"We were playing in the Ice Rink and every time we hit a peak part of any of the numbers, the power flipped off," he recalled.

There should be no danger of a repeat of that tomorrow when the man born as Derek Dick makes his first appearance in the city's only purpose-built rock venue, The Ironworks.

"I've talked to a couple of people who have worked up there and they've said it's an amazing venue, so I'm looking forward to it," the Lothian-based singer commented.

"It's good to get up north as well. There are so many bands — and Marillion were guilty of it as well — who never get there. I remember when I worked in forestry near Elgin. You had to go all the way down to Aberdeen to see some gig to get back at midnight to get up at 7am the next day to go to work. I've been trying to get gigs in the Highlands for a long time, but it's just been too expensive an operation with the size of band we have got and we've got back projection and everything at these gigs, so there's a good production element on it."

Fish has another reason for remembering Marillion's first appearance, that was where he first met a girl called Avril Mackintosh who had won her ticket in a radio competition.

"The next time I met her, she was assistant engineer on the 'Clutching at Straws' album. Avril's a really successful producer now who's worked with Bryan Adams and all sorts of people, but that was her first kick into the music business, winning that ticket," Fish said.

Coincidentally, that album — Marillion's fourth — will be featured heavily in Fish's Inverness set tomorrow.

Last year's show marked the 20th anniversary of Marillion's best known album "Misplaced Childhood", source of the band's most successful single "Kayleigh", and was so successful Fish has decided on a similar move to mark the 20th anniversary of "Clutching at Straws", his last album with the band.

"I think it probably makes up 40 per cent of the set," he said.

"A lot of bands ignore their old material, but a lot of people who buy tickets for concerts want to hear some archive stuff as well. In some ways there's nothing worse than going to see a band and most of the stuff is off the new album and you don't relate to it because you've never heard it."

So Fish's Ironworks show will feature familiar songs from his time with Marillion and his 19-year solo career, but he will also include a number of tracks from his latest album "13 Stars."

He may be happy about revisiting the material, but Fish firmly ruled out any prospect of a reunion with his former band, despite teaming up with Marillion just last month at Market Square in Aylesbury, the band's birthplace, to perform the group's debut single "Market Square Heroes."

"The furore that caused. It was the most hit item on the BBC's website. It kind of took us by surprise there were that many people interested in it," Fish added, rubbishing rumours of an acrimonious split with his former bandmates.

As for further collaboration, however, Fish declared: "It's not going to happen. Marillion are on tour with a new album at the end of the year and if you listen to the two albums, they are just so different. There's a danger of spoiling people's memories as well. I can't sing that falsetto stuff I used to sing 25 years ago."

Instead, Fish is happy to look ahead and is enthusiastic about his latest album, recorded at his home studio in Haddington by leading Scottish producer Calum Malcolm.

"The last couple of albums were made over a three or four month period and you get lazy and easily distracted," he said.

"This was back to a much more old fashioned approach, which was basically start writing in January and have it ready by the end of April. There was a lot of discipline there. We started at 11 each day and we finished at seven and I think that really helped the process, and having someone like Calum, who's got a great set of ears, the recording was superb. It's the best sounding album I think I've made and a lot of people thing it's the best album I've ever made."

Recording the album coincided with a traumatic time in Fish's own life and was written following the break up of a relationship.

"It's about someone trapped in a very mundane life and how he goes out in search of what he calls the '13th star', which represents that perfect love.

"He meets someone, they split up, they try to get it together again and at the end of the album he has to move on," Fish explained.

"I was moving into writing the album and realised it was my 13th album and I've always considered 13 a lucky number. I started to look back at the number of females who've had a major influence on my life, taking into account my mother and my daughter, and I counted them up and there were 12. It was too much of a coincidence.

"I got the relationship back together again and I thought it was going great and we were going to get married in August, but she left on the first week of recording, which needless to say made the recording process very difficult, but it made me focus on what I was doing."

Given the similarities of the material and what was happening in his own life at the time, Fish admits he found some of the material extremely difficult to sing Adding to the irony, the album was launched on the day which was to have been the wedding.

"I can't remember having written and recorded an album under more stressful circumstances," he said. "When I was recording it I was really very aware of the other person's presence."

He also revealed that when he heard the album, he found it agonising to listen to.

"Every time I got the mix delivered, I built up this wall so I could force myself to listen," he said.

Despite the circumstances, Fish is extremely proud of the finished product and believes one track in particular "Arc of the Curve" has the potential of breaking into the mainstream in the way "Kayleigh" did.

"The album is so different and so polished, people are going to raise their heads," Fish said.

* Fish, who will be supported by Aberdeen songwriter Jo McCafferty, appears at The Ironworks tomorrow.

His new album "13 Stars" is available initially on his website http://www.the-company.com, with a wider retail release in January.

c.macleod@inverness-courier.co.uk

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