‘There’s a kind of sell-by harder and harder phys

Former Marillion front man Fish on his last UK tour and bringing an end to his glittering music career

“This is my last album, but the last UK dates will probably be in 2021.

“I decided to do some full album shows, I did (Marillion’s) Misplaced Childood last time I was out, done Clutching at Straws and this one is Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors (the first solo album) so there’s a nice circle to it in that I’m playing the entire Vigil album and stuff from the new album Weltschmerz at the same time.

“There’s a balance to it, and at the same time there’s a Script for a Jester’s Tear re-master coming out on Warner’s, and we play a couple of tracks from that on the tour.

“So you’ll have first Marillion, first solo and last solo.”

“When I was doing the Misplaced tour I already had the idea of this.

“I still enjoy being on stage but I don’t want to carry on. There’s a kind of sell-by date on it all; it gets harder and harder physically to be touring.

“Six weeks on a tour bus does take its toll.”

“I’m 62 years old… It’s got deeper but I think it’s better, there’s a bit of soul to it.

“I listened to the Script remasters and I thought ‘Who the hell was singing that?’ I was singing unnaturally in the early eighties, I think if I’d gone to a voice coach they would have warned me that I was forcing thing too much and I paid the price later on.

“I’ve had two vocal operations so for some of the Marillion stuff we have to change the key.

“It’s easy for a guitarist to change strings but vocalists can’t change chords. It’s like football – you can’t play up front all the time, eventually you have to drop back.

“You might still be playing a great game but it’s different.

“My voice is a bit richer, more full than it was back then.

“We’ve dropped the keys for the Marillion stuff but nobody’s complaining other than a couple of nerds, and they were great shows.

“I loved it, because I was