The band took their name from an imaginary book mentioned in the novel The Catcher in the Rye.Strong, Martin C. (2003) "Secret Goldfish", in The Great Indie Discography, Canongate, They released three albums and several singles in the 1990s, on the Glasgow-based Creeping Bent record label. Their first album, 1996's Aqua Pet...You Make Me, was produced by Stephen Lironi. Their sound has been described as "sounding much like The Jesus and Mary Chain locked in a public toilet with Jefferson Airplane and The New York Dolls". An album of B-sides and outtakes, Jet Streams, was released in 1997, and in 1999 they issued the Somewhere in the World EP, the lead track of which was co-written by Vic Godard and featured Francis MacDonald and Stevie Jackson. A second album, Mink Riots followed in 1999. After a lengthy hiatus, The Secret Goldfish returned to live performance in 2016 with a second guitarist (former Orange Juice guitarist James Kirk), with a third album (Petal Split) being released on Creeping Bent in April 2017.
