4 February 2022
I just heard that ‘The Last Straw’ has touched down in Holland and that it is arriving here late tomorrow. The album will be on sale at fishmusic.scot and at fishmusic.eu on Friday afternoon 4th February from 12 GMT and 13.00 CET respectively with initial orders being posted out from Monday 7th February. Customers from the UK and R.O.W should order through fishmusic.scot while customers from the European Union should order through fishmusic.eu to avoid postage administration costs from the UK and to have the ability to pay in Euros using different payment systems.
Despite increased manufacturing costs I have decided to keep ‘The Last Straw’ at £16.99 plus VAT (for UK customers), the same as for previous live albums and fishmusic.eu are selling for similar prices plus relevant VAT across all the Fish catalogue they now handle.
Just a few obvious FAQ answers on ‘The Last Straw’ here to save people posting.
The albums will not be autographed.
There will be no vinyl issue.
The DVD is ‘all regions’ and is NTSC. There are no plans for a Blu Ray version
Tracks 3,4,5 ,’Hotel Hobbies’, ‘Warm Wet Circles’ and ‘That time of the night’ ,run together on the DVD and are not separated on the disc menu. Total running time of the 3 tracks is 18.04.
And so what’s on this new and much awaited release?
‘The Last Straw’ was recorded on multitrack at the final show of the highly acclaimed ‘Clutching at Straws/ Weltschmerz’ tour in the O2 in Glasgow on 13th December 2018. Mixed and produced by Steve Vantsis and mastered by Calum Malcolm this double CD features the entire performance of the ‘Clutching at Straws’ album, Fish’s last with his former band ‘Marillion’ and acknowledged as his favourite of that period in his career.
‘The Last Straw’ also features the debut performances of 4 of the songs from his latest album ‘Weltschmerz’ including the award winning ‘Man with a Stick’ and the epic ‘Waverley Steps’.As well as the two CD’s there is a bonus DVD featuring the entire performance from Cropredy Festival on 10 th August 2018. Filmed from on stage cameras and with audio processed by Steve Vantsis and mastered by Calum Malcolm this is an earlier open air setlist and has John Beck on keyboards. He would be replaced on the main European Tour by Foss Paterson.
The other band members on both shows were Steve Vantsis- bass, Gavin Griffiths- drums, Robin Boult – guitars and Doris Brendel – backing vocals and whistles. The CD’s and DVD come in a hardback book with nearly 11000 words of sleeve notes by Fish with concert and backstage photographs from the tour in a 36-page colour booklet.
‘The Last Straw’ FHC011CD is only available from fishmusic.scot and fishmusic.eu
Glasgow O2 13th December 2018
DISC 1
01 Slàinte Mhath 6.23 (Dick, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley)
02 Man With A Stick 6:43 (Dick, Vantsis, Boult)
03 Hotel Hobbies 4.45 (Dick, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley)
04 Warm Wet Circles 4.34 (Dick, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley)
05That Time of the Night 6.39(Dick, Rothery,Kelly,Trewavas, Mosley)
06 Little Man What Now 10:10 (Dick, Vantsis, Boult)
07 Torch Song 4:06 (Dick, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley)
08 White Russian 6:54 (Dick, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley)
Total 50.14
DISC 2
01 Just For The Record 5.12 (Dick, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley)
02 C Song 10.57 (Dick, Paterson, Boult)
03 Going Under 3.50 (Dick, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley)
04 Sugar Mice 7.02 (Dick, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley)
05 Waverley Steps 13:55 (Dick, Vantsis, Boult)
06 The Last Straw 8.50 (Dick, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley)
07 Tux On 5:24 (Dick, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley)
08 Incommunicado 6.29 (Dick, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley)
Total 61.43
BONUS DVD
Cropredy 10th August 2018
01 Voyeur 5:06 (Dick, Simmonds)
02 Emperors Song 7:35 (Dick, Cassidy, Boult)
03 Hotel Hobbies (Dick, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley)
04 Warm Wet Circles (Dick, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley) 05 That Time of the Night 18:04 (Dick, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley)
06 State of Mind 7:28 (Dick, Simmonds, Lindes)
07 Circle Line 6:17 (Dick, Vantsis)
08 Just For The Record 4:52 (Dick, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley)
09 Going Under 2:55 (Dick, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley)
10 Sugar Mice 9:29 (Dick, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley)
11 Torch Song 4:24 (Dick, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley)
12 Slàinte Mhath 5:33 (Dick, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley)
13 Tux On 5:31 (Dick, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley)
14 The Last Straw 6:32 (Dick, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley)
15 Incommunicado 6:00 (Dick, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley)
Total 89:46
All songs: Charisma Music Publishing Ltd/ EMI Music Publishing Ltd except
CD1 tracks 2/6 CD 2/5 and DVD tracks1/2/6/7 Fishy Music Ltd /copyright control
Multitrack desk recordings Glasgow by Stephen ‘Radar’ Kent
Mixed and produced by Steve Vantsis. Mastered by Calum Malcolm
Cropredy DVD footage and menus by David Barras at Strangeboat from original source material supplied by ‘Fairport Convention Ltd’. Audio processed by Steve Vantsis and mastered by Calum Malcolm
Original Artwork by Mark Wilkinson
Design and layout by Steve Vantsis at svsdesign.net
Photography: Fish, Kai R Joachim, Robert Croser and Christian Buehrer at www.diebuerers.com
P Derek W Dick under exclusive license to The Chocolate Frog Record Company Ltd. 2016
C Derek W Dick under exclusive license to The Chocolate Frog Record Company Ltd. 2016