, one of the best of Fish, with a lot of pressure and variation that defines the atmosphere of the album. "Man With A Stick" is very acccessible with some catchy keyboard passages. It has a wonderful blend of the old and new, a Genesis' vibe from the keys, yet at the same time modern in its spirit. It's not great, not bad. With "Walking On Eggshells" Fish is back at his best. It sounds slightly menacing thanks to its booming riffs. It's a rich track with great arrangements and fine details that carries you on a journey. The vocals here are flawless. With "This Party's Over" Fish celebrates his farewell. It sounds downright cheerful with its Celtic folky touch. It's a very simple song, a mixed-salad of many of the creative elements that defined his solo career. An ending with a smile. "Rose Of Damascus" is one of the central pieces on "Weltschmerz". The piece is beautifully orchestrated where Fish delivers one of his greatest lyrical performance for years with a song that is cinematic in both its narrative and soundscape. It difficults to accept the end of his career. "Garden Of Remembrance" is a fantastic and very poignant track with great emotional power and depth. It proves that he's still capable of producing some amazing moments and that it isn't only the prog epics that are required to do that. "C Song (The Trondheim Waltz)" is a simple piano song with a real folk feel and references of Fish's Scottish roots. Despite its nature as a waltz, there's nothing lethargic or dragging on this track. "Little Man What Now?" is also a highlight on the album with its heavy and slow rhythm and spreads a morbid mood. Plus an eerily beautiful saxophone from David Jackson of Van Der Graff Generator. This is properly a broody and captivating listen, a down brilliant track. "Waverley Steps (End Of The Line)" is another central epic. It starts quietly and builds up to a rocking and driving piece where Fish turned up full again. It's rousing, emotional and is the crowning glory of the entire album, both lyrically and musically. "The title track "Weltschmerz" closes the album in a dark mood. Fish doesn't mince his words and shouts his disappointment at humanity's failures. It's all here, laid bare. The old anger may have been tamed, but it still burns.

Conclusion: "Weltschmerz" is the most recent and last album of Fish, the end of a brilliant career of an iconic artist. As Fish said, "Weltschmerz" is a German expression that means "world pain". It's a dark album with a feeling of world weariness and melancholy. "Weltschmerz" is a very personal album of Fish. It reflects a variety of circumstances of his life, his mistakes, his illness, the bereavement due to the death of his parents, band changes a global pandemic and the political changes already mentioned by me above. So, "Weltschmerz" is his best solo album? I really don't know. But it's certainly a completely successful and very coherent work. With his last album, the Scots has once again made an impressive statement about his music. I'm sure that this farewell will earn him the recognition and respect he deserves.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

I vividly remember the time in my late teens when my first major favourite band parted ways with their charismatic vocalist and lyricist. Fortunately both parties carried on making good music, and I naturally purchased both the Steve Hogarth era opening Marillion album Seasons End (1989) and the solo debut of Fish, Vigil in a Wildernerss of Mirrors, at the time of release. Back then I preferred, and still prefer, Vigil over the two-album beginning of the Hogarth era Marillion, helped also by the fact that the fantastic album cover artist Mark Wilkinson stayed with Fish. A bit later Marillion made some terrific albums such as Brave (1994), whereas most of the subsequent Fish albums were disappointing to me. Therefor Vigil has sovereignly remained my favourite Fish album (for your interest, my second fave is Raingods With Zippos, 1999).

The recordings of Vigil were finished in June 1989, but its release was delayed til January 1990 to avoid collision with Seasons End. Fish was accompanied with excellent musicians. Keyboardist Mickey Simmonds co-wrote all the songs on the great album (except 'View from the Hill', co-written with Janick Gers). The bass work of John Giblin, familiar to me from Simple Minds, was a real delight. In particular on 'State of Mind' which features also guitarist Hal Lindes (Dire Straits), who is credited as a co-composer.

This single was released well ahead of the album in October 1989. The lyrics of the slow/mid-tempo 'State of Mind' comment the general political discontent in the late Thatcher years. As I mentioned, Giblin's bass really shines here. The drummer in this song is actually John Keeble from Spandau Ballet. Backing vocalist Carol Kenyon was probably best known from the Heaven-17 hit 'Temptation' (1983). Interesting to learn all these guest appearances with the pop/mainstream background. It would feel a bit funny to name 'State of Mind' as an album highlight (simply because Vigil contains so much bigger things too), but it still sounds fresh and elegant. The single contains also a "Presidential Mix" which is roughly a minute longer, but otherwise I hear no crucial differences between the versions.

The faster-tempo and more aggressive sounding song 'The Voyeur (I Like to Watch)' was not included on the LP, only as a bonus track on the CD version. Musically it comes closest to 'Big Wedge', my least fave of the Vigil songs, and frankly I'm not fond of this one either. The composition is very repetitive, and the sharp synths and heavy drumming make it tiresome on the ears. 'State of Mind' is a four-star song, but three stars is enough for the whole single.

I chose to dust off the eternal FISH which represents despite his rants the frontman who created the neo for our happiness. (A hidden note for the Vigil of its debut, for fun.)

1 'Vigil In A Wilderness Of Mirrors' the entrance was yesterday... in 1990, not yesterday a little further ahead; the keyboard, the real Marillionian voice, the only one, long before we say the Fishian voice; a long title a bit a cappella then symphonic, and my preference over the new Harillion which came out the same year; a chorus that touches you, a bit of Phil Collins and GENESIS third version, a break with biniou, I see the kilt and the end with a solo by Franck that reassures me; Marillionesque blood flows well here. The end like the intro, the prog effort to the end; the slap. 2 'Big Wedge' confirms to me what I was saying about COLLINS; brass, a more pop voice, a turn but that was the goal, at the risk of comparing his work with his band before; a bit of sax, a frantic rhythm and we'll have to deal with it; he at least is not trying to extend the mark. A starter title that magnifies the other more worked ones. 3 'State Of Mind' with Trewavas-like bass that fills the space, an airy air that makes me wonder; it's not in my views but I like it anyway; it's innovative with the acoustic guitar, the spleen, the jungle voices, the romantic ballad and the voice of FISH that takes you by the hand and takes you away. 4 'The Company' Marillionian intro if I feel it; instruments that create the atmosphere, a voice that makes you move, oh that's nice; we sail, yes the sailors' instruments confirm it to me it's sympho, folklo, it's well done on an amphetamine crescendo of hope and stuffed with orchestration 5 'A Gentleman's Excuse Me' syrupy nursery rhyme on the piano, moment of introspection and another short title which changes tune, rhythm, atmosphere; I see a FISH calm, calm, in consultation with his demons singing on a romantic title with waltzing couples, a singular moment 6 'The Voyeur (I Like To Watch)' well we find his voice here, don't be afraid, the title that I like the least, 20 years haven't managed to make me change my mind; it's too predictable and monolithic; yes I am unable to do the same, but I expect the best from an artist, don't you? The break saves the day with Genesis memories and a synth solo which stands out pleasantly, never criticizing before the end, something often done in our society which is no longer turning round, moreover is the earth still round? The end sends me back to the avant-garde experimentations of BOWIE 7 'Family Business' return to basic melody, piano and voice; Hal's Rotheryan guitar; the slow very progressive crescendo restores the spirit to this album which was beginning to decline in terms of concentration; a title that shows that his voice was indeed an asset on MARILLION 8 'View From The Hill' where we finally go over 6 minutes, I hope to be surprised (actually not since it's a review chronicle, I've known the album since its release); well I come back to the title, the 2nd one that makes you vibrate, a fishian-marillionesque conglomerate; a piece that smells of marshmallow, that flows from source with the rises on its typed voice, the relative explosion of the musicians who just make you climb on the musical edge... could it have been on the next MARILLION? the solo good, not very good and the orgasmic rise, yes remember at the time that was what we felt; and the outro with this guitar is the little extra that makes me melt. 9 'Cliché' well, I'm not telling you the story, you know it by heart; on the other hand, I come back to this piece, this intro, this progressive rise, this atmosphere, this musical sweetness, yes that's it, you picked it up, it was there that you said to yourself that the prog would continue to live in your heart, that it could not be otherwise, here I remind you of your personal, intimate snapshot, I reveal it to you, like this solemn, melancholic and beautiful solo by Frank; in short, it's not just music, it's a lot of emotion in the bar; the moment when you feel like hugging your partner, to try to share YOUR emotion with her; yes FISH did that on this title

Well, FISH didn't make a great album but a good album sweeping his band before to show another aspect; and keeping its sounds that made us swoon in the early 80s when the prog died despite infusions, the blood no longer flowed. So why put it as the headliner? Well for everything I marked but above all for reassuring us at this precise moment, before AYREON, ARENA and other groups after! In short, an OMNI is that too, it pierces the world of sound, it freezes time, it even makes it stop for a while.(5 for Vigil of course).

Fish's solo career has had more than its fair share of ups and downs, with a fractious relationship with the major labels nudging him into taking a more independent path from Suits onwards, and patchy finances dogging his homegrown endeavours. Nonetheless, his solo albums have always had something of interest to them, and a few have been outright brilliant - Sunsets On Empire being perhaps the first bona fide classic he produced after leaving Marillion, and A Feast of Consequences being a late-career masterpiece.

Now, however, the game is over. Weltschmerz finds Fish following up the career high point of Feast of Consequences by putting an end to his career - at least as far as making solo studio albums goes. The sole double studio album of his career, it's a capstone to over three decades of toil since his exit from Marillion and, unless his plans change unexpectedly, marks the end of an era.

It would have been embarrassing, then, if it had turned out to be a clunker - in fact, it's quite the opposite. With a brooding, melancholy atmosphere suggestive of the world-weariness that the title implies, the album's long compositions take us on epic emotional journeys, addressing regrets and, perhaps towards the end, showing just a bit of the anger that came forth on Market Square Heroes or Forgotten Sons back in those early Marillion says - a few glowing sparks among the ashes suggesting that the fire has not gone out yet, even if it might fall to others to carry it forwards.

In many ways it's lazy and annoying to compare Fish to Marillion, given the differing musical paths they have followed and their mutual struggles to overcome the gravity well of the four albums they did together. Nonetheless, it's heartening to hear both parties coming into this sort of late-career renaissance, and producing albums like Feast of Consequences, FEAR, Weltschmerz and An Hour Before It's Dark which can act almost as companion pieces to each other - not because they're imitating each other, but because they're looking at the same damaged state of the world and offering their thoughts. Still, if Fish's solo career had one task, it was to prove to the world that he had something of artistic merit to say independent of Marillion, and Weltschmerz was his very last chance to do that. I'd say he succeeded with flying colours.

When Fish recorded Clutching At Straws with Marillion in 1987, he and the band had no inkling that it would be their last album together. When he undertook the long recording process for Weltschmerz, which would eventually see release in 2020, his conscious intention was to draw a line under his solo career, at least as far as making studio albums went, and retire from that aspect of his work. Nonetheless, as a swansong to one phase of his career Clutching At Straws ended up being a serenditiously apt statement, with an air of finality to it as vivid as the one Fish consciously applied to Weltschmerz.

That might explain why The Last Straw works so well as a live album, for it captures a Fish concert with a very special setlist. All of the songs from Clutching At Straws (plus the contemporary B-side, Tux On) make an appearance on the set, accounting for a bit half the running time. The rest consists of around 42 minutes of songs which would all later see the light of day on Weltzscmerz - for this show was recorded in 2018, around two years before Weltschmerz finally released.

This is far from unprecedented for Fish. Suits, his first solo album after leaving Polydor, also saw a very long gestation period, and some songs from it had airings on shows predating his major label farewell, the cover album Songs From the Mirror. As he workshopped Suits, he undertook the "Toile Tour", with concerts aimed at refining the material on the road. This show, however, I think works better - in part because Suits was a bit of a transitional album for Fish, whereas Weltschmerz has a more confident style which builds on the excellent precedent set by A Feast of Consequences, and in part because marrying the Weltschmerz songs to Clutching At Straws has a certain logic to it. Last Marillion album with Fish, last Fish album with Fish, let's put them in a shaker and see how that cocktail works out...

Well, what you get is some nicely updated Marillion material - teasing out the bluesy torch song nature of much of Clutching At Straws - along with solid early pointers for the direction that Weltschmerz was involving in at this time. The nocturnal air of much of the material is a big help; all of this stuff feels like it very much belongs together, and it's great that Fish had a chance to blend the end of one career with that of another in such an inspired manner. The show itself hails from Glasgow, right at the end of the Last Straw tour, and therefore finds Fish and the band in exuberant mood, with the set now well-practiced. In addition, Fish himself is on fine form, making this yet another very fine late-career live album from him, which can sit proudly next to excellent live releases like Farewell To Childhood and The Moveable Feast.

The physical release of this includes as a bonus a DVD of a set from earlier in 2018, at Fairport Convention's Cropredy festival. Fish gives in the booklet the embarrassing story of how during the concert a hemorrhoid burst, leading to a trail of blood dribbling down the back of his trousers - and creating the impression he'd pooped himself onstage. In terms of his performance, it's nowhere near as embarrassing as that - but the DVD is very evidently at the mercy of the festival mixing desk, which is often not ideal, and so this should be regarded as an optional bonus rather than part of the main event here.

Way back in 2005, Fish did a special 20th anniversary tour for Misplaced Childhood, a live performance of which was chronicles on the Return to Childhood album. That was OK, I thought, but the main attraction of the show - Misplaced Childhood itself - sounded off to me, like Fish and his band hadn't quite cracked the problem of reconfiguring the songs to account for how Fish's voice has aged since his days in Marillion.

10 years later, and another big anniversary for Misplaced Childhood beckoned. Fish was enjoying a bit of a late-career peak at this timel with Feast of Consequences being perhaps his most accomplished solo album and the Movable Feast tour showcasing him and his band in fine form - in particular, his voice, which had been struggling for a while there from the late 1990s to the 2000s, seemed to have bounced back somewhat, albeit with the lower range that inevitably comes with age.

At the same time, Fish realised that whilst he was in rare form in 2015, there was no guarantee that he'd be in the same form in 2025... and nor would he necessarily want to be. Indeed, in 2020 Weltschmerz would be explicitly declared as being his retirement from studio albums; whether that sticks or not remains to be seen, but for a good few years now Fish has made it clear that he doesn't want to keep dragging his old hits out year after year until he falls to pieces onstage; he'd rather take a dignified last bow and go out strong than live to become a mockery of his former self, especially since he came close to suffering that fate already in his solo career.

As such, the 2015 tour was billed as the big farewell to Misplaced Childhood: this was it, game over. Fish might or might not include individual songs from the album on subsequent live gigs - though recent live sets do seem to have allowed it to lie fallow - but this would be 100% the last time he'd play through the entire concept album from start to end. And since Marillion had long since stopped doing that, that'd be it outside of tribute acts and the like.

Like the Return to Childhood album, this is a two-disc affair, with the first disc consisting entirely of Fish solo material. This time, Fish keeps this part short, keeping this part to 40 minutes - but damn, it's a good 40 minutes, with excellent picks from across the whole span of his solo albums. (Feast of Consequences is, of course, the title track from what was then Fish's latest album, whilst Family Business hails from his solo debut, Vigil In a Wilderness of Mirrors.) Rather than restricting himself to old standards, however, Fish also slips in a couple of deep dives - Long Cold Day from Fellini Days makes a surprise appearance, and the set opens with a great version of Pipeline from the unfairly maligned Suits album, a song which through subsequent live refinement has only become more potent.

Then disc 2 has the main event - the playthrough of Misplaced Childhood itself. This, I think, is substantially more successful than the version on Return To Childhood, both because the band do a smoother job of adjusting the material to a lower key and because Fish isn't trying to force his voice to do things it can't do (and he's rehabbed his voice to the point where it's a bit more reliable than it was in 2005). Two encores are provided, aptly chosen - Market Square Heroes because it was an early anthem of Fish's when he was Marillion, and The Company because ever since it first emerged it's become something of an anthem for Fish's solo career.

The end result is a substantially tighter set than Return to Childhood (100 minutes instead of a shade over 2 hours), and a better performance. This gives it the clear edge, to my mind, and that's good. Presented in fairly lavish packaging - in a similar form factor to the recent remasters of Fish's back catalogue - Farewell To Childhood joins The Movable Feast in being part of Fish's recent effort to put out some really nice, high-quality live releases, to make up for the somewhat hit and miss nature of his previous live efforts. I can't say it quite measures up to that, but it does more justice to Misplaced Childhood than the Return To Childhood release did.