To play as you read…
“Dear Satori,
hello…ok, here’s the Fish review…can I explain myself a bit? Ok so I was sent as the Marillion expert hah ha. I know for example that it’s all Peter Hammill and not at all Peter Gabriel. I know that it’s all twisted humour and screwed up desire, and that Fish grew from being intellectual poet into a straight reporter, a photographer who used words and not a camera.
And that he is a political reporter as much as he is the reporter of human emotion. And that was why I wanted to review this gig.
My camera broke so I couldn’t take any pictures and then I was looking at some photographs thinking I’d like to write like the photographer. To not use the word ‘I’. To refer only to the subject and not the self.
So this review is a photograph, it’s one moment out of the gig. I’ve translated and transcribed a semi rant, a semi warning that came towards the end of the gig. My Scottish isn’t too great so I might have a few things wrong. If you notice anything please correct it. ”
Larry Jones for Virtual Lancaster
23 November 2011
Fish, performing live at The Platform, Morecambe, November 18th 2011
An ‘unplugged’ show starring former Marillion frontman, ‘Fish’. His career, spanning almost 30 years of the entertainment industry, is notable for his charismatic stage performances and uncompromising lyrics. His last album ‘13th Star‘ has been regarded by many as the best in his career to date and is testament to his enduring talent, resilience and determination. (Fish has also been voted in Scotland on Sunday (see pic) as one of Scotland’s 25 most eligible men.)
“…watching the news yesterday about the Wall Street occupation. They were pulling kids out of the street and it’s like the bells gone and the coppers going in with sly punches like they do, pop, pop, pop…camera’s catch him. There’s a kid lying there on the floor and the copper’s going, with his boot, flick, kicks him in the side of the head.
.
These are kids
“They’re kids and they are protesting because what they see is that one per cent of the population controls the wealth of America and it’s the truth, and it’s the truth in this country.
And this Christmas, in Wall Street, here’s the bell, and here they come, here is famous person DING! Manicured? Ring the bell DING! and they applaud it. And outside people were shouting ‘shame’, ‘shame’, ‘shame’.
“And you see the New York Police Department are pulling people out who are peacefully protesting. They weren’t fighting, they weren’t spray painting nothing; they were just lining the street saying, ‘We object to the fact that one per cent of the population of America owns the money. And in one month’s time, when it comes to Christmas, they’ll be sitting in boardrooms and all be getting cheques from the investors, trustees da de dah. Millions of pounds, hundreds of thousands of pounds. It’s our money! ”
I feel like a wasp in a jar
“I am fifty three years old. I should be thinking about taking up fly fishing, I should be thinking about just chilling out, going down by the river and just mind being there.
Do you know what? I’m angrier. I’m getting angrier.
And I feel like a wasp in a jar.
“I went to Cuba for six weeks at the beginning of this year. It is a communist country. I was used to it, fair enough; we’re all socialists up there. (Scotland) I went to Cuba, it’s a communist country. I saw kids with really big uniforms. Lean kids, and they all went to school. People talk about, ‘Oh yeah well you can find doctors driving cabs in Cuba.’ Do you know why you can find doctors driving cabs in Cuba? It’s because the education is free. It’s not nine thousand a term that’ll be hitting your kids next year. It’s free.
“They have hospitals in every town. They don’t have the medicines because the Americans who control the corporate chemical companies won’t let anybody sell medicines to them. But they manage, they have doctors, they have nurses. Anybody can get a job. You want to become a lawyer? Become a lawyer – it’s free.
People used to talk
“It’s not all great, but the difference being that in Cuba there were people talking in the streets. People talked like we used to do in the days gone by like when we were kids, like when moms and dads – when we were running about we could tell they were gonna be ages and we’d be waiting. People used to talk in communities. And I want it.
“In 1963 when Che Gavara went to the United Nations with his first ever speech to the United Nations he was asked by an American journalist ‘how can you talk to us about freedom when you’re run by a dictator? Its not freedom.’ He turned to them and said ‘How can you ask me that? You live in invisible boxes.’ And that is what we do.
“You can’t have a revolution… how do you start a revolution in a country where we’re electronically monitored. We are wasps in invisible boxes.
“And if you look at what’s happening in New York; what’s happening in Wall Street, it’s got to go. It’s burning, it’s already burning in Italy, Spain and Greece. We’re burning.
What we gonna do?
We live in interesting times and we will die on our faces or face our consequences.”
Derek W Dick, aka Fish. 18 November 2011
Dear Larry
ok, that works, it’s posted
love satori
To find out more about the Platform and to see the outstanding range of events, concerts and shows taking place and to view the latest brochure visit www.lancaster.gov.uk/platform
The Platform has been nominated for both ‘most improved performer’ as well as ‘best performer’ in the ‘Civic, Cultural and Community Venue’ category by the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE)