Hi folks.... managed to get a copy of the Yin and Yang radio promo cd....
It has 8 (i think) tracks off the albums and Fish talking about the music before each track. Some of the pieces are obviously radio edits and only Llil isn't a new recording.
The material is excellent...and you can actually hear Foss!!!
The package is a 5" cd slipcase with Fish logo and Ying and Yang. The radio edits across the top. The artwork is rather good. Very Mark Wilkinson but also quite different. The picture is just 2 fishes intertwined, one white one black.
Kayleigh and Lavender are great new versions. I was dreading yet another Kayleigh, but it's actually very good.
Punch and Judy is excellent, far better than Marillon ever did it. It really rocks... as does Boston Tea Party with the SAHB. (SAHB? -L)
The best surprise is Just Good Friends with Sam Brown duetting. It's excellent.. an excellent choice of single.. comercial but by no means a sell out.
Yin and yang are to be released simultaneously on sept 8th 1996.
Former Marillion vocalist Fish (aka Derek William Dick) makes great strides with his fifth and most radical solo outing.
Fish's strong vocals and poetic lyrics are powered by intense and inventive music that juxtaposes the complexity of progressive rock with the power of hard rock. But more than anything it's Fish's cinematic songs and powerful vocal deliveries that make this an exceptional album.
Aside from the album's most immediate cut, the lush melodic rocker Change of Heart, Fish's use of spoken passages and a broader use of his Scottish accent should lessen the perennial comparisons to Peter Gabriel.
There's a sense of darkness and gloom to many of these songs with bleak topics such as Bosnia/Croatia conflict, racial strife, and the Militia Movement, yet they all contain elements of optimism. This is best noticed in the tenacious eight-minute opener, The Perception of Johnny Punter, and the scathing What Color Is God.
The song that should garner the most attention is the strident rocker Brother 52, which is also included in the video form on this enhanced CD. Fish will also be appearing at the Paradise on July 28.
I have to admit, for many years, to never being a big fan of Fish - at least the Fish of Marillion vintage. I went to see him play solo a couple of times, and enjoyed it, but not enough to rush out and buy the back catalogue. Then, a few years back, I was at a Chopper Club run in Scotland when the man himself turned up at the gate and asked if he could have a look around, which he did - in exchange for an impromptu jam session on the Saturday night. Fish then stayed for the weekend and was one of the nicest, most genuine blokes you could ever wish to meet. He made himself a lot of friends that weekend, so when my favourite Scottish photographer, Brian Richmond, rang me up and said "Do you want a copy of Fish's new single?", I said "Yes". Quickly.
Fish's new single Brother 52 (which was released at the end of April) is his first for 2 years, and tells the story of an American fan, Brother 52, a biker, whose many tattoos were soley devoted to artwork from Fish's singles and albums. Like many bikers in America, Brother 52 had a fascination with, and a collection of, guns, which led to an incident at his house in January 1994 where he was shot dead by the Police. Fish says "Brother 52 was somebody I knew, and this whole sad story just wrote itself". The song is not anti or pro firearms, but very obviously telling a story which affected Fish.
What of the song itself? I hear you cry. It's a bit more - for want of a better term - rocky than previous stuff Fish has done, but still with his unique Celtic trademark stamped on it; Fish still has one of the most distinctive voices in rock. As an aside, the video features Fish being tattooed while singing - a very odd thing to do which no doubt is something to do with being Scottish. I think my tattooist would be very scared if I broke in to song halfway through a piece of work.
In a chart dominated by synthetic bands and tuneless twaddle I'm not sure how Brother 52 will do in the commercial sector, but then Fish has nothing to prove against the likes of manufactured boy and grrrl bands who will be forgotton in a month or two's time. I look forward to hearing the Album, Sunsets on Empire, from which Brother 52 is taken. Lovely man, good single, enough said.
Copyright 1997 EMAP Magazines Ltd.
AWOL is a mag for bikers / custom enthusiasts here in the UK. Nice to see a favourable review for once!
Hi all,
The show was UNBELIEVEABLE!!! Before the show started, the guy setting up the merchandise stall said that we would never want to see Marillion again after seeing Fish play!! Well I am still going to see Marillion but I think I got the answer to the age old, Who would you see if they were playing locally on the same night,question! I am embarrassed and ashamed of myself for not going to more than one Fish show!!!! I had sooooooooooo muuuuuuuuuuch funnnnnnnn, it is next to impossible to put it all into words.
We got there at around 3pm, and snuck in to hear a bit of the soundcheck 8-). After going for a walk to a local deli we snuck back in for even more of the soundcheck, but by this time it was closing in on 7pm (which was when the doors opened) and more people finally joined us in line.
At first it didn't seem like alot of people were there. But the place filled up by the time the two opening acts finished. Finally Fish took the stage, and the place went bannanas!!!
Let me just say that thankfully there are still "Rock Stars" in excistence. Fish entertained like his life depended on it. He was like a puppet master, weaving his strings making people sing, dance, clap at a whim (myself included...happily).
When the show finally ended, I was exhausted from the above singing,dancing and clapping. To make a great night even greater was that Fish came out for a while after the show ended. He signed autographs and posed for pictures (got both he he he). I thanked him for putting on such a great show, and he in turn thanked me for coming and said he was glad I enjoyed the show. He was so sincere too, took a few minutes of time with each person in line. It was quite simply a great night to be alive.
If you are planning on going to a show.... go to two!!! You will regret not doing so like am doinig right now!!!!
Thank you again Fish it was a great show. Can't wait for the official bootleg from the North American tour, there is going to be one right....please!!!!
"I haven't been so nervous before a show in a very, very long time," Fish confessed after the opening song of his rapturously received concert.
He shouldn't have worried.
Making his first Montreal appearance since going solo nearly a decade ago, the former Marillion vocalist played the Spectrum Sunday night. The show was an unqualified success - this despite a lengthy string of mishaps, including a distribution error which resulted in Sunsets on Empire (Fish's fifth solo album, and only his second to be given a domestic Canadian release) being nowhere in sight in local record stores.
Could an artist who has had no commercial success in North America for over half his career, and whose latest release is all but invisible at show time, be considered a noteworthy event on the concert calendar?
The answer was readily apparent to anyone walking past the Spectrum early Sunday evening. The congregated Fish-heads waiting in line outside the venue could have challenged the FrancoFolies audiences further down Ste. Catherine St. to a competitive head count.
Fish's return to the prog rock haven of this city was an event of inestimable importance to his fans, anxious to catch up on 10 years of cerebral and defiantly uncool music.
The massive 6-foot plus Scotsman received a thunderous ovation when he strode onto the Spectrum stage. After basking in the continuous cheers from the audience, Fish tore into The Perception of Johnny Punter, growling the lyrics while leaping and striking menacing poses that elicited a wild response from the audience.
Fish has an imposing stage presence and exudes charisma whether practising his white-boy funk dancing or simply standing still. That charisma allowed the singer to hold the crowd in the palm of his hand throughout the evening. A single gesture by Fish caused his fans to clap, shut up, or even twirl like ballerinas (during The Company).
Unlike many performers who prefer to let their music do the talking, Fish relished the opportunity to chat with the crowd. The singer shared his thoughts on subjects as far-reaching as religious education and strip clubs.
One also got the sense that Fish may have scheduled his Montreal concert one week too late. Many of his monologues rivaled the quality of stand-up in the Just For Laughs festival.
Such comedic musings were simply garnish, however, for the massive slabs of neo-prog rock dished out by Fish and his crack four-piece band. A mid-set medley of material by Marillion (who will be playing the Spectrum Sept 6) and standards from the solo years ignited an already excited crowd as the ghosts of Assassing and Fugazi reared their heads.
Family Business was a sombre and chilling statement on domestic violence. Jungle Ride, an intricate and theatrical song that could have backfired in live performance, worked thanks to Fish's intense vocal delivery and his tight backing unit. The Marillion standard Lavender was given a soulful treatment that made the original seem sterile by comparison.
Fish's band did not simply toil in the shadow of the dynamic frontman. Fluent guitarist JJ Belle (who has played behind George Michael and Janet Jackson) proved himself a great talent independent of his slick former employers. Mickey Simmonds provided intensely atmospheric keyboard sounds miles ahead of the stereotypical flatulent organ solos of many prog-rockers, as well as the gorgeous piano which was responsible for many of the more touching musical moments of the show.
Bassist Steve Vantsis and drummer Dave (Squeaky) Stewart formed a sturdy and inventive rhythm section which never passed into the two extremes of over-enthusiastic soloing and stodgy time-keeping.
Fish and his band were clearly elated by their enthusiastic reception, grinning widely and genuinely having fun throughout much of the show. Such spontaneous human emotions, and such a bare-bones show, demonstrated how far the Scottish progster has evolved from the greasepaint-wearing enigma who stood on the Spectrum stage in 1984. And that, in turn, proves that Fish is a far more credible and enduring musical force than he is given credit for.