Music Arcades: Littlefish: Little Album

Last weekend I was rooting around in my mini-disc collection, looking for a bootleg of Luna's 1999 show at the Leadmill, having read Dean Wareham's account of it in Black Postcards. Along the way I found a bootleg of the headline set, by Jim White, of the gig where I bought this CD.

It was on 13 May 2002 according to the label on the disc, at Sheffield Barfly, a compromised and short-lived venue, which tried to turn the bar of the National Centre for Popular Music into a space for live music. The architecture lobby of the Arts Council (note: there is no popular music lobby at the Arts Council) had asked the NCPM to commission a "landmark building", and that's what they got all right. And very inflexible into the bargain. But don't get me started on that…

Littlefish was one of the support acts. I remember very little about her/them, except that I liked the set enough to buy this CD afterwards. I had the impression she was local, and I'm projecting a possibly false recollection that she looked and sounded a little like Kathryn Williams.

As you can see, the CD cover is handmade. Very well made too. And there's nothing amateur about the six tracks on the EP/album: polished and professional in their writing and, especially, production. A bit more muscular than Kathryn Williams of a few of the tracks (perhaps it was a stripped-down ensemble that night). However, not quite as muscular as the Little Fish on MySpace, so I don't think they can be one and the same (the latter seems to be based in Oxford, and surely would have got round to putting an album out if she/they had been playing for seven years).

All of which is rather sad. I can find no trace anywhere of "my" Littlefish. All that dedicated effort, talent and professionalism. Pfffff. Gone. And apparently forgotten. But not here. Let this be a little memento of Littlefish and the tracklisting of Little Album.