jester1470

Someone just reminded of possibly Marillion's best lyrics, which is saying something as they've had the best lyrics throughout their career imho: "The greed and the missiles Exploding somewhere every day Hideous dark secrets under the sea and in holes in the ground The cold war's gone But those bastards'll find us another one They're here to protect you, don't you know? So get used to it Get used to it! The clash of religions And the loaded prayers Information The face of starvation and the state of the nation The sense that it's useless And the fear to try Not believing the leaders, the media that feed us Living with the big lie "

It was Fish who suggested to Bruce that he should look at using Janick in Maiden and on his solo release, Janick had been about to give up playing guitar and then Fish offered him the job playing on Vigil, and then recommended him to Bruce, where Fish eventually lost him. Fish then used Frank Usher who was in the first serious band Fish was ever in and the great Robin Boult, who our very own Jo McCafferty is currently demoing with. Vigil is an amazing album and thre fact that Fish is playing both Cliche and Vigil on the new tour has really encouraged me to catch 2 shows, as well as the fact that he's playing Market Square Heroes, Plague of Ghosts, and Internal Exile. I also love Internal Exile primarily for the immensely atmospheric Shadowplay, which is still my favourite ever solo song of Fish;s and one he sadly says he won't play again live (too many words ). If you're going to get the Fish albums look at orderingt he remastered versions via The Company website where you'll get some great B-sides like Jack and Jill and the brilliant Poets Moon. As for the marillion remasters all of them are good, Fugazi because its a much clearer mix and you get great tracks like Cinderella Search (the only Fugazi era track H-era Marillion has ever played live), Misplaced you get one of my fave tracks Freaks, and with Clutching as well as some brilliant ideas of what might have been had they continued, great demoes like Shadows on the Barley, and through a thin wall, some of which are easily identifiable in both Seasons End and Vigil. And of course Script os worth it for the legeandary GRENDEL !! Vigil also has undoubtedly the best artwork of any Fish/Marillion album with a stunning piece of Mark Wilkinson artwork. I don't know if anyones read it but you might find the book "Seperated Out" By Jon Collins interesting , it's slightly anti Fish biased as it was authorised by the modern day Marillion, but at least it is an interesting readm and I'm in the front thank you's seriously its a good read and worth getting, you learn a lot about how difficult it has been for Fish and Marillion, Cheers Stuart

Damn i forgot Made Again, its a great live album!! I can't believe anyone would rate the terrible Sunsets on Empire over Field of Crows or Raingods. I think Field of Crows is almost a great retrospective of his whole career encompassing all the styles. And Raingods has the amazing Tilted Cross and Plague of Ghosts, not to mention a rocky cover of SAHBs Faith Healer. A few years ago at the Haddington convention Fish did an acoustic set, it had the version of chelsea monday, and also a completely acappella version of Tilted Cross. When we meet up at the Marillion gig, maybe I'll give you a copy, i have a bootleg of this show, stunning. And I can't fault any album with a 20 minute epic like Plague of Ghosts. I don't rate Fellini too high but theres some good songs like our Smile and So Fellini, and some stunning guitar work from the mighty John Wesley, whereas Sunsets has no redeeming feature at all, although if I'm in the right mood I quite like the titl;e track and Briother 52. But any album in which Fish raps is never going to be good Cheers Stuart

"Was that love in your eyes I saw or the reflection of mine, we'll never really know for sure, you never really gave us time" Marillion "A heid full of chocolate frogs, a body full of rush, a pocketful of shrapnel and a skinfull of bush, an eyefull of the future and a belly full of the past, how beautiful the present when you know it cannae last." Fish - Plague of Ghosts

I prefer a lot of Fish's solo to the new Marillion, but I do love Brave, Season's End and This Strange Engine, not really rated some of the others especially the last 3, whereas I've really enjoyed Vigil, Internal Exile, Raingods with Zippo's and the superb Field of Crows. Marillion is still my favourite band, and Fish my favourite solo singer. My favourite all time Marillion albums are: 1. Brave 2. Clutching at Straws 3. Misplaced Childhood 4. Script for a Jester's Tear 5. This Strange Engine 6. Fugazi 7. Seasons End 8. Holidays in Eden 9. Anorak in the UK 10.Afraid of Sunlight And My fave Fish albums are: 1. Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors 2. Field of Crows 3. Internal Exile 4. Raingods with Zippo's 5. Suits 6. Fellini Days 7. Songs from the Mirrors 8. Kettle of Fish 9. Yin and Yang 10. Sunsets on Empire I think both artists have been superb, but prefer Fish era marillion, and Fish solo, that being said one of my all time favourite albums is Steve Hogarths solo live album, Body and Spirit it's a superb album and has some amazing musicians. well worth checking out if just for the live cover of 'Life on mars' I can't wait for the marillion at the Barra's gig and the Fish ones next month, should be a good year for music. Although can't wait for the DVD version of the Lorely gig to be released this summer, can't wait to see what the special features are and the rerelease of the Brave Movie should be superb as well Also its going to be expensive with the Curtain Call live boxset being released soon... Great to see some new Mark Wilkinson artwork for Marillion, and the best he's done in years. Cheers Stuart

A few years ago there was discussion about Fish and Marillion touring together, it got quite far and the plan was that they'd go out together, Fish would play an hour solo set, Marillion with Fish would play Misplaced Childhood, and then marillion with H would do Brave and then they'd duet on a greatest hits set, the plan was for a 4 hour set, it would have been spectacular. There were problems as they wouldn't give Fish money to pay his band but wanted them to tale money out of his share, meaning he would be considerably out of pocket. I've been lucky enough to see Fish performing Misplaced Childhood twice live with his band at the Enschede gigs a few years ago, as his voice has considerably changed they had to lower the tones etc but it was a spectacular 2 shows and was very magical to see it done. I also have a bootleg somewhere of Fish and Hogarth duetting together in a charity show playing Lavender. If Fish does keeps to his plans we may well see him next year taking his band out to do a 20th anniversary Misplaced Childhood Tour, but it'll probably be very few gigs. I love Misplaced but its got a bit to go to beat Clutching for me. Torch Song, Sugar Mice and Slainte Mhath are brilliant. Sometimes I can enjoy Fugazi but only if I'm in the right mood, and I prefer the rerecorded version Fish did of Incubus. Script has some magical moments like The Web and Chelsea Monday, but again, my favourite version of Chelsea Monday is an acoustic version Fish did a few years ago. Hope to see you guys at the FoC gig Cheers Stuart

Has anyone been to this site ? Best bit of musical marketing I've ever seen, and the questions are bloody hard !! That being said I've worked out who it is Cheers Stuart

yep I'd go for the Mill every time, I don't really rate Tom's I know of engineers who won't record there because they don't rate it at all, don't know about Exile at all. Cheers Stuart

Well to be fair, you wouldn't want him to change the habit of a lifetime Cheers Stuart

I'm not 100% convinced its the last we'll ever see of him live, but certainly may be the last we see for some time, he's still talking about taking a Misplaced Childhood Tour next year, but then again, he may change his mind and not go out if he loses too much money on this tour. The dates (I think) are the 7th and 8th of April in Edinburgh and Glasgow, I'm definitely doing Glasgow, and trying to get Edinburgh sorted. Fish has certainly had a rough deal from the music industry. he pretty much lost all the money he earned in Marillion in a lawsuit against EMI, as well as that he's lost over half a million over the years with promoters going bust, etc. He doesn't have the best business mind. I know he only really makes money through his merch sales at gigs nowadays, sad but true, that must explain why I have about 30 Fish T-shirts and everything from mobiles to Fish Zippo's quite impressive as I don't smoke it's quite likely we may have space in the car for you if you need a lift back after the gig, might be a bit cramped, but cheaper than a train, but I'll need to speak to the driver, we may not have a lift down as we have to sort out a meeting with the head of Voiceprint when we're down. Cheers Stuart

Well it looks like this may be the last chance to see Fish doing a proper tour http://www.dprp.net/specials/fish0304/index.php When I spoke to him last year when he was up here for Children in Need he did say that the chances are that this would be his last album, as he wanted to go out on a high, I was told not to say anything until it became public knowledge and I guess it has now He has said something similar in the past where he did in fact cut down dramatically from about 6 months of every year on tour to 3 months every 2 years, looks like with the way the music industry is this could be the end . I have my suspicions he'll do albums again, but it may take time before we see them Try and catch him whilst you can, Cheers Stuart

Thamks for the comments Hope we'll get some other feedback Thanks again, Stuart

No, I do agree with what you;re saying to a point, but I was trying to say that being a good musician doen't make you have good taste, therefore your view on things is just as subjective as those who can't play. I do agree with what you say about NME, it is a badly, written, juvenile magazine, but I think it must be faced that things have changed, its much more difficult to be an atist now than it was 20 years ago, everything is far more money orientated, the same goes for journalism, people are paid by the record companies to sort out what they should put out and its the advertisment revenue etc that means the same things are covered over and over, i.e. we'll cover such and such if your recoird company buys 20,000 worth of advertising, this is broiught to the front more so in a weekly publication like NME, still wouldn'\t buy it, but having studied publishing etc for 5 years I know that sadly this is what happens and will happen more and more, lets be honest it's happening even with minority magazines like Kerrang nowadays, the basic factis none of these magazines are independent anymore and so they have certain things they have to do to survive, same with Q, which is just not as good as it once was. Cheers Stuart

If you like Seasion's End look at maybe purchasing the Remastered 2 CD set of Clutching at Straws, it's a really good purchase and the unique opportunity to see what could have been for the album after Clutching, which is an interesting mix between Season's End's music and the lyrics of Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors, some of the post Fish work is superb but the only 3, I feel that stand up against the older stuff is Season's End, Brave and This Strange Engine, though I am intrigued by the new one, and I have to say that even the stuff I don't like is amazing live, one of the most amazing and atmospheric live bands. If you like Season's End you might want to try and get the 'From Stoke Row to Ipanema' DVD which has a documentary about the first year after Fish left and a complete Season's End tour date, which certainly had H at his best, as well as some great versions of the Fish era classics and great tracks like 'King of Sunset Town', Cheers Stuart

I don't agree, I don't play an instrument and I don't think it makes my appreciation of music any less than someone who does, and being able to play an instrument doesn't make it any better. A lot of the best and most powerfull music isn't played by people doing fancy instrumentation, but by music that affects you in some other way so an understanding of the ins and outs of playing doesn't make you appreciate any music that just affects you. In fact it could be argued that the music that can reach the masses, especially those who don't understand music is better because it affects people because of the emnotional connection, not he impressive sounds. Cheers Stuart

Ah yes, the fuck up in Garden Party on the CD is class, of course the crowd fucking up The Company is also a class moment. I've heard complaints about the sound etc. on the CD and DVD but I don't think it's too bad, it's all different from the way the stuff was originally done, but it was a great night out. I was lucky enough to be at the Enschede Gig with a free pass and so I got the soundchecks etc and it was a special weekend, not least to hear Misplaced Childhood 2 nights in a row. Also classic to hear the song State of Mind played with the great Jan Akkerman from Focus. It was an amazing weekend I personally thought the vocals weren't that bad, but then being there adds something, Hope you enjoy the shows they're damned good atmsphere, I'd put seeing Misplaced Childhood Live on a par with seeing Brave live Cheers Stuart

Yes, Yes - Pickled Onion Monster Munch make the best music, Salt and Vinegar Disco's are best !! Cheers Stuart

Hi, with the new EP and album well in the works we decided to releases a rough copy of one of the demoes we're working on. If you've enjoyed Emma Forman's work with the Deviada's or her solo work, then this may be an interesting diversion, well worth a listen. Baby Karma is a joint venture between Emma Forman, Blair Cunningham and Stuart Mitchell. The track is a commercial pop/rock song. The demo is of the track Because. This is a very rough version of the track without final mixing or final vocals, the vocals on the demo are the guide vocals we put together for the demoing, and there are several parts that will be rerecorded for the final track but it gives an idea of where we're heading with it. Because, rough Baby Karma demo We would appreciate any feedback on the tracks, we know they're not going to the to everyone's tastes and they're only rough and would appreciate people taking that into account, but look forward to your comments. About Baby Karma Aberdeen solo star and Deviada's member Emma Forman has teamed up with manager Stuart Mitchell, and guitarist/producer Blair Cunningham on a new project to be called Baby Karma. The album (tentatively titled 'Enigma: a true fable of kazoo's and kangaroo's') is being recorded at Blair's Post Box Studio's with Emma, Blair and Stuart all involved in production. There will be a full band project following later in the year. Blair also plays with Indigo Source and has shared a stage with members of The Eagles, Genesis, Deacon Blue, Marillion, XTC, The Stone Roses, Massive Attack, and many others. Emma has played in Bad Karma, The Deviada's and has also been a solo performer for the past few years. Stuart Mitchell previously managed Jo McCafferty and has also worked with members of Stiltskin, Genesis, and Marillion. Cheers Stuart

I don't actually know, he was one of the names I gave to the guy organising it, but never heard anything back, hope he is, he's great ona bigger stage, and it'd be great to go back out on the piss with him again, though he can outdrink anyone I know Cheers Stuart

Wouldn't surprise me, I think with Lucy Jordache ,who as well as being very cute is also a very good marketing manager has made a huge difference, they've made a lot of money on the preorder of the album, which was thie revolutionary idea that has allowed a lot of musicians to keep control of their work. This is now know as pulling a Marillion wiithin the industry. Interestingly enough Marillion actually stole the idea of preselling an album online to the fans in order to finance something was actually first used by Fish who sold the 'Candlelight in Fog' live album in order to finance his tour of the states which is where it was recorded. Yeah, probably got the most devoted fanbase of any band on the planet, there have been some classic moments of fanpower, such as when Simon Mayo slagged them off and there was such a strong reaction from fans that they crashed the servers and filled Simon Mayo's mailbox for days !! Or more impressively when the band mentioned that they couldn't afford to tour the States and the tour fund started out and raised $80,000 and just handed it to the band so they could tour the states and not lose money!! I can't think of any other band that has a fanbase that is las devoted. I went to the Convention last year and met people from all round the world including a guy who has sold his house and moved to a smaller one purely to finance the trip, complete madness, but there must be something special about a band who inspires this kind of loyalty. 13,000 people have spent 30gbp on a new double album so Marillion have the money to create a marketing campaign, you've got to be impressed. Yeah Fish rates as the best consistent live performer I've seen, and having seen the Brave show twice it certainly was special, have you bought the live Brave convention video from 2 years ago ? It's a good video, as was the Afraid of Sunlight DVD which I watched for the first time in a year the other night, great show, and a record breaking DVD It's well worth getting the Fish Mixed Company DVD from Enschede where he plays the complete Misplaced Childhood gig, he's not at his best vocally, but a great show, and a great memory !! I'd imagine you will, Cheers Stuart

Yep Classic rock is a much better magazine, primarliy cos it cover excellent music and iswritten by all the journalists who were the power behind Kerrang when it was a good magazine that covered wide range of music not the crap it does now !! Cheers Stuart

You say that as if being able to play music qualifies their opinion as less or more important, most music is heard by people who can't play. As with most magazines it cover music that is popular in general with the record buying public, most of whom can't play, it doesn't matter whether they can or not doesn't make them a better or worse journalist or their opinion any more or less valid, Cheers Stuart

As there appears to be somewhat of a resurgence of my fave band on here figured I'd post this, quoted from the marillion.com website: The single for You're Gone will be released in 3 separate formats in the UK on 19th April 2004. By our calculations, in the current UK single market, if you go out and buy one single each, we'll go Top 40. If you go out and buy two versions, we'll go Top 20. If, however, you'd like to make an old dog very happy, you could dig-deep, get into eight quids-worth of debt and buy 3 copies or more of our single, in which case, 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 Well i'll do it, I think it'd be great to see them getting some recognition as being a good rock band instead of the Genesis clones they're still unfairly tagged with !! I've seen Marillion liove about 20 times and they're still a superb band, really an amazing kick ass live band, although I have not been too impressed with the last few albums, I've been reliably informed that the new stuff is superb, and the live tracks I heard last year seem to back that up. There appears to be a few of us going down to the Barrowlands show in July, should be a good one, not seen them in the Barra's since the lenengary Brave Tour in 94, we should look at meeting up for a drink down there. I'm heading down with Blair Cunningham, who along with Jo McCafferty supported Marillion and their lead singers solo tour a few years ago. For anyone going to that gig its well worth considering the Fish gig in Glasgow next month, should be a great night, apparently the Fish dates are superb and the support Never Tjhe Bride are pretty good, and their singer does a duet with Fish. Fish's new album is oneof the best snce he left Marillion in 89, I think it may be the gig of the year for me, Cheers Stuart

Well the opinions should change in a decent magazine, I can't stand the NME , but the opinions on a band should appear to be different depending on who writes the piece. A good magazine should not make a journalist tow a party line on something that is as subjective as music, so it's only natural that they contradict themselves, as its highly ulikely the same people will be writing the pieces, Cheers Stuart

I'm just looking at putting together some special guest stars for the Baby Karma album, if there were no barriers and you could have anyone to guest on your bands albums, who would you have and why ? My choices for Baby Karma would be: Joe Walsh, one of the all time great guitarists and a musical icon, Brian May, Amazing guitarist, instantly recogniseable Roger Taylor, great drummer and backing singer Andy Gangadeen, one of the best live drummers I've ever seen, his work with Massive Attack shows this Pete Trewavas, one of the best, solid bassists and a nice guy Mickey Simmonds, keyboards, a stunning keyboard player Jools Holland on piano, a great rock and roll pianist and guest vocals from: Ray Wilson, highly underated vocalist, his work with Stiltskin and Genesis, as well as his solo work is superb Steve Hogarth, great vocalist with unique stylings So whats everyone elses choices in an ideal world ? Cheers Stuart