John The Fish

Hark! This morning the postie cometh, bearing a square cardboard package. The record therein is “Coelacanth,” a 1975 album by John The Fish.

I first heard this record in the mid-1980’s, thanks to my friend Terry Silver and his vast collection of obscure folk and jazz L.P’s. I remember being immediately intrigued by the name of the artist. As a teenager during the punk era I was very familiar with the idea of musicians using aliases (eg Joe Strummer, Johnny Rotten, Ari Up), and by then I’d discovered the older, mysterious likes of Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, but a folk singer called John The Fish?  What the hell does a man called that actually sound like?!

The Folk Cottage, 1967

When I eventually moved to Cornwall, I  quickly learned that John had a weekly folk show on BBC Radio Cornwall. With a presentation style that could never be called “slick,” John was one of those broadcasters blessed with the ability to just talk to the listener in a conversational manner. He obviously cared a great deal about both the music that he played, and the people who made it, and his on-air introductions demonstrated his vast store of knowledge and personal anecdotes without ever talking-down to the listener. 

I loved listening to John, in the same way that I loved, at other times, the Alexis Korner and John Peel shows. Sadly, the BBC decided that “specialist music” programming was somehow far less important to the people of Cornwall than endless phone ins, and John (along with the Jazz and Classical music shows) was unceremoniously axed from the airwaves. Once-upon-a-time you could turn on the radio and hear John The Fish playing an unreleased topical song, specially recorded by Robb Johnson . Nowadays it’s just a perpetual, unrelenting  wave of  Queen, Elton, Cliff and more of that bland, tedious ilk, punctuated with people opining that it’s a disgrace to build a wind farm within a thousand miles of their lovely view. 

There's a wonderful short film about John The Fish from My Cornwall TV here. Watch it!

I can't claim to know John well, and only see him very infrequently, but I'm always genuinely gladdened by those meetings. He's not only a truly charming man but is also, for me, pretty much a living embodiment of all the things that make this whole folk music movement malarky worthwhile. 

John with Wizz Jones at Wadebridge Folk Festival

Mr Natural and Flakey Foont