jester1470

Hmmm Let's see: Meat Loaf - Bat out of Hell 2 Tour, Aberdeen AECC - 94 Marillion - Brave Tour, Glasgow Barrowlands - 94 Fish - Misplaced Childhood night, Enschede Musiccentrum, 02 Marillion and Jo McCafferty, Sheffield Hallam - 02 Fish and Jo McCafferty, The Venue, Edinburgh - 03 The H-Band and Jo McCafferty, Hellendoorn, Holland - 02 Brian May Band, Edinburgh Playhouse - 93 SAS Band and Roger Taylor and Brian May - Ocean, London, 02 Def Leppard, Glasgow Barrowlands - 03 The Eagles, Hampden, 01 Ray Wilson, Maddogs, Edinburgh - 01 All great gigs for different reasons Cheers Stuart

Vocals - Fish circa 85-91 (marillion and solo) Keys - John Young (Scorpions, Paul Rodgers, John Wetton and Bonnie Tyler) Drums - Cozy Powell (Whitesnake, Rainbow, Sabbath and brian May) Bass - Pete Trewavas (Marillion and Transatlantic) Guitars - Steve Rothery (The Wishing Tree and Marillion) Guitars - Brian May (Queen) Backing Vox - Freddie Mercury, Bruce Dickinson , Dido, Jo McCafferty, Emma Forman, and Steve Hogarth

For all those that haven't heard Jo, and for those that have, i'd recommend checking out some of her newish MP3's on her site. This is different from the acoustic stuff that she's become known for. Jo's track Fighting, an orchestral ballad and A reworked version of favourite Vanessa This is quite different from a lot of the stuff Jo's become known for, but still has good lyrics and a nice tunes. I'd be intersted to hear what people think, Cheers Stuart

Porcupine Tree are immensely dull, I can't stand Steve Wilson, he's an arrogant pratt. As someone pointed out there's nothing particularly forward looking about Porcupine Tree, I mean come on their keyboard player is Richard Barbieri from Japan ! Steve Wilson got his first big break touring as support to Marillion and he's produced stuff for them and wrote and produced Fish's weakest album 'Sunsets on Empire'. The future of prog - Spock's Beard, nope, they'll falter now they've parted company with Neil Morse. The bands that'll take prog into the 21st Century are the bands that were around in the 80's/90's Queensryche, Marillion, Fish, Dream Theater, also worth checking out the John Young Band, very good, www.youngjohn.co.uk, quite regressive but good. I'm surprised they missedf Radiohead they are the niggest prog band out there. I would classify Muse as prog, they come from many ofthe same influences as Queen who were progressive in the beginning. Course all bands should be progressive, in the truest sense of the word moving forward all the time. Foe bands in the classic prog mould, there's Jadis, Jump, and the newly reformed It Bites. If you want to hear something that has been described as prog from out very own local songstress Jo McCafferty, who despite not being prog has played with some of prog's foremost musicians such as Steve Hogarth, John Young, Fish, Richard Barbieri, and many others. http://www.jomccafferty.com/unflashed/sounds/Jo%20McCafferty-Fighting.mp3 its not prog imho but some people here might like it, Cheers Stuart

I think it'll be superb, I used to have a copy of the Cybernaughts album which was superb, that was Joe Elliot and Phil Collen from Leppard with the original Spiders from Mars doing al the Bowie era stuff, it was superb. Bands I'd imagine being covered, and they've already done a few covers like 'Action' I'd imagine there would be 1 Zeppelin, 1 Queen, 1 Mott the Hoople, 1 Bowie, 1 Sensational Alex Harvey Band. I saw Leppard 4 times last year and they were brilliant, real shame they had the Darkness in Support !! I like Leppard, they're good, solid commercial rock music, and they're all brilliant musicians, I think that there are alot of bands nowadays who could learn a lot from Leppard's commercial siong writing and slick production, i walways felt they were a million times better than Bon Jovi. Cheers Stuart

And of course Emma will hopefully be belting out some new songs on the new Baby Karma project, which has Emma on lead vocals and chief songwriter Website up soon and more details as it happens Cheers Stuart

Yeah Fish and the band get on OK nowadays, theres still the odd bit of needling in the press but on the whole they seem to be on better terms. I know Fish very well, and yeah if you get him on a good day he is a genuinely brilliant guy to be around with some amazing stories, course you get him on a bad day and he can be the opposite entirely. Fish always has a lot of time for his fans and usually tries to find out where the fan meet is before a gig and joins them for a quick drink and hello, something that still impresses me. I do have a lot of time for him. Marillion, i also know reasonably well, I had the fun of touring for a week with Steve Hogarth when Jo McCafferty toured with him, and I know they're manager Lucy very well and have met all of them several times. Steve Hogarth is a bit more aloof and not as personable as fish but is a different sort of singer. The band have recently released their first material with Fish (Live shows) for almost 17 years so the rift has been healed a fair bit. Steve Hogarth and Fish have even sung duets in Switzerland, and I'd still love to see the day when they tour again, maybe as a joint show. Fish is always an entertaining guy to interview or chat to, i think he's a typical Scotsman, very passionate, occassionally arrogant, and very funny. Cheers Stuart

You're missing the point, how can people know if they'll like it if the radio stations aren't playing it and people aren't getting to hear it.The people who playlist do not know what people are going to like, see Bohemian Rhapsody which initially radio stations wouldn't play (except Kenny Everett on Capital) and the record company wouldn't release it, it became one of the biggest songs of all time, and was only playlisted after the reocrd company relented after the response from a few playings by Kenny Everett was huge. Yes the fanbase have got it into the top 10, the main point of that was to get people to take note, if they won't consider playing it then theres no chance of people being able to judge it on its merits. Have you heard it ? Therefore do you know why it didn't chart ? Was it because it was genuinely crap (which I really don't think it is) or is it because it was released by a band named Marillion ? It's been something that has been a major burden for Marillion. Q Magazine voted Afraid of Sunlight as the one of the ebst albums of 1995 and then 3 years later gave the remastered version 1 star. Over the past 10 years they've become one of the untrendiest bands around despite writing some great music, some of which is very commercial. Its a vicious circle, who's to say people won't like the Marillion single if they get a chance to hear it, but even if they manage to get a top 10, surely they deserve the chance to be heard. If they can polarise enough of their fanbase to do this, surely they do have a reasonable appeal and they deserve a chance to be heard. They're not asking for people to like them, just that they get a fair chance, Cheers Stuart

yeah it was a birthday present from the fans. Cheers Stuart

Why would it have been funny ? They're one of the best live bands out there, would have proved to some of the other bands how you rock Yeah i think it might be the fastest drop, but I think it shows that in the Network Chart that takes into account the airplay as well as sales only put them at 21, it shows how little airplay they're getting, it's a real shame, they should have changed their name after Fish left !! Another slightly ironic turn is that Marillion with Steve Hogarth get their first ever top 10 hit on Fish's Birtrhday !! Wonder if that was planned Cheers Stuart

without radio play it'll drop out of the charts though, all the bands fans bought it first time round, they won't buy it this week, with the radio play it might manage to get some people to like it on their merit, not on the fans, I have just heard that it's gone top 10 in Holland too, no. 8, which isn't bad. I guess it shows the difference they're getting major radio play there. I'm disappointed in radio 2, it seems silly that they're all happy to play U2 etc, but not a band like Marillion... doesn't give much hope for the future. Cheers Stuart

Nah. its got a far more ambient sound to it :-p buy it and find out, I like Incommuncado but not a fan of Garden Party. It is amazing, despite being the second highest new entry Radio 1 won't playlist it, Top of the Pops won't put them on and even Radio 2 won't play it, says a lot about how much the charts are manipulated even if you get in there !! Cheers Stuart

well it'll be onsale this week, sell your body or something, theres some good tracks there, especially the one with the video and EPK, Cheers Stuart

not being in a band, I'd have to say the bands I've managed in the past, I've been lucky, out of the existing bands, they've played with my 2 favouties: Jo McCafferty with Marillion, then Jo McCafferty with Fish, the ultimate ones I'd love to see are Jo McCafferty or Baby Karma with Dido and from the past, Queen. Cheers Stuart

Well I've just heard Marillion have just got ther first top 10 hit in 17 years !! since 1987. The single 'You're Gone' has reached no. 7, a nice 2 fingers up to the record industry and proves you don't have to be a 'hip' band if you have a dedicated fanbase Cheers Stuart

Yeah the gloves are cool, the technology is still there in the cricket bat he plays on stage, its meant to be like the kid playing the whole wooden cricket bat in their bedroom, but his is all filled with some very nice midi technology. I have played with the cricket bat, and it is kinda cool, but still not as nice as the gloves which were cutting edge and very visually stunning at the time, as is on the Stoke Row to ipanema DVD, Cheers Stuart

The John Otway thing was superb, got a lot of time for him, he's an old friend of Marillion, they supported him a lot in the early days and they may have nicked the idea from him, the fans got the hit for him as his 50th birthday present. I saw him supporting Marillion last year and I didn't rate him, but you have to admire the tenacity. Cheers Stuart

Yeah, the preorder for the Marbles album, which i now wish i'd done cos it sounds brilliant, was priced over the odds and the fans contributed to the marketing campaign by ordering the 2cd set for 30, this came in an amazing package with 128 page booklet, and everyone who preordered is in the thank you list, and they get the album a month before the standard release. The money raised by the band for the marketing of the album came in at just under half a million. This has allowed the band to have a distribution deal with Intact and retain complete control over the music, this was similar to the campaign they utilsed in 2001 for the Anoraknophobia campaign. Since employing Lucy Jordache (ex-EMI) as their marketing and communications manager Marillion's marketing has become probably the most slick and most innovative marketed bands out there. The www.musicalmystery.com website has helped people to hear their music without the preconceptions attached to the name. They have already sold out the first of 2 dates at the London Astoria and it looks like the second night will be sold out too, the Barrowlands gig is selling well, and is a far cry from the gig they played last in Scotland, which was a superb gig but to a half full Glasgow Garage. It may interest some people to know that Steve Wilson, the producer who has pretty much shaped Opeth in the last few years is one of the producers on Marbles. Steve is an old friend of the band, having produced albums for both marillion and Fish and got his first big UK dates as support to Marillion. The new single is superb and a real change to what most people think of as Marillion,m its an interesting mix of prog and commercial U2 type stylings. Steve Hogarth did make an appeal to the fanbase, he said the following: "By our calculations, in the current UK single market, if everyone that's a fan buys our new single, we'd almost certainly go Top 10 and I'd have my first ever Top 10 single just before my 45th birthday!! (bizarre, or what?!) Marillion would become a household name and not simply remembered by Mr and Mrs Joe Bloggs for "Kayleigh". There is no better time for this to happen, as it would set up perfectly this PEACH of an album that we've just finished, and this PEACH of a tour that we're about to embark upon. Steve Hogarth, 4 March 2004" It'd be great to see an interesting and innovative single making the top 10 instead of the usual crap. Possibly an interesting thing that shows how effective this marketing has been, Marillion have in the last week been featured on Sky News, Teletext, CD:Uk (never thought I'd see the day) and are on Newsround (talk about reaching a new audience). I know Marillion's manager and marketing person Lucy very well, and I have to admit she's surpassed herself with this campaign, a lot of up and coming bands could learn a lot about creating a vibe from some of Marillions more interesting campaigns. So good luck to them, maybe buy a single, take a chance, its only 1.99 to get a few tracks, you may even quite like it, if not at least you know you're shoving 2 fingers up against the pop idol crap !! Cheers Stuart

Bloody Hell, they're everywhere, it's beemn over 10 years since I've seen such a strong Marillion prescence in the shops, anyone who's into good music should certainly look at buying these singles, for 8.00 you get 7 different tracks, 2 remixes, the DVD video and interviews !! And the songs not bad either !! Cheers Stuart

I go to gigs because i enjoy the music, I don't go to local gigs, because there are very few bands i think are any good, certainly very few I rate enough to go and see. My favourite artists in the Aberdeen scene tend to the acoustic song writers, most of the actual bands, imho just aren't that good. i think the biggest problem with this scene is that it thinks all its bands are great and deserve success which isn't true, there are very few people on the scene that could cut it in the national or international scene. All my opinion of course... Cheers Stuart

Curtain Call is phenomenal, I was lucky to hear some of it before it was mixed at Fish's when he was searching through his bootlegs... I haven't actually got a copy yet, neither have I got Marbles, although i hope to get a copy this week, i've heard good things about it. Also insider news there has been a video taken for the Field of Crows Tour in Bradford, no idea if it's going to be released but I believe itwas a good show, although a small crowd, if he's anything like as good as he was on Thursday it'll be phenomenal. Tell me what u think of Curtain Call, weird to think its the first Fish era marillion new release in 15 years !! Cheers Stuart

Oh yeah saw that the Marillion single is doing phenomenally well, may be a top 10 hit they reckon, will buy it next week I think, you should do the same, just be nice to see them make it again, even if it was only one song. Cheers Stuart

You see I don't think it's too bad, but then again, i think my outlook is coloured by the fact that I was there, I also really feel they didn't capture close to the sound quality that was there those nights. I have to say I truly felt that tha vocals on Thursday were superb and would certainly pay big money to see him every time if I knew he was going to be like that. See I kinda liked the Garden party fuckup but again because I was there, where i think these releases fuck up is not including the between show banter which is the best thing about a live Fish gig. Sorry u were so disappointed, I kinda liked the Fools Company, but I have to admit I was playing it to my new bird and did notice way more mistakes iun it than I had done last time. On the plus side, I did hear Curtain Call last week, that is really worth getting, if a bit expensive at 45, when i have the fre cash I will be buying it, and the artwork is superb. Cheers Stuart

Well Bloody Hell, who'd have thought it, as well as doing the best album in years, having just got back from seeing Fish at the Glasgow Carling Academy, it was probably the best I've seen him in years. Fish has recurring problems with his voice due to excess smoking andpartying but for once had been keeping himself in great voice. Even those of us who are huge fans had doubts he would last, but not only did he last he was superb. For the first time in years he was back using props, he came onstage in a hat, scarf and cane, which he turned into a sword, headress and various other props. With a set that included songs like Jungle Ride, Perception of Johnny Punter, Cliche (superb to hear Frank Usher play that solo), Internal Exile, The Company, Vigil, Lucky, the end section of Plague of Ghosts, and most of the new album, it was superb to hear it all come together. The evening also included a rocking version of Market Square Heroes. The Band ws easily the tightest I've evr seen Fish have and interesting to see Bruce Watson (ex-Big Country) going through the rockstar poses, and the welcome of Tony Turrell back into the fold made for a superb evening. I think the other thing that surprised me was the fact that there were so many people there, probably the best attended Fish gig I've been to in Scotland for about 10 years. If this is anything to go by, i mayneed to get my tickets for the Barrowlands soon as they could sell out !! It's great to see a resurgence, i went with a friend of mine who is 18 and she was blown away, she said she'd never seen such great showmanship, such mental fans and such an amazing atmosphere, althpough her getting to meet Fish in the Pub before the gig probably helped. High points of the gig, the superb medley of So Fellini/Lucky/Internal Exile and Market Square Heroes, The crowd surfing Penguin, Fish's comments about the Huns , Bruce Watson wishing he was still in a big band, an almost full venue, the interesting saga of Westy's little car (you had to be there ) and the chance to meet with some old friends. I'd advise anyone who enjoys a good show catch Fish if he plays these shores again, he was talking about a final fling of a full production of Misplaced Childhood next year to mark its 20th anniversary, this will be a must see show. If you can't wait, the Marillion Marbles Tour at Barrowlands on the 6th July should be a phenomenal show too !! Cheers Stuart

It is a great album, the bonus has some interesting stuff, interesting to hear songs like tic-tac-toe where the lyrics later came off in Fish's State of Mind. There were tracks like "Beaujolais Day" (later renamed "Seasons End") and "Story From a Thin Wall" (the lyrics would become Fish's "Family Business." The music from that same song would later be revisited and used as the bed for "Berlin"), which would show up on Season's End. Other interesting anomalies include "Sunset Hill," as well as demo versions of "White Russians" and the original two-track demo for "Sugar Mice." All good stuff and well worth investing in, Cheers Stuart