Triumphant 'home' gig return for Fish
Bryan Copland • Published 28 Oct 2010 09:24
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ROCKER Fish made a triumphant on-stage return to his home town at the weekend, with two gigs in the scenic setting of Haddington’s St Mary’s Parish Church.
Fans travelled from as far afield as Los Angeles, New York, Holland and Germany for the gigs, which were the star’s first official concerts in East Lothian for more than four years.
He appeared alongside guitarist Frank Usher and keyboardist Foss Paterson - with the trio collectively known as The Fishheads Club.
Performing hits by his former band Marillion including ‘Kayleigh’, ‘Lavender’ and ‘Punch and Judy’ - plus a number of old and new tracks from his extensive solo catalogue - the singer, real name Derek Dick, saw a sell-out crowd pack the 375-capacity venue to enjoy more than two hours’ worth of music on Saturday, with a large crowd also attending the previous night.
Last Friday’s gig was held as a double-fundraiser for East Lothian Divers club, to aid the purchase of a new boat engine, and for the RNLI, which has lifeboat bases in Dunbar and North Berwick.
While the total sums were still being counted on Monday, Fish told the Courier that he expected to have collected more than £1,000 for each cause.
“It was really good as we managed to pop the numbers up for the charity night on Friday,” he said. “We managed to hit what we wanted to hit; it’s looking pretty good, and I think we’re going to have a grand for each of them.”
The 52-year-old has spent much of the year touring throughout Great Britain and Europe, but admitted he felt “really good” to have played much closer to home. About 70 per cent of the crowd came from outside the area.
“It’s just a wonderful venue - everybody at the church is really helpful and positive,” said Fish.
“We had a really cool time with it. I knew a lot of the people who were there - they’ve been fans for quite a while.”
Despite being “exhausted”, the singer is back on the road again next week with gigs in Germany.
And next up for Fish is work on a new studio album - working under the title of ‘A Feast of Consequences’ - and an “autobiography and travelogue”, ‘Dear Derek’, though he confirmed touring was his main priority at the moment.
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