Fish has released the first two albums in his planned reissues series, with more to follow in the coming months.

Both 1997’s Sunsets On Empire and 1999’s Raingods With Zippos are available via the singer’s website.

Each album comes on three CDs and is packaged in a hardback book featuring 48-pages of illustrations, artwork, photos and extensive sleeve notes written by Fish. These detail the stories behind the lyrics, the writing and recording sessions, the tours and band lineups.

Fellini Days (2001) and Field Of Crows (2004) are the next planned releases and are due in December. His debut solo album Vigil In A Wilderness Of Mirrors (1990), Internal Exile (1991), Songs From The Mirror (1993) and Suits (1994) are scheduled for spring 2016.

Fish is currently on tour across Europe on his Farewell To Childhood trek to mark the 30th anniversary of Marillion’s Misplaced Childhood album. He’ll return to the UK next month.

SUNSETS ON EMPIRE TRACKLIST
CD1

The Perception Of Johnny Punter
Goldfish And Clowns
Change Of Heart
What Colour Is God?
Tara
Jungle Ride
Worm In A Bottle
Brother 52
Sunsets On Empire
Say It With Flowers

CD2

Goldfish And Clowns (Demo with Steven Wilson)
Sunsets On Empire (Demo with Steven Wilson)
What Colour Is God? (Demo with Steven Wilson)
Do Not Walk Outside This Area (Demo with Steven Wilson)
Perception Of Johnny Punter (Demo with Steven Wilson)
Say It With Flowers (Demo with Steven Wilson)
Perception Of Johnny Punter (USA version with alternative lyrics)
Do Not Walk Outside This Area (Japan bonus track)
Tara (Radio edit)
Goldfish And Clowns (Radio edit)
What Colour Is God?( History Of Guns remix)

CD3

Change Of Heart (from “Communion” St Mary’s Church, Haddington)
Tara (from “Communion” St Mary’s Church, Haddington 2006)
Worm In A Bottle (From Haddington Corn Exchange, Company Convention 1998)
Goldfish And Clowns (Poland 97)
Jungle Ride (Poland 97)
Perception Of Johnny Punter (Poland 97)
What Colour Is God? (Poland 97)
Brother 52 (Poland 97)
Sunsets On Empire (From Sashimi 1999 recorded in Poznan)

RAINGODS WITH ZIPPOS TRACKLIST
CD1

Tumbledown
Mission Statement
Incomplete
Tilted Cross
Faith Healer
Rites Of Passage
Plague Of Ghosts

CD2

Plague Of Ghosts (Live studio instrumental)
All These Christs (Tony Turrell instrumental demo)
Plague Of Ghosts (from Sashimi live in Poznan, Poland 1999)

CD3

Incomplete (Acoustic demo with Elisabeth Troy 1998)
Chasing Miss Pretty (studio version from Kettle Of Fish compilation)
Mr Buttons (studio version from Kettle of Fish compilation)
Tilted Cross (Acoustic version from Communion 2006)
Incomplete (Acoustic version from Communion 2006)
Rites Of Passage (Acoustic version from Communion 2006)
Tumbledown (From Candlelight In Fog USA 2000)
Plague Pf Ghosts (From Candlelight In Fog 2000)

These are probably as good as one could reasonably hope for... but there is a fair bit of recycling from previous live releases (especially on the Raingods set) and several missing tracks, including various "Brother 52" mixes and an acoustic version of "Wake Up Call".

Which of these would you say are the must owns?

Sunsets on Empire was a really good album and I saw that tour twice.

Raingods was not my cup of tea and I saw that tour once and the show was awful.

There are more to come, and Fish's first two albums were fantastic and I thought should've been hits here. They were big overseas but after that, his career nosedived.

I follow him on Facebook (he is fantastic on there, always taking about how is tour is going) and I did buy his box set last year.
I arrived late to the party for Marillion but have enjoyed their early albums especially Misplaced Childhood.

Vigil. I own them all, but Vigil is miles beyond the others.

Of these two remasters, Sunsets On Empire would be the clear choice, particularly given the inclusion of the Steven Wilson demos.

Beyond that, the (now OOP) Bouillabaisse 2CD compilation from 2005 provides a fairly solid overview of the first 15 years or so... well worth it if you can find a copy around, say, $20.



http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000AR9ZAO/?tag=imwan-20

The aforementioned Vigil In A Wilderness Of Mirrors is easily the most "Marillion-y" of Fish's solo albums, and is highly recommended. For the patient, this will be one of the titles to receive an expanded release as part of this reissue series.




http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000006YP4/?tag=imwan-20

And for the less patient...

I had mentioned earlier that Vigil an Internal Exile were great and they really were.

Highly recommended.

I'm not sure why this post isn't under From the Vaults?

Is that because these only come from Fish's website for now?