FIZZYFISH

'They had a quirky animated frontman plus a female bassist'

Fizzyfish are a band that are made up of members from Darlington, Hartlepool & Redcar. They aren’t that well know up in these parts of the north east region, but in the Cleveland & North Yorkshire areas they have been gigging extensively for the last few years. In fact the band have been performing live for 6 years now, yet still remain fairly unknown in the Tyneside & Wearside localities. My only knowledge of them was basically from their own website, of which they had put up a link on the Riffs ‘bands websites’ section. The name attracted my interest straight away, and once I’d seen the kind of set list that they played then I knew that they’d be ideal for a booking at the Office. I’d also looked at the photos of the band live in action, and saw that they had a quirky animated frontman, plus a female bassist too. Definitely something that set them apart from many other acts, yet it was the variety of the genres of music that they covered in their live shows that really caught my interest. Anything from Gary Numan & Ultravox, through to Green Day & Metallica, with some punk classics thrown in as well. This is a band that are hard to pigeon hole with an overall label, and their varied selection of songs could only be tagged together as ‘rock’. I’d been itching to book them for a while, but I was informed by the band that because of their shift work-patterns that the limited amount of spaces available for gigs had pretty much been handed out for the rest of this year. So I was very fortunate to land on my feet in such a way that not only did I get that stubborn Saturday slot filled, but also by a band that I had been dying to see for ages. Fizzyfish were at last coming to South Shields, and even though I was booking them blind, the demand to see them playing in their home region obviously meant that they had to be an act of some decent quality. So it was time to bring them up further north to see if they could have the same kind of impact at the Office too.
 

'I found the whole lot of them so fantastically easy to work with.'

Even though the group have their own PA rig, with the Office being a fairly large sized room then I offered to help them out with the sound mixing, as after all they had helped me out of a tight spot so it was only fair to make sure that the band would sound as good as possible. I got to the venue nice & early to set up the entire rig in time for the band arriving. Alan the singer turned up as I was standing outside having a smoke after sweating my bollocks off. I recognised him instantly from the photos on their website as he’s a tall chap with a shaven head, and with a little Mohawk chin beard then he’s not the kind of bloke that disappears unnoticeable in a crowd. The rest of the band turned up shortly after that, and can I just say what an absolutely lovely bunch of folk they are. Most musicians I get to work with are nice people, but this lot stood out by being really pleasant and so ridiculously easy to accommodate. And the really strange thing about these 4 individuals is that they were all so friendly with each other, to the point where you could have mistaken them to all be related. There was a really strong sense of camaraderie amongst them all, and they all worked together as team when setting up their equipment. I’ve gotten a sixth sense when it comes down to bands these days, and can often guess at how well they’ll cope just by watching them set up before the gig. But with Fizzyfish I felt very calm & relaxed, which was pretty weird considering I didn’t have a bloody clue if they were going to be any good or not. We spent a lot of time getting the soundcheck as polished as possible, and I found the whole lot of them so fantastically easy to work with. I was quite happy with the results before the gig, knowing that I’d probably have to adjust things further when the audience started filling up the room (more bodies changes a sound mix quite a lot). The band even put out little bowls full of sweets for the punters, and of course they were ‘Fizzyfish’ which is where the band get their name from.
 

'I adore good frontmen, always have done, and Alan is one of the best!'

The strange thing is that some people turned up to see the band play purely out of interest because of the group’s name. Hey if it works, don’t knock it! But there wasn’t a bad crowd in for this night, and considering that the group are unknown around here (and only confirmed the gig 2 days before hand), then they managed quite well. Fizzyfish opened up with the theme tune to an Ennio Morricone spaghetti western (Metallica’s intro tape too) and then kicked off in to ‘Enter Sandman’ with full might (no taking it easy at first with this band). Next up was the familiar strains of Deep Purple’s ‘Black Knight’ which made a back-to-back pairing of 2 metal anthems that are quite well-played by a lot of heavy rock acts that play at this venue. But from then on this band started throwing more curve-balls than you’d get to see at the Yankees Stadium. The material started to vary so drastically with tunes by the Strokes and Jimmy Eat World, which threw a very different slant on their first set. Then up was the Buzcocks favourite ‘Ever Fallen In Love’ which surprisingly fitted in very well when considering how diverse this set list was turning out to be. The band look great on stage. You have Alan the singer who totally dominates the centre stage and instantly commands attention. He’s one of the few frontmen I have ever seen on a ‘pub-rock’ level that oozes such confidence & charisma. I’d have to be looking at people like Len from Tubesnake for any kind of comparison, yet Alan has his own on-stage personality and is undeniably quirky and eccentric. I adore good frontmen, always have done, and Alan is one of the best! He didn’t disappoint me in the slightest (as I guessed he’d be fairly unique) and did what all the very best frontmen do. And that’s to engage the audience, keep their attention focused on the band, and to be highly entertaining as well. He managed to execute all of these excellent traits superbly, and on of top of all that he was a decent chanter too.
 
 

' . . . and the group still performed as tightly & professionally as any other 100% male act.'

The next unusual visual aspect of the band is undoubtedly their female bassist. Just the fact of having a woman on stage who isn’t a lead singer is quite an oddity in itself, but once you add that to her ability as being a very capable musician then it made her inclusion all the more special. I’m not being sexist here in any way, it’s just simply that we don’t tend to get female musicians in this local pub scene playing cover versions. Maybe there should be more of them, because Traci from this band showed that it made no difference whatsoever to the quality of the music being played, and the group still performed as tightly & professionally as any other 100% male act. Yet it did have it’s advantages as it made the testosterone levels of the band as a whole diminish, and it actually made Fizzyfishappear to be more ‘real’ if anything. Next in the line-up is Chris on guitar. He’s a very competent musician, and when he cut loose then I was quite impressed at how fluent his soloing style was. His sound was quite meaty when he needed it to be, and it cleaned up nice to be jangly in nature if that’s what the song required the guitar to sound like. He asked me to mic his guitar cabinet up with 2 mics, as he was running the whole thing in ‘stereo’. It was actually the first time I’d ever done a true stereo guitar mix, and even though you couldn’t hear it that much during the majority of songs, the odd stereo embellishments and solos sounded incredible. And even when he was playing standard guitar, the extreme panning on the mixing desk made his whole guitar sound separate within the overall mix to make it more prominent (must experiment more with this in future). And lastly we have ‘Soss’ on drums who played marvellously. I hope I don’t hurt his feelings by mentioning this, but he has to be one of the smallest musicians I have ever worked with in my life. But that’s not me being derogatory in anyway, as it made absolutely no difference to his excellent drumming ability. This bloke is a cracking player and worked so well with the rest of the band. He’s just another tremendous addition that gives this whole unit such a unique character.
 

' . . . Alan of course stood totally still on stage while looking around quite demented'

The first set continued with some pop music that had a slight ‘rock’ edge to it all, and was certainly a lot more heavy in nature by the time the band had finished with them. Next up was Ultravox’s ‘All Stood Still’, complete with Korg keyboards to give it that authentic very early 80’s ‘techno-pop’ feel. Alan of course stood totally still on stage while looking around quite demented (this guy has more facial expressions than Jim Carey). This was followed by Bowie’s old classic ‘Space Oddity’ complete again with keyboards and synth solo. After this it was back to the pub-rock standards with T Rex’s ‘20th Century Boy’, yet the band play this stuff so well that whatever they put their hands to they seem to pull off brilliantly. The final five songs of this first slot really saw the band hit their stride with a selection of great numbers that suited them down to the ground. The Kaiser Chiefs ‘Everyday I Love You Less & Less’ was a perfect pop anthem that kept the group’s energy levels flowing, but it was the back-to-back coupling of Terrorvision’s ‘Discothèque Wreck’ and Therapy’s ‘Screamager’ that really saw the group in more fiery fashion. And then while the pace had heated up they finished things off with ‘Breakout’ by the Foo Fighters and ‘100 Mile High City’ by Ocean Colour Scene. This was a really good way to end things off, and I felt the band had paced their set just right. The variety was truly refreshing, and as the group had told me before hand, “there’s something there for everybody”. I personally liked Fizzyfish a hell of a lot, but I was a little wary on how well they’d fair with the Office regulars. But surprisingly the only people that had left were ones that had complained about some of the lights getting in their eyes. That was soon fixed with Alan redirecting the lights lower on to the dance floor, and it appeared that the rest of the audience were really enjoying the band. For their first sight of them I think the crowd were a little apprehensive, but by the beginning of the second set Fizzyfish had totally won them over.
 

'I looked around as saw the crowd’s reactions and knew that this band now had them totally hooked.'

The group only had a short interval as they wanted to pack in as many songs as possible until the final curfew time. So after a brief 15 minutes they were straight back up on stage and then remained there for the next hour and a quarter. Nobody got short changed this night with a combined 2-hour stage-show, plus for their second slot you could noticeably see this group grow more confident. They knew by then that the crowd were on the same wave-length as the band, and were showing their appreciation too, so likewise Fizzyfish took things up a notch as well. It was back to the old rock classics for their second set opening number with UFO’s ‘Shoot Shoot’, and then followed by Queen’s rock monster ‘Now I’m Here’. I looked around as saw the crowd’s reactions and knew that this band now had them totally hooked. It had taken the first half of the evening for the audience to tune in to what Fizzyfish are all about, and from then on you could feel the atmosphere rise in the room, and with more applause then you’ll always get a group performing better too. Next up was Feeder’s big chart success ‘Buck Rogers’ which bounced along in joyous fashion, only for the crowd to be thrown another curve-ball in the form of Gary Numan’s ‘Cars’. I’ve always wanted to do a rock version of this myself, but realised that to pull it off then you have to have keyboards on stage too, and Fizzyfish did a brilliant rendition of this track. To be honest the theme that this group went for reminded me a lot of my own band, and I managed to count least 12 songs amongst these numbers that Shovelmouth have performed at one time or another. So maybe I’m biased, but for me this set list was right on the money and provided great variety, yet all under the universal umbrella of ‘rock’! The band continued to bounce from indie, to pop, to punk, and to heavy rock through the rest of their show. We were treated to songs by Green Day, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Beastie Boys & Blink 182. There were also some surprising inclusions with a heavy rock version of the Beatles ‘Hard Day’s Night’, Blue Oyster Cult’s ‘Don’t Fear The Reaper’, and a cracking version of ‘Down Down’ by the gods of boogie Status Quo.
 

'This is a team in the truest sense of the word, but Alan fronts it all so very well.'

The second set was monster sized, with about 20 songs being crammed into their last remaining 75 minutes. Alan later told me that the band have been know to play up to 3 hours in one night! But the venue does have a curfew time, and unfortunately Fizzyfish were working against the clock trying to soak up as much on-stage time as possible so as to make it worth their whole travelling all this way. The band wrapped things up with a nice piece of pub-rock cheese in the form of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Rock & Roll’ (the band did delve in to the ‘standards’ occasionally), but for their next pub-rock classic they put a different spin on it and freshened it right up. The old Kinks chestnut ‘You Really Got Me’ was given a new lease of life with some nice mid-section improvising and inter-play, which lengthened it out without ever making it become boring. It was great to watch this bunch become more confident as the night went on, and by the time they played the encores they could have just as well been playing a home-town show for their friends & family. I’ve harked on about the set list being unusual etc, but that observation can never overshadow the simple fact that this band are very ‘entertaining’. Alan is a real character, and his stage moves & visual expressions verge on being ‘theatrical’. I swear that this is not a bad thing in the slightest, because it made for a more visually enjoyable show altogether. He’s a big prog-rock fan and hugely influenced by it’s top exponents like Peter Gabriel etc, and likewise he likes to display characterisations to suit the song he is singing at that time. Yet his stage presence is captivating, and he does have a certain quality that makes you want to see him perform and guess at what he’ll get up to next. But this isn’t a one-man show by any means as the rest of the group fully back him up, and they too often get involved with the tomfoolery and stage poses as well. This is a team in the truest sense of the word, but Alan fronts it all so very well.
 

' . . . a fabulous band that brought with them a real sense of fun.'

For my first ever view of Fizzyfish I thought they were a fabulous band that brought with them a real sense of fun. That in itself is hugely refreshing in the pub-rock scene where occasionally bands are trying to out-do each other. It’s not a competition at all, and sometimes groups can lose sight that the real goal of any live act is to be ENTERTAINING! After all, this whole genre of live music is mainly habited by people aged in their 30’s and 40’s playing ‘other’ people’s songs. So the real crux of going on stage in an alien environment is to entertain those people in the audience to the max, and in that respect Fizzyfish do that job to the fullest degree. I’d be delighted to have this band return to the Office any time, and from the response I got from all of the punters afterwards, they too would like to see this lot come back as soon as possible as well. From me personally, I’d like to thank the band once again for stepping up to play this gig with such little advance notice, and for also being s easy to work with. Alan, Chris, Traci & Soss are amongst some of the nicest folk I’ve ever met in this game, and I hope they become regular visitors to the venue in the future. Nige loved them too and managed to grab some great photos as well. When Nige tells me that he took over 60 pics then I know instinctively that he had a great time. After seeing how good Fizzyfish really are, then I feel embarrassed that I hadn’t gotten them to play at the Office earlier in their 6-year career. This band are a glistening gem nestled in amongst the dance-orientated Teesside region, and I hope that they make many more visits to this area now that they’ve seen how well their brand of music is appreciated here. For more info on Fizzyfishand their up’n’coming gigs, please log on to www.fizzyfish.info

Thanks for the sweeties too, they were incredibly yummy. Yours, …Colin Smoult. 1 / 8 / 06.

Many thanks to Col for this review which was submitted to riffs magazine.

FIZZYFISH, Princess Alice Middlesbrough 22nd 0ct 2005
It was a rainy saturday night when we arrived at the alice and i was expecting it to be dead but when we walked in it was heaving which i thought was a good sign. My mate steve said i should check this band out as he`d seen them before and raved about them.So here i was and i admit i was happily suprised at what i saw.The band consists of three guys and a girl on bass and the band brought enough gear with them to give U2 a run for their money. This is a band that puts on a show,a good frontman that kept the audience amused with some good patter and a tight band behind him keeping it all together.They played an unusual mix of songs,Sandman(metallica),100 mile high city(ocean colour scene)Teen spirit(nirvana)and Queens now i`m here were awsome with some excellent guitar work. All the songs they played were of a high standard but for me these four stood out.There were the old perennial favorites however that a lot of bands seem to play ie blacknight,rocknroll, song2 and fight for your right but they all seemed to have new life breathed into them,especially the beastie boys song which had everybody singing along.The Band did a few obscure numbers which i hadn`t heard before but after checking the bands website i found they were by therapy and terrorvision.They also did some bold numbers ie durans hungry like the wolf,the kaisers everyday i love you less and less which was another crowd favourite and a version of hard days night like you`ve never heard before(picture a metal version of the beatles hit). i`ve never seen a band perform such a diverse set before,as most bands tend to stick to one sort of style or another. A great night was had by all,and the band were rewarded with a couple of encores for their efforts.The only downside was the size of the playing area which seemed to restrict this lively band(especially the frontman who would make a good comedian!).
We will definately try to see them again before the end of the year.Good fun.
Put them on your 'to see' list.
Col.