At the age of 66, Derek William Dick is still the same questioning, creative, bold-asbrass force of nature that he was at 22, when he moved from Edinburgh to Aylesbury and joined Marillion, and changed his name to Fish. He picked up the nickname as a teen because of his habit of spending hours in the bath, smoking cigarettes and singing along to his favourite rock music, which back then veered between Genesis and Pink Floyd.
Before Fish joined, Marillion were a mainly instrumental group whose love of complicated progressive rock was as yet unmatched by their ability to play their instruments. However, a 1980 demo did contain musical templates for Forgotten Sons, Garden Party and parts of The Web, as they became once Fish had written some lyrics and provided the Peter Gabriel-like vocals.
