The Mind's Eye

Somehow, an evening at Fibbers is never complete without a plastic beaker of Landlord, tall people in front of you, and a couple who insist on talking all the way through a gig. Why do they bother? Anyway, in a rare mid-week excursion into the depths of Fibbers, Thursday saw me turning up to watch Ray Wilson and Band. Ray Wilson? Oh yes, he of Stiltskin and Genesis fame (on Calling All Stations). He also wrote the Armin Van Buurens dance tracks “Yet Another Day” and “Gypsy”. I kid you not.

It’s thirteen years since Ray last graced Fibbers stage, an occasion on which he was forced to take a break from singing/playing so as to throw up a dodgy indian meal that he had eaten for tea. As “Inside” was a hit in 1994 (spending 13 weeks in the chart) I wondered how old he was going to look. In fact he looked like the reincarnation of Kurt Cobain and sounded spookily similar on the grunge songs they played. I forgot just how grunge Stiltskin really were/are. Fantastic!

They came on at 9 o’clock and played for a full hour and a half including an encore of five songs. Quite a lot of the numbers came from the Millionairhead album released under the band name of Cut_ which he formed following his time with Genesis: “Jigsaw”, “Sarah”, “Another day”, David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”, “Gypsy” and “Ghost”. He performed a couple of Genesis tracks: “Follow You, Follow Me” and “Carpetcrawlers”. Of course, they played some Stiltskin, “Sunshine and Butterflies”, “Footsteps”, “Inside” (personally I prefer the Scary cover of this song), and some others. And we were treated to some new tracks from “She”, their latest album: “She”, “Taking Time”, “Constantly Reminded”, “Lemon Yellow Sun “, and others. As part of the encore Lawrie MacMillan came out in drag for their performance of “Fame” an indictment of the Pop Idol culture.

Wilson’s vocals were on top form, Ali Ferguson (lead guitar) was brilliant, Lawrie MacMillan’s bass drove the grunge track relentlessly, and Ashey MacMillan pounded the drums like a demon when required, and soft as you like for the acoustic numbers. All in all a damn fine night out and a talent that worth listening out for.