Something many of our fans may not know is that the song “Loch Ness Monster” was originally written and recorded as a heavy metal song. Greg Henkel came up with a band called Rocrament and wrote about 10-12 songs for this band and his brother, Jim Henkel, recorded them. Jim laid down all the tracks and mixed it in his home studio.

The heavy metal version of Loch Ness Monster is a bonus hidden track on the Flying Fish Sailors CD of the same name.

Recently, Greg has been working hard with a hand-picked group of musicians to bring Rocrament to the stage and his evil brilliant plan comes to fruition this Thursday night, June 21st at the Houston Continental Club.

Show time is around 10:30 and follows the regular Thursday night performance of Jim Henkel’s Beatles tribute band “Beetle.”

Only Greg knows for sure what this performance will entail, but early reports are of elaborate stage props and costumes. Greg let me know that Rocrament has about 45 minutes of live material so this will not be an all night affair. This is going to be a rock show for the ages!

Check out Rocrament’s Myspace page for more information.

Click here to hear the song “Rocrament” from the original CD.

Rocrament [ 0:01 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

St. Patrick’s Day Happy Hour

Whole Foods Market
2955 Kirby Dr.
Houston, TX 77098
713.520.1937

5:00-8:00 p.m. Free
Join us for a drink and specials on Irish Beer ($2 Guinness and $1.50 Murphy’s Irish Red). There will be a Leprechaun on hand sharing Wholefoods Irish Cuisine and pint glasses available while supplies last.

The Fish are opening for The Blaggards this Friday, March 2nd at Fitzgerald’s (downstairs) in Houston, TX.

Pay no heed to the show calendar on the Fitz web site. They have another band listed but it’s incorrect.

Doors open at 8:00 pm and the cover is a mere 5 bux.

Come join us for a pre-paddy’s day plasterin’!

The Fish have some shows scheduled for March!

Friday, March 2nd

Fitgerald’s
Doors open at 8:00

We’re opening up for our friends, The Blaggards.
This should be a GREAT show.

Saturday, March 17th (St. Paddy’s Day!)

Bryan O’Neill’s from 8am to noon

Goose’s Acre Bistro & Irish Pub in The Woodlands from 2pm to 6pm.

We’re finishing the day with a FREE show at The Big Top that evening. Showtime is around 9:00 pm

Hope to see you there!

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Random Youtube discovery.

Someone named Melissa Hickson posted this with a blurb about it being an extra credit project after reading All Quiet on the Western Front.

It’s a slide show of still photographs set to The Flu Pandemic which is a song from our “Loch Ness Monster” CD.

Knit one, perl two, arrrrrr!

I just wanted to let our fans know that Christine, the proprietress of Big Pink Cookie is producing a podcast about knitting called Pointy Sticks.

It occured to her that the song I wrote for the Flying Fish Sailors, Poke You In The Eye, would make the perfect theme song for the program. Being the ethical person she is, she sought permission from the author before proceeding and I, being the generous person I am, gave her said permission.

If you’re in to knitting at all you should check it out.

So yea, it’s not the generational anthem I may have envisioned in my optimistic and glory seeking youth, but it’s still cool knowing that small children and domestic adults alike might take delight in singing about poking someone in the eye.

If you would like to hear the song you can download it here.

Keep on knitting in the free world!

We have our show times for the 2006 Austin Celtic Festival!

Saturday 11:00 am at the Selkie Stage
Sunday 6:30 pm at the Pooka Stage

Full schedule details for the whole event available here.

I was poking round the Internets and I found some pictures someone took that time Istanpitta pranked us by dressing as us and parodying the Flu Pandemic a few years ago.

Click for larger image

Click for larger image

Click for larger image

We miss our fans! Come see us in Austin!

The Largest Gathering of Celts in Central Texas

Being the first year that the band has not performed at the Texas Renaissance Festival in 15+ years it appears we have the fall season to ourselves and an opportunity to try something new.

Even though we regret not being invited to participate at our home fair after all these years we are still excited. Excited because we will be performing at the 2006 Austin Celtic Festival that runs Nov 4th and 5th at Fiesta Gardens in Austin, TX.

This is a real opportunity for us to get to play with some great bands and get in front of some new fans and reconnect with some old ones.

The current festival site is still a bit bare, but if you look at the 2005 festival site you can get an idea of the festival and the performers.

We hope our Austin friends and fans will make it out for what is sure to be an AWESOME weekend!

Our showcase performance for the 2006 Houston Press Music Awards will be at Pete’s Dancing Marlin at 5:00 PM on Sunday, July 30th.

We hope you can join us for this event.
If you have not voted yet there is still time! You can also cast your vote at the event.

We play for about an hour and there are many other great bands to see that day.

You gotta love the write up in the Houston Press:

“Traditional folk music for the 21st century” is the stock-in-trade of these sea salts and Zappa- and Devo-loving buccaneers. Regular denizens of the Continental Club complex, these fish can also be found flying in allied bands such as Beetle and Light Rock Express. Their stated goal: “To find a way to keep enjoying the music business”; their dream is an “animated appearance on The Simpsons.” (We can see it now: They’re playing on the docks, and the Sea Captain introduces them thusly: “Arrr, this be the yarrest band thar be#201”) Feel free to request “pop songs from the ’60s and ’70s” at their shows, but don’t holler for “Danny Boy” — you might get a harpoon through your midships.