CANDLELIGHT IN FOG - USA 2000

This is a live album from the US leg of the Raingods With ZIppos tour, with a setlist very similar to that of Sashimi, recorded earlier on the European leg of the tour. Sashimi found Fish and the band in good form, but rather let down by nagging technical faults in the recording. This time around, the recording quality is much more consistent, but distressingly Fish's voice is the weak link.

The band play loud and backing singer Elisabeth Antwi gives it her all to cover for this somewhat, but the fact is that Fish's vocals just seem off on this recording. In the liner notes to the remastered edition of Fellini Days, Fish offers clues as to what went wrong here: late in the 1999 tour he came down with an absolutely rotten virus which he struggled with for weeks, and the Scandinavian leg of the tour had ended up being a "damp squib", leaving him and the band out of pocket.

Put that together and it's pretty apparent what happened here: Fish's voice was still ravaged from his illness, but he and the band couldn't afford to take the time off to recover because cancelling or delaying the American gigs would mean passing up money they couldn't afford to leave on the table - as well as sorely disappointing the US fans. So the show went ahead, and what we hear on Candlelight In Fog is the result. The live album was only released as a limited edition, and I suppose it is a nice memento for the fans who were there or for hardcore Fish fans - but equally, I can see why Fish wouldn't have given this a broader release.