Im sure he’ll open up alot more in the coming weeks.
I understand he’s been ill after the tour as well.
I can Imagine how he must feel after coming down from such a high (it was bad enough for most of us tbh).
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I’m not on FB, but there was a pretty long post on his YouTube page, yesterday I think. I assume it’s been posted elsewhere as well?
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The Facebook post :-
Two weeks ago today I was saying farewell to the crew after the offload here at the Studio. It wasn’t so much dust settling in the coming days as spores. Nearly the entire Circus succumbed to a bug that had been with us since Liverpool when Liz Troy started to show signs and by Aberdeen Steve Vantsis was going down. I was holding it off and very aware that I had the two biggest gigs off my career in Glasgow to 5000 people a lot of whom had made gargantuan efforts to be there.
The pressure was close to overwhelming. I internalised and had to shut myself off if I was to command the Glasgow shows. I had to collect all my resources and focus on those two epic events. I’ve never experienced that amount of intensity that occurred over those last performances. The payback was sublime, and I cannot remember shows that were so all consuming and emotional. Truly magical in every respect.
Only now am I beginning to process what happened and the enormity of the UK tour which was psychologically draining and required total concentration and application to get to the end in Glasgow. I spent the last two weeks here in the Studio , one on my own as Simone was visiting her parents in Germany, racked with coughing, chills, sweats and zero energy and the usual symptoms of a post tour infection as the walls crumbled and my body stopped fighting and gave up to face the inevitable incoming. I still had to deal with all the accounts and tour debris that now filled the garage and needed checks on the small amounts of remaining stock we had left. This all had to be built on pallets and manifested for the company who had agreed to buy what we had left. After the tour sales and the run on the mail order before it closed on March 6th everything that was left was on 9 pallets with a collection of small, medium and huge size shirts, mostly Vigil’ taking up one flight case. The garage was as empty as it had been since around the beginning of 1994 when Dick Bros record company started up.
That in itself was a moment for me and the black plastic shrouded and tied up pallets were yet another reminder that it was over. They looked like sarcophagi in the gloom. It was most definitely the end of an era.
I wasn’t getting the space to process everything that had gone on. Between the illness and the workload and the post tour comedown I was off balance and communicating was difficult because I couldn’t engage with emotions purposefully.
A couple of times I went on the group pages and read some reviews that cracked the shell and left me with a lump in my throat but that was mainly because of emotions being expressed by others regarding the farewell tour that triggered my own. My situation was more complicated and reading some comments felt like reading my obituary. As I said processing has been difficult.
I’m starting to come to and the days are thankfully emptying out to provide that space I need to come to terms with it all and reflect on a breathtaking series of shows of which every night were outstanding and memorable in so many ways.
I hope you understand that my recent silence hasn’t been through disassociation or lack of respect for all your support on the tour. It’s just that it has been impossible to conjure words and collect emotions together to a point where I can put my thoughts in an orderly fashion that makes sense and expresses my gratitude for all you have given me over the many years.
I’ll write more in the coming days as my life rebalances and I can continue to find neutral buoyancy in what has been a maelstrom of experiences in recent months.
This is just a short reintroduction of sorts and again I want to sincerely thank everyone who came along to the shows and bought tickets and merch and who supported me on the farewell journey and who have been with me for such a long time. It was impossible to meet with everyone I knew from across the years and who all wanted a final personal experience in some way or another. I only had so much to give and in the end by Glasgow I had nothing left. It was overwhelming and Simone and I left the final after show tour party in a taxi at 2am to drive back to the studio to reclaim our space.
We will be here for another few weeks dealing with business issues and the Studio before heading to the isles in the middle of April. I’ll have time to write and meditate on it all while I’m here and putting my thoughts together is important now.
I’m moving into a good place and relishing the next stage in our lives. It’s exciting and scary at the same time. I’m not sad and there are no regrets. This particular game is most definitely over and I am so glad and proud that I left with a huge bang and not a whimper. It was how it was always meant to be.
Thanks for being out there.
Take care and stay alive.
Derek the Fish
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In the immediate aftermath of those 2 Glasgow shows, I was convinced we’d be getting a live cd, dvd, or both. Pretty certain all the professional equipment was there.
I even heard Robin Boult talking about it with a technician in the elevator.
Is anyone else surprised nothing as been announced yet? Maybe I’m not giving it enough time? It does seem bloody ages ago since that night in Glasgow. In truth it’s only a few months! 
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Not surprised at all really. Too many other demands eg. moving and selling The Studio and working on Berneray. It will happen when it happens if it does. 
Not sure if we will get anything more tbh. According to Company House public records, Chocolate Frog Record Company Limited is in liquidation. Voluntary winding up papers filed on April 1, 2025 and Declaration of Solvency documents submitted May 15, just this week.
I’m no expert on this type of thing but from what I can see online and based on what he said in the past … he’s done releasing music! (Unless he does something through a different record label 
).
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I find the total lack of feedback from Fish quite astonishing considering he’s never been short of words in the past (a brief ‘i went to the shop for a pint of milk’ would fill a chapter of a book in Fish world ).
I know he has the plan of a new life on his island and I totally respect that but the way he has avoided the social media channels to reflect on his final tour and not to connect with the fans who have followed and supported him over the past I find a bit disrespectful.
If Fish didn’t normally connect with his followers then fine but previously he had a constant dialect either via FoF or just messaging on Facebook, and now it has just stopped with no explanation as to why.
A simple ‘goodbye’ would be nice if he feels he wants to cut ties with his past and concentrate of his new life.
The longer that there’s no news around a ‘final tour’ release then I believe the less likely it is to happen, and I believe that the longer the delay the less likely the paying public would be to buy it. So perhaps the work to get a ‘final tour’ release just isn’t worth his time and money for what is probably going to result in little financial gain, outside the few of us on the forum who would buy it.
I find the silence all a bit odd but Fish has always had that ‘my way or the highway’ stubbornness / mentality.
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I just find it odd that it would be professionally recorded and then no announcement. What was the point in that?
Saw a post on Facebook this morning from Derek ( not Fish ) page. If you read the post you will know what I mean. There is not going to be an album from Glasgow or from the Road to the Isles Tour sadly. Will try and find the post again to put the link up here.
I’m aware it’s been tumbleweed over here on this page for over a month now but to be honest everything that’s happening is non Fish related and I’ve been posting on my own page about all the goings on up here on the Croft.
I’m going to have to rethink how I do this as here on the island I am Derek not Fish and the music business is now something I’ve left behind.
It’s weird as I no longer read updates from magazines or take interest in the music world and yet I listen to more music now than I have done for years. It’s a completely different perspective and I’m finding Simone and I are sitting downstairs at the Glasgow dining table listening to the streams on the Sonos speakers rather than coming upstairs to watch netflix . I hardly read the news apart from over my first coffee of the day on the various apps on the phone.It’s a different world and a different way of life here and we love it.
It’s not without it’s fair share of dramas and ups and downs and in the picture is one of our pet lambs who we named Rorschach who sadly died today. It was the second one out of three we lost.
It’s all documented on my personal pages and I admit I’m loving getting into writing about our experiences.
With that in mind I’m considering making my personal page ‘public’ but limiting commensts to friends and family. It doesn’t feel right posting croft stories as ‘Fish’ so opening up the personal page to those of you interested in my new life makes sense.
The cafe and restaurant we intend to open is till subject to lots of hoops being jumped through and we hope to have it sorted out by next April. I’ve a garden to design and plants to grow as well as all the croft activities including drainage, fencing, getting to grips with sheep and the fields one of which is being sowed with oats next week.
I have a website waiting to be designed that will take care of the cafe, restaurant and croft but it’s a long way off and we have to think long and hard about how we work this. This year is all about set up.
With Chocolate Frog Records now laid to rest and the mailorder finished there are no plans for any more releases unless through license to a third party. With that it doen’t make any financial sense whatsoever to release a live album from the tour. The cost of mixing and producing and all the session fees together with artwork and design is far too expensive and on a royalty rate from a record company and spotify or other streaming mechanisms I won’t even get close to breaking even from that income. I have no music career anymore so it’s not even worth it as a promotional loss leader. I know a lot of people will be disappointed in this but it’s one of the reasons I decided to retire fom the music business.
Writing is where my future lies and there are more than enough stories to choose from up here to weave into the autobiography I intend to start writing as the winter takes hold and the nights are longer.
The official Fish group page can carry on with the legacy and I can post there if I want to throw some illumination on stories.
I have to admit there’s been so much wild speculation and opinion on there that I haven’t found it a particularly atractive place to delve into as I don’t need the wind ups and there were some ugly posts from a minority that I didn’t even want to engage over there.
Tosh and Andy and the other moderators are doing a fine job weeding out the chaff and I have to thank them for all their efforts .
I still have to decide on the personal page and take some advice but there will be no comments or posts allowed unless from firends and famliy and I won’t accept friend requests unless i know the person well from my own circle.
This is a different life now and I am a lot more private in my engagements and guarded on my comments.
I hope you understand this and I’ll let you know when I make the decision to move. This page will remain open and I will post here irregularly. The cache of posts will be there for people to read and the Fish on Fridays are all on the website which again will stay open as an archive of material.
Again I’ll let you know when the croft site is ready to launch but it will probably not be until next year when the cafe hopefully opens it’s doors.
I’m enjoying my ‘retirement’ and Simone and I truly love this new home we are creating. There’s a hell of a long way to go and a huge amount of work to be undertaken but I’m relishing all the challenges
stay safe, take care and stay alive
llots of love
Derek 
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9.1KYou, Mark Allatt, Sven Speith and 9.1K others
I wish him well, but have to say I’m personally not fussed about him keeping up any kind of public persona. I’ve zero interest in his croft and cafe.
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