Not the most glamorous of venues for the debut gig of this up and coming British prog band, the Sir Robert Peel public house being situated as it is in the slightly less “posh” end of Kingston upon Thames. However, it’s not a bad venue as far as pub gigs go and at least they are supporting prog with a monthly event (and it was smoke-free!).

Tinyfish are a recent addition to the Archives and are gaining good reviews for their eponymous debut CD (8 out of 10 in Classic Rock) and well deserved they are too. This is a CD which, for me, ranks alongside “Fear of a Blank Planet” as the best release of 2007 so far. Most of the songs were featured at the gig starting, as I expected, with the awesome “Motorville”. This song starts off with one of Rob Ramsey’s unusual but intriguing spoken intros, then kicks into life with the guitar riff and pounding drums from Leon Camfield. In fact, the drums were so pounding that Leon broke the snare drum skin and had to borrow a snare from the support band Bard. This is a man for whom the word “manic” was invented as he lurks over the kit, giving extra bite to the crunching guitar riffs. This man is a great drummer - there was a definite danger of him stealing the show from front man Simon Godfrey. Simon is a confident front man who kept up the humorous patter in between songs, obviously helped by the fact that he knew most of the audience. His take on “introducing” the band and also not going along with the usual palaver of going off and coming back on for the inevitable encore kept the audience amused. At one point he introduced special guest “Peter Gabriel” who turned out to be Rob Ramsey dressed as “a flower”.

The sound was excellent, especially from Simon’s guitar synth which faithfully replicated the sounds of the originals. Simon’s vocals were clear and powerful and the band as a whole came across even better than on the CD. The epic “All Hands Lost” was a highlight and the chorus is a potential lighter-waving moment. One of the band’s strengths is the catchy hooks in the songs and this certainly came across here. They finished off with a well-chosen encore of Gabriel’s “Red Rain”.

In summary, Tinyfish are a band who deserve to be huge and certainly have the potential to become mainstream. Catch the ‘fish now before they become too big!

As I mentioned earlier, The Peel has a monthly prog night and next month it’s Darwin’s Radio. It’s a good pub venue and it’s worth keeping an eye on their gig list in the future.