THIS WEEK’S WINNER
Singer dug out 90s prop for online show
VETERAN singer Fish has apologised after filming an impromptu war dance in a Native American headdress.
The former Marillion frontman, 63, broadcasts the weekly Fish on Friday show online from his home near Haddington, East Lothian.
He shares tales and anecdotes from his four decades in the music business and plays tracks from his solo career.
But this month he received a complaint after he wore the feathered headgear during a cover version of Boston Tea Party, originally by Glasgow’s The Sensational Alex Harvey Band.
After being accused of “cultural appropriation”, Fish – real name
Derek Dick – explained he first wore the it for the song in 1993, in reference to the protesters who wore headdresses during the Boston tea rebellion of 1773.
He said he decided to wear replica again after finding it behind his couch.
Fish, who shares his home with German wife Simone, added: “I’m very sorry if somebody was upset by that and I completely agree with you about wearing a feathered bonnet, which is seen as something that belongs to Native Americans.
“People have to go through a lot of rights to earn the right to wear it and I was wearing it in an inappropriate manner.”
IT’S the morning after the night Colin Jackson lost his world hurdles record after nearly 27 years. But while most athletes might be waking up with a sore head and a bad temper, he needs me to remind him what happened.
The sporting legend was training for this weekend’s Dancing on Ice when American Grant Holloway, 23, finally broke the 60m indoor hurdles time Colin set in March 1994 – by just 0.01 seconds.
“Oh, that? Oh, crikey Moses, I’m not sad about that at all,” he laughs when I explain why I’m asking how he is feeling.
“Goodness gracious, for a moment I thought, ‘Oh my God, do you know something I didn’t know?’. The record? Oh, no no no, that’s no problem at all.
“Who wants to be the old guy sitting in the stand who is the fastest person in the world? Who kids point to and say, ‘What, that old man is the fastest?’ No, you want to see the fastest people on the track, not watching in the stand.
“I’m a fan of athletics and I want to see my sport progress. I want to see athletes who are faster than I was.
“Besides, you only borrow a world record, you don’t own it.”
Surely, he must have felt a tinge of sadness when the news came through?
“Not at all. My immediate reaction was that I must message Grant at some point to congratulate him. Then I was back to my training. I’m not trying to play it down, it’s just the way I am.
“I retired the best in the business, I can’t do more than that. Of my generation I was the best around, and that’s it.”
True, there are few who will reach the success that Britain’s best hurdler enjoyed, including an Olympic silver, two world records and 12 years undefeated at the European Championships.
My sister’s signed most autographs.. she had 13 years in Casualty COLIN ON HIS ACTRESS SISTER SUZANNE PACKER
But the 54-year-old Welshman insists when he retired on a high in 2003 he left behind his famous determination to be the best. “I’m not interested in anything competitive any more. What I like to do now is have a good time,” he says.
“I love it when people want to challenge you and they think you are going to be competitive. It happens all the time. It could be a game of tennis or it could be literally beating me to the supermarket checkout.
“And they’re going, ‘I beat you!’, and I’m like, ‘Why do you think I’m going to compete with you on this? I’m not interested in that. I’ve got a cabinet full of trophies at home’.”
For someone who is no longer competitive, Colin is doing a good job of staying in the front pack in Dancing on Ice. Despite one skate-off, he and partner Klabera Komini, 27, continue to impress, coming joint second in the last show.
And with so many favourites having to leave due to injuries or positive Covid tests, including the frontrunner, actor Joe-Warren Plant, there’s every chance the duo will make it to the final – now a week earlier than planned.
He says: “We’re doing movie week on Sunday, and I’ll be doing Saturday Night Fever. So I’m disco dancing all the way, which is hilarious. The disco strut is pretty tricky actually. John Travolta does it well but he doesn’t do it on ice.”
Colin is one of the few contestants not to have had to miss a week or pull out during a mishap-fraught series, and he says the show is desperate to avoid another contestant having to leave.
“If you slip over on the ice and are down a second longer than you should be, the medical staff come rushing over asking if you’re OK,” he says.
“I play the game with them as well sometimes, laying on the ice for longer than I should just to wind them up.
“I have had injuries but I think maybe coming from professional sport it’s easy to just deal with them.
“I’ve fallen over, sprained wrists, and I’ve got the onset of something like a tennis elbow from repeating exercises.”
And he reveals he is skating through
I was the best of my generation and I have a cabinet full of trophies COLIN ON NOT HAVING TO PROVE HIMSELF ANY MORE
pain on every programme because of a long-term problem.
“I had seven knee ops as an athlete and I suffer from chronic pain. I’ve learned to handle the pain because I live with it every single day,” he says.
“I’ll be having surgery as soon as the series is over. I want to be able to enjoy life without the worry that in three or four years my knees will be kaput and I’ll have to have a really serious knee replacement.”
Performing in front of judges isn’t a new experience for Colin – he came second in Strictly Come Dancing in 2005, then won the show’s Christmas special a year later. Technically, it is not his first time on Dancing on Ice either – he took part in a one-off special before the 2012 London Olympics, finishing fifth out of eight.
HOWEVER he doesn’t believe that gives him an unfair advantage. “Everybody had their skillset. Amy is a gymnast, Denise and Jason are great performers and used to being onstage, which is a massive advantage.
“There is a cast of people with different abilities, which makes it a bit fair for everyone,” he says.
Many viewers have been shocked to see a famous face among family members supporting him. His older sister is Casualty actress Suzanne
Packer, 58, who played nurse manager Tess Batemen in the hit BBC drama for 13 years until 2015.
Colin, made an CBE in 2003, laughs: “I thought people knew but obviously not, and it created shockwaves.
“She’s been my biggest fan. She’s always surprised when I take on challenges like this, and more surprised about how well I do. Now every week, she says, ‘I can’t believe you did that!’.
“At the start, she said, ‘I don’t think you should be doing this at the age of 54’. I love proving her wrong. We’re really close, she lives 300 metres away from me on the outskirts of Cardiff.”
He says they both knew what they wanted to do in life since childhood, with their parents supporting them. “One day Dad would take me to the track, Mum would take Suzanne to drama class, the next day vice-versa.
“I just loved sport because I didn’t want to do a serious job. I had no idea you could make money from it.
“As kids we spent hours showing each other our autographs, asking which one looks best. It was probably Suzanne who ended up signing the most autographs in her life.”
But may there be another significant other cheering Colin on? The
Olympian, who came out in 2017, hints there may be. “Is there anyone special I’d like to spend my life with? You will soon find out,” he says.
His next challenge is as the new race director for Wings for Life World Run, an app run held in May where more than 100,000 people raise money to find a cure for spinal cord injury.
First though, he is focused on the hurdle of avoiding elimination.
He says: “How great would that be? Wales wins the Triple Crown [in Six Nations rugby] and I get into the next round. That would be the perfect weekend.” ■ Dancing on Ice, ITV at 6pm tomorrow.