Former
lead singer for
Marillion, now a solo
musician,
writer, and
actor. A very tall
Scotsman, the kind of guy you wouldn't want to
piss off. Luckily, he's quite friendly and amusing.
Fish was born Derek William Dick in Edinburgh on April 2th, 1958 and raised in Dalkeith, a small town in Scotland. Went to college and had numerous jobs in forestry until the early 1980s when he joined bands like Blewitt and Stone Dome Band. Fate arrived in 1981 when he joined Marillion, leading to huge stardom and near self-destruction, and leaving the band in 1988.
Fish's solo career thus begins in 1989 with the release of Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors, which, like the Marillion album released at nearly the same time, was full of ideas from the last Marillion writing sessions, with some new feelings and the ever-present poetry that Fish is always able to pull off. then in 1991 we get Internal Exile, an album full of Scottish influences and a scathing indictment of the music industry in the song "Speaking In Tongues." In 1993 an album of cover tunes called Songs from the Mirror is released, the tracks being ones influential to Fish during his career. 1994 brought us Suits, which never really did it for me, unlike 1997's Sunsets on Empire, which had production and writing contributions from Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson, and was probably Fish's strongest statement to date, and supported his first solo US tour.
1999's Raingods With Zippos was another good album full of depth and detail--as well as the 30 minute epic "Plague Of Ghosts."
2001 sees the release of Fellini Days, which, like his former band, he pre-sold to raise money for its production. Fellini Days features Fish singing in a lower register to accomodate a voice ravaged by alcohol, drugs, abuse, infections, and cigarettes over the years, but somehow sounding better than ever, with the work of guitarist John Wesley, who was the opening act and guitar tech for Marillion in the 90s.
Also since the late '90s, Fish has had a bit of an acting career, notably appearing in the BBC detective show Taggart as an abusive husband.