Fish Checks In With A Clean Bill of Health

Ex-Marillion singer Fish got a nice start to 2009 when he found that his recent throat cancer scare was unfounded. Fish posted on his MySpace blog on December 31:

It seems apt that on the closing day of 2008 I received the news that I had been hoping for in a phone call from my ENT doctor.

The biopsy samples taken from my vocal chords have come back negative on any malignant or pre-malignant growth. It appears that the source of all my problems has been a cyst which has been present for quite some time and was surgically removed during the recent examination.

I have been given a clean bill of health and told to start vocal exercises in order to stretch the repairing tissue. I can't explain how relieved I am.

...I have to admit that certain newspaper reports got me down when after gleaning all their quotes from my blog they then came up with the assumption that I was finished as a singer. It appears they have most definitely got it wrong and one of my first calls was to Yatta to tell him to go ahead and book festivals for the Summer. :-)

Now that is some good news!

Fish Takes A Break

Former Marillion lead singer Fish needs to rest his voice for at least six months and will not be doing any full touring until 2010, according to a story on Classic Rock today.

Fish's report of the news, emailed to fans, is pretty amusing:

“It started off pleasantly enough and my speaking voice was deemed to be not too bad considering I’d just completed a tour.

“She [the specialist] took internal photos of my throat and vocal chords with an endoscope and pronounced that I didn’t have nodules.

“I thought everything was going to be diagnosed as down to heavy usage and prescribed a rest from singing for a while.

“Just as I thought I had an all clear she pointed out a white area on one of my chords and said: ‘But this is worrying!’

“As soon as I heard the phrase ‘irregular cell growth’ my mind went cold and focused. I knew what it meant.

“In all honesty I am 50 years old, I smoke(d), drink, have a ‘colourful’ history, have sung nearly 1,700 gigs in 27 years and have conducted probably three times as many interviews. It’s like standing on the M1 and expecting not to be hit by a car.

“I am taking at least six months off from singing. I’d like to think that I can play some festivals in the summer of 2009 but there will be no arranged tours until 2010.”

Get well soon, Derek Dick, and stay off the M1!

12/19/2008 Update - After reading Fish's MySpace blog, Fish fears that this might be throat cancer. I did not realize that when I posted yesterday. Clearly it's more a serious topic than my blog post alludes to. Get well soon, Fish.