There are not many bands I would do this for: a bit of a running joke within our team at Liverpool Sound City, “The hunt for Hero Fisher” kept us very busy one day. Tipped off by a colleague that this was one to watch, we fully intend to see Hero Fisher perform in Liverpool, but due to traffic, we just miss her and spend quite a few hours trawling the streets and venues asking if people had seen HERO FISHER.
Several quizzical faces and sarcastic comments later, we do what we probably should have done from the start, and head back to the venue where she’d performed, guessing that if she’s the chilled out type of person we assume her to be then she’s more than likely having drinks with her crew at the venue. Unlike a lot of the acts who can’t seem to wait to get away from their own venue and fans, she is indeed cosied up in a corner of the Zanzibar, happily chatting over a drink with her manager and band – and the hunt is over.
We discover that Hero is on the LIVE AT LEEDS lineup just a couple days later, and so head to Leeds Met Stage 2 to finally see her perform live with her band. It’s a real shame we didn’t catch her in Liverpool, because the stage she’s been given isn’t the best. The sound engineering is all over the place and the permanent red light isn’t helping any of the photographers. Even so, we get a reasonable feel for the set, and as the tracks move on, Hero blocks out engineering glitches and the set gets stronger towards the end. New track No Ceremony is great, the sound is reminiscent of some great rock from the 90s – but with a generous injection of satire and edginess.
It turns out the band’s mainstay are Hero and excellent guitarist Saul, and on stage it shows that the remaining two are session musicians. I’d say with more gigs and synchronicity, better engineering and venue, we’ll be looking at a very interesting band who are producing some great songs. Live, Hero does seem to be more in her element with the rockier tracks, so maybe that’s the direction they need to take things. Don’t ease the audience into the set… just hook them from the start and don’t let them go. We’ll be keeping an eye on this talent who hints at great potential.
We catch up with Hero outside. She has a very calming confident energy, a natural charisma, and I do hope we get to see more of her as time goes on. Enjoy these portraits which our resident photographer SINEAD MARIE PHOTOGRAPHY took of Hero while she was relaxing outside the venue.