Fish, The Company Convention 2009, The Assembly, Leamington August 8 and 9.

For those readers not aware of the performer known as Fish he was the lead singer with the band Marillion on their first four albums and left the band in 1988 to pursue a solo career.

The 51-year-old entertainer born Derek William Dick holds a convention most years and this year he chose Leamington Spa and The Assembly and had good things to say about both.

Saturday

The convention started on Saturday with concert footage on a big screen followed by a stand-up comedy routine disguised as an introduction and Q and A session with Fish, which had the crowd in stitches.

Fantastic artist Mark Wilkinson, who designed all the sleeves for the early Marillion albums, Fish's solo work and has also worked with Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, took questions from the crowd.

Time for music next with a short acoustic set, including stripped down versions of Marillion classics Sugar Mice, Lavender and solo tracks State Of Mind and A Gentleman's Excuse Me.

The venue then closed for sound checks and the fans made their way to various bars and restaurants in town.

Support for the evening came from the excellent Pendragon who played a blinding set including latest album tracks Indigo and Eraserhead and classic oldies Breaking the Spell and Masters Of Illusion, which went down a storm.

Now the big man himself, who played almost a three-hour set of both Marillion and solo material.

Sunday

Sunday started with some real fun – a Hunt the Penguin treasure hunt which involved teams of up to four people walking around the town with a page of clues and directions to various locations with Fish and Marillion references.

These included The Jug and Jester, Katie's Kabin and Murphy's Bar.

This was followed by another talk from Fish, this time assisted by various band members, and topics including the expense of flying and drinking tabasco sauce!

A comedy quiz was next along the lines of a well-known TV quiz, but this time called Never Mind The Fish Heads.

After the sound check interval the evening started with a solo set by Chris Johnson, which included a superb version of the song he wrote for Mostly Autumn Gaze.

Next up a band I enjoy more every time I see them The Reasoning, who mostly played material from their first two albums Awakening and Dark Angel.

Time flies and the last set of the convention just about brought the house down with Fish starting with the classic Script For a Jesters Tear throwing in rarely played songs such as Tumble Down and Poets Moon.

What a weekend and with fans from all over the world saying what a fantastic town and venue I felt very proud.

Lets hope he comes back soon.

Andrew Lock