Alan
Fish
Guitar, Piano, Backing Vocals
Alan's musical history includes songwriter/guitarist in successful North East rock bands White Heat and The Loud Guitars, achieving a cult following during the 1980's and 90's with live performances, singles, albums and videos.
Formed in 1976, White Heat soon found themselves to be an
integral part of the North East music scene, their brand of high energy rock
attracting a strong local following.
The band, based around the songwriting partnership of
Alan
Fish (pictured left playing live with White Heat down in Old Eldon Square) and Bob Smeaton, also included the brilliant guitarist Bryan Younger, Col
Roberts (pictured) on bass and, on drums, John Miller (pictured)
(1976-1980, 1981-1982) and George
Waters (1980-1981).
The band's 1st single 'Nervous Breakdown' (released on the independent Valium label) was picked up by Radio 1 DJ John Peel, which lead to healthy sales of the record and, more importantly, brought them to the attention of Richard Branson and Virgin Records.
Two more singles and an album followed before White Heat finally called it a day.
White Heat
Discography:
Single - Nervous Breakdown - 1980
Single - Finished with the Fashions - 1980
Single - City Beat - 1981
Album - Love in the Zero Hour - 1982
Their break up and last concerts were filmed for the 30 minute Tyne Tees documentary 'Check It Out' and their final gig at the Mayfair attracted a sell out crowd.
To this day the members of White Heat have remained good friends and have collaborated on various projects.
In the Spring of 1986, Alan received a phone call from Bob Smeaton who was now based in London. Bob had secured himself a deal with Statik Records and was looking to write new material. Two months later Alan and Bob were in 10CCs' 'Strawberry Studios', Dorking, Surrey, recording a new batch of Fish/Smeaton compositions.
The tracks were featured on the Channel 4 program 'Famous For 15 Minutes' as directed by the award winning Geoff Wonfor.
This lead to the formation of The Loud Guitars (pictured below during filming).
The line up once again included Col Roberts on bass with ex-Holly Johnson drummer Stu Haikney, multi-instrumentalist Gary Cowie on piano, synths and sax, virtuoso guitarist Martin Campbell, ex-Tygers of Pantang drummer Brian Dicks and Dave Donaldson on backing vocals.
The Loud Guitars Discography:
Single - Different Man - 1990
Album - Meanwhile Back In England - 1990
Album - Live On Lonely Avenue - 1991
Featured On - The Playhouse Album - 1991
The Video Collection - containing a selection of
promotional videos, live and documentary footage spanning from the early days of
White Heat to the Loud Guitars' 'Miss That Girl' video which was used to promote
The Playhouse Album.
A number of Loud Guitars' tracks have recently found their way into The Attention Seekers' set.