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Landing the Fish - #MeetAxl Week 5
by Adam Davey
For those of you new to this series of articles, a month back, I made a little wager with a friend of mine that I would get to interview Axl Rose before next June.
This series serves as a chronicle of my journey towards meeting the Guns N Roses singer, taking in the pitstops along the way.
In the first article, I stated that I was going to break up my end game by putting in a 4 other musical geniuses along the way. And in that first article, I made my first target a personal pleasure of mine - the man they call the Fish.
For long time readers of the journey so far (not sure if 4 weeks worth of articles is long time but bear with me), you will know that last week, I got a call from the Scottish legend to go and interview him. Well I am now delighted to say that the interview took place last Thursday at his home.
So without further ado, I will break from the usual progress report and offer up for this week only, a straight up interview.
On Thursday the 28th of June 2012, which incidentally was a bleak Scottish summer day (I was literally chasing the clouds home on the way back), I met Derek at his home in Haddington. And for a self confessed Fish/ Marillion fan, it was a musical dream come true. Derek was in superb form and after making me a cuppa (there's a story for the grandkids! A musical hero of mine making me a tea!) he took me around the studio. And what a tour it was - the studio is adorned not only with the original Mark Wilkerson artworks to Fish's solo work, but also his Marillion work.
After a brief chat about the studios history and various topics such as music piracy, we got stuck into the interview proper. Over the 90 minutes that I spent with Derek, he was welcoming and never short on thoughts. As you can see from my opening question of "hope you are well?", Yes and No answers were never going to be offered up!
During the time we spent together, we talked on quite a few subjects including the new album (Feast of Consequences), other projects on the go, celebrity culture and Scottish Football. Hopefully you will find it just as enthralling as I did - Derek is obviously incredibly well read and this shines through in his thought processes. In all of the interviews that I have done over the last 18 months, this has been by a long way my favourite and most interesting.
Having enjoyed his work for the best part of 25 years, having met him, I can clearly and easily understand how he has written some of the finest lyrics ever laid down on a track. A bold statement yes, but also very true. I could easily go into how he has put every emotional fibre into his lyrics but I might as well let you hear it from him directly!
So all it leaves me to do is to thank Derek for his generous time and to let you all know about my next two targets that hopefully Fish will help me meet!
Before I do that though, if you enjoyed what Derek had to say, and want to try out some of his music, feel free to drop me a line and I will make you some recommendations. Also, if, like me, you are already a fan, I would like to tell you that the Fish Heads (what a great name for the fan club! I will have to get one for my fans (both of them) - the Axl greasers perhaps?) convention is taking place over the weekend of the 20/21st October in Leamington Spa (details on the Fish website here.
So over to you Fish.........
(For those of you with Apples and cannot play flash files, you can access the audio here)
This series serves as a chronicle of my journey towards meeting the Guns N Roses singer, taking in the pitstops along the way.
In the first article, I stated that I was going to break up my end game by putting in a 4 other musical geniuses along the way. And in that first article, I made my first target a personal pleasure of mine - the man they call the Fish.
For long time readers of the journey so far (not sure if 4 weeks worth of articles is long time but bear with me), you will know that last week, I got a call from the Scottish legend to go and interview him. Well I am now delighted to say that the interview took place last Thursday at his home.
So without further ado, I will break from the usual progress report and offer up for this week only, a straight up interview.
On Thursday the 28th of June 2012, which incidentally was a bleak Scottish summer day (I was literally chasing the clouds home on the way back), I met Derek at his home in Haddington. And for a self confessed Fish/ Marillion fan, it was a musical dream come true. Derek was in superb form and after making me a cuppa (there's a story for the grandkids! A musical hero of mine making me a tea!) he took me around the studio. And what a tour it was - the studio is adorned not only with the original Mark Wilkerson artworks to Fish's solo work, but also his Marillion work.
After a brief chat about the studios history and various topics such as music piracy, we got stuck into the interview proper. Over the 90 minutes that I spent with Derek, he was welcoming and never short on thoughts. As you can see from my opening question of "hope you are well?", Yes and No answers were never going to be offered up!
During the time we spent together, we talked on quite a few subjects including the new album (Feast of Consequences), other projects on the go, celebrity culture and Scottish Football. Hopefully you will find it just as enthralling as I did - Derek is obviously incredibly well read and this shines through in his thought processes. In all of the interviews that I have done over the last 18 months, this has been by a long way my favourite and most interesting.
Having enjoyed his work for the best part of 25 years, having met him, I can clearly and easily understand how he has written some of the finest lyrics ever laid down on a track. A bold statement yes, but also very true. I could easily go into how he has put every emotional fibre into his lyrics but I might as well let you hear it from him directly!
So all it leaves me to do is to thank Derek for his generous time and to let you all know about my next two targets that hopefully Fish will help me meet!
Before I do that though, if you enjoyed what Derek had to say, and want to try out some of his music, feel free to drop me a line and I will make you some recommendations. Also, if, like me, you are already a fan, I would like to tell you that the Fish Heads (what a great name for the fan club! I will have to get one for my fans (both of them) - the Axl greasers perhaps?) convention is taking place over the weekend of the 20/21st October in Leamington Spa (details on the Fish website here.
So over to you Fish.........
(For those of you with Apples and cannot play flash files, you can access the audio here)
IntroFeast of Consequences albumLyrics and LifestyleReality shows and autobiographyWriting, Marillion and football |
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Just for the record, the next two targets on my list are.........
Thin Lizzy and Brian May Meetaxl is now on holiday for two weeks but will be back with hopefully some news on my next two targets. Have a good one Axl-Greasers!! (if anyone wants to drop me a message or help me in my journey, feel free to make that inbox even more fervent - adamd@v2journal.com) and you can follow Adam on Twitter at @meetaxl |
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I will interview Axl Rose within a year (2nd June). And you will read about my epic quest here......
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(c) Copyright 606v2 2012. Please do not reproduce without permission
Interview targets:
(c) Copyright 606v2 2012. Please do not reproduce without permission
Interview targets:
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