FISH - Aberdeen Music Hall, 7th March 2025

Having been a University student in Aberdeen for the last 7 months, I’ve somehow managed not to see any live music in the city, making Fish’s ‘Road to the Isles’ stop in Aberdeen the first proper concert I’ve been to while studying here.  My friend Alex came up from Edinburgh to take the photographs (the ones you can see alongside this review) Alex hasn’t been into a photography pit before, making it a pretty cool first time in a venue like the Aberdeen concert hall. 

We arrived to the venue pretty sharp, and saw a queue which stretched from the front door of the Music Hall to the tour buses at the back of the building, a length of queue which I have never before had to endure at a concert. I’ve always thought that no one would ever queue like that unless it was to get right to the front of the stage, but it struck me when getting in that only a small majority of fans went to that part of the auditorium with a big number heading for the seats or the bar. Maybe this reflected the older demographic of crowd members at the concert? Fish did joke regularly about how old everyone who came to his concerts had become – he told the crowd he ascertained this from the shine of bald heads in front of him! Fish also said that the only young people at the concert would be the children of Marillion fans. This was certainly true in my case. My dad has been a fan for life, and after years of taking the micky out of him for it, I started to work out both Marillion and some of the Fish stuff was pretty cool. And so, here I am on a cold March evening waiting for the Aberdeen show to begin.

The set opened with the ‘Thieving Magpie’ overture; during which band members, Robin Boult on guitar, Steve Vantsis on bass, Gavin Griffiths on drums, Mickey Simmons on the keys and finally Elisabeth Troy Antwi on backing vocals, all took their places on the stage. Then on came the man himself. He looked visibly moved by the reaction he got. It was then that it really hit, I saw for the first time just how loved and popular Fish was for his fanbase.  

The main set comprised of entirely Fish’s solo music, which although I didn’t know so well, I thoroughly enjoyed. Vigil kicked off the night then Credo from his “Internal Exile” album an then back to another from the Vigil album – Credo.

A good bit of complex prog came next Shadowplay and Weltschmerz were stick outs.  

Just Good Friends was a great duet with Elizabeth. I didn’t expect a backing vocalist in the band, but I can really see why she was so important to the final sound and she made this song happen. Cliché gave Robin Boult the chance to deliver a fantastic solo; this was one of the highlights of the night for me.  I thought Fish brought a great balance between playing the music, and interacting with the crowd through the set.

He finished with a succession with the Marillion classics ‘Kayleigh’, ‘Lavender’ and ‘Heart of Lothian’. I thought that it was only noticeable in ‘Kayleigh’ that the key of the song had been brought down to suit Fish’s voice – I didn’t notice this in the other two, although maybe I had just gotten used to hearing the song in a lower key by that point. Although this made the song sound different to the original, I didn’t really mind and thought it was great – purists may disagree. 

For Fish’s first of two encores, he played another Marillion track, ‘Fugazi’. This was another favourite of mine from Fish-era Marillion. This was followed by another encore, where ‘The Company’ was played, poignantly ending the concert and Fish’s final return to play his music in Aberdeen. 

The concert was fantastic, and regardless of a wide catalogue of music being played which I didn’t know so well, it was really amazing to see and hear Fish in concert, alongside such talented musicians. I think that not many concerts could deserve to span for two and a half hours, but Fish’s certainly did, and I was glad to be able to stand there and listen to his music for the night and smile.