Fish / Marillion

gearaddict · July 2014

Marillion were the anthem to my late adolescence so they have always held a special place in my heart. So when I came across a recent Youtube interview with Fish where they were raving about his new solo album I eagerly Napstered it.

What a pile of pants.

not_the_dj · July 2014

I've not heard it, in fact I pretty much gave up on Fish's solo career a while back.

I love the early Marillion stuff with Fish, and I followed the H lead Marillion for years (Holidays in Eden was the current album when I really started getting into them, so I personally didn't go through the whole Fish leaving thing).

Both have gone off the boil for me though. Still I'm really looking forward to the Steve Rothery solo stuff (got my ticket for the Robin 2 gig later this year) as his playing has always been fantastic even if the material hasn't.

gearaddict · July 2014

I had a listen to Vigil again this morning and it's really good, as is the Season's End Marillion stuff but, like you, I've not heard much since that did much for me.

It's so strange to me that musicians who produced what I thought was genius stuff at one point suddenly can't seem to even come up with a melody. Fish is particularly bad for that semi-talking kind of vocal he does with no discernable melody at all.

richardhomer · July 2014

not_the_dj;297224" said:
I'm really looking forward to the Steve Rothery solo stuff (got my ticket for the Robin 2 gig later this year) as his playing has always been fantastic even if the material hasn't.

I know Dave Foster who is heavily involved with the project.

They've been recording at Real World and by all accounts it's sounding very good.

Dave seems really excited by what they've done so far.

not_the_dj · July 2014

richardhomer said:

not_the_dj;297224" said:
I'm really looking forward to the Steve Rothery solo stuff (got my ticket for the Robin 2 gig later this year) as his playing has always been fantastic even if the material hasn't.
I know Dave Foster who is heavily involved with the project.

They've been recording at Real World and by all accounts it's sounding very good.

Dave seems really excited by what they've done so far.

Excellent!

hubobulous · July 2014

Marillion was also the soundtrack to my earlier years. My first gig was seeing them at Hammersmith, aged 12 on the Real to Reel Tour. Going to the stage exit door for autographs and being ushered to the front by Fish given that we were much younger than everyone else is still a fond memory.

The 4 Fish led albums, along with B Sides Themselves are simply wonderful to my ears. Jigsaw, Incubus, Fugazi, Forgotten Sons, Grendel, Cinderella Search. Oh the list goes on. I bought the book of artwork and it conjures many memories.

I think Misplaced Childhood and CAS obviously had a different vibe, but still excellent. Vigil is the album Marillion should have recorded next, but obviously that was not to be.

Season's End and Holidays in Eden I loved, and a lot of Brave too. But for me, the melodies disappeared on both sides of the split.

Field of Crows was good from Fish, and I quite like the Feast of Consequences given the whole back story. But I will love those first 4 albums forever. They are too ingrained in my youth to be anything other than perfect. :-)

Majorscale · July 2014

Brave and Marbles are both excellent, more recent, Marillion albums although very different from Script/Fugazi/Misplaced/Clutching obviously. At least they're worth a few listens on Spotify!

Fish's "talking vocals" style that he has adopted is simply a result of destroying his voice through booze/ciggies/bad technique etc Such a shame as those early Marillion albums were masterpieces and his voice was a big part of the mystique.

Grumpyrocker · July 2014

Herecy amongst Fish fans but I reckon their two best albums were Brave and Afraid of Sunlight.

/Runs to the Hills (different band)

John_P · July 2014

Brave and AoS are great albums - I'm the same as posted above - I was an obsessive fan but the recent material just doesn't have the melodies... I'm quite happy for a band to evolve and sound different but the songs are missing for me. I'm still looking forward to seeing Fish on tour later in the year, especially now he has John Beck (it bites) playing keys for him - if JB is involved in writing the next Fish album it could be great.
I'm way more excited about seeing Rothers and getting his album than Marillion though... I'll still check them out but my days of preordering everything they release are in the past unless they start writing songs with hooks (and solo's!)

mart · July 2014

I caught Fish (ahem) on the Feast tour, and it was pretty good. He still seemed to be able to sing the oldies well, albeit not with the voice of a bloke in his 20s, obviously.

Going back a few years, was anybody else at the Aviemore gig on his first solo tour? I still fondly remember the bassist trying to play his lines on an acoustic, and the drummer bashing out his stuff on a drum machine.

EDIT: aha, found some photos:

http://fish-thecompany.com/images/photos/89/sj-aviemore-04.jpg

http://fish-thecompany.com/images/photos/89/sj-aviemore-02.jpg

(And that's a very young me over on the left in the denim jacket).

johnnyurq · July 2014

If that was from the Vigil or Suits tour @mart I was at them both.

The Vigil one was double booked and they ended up playing in one of the Hotel the pubs instead borrowing the band's playing there gear, great night.

The PA blew up IIRC.

We got a nice Xmas card from him and Tamara apologising for the cancelled gig, some man altogther.

He did a really intimate gig in Inverness at the Hayloft bar (now gone) even going behind the bar to pour beers for the craic whilst singing still.

axisus · July 2014

Marillion were the most significant band ever for me. Massively into them from before they even had a record deal. I was gutted when Fish left. I have found his solo stuff boring and I didn't much care for the Hogarth edition of Marillion. They seemed to become a band with far too few solos. Warmed to them a bit finally in the past year, but I'll take original Marillion any day of the year.

johnnyurq · July 2014

When Marillion were just on the cusp of making it big they played a double bill gig here (in a local Pub) with Pendragon who IIRC were bigger at the time. Great gig by both and tuined me onto Marillion/Fish for life.

/sad fanboi mode engaged

Yes recent output is not of the same quality and a part of me wishes they could integrate Fish back in and keep Hogarth too and have two sets one with Fish and after the break Hogarth.

/sad fanboi mode off

hubobulous · July 2014

@johnnyurq

I'd rather see Fish close the night out ;-)

mart · July 2014

johnnyurq said:

If that was from the Vigil or Suits tour @mart I was at them both.

The Vigil one was double booked and they ended up playing in one of the Hotel the pubs instead borrowing the band's playing there gear, great night.

The PA blew up IIRC.
...

That's the one. Actually the State of Mind tour, as it was before the Vigil album came out. Fantastic intimate gig in the bar with borrowed equipment. And I remember they said we take our tickets along to any other gig on the tour to make up for the "cancellation".

On that tour I also recall him playing Internal Exile, it going down a storm, and him saying it wasn't going to be on the album, which we all thought had to be a joke, cos it was so good!

I remember seeing Pendragon support Marillion, maybe on the end of '86 gigs at Friars and Liverpool? Also ran into all of Marillion, except Fish, at the bar at a Pendragon gig at the Marquee around the same time. But Marillion were definitely the bigger band then, and I think always were. Better too, although some of the Pendragon stuff is pretty good.

Happy days!

DiscoStu · July 2014

Fish played in Elgin Town Hall in 89. He also opened my local music/guitar shop Sound & Vision when he was here, I remember the queue of folk wanting autographs.
My mate (massive Marillion fan) got all his vinyl signed, then went to the Spar round the corner to buy a bottle of milk so he could get that signed too.

Fish got his name 9 miles from me. He was working for the Forestry Commission and staying at a BnB in a town called Fochabers, and the landlady called him Fish because he spent so long in the bath each night!

mart · July 2014

DiscoStu said:

Fish played in Elgin Town Hall in 89. He also opened my local music/guitar shop Sound & Vision when he was here, ...

Yep, and I was at that gig too. Was living in Aberdeen at the time, and he didn't play there or anywhere nearby, so we decided to go to the Elgin and Aviemore gigs. And then after Aviemore we decided to hit the Stirling gig too. Same set each time, I think, but still worth it.

And I remember visiting Sound & Vision, must have been a year or so later, and being knocked out to find a cassette of IQ's The Wake, which I'd been searching for for ages.

johnnyurq · July 2014

hubobulous;298984" said:
@johnnyurq

I'd rather see Fish close the night out ;-)

@hubobulous

As a matter of fact me too, as good as Hogarth is Fish has a certain energy and the frontman factor.

@mart

That is spot on it was the State of Mind tour for the Vigil album.

When they played Pharoahs in the Ice Rink Inverness it was not very long after they released Market Square Heroes which puts it at 1982/1983 and Pendragon had been going since the mid 70's and I was sure that they topped the bill at the Ice Rink.

Having said that most of the late 70's and early 80's I tended to be chemically enhanced and occasionally had some blood in my alcohol system, so I may have been very, very drunk at the time.

Missed the Elgin stuff @DiscoStu due to having to work away at the time, bah!

mart · July 2014

johnnyurq said:
...
Having said that most of the late 70's and early 80's I tended to be chemically enhanced and occasionally had some blood in my alcohol system, so I may have been very, very drunk at the time.
..

Lol! I'm not quite old enough for that - I only picked up on this stuff about '84, '85. Anyway, I still think that Marillion must have been topping the bill, since they already had an EMI contract, whereas Pendragon never did get onto a major label. Which seems pretty odd, now, considering how many other acts did get on to EMI or other biggies. Still, the record business moves in mysterious ways, its blunders to perform.

johnnyurq · July 2014

@mart

Sadly I am an old fecker.

Having just checked you are right Marillion did top the bill and it proves that the drugs don't work.

http://www.morain.de/Marillion/04Setlists-1982.html

I think what happened was the power kept tripping out and the running order etc got FUBAR'd.

It was otherwise a good raw gig that had loads of energy, Pendragon were quite good and I coveted the guitarists Roland GP-8 and old Plexi amp.

I could never understand why they were in the bar Pharaohs rather than the actual Ice Rink where most signed bands played. The snobby curling lot maybe had summat to do with it.

We had a rash of great bands play the Rink around then and up to 1985 I think.

Do you have any more pics of the Aviemore?

I was biking it and lost my camera, what a bugger. Lost the ticket too in a house move along with loads of other tickets etc.

Did you live in the area at the time or travel up for it?

Do you remember Fish introducing the unluckiest Marillion fan ever (South African IIRC) who when he finally got to come to the UK to see Marillion they split. This was after having missed them elsewhere over the years too.

Poor guy but Fish did him proud that night.

Fish played the Ironworks here and was still very good but the FOH (Fish's own) sound dude compressed the buggery out of his vocal so dynamics lacking somewhat. The band as usual were immense.

mart · July 2014

I was in Aberdeen then. A mate drove a few of us over to Aviemore. Took the Tomintoul road there, but decided not to try doing that on the way back!

I didn't take any photos - I found those on Fish's website:

http://fish-thecompany.com/photos/ph1989.htm

I'd forgotten about the unlucky Marillion fan, but now you mention it, yes, I do vaguely recall it. I'm tempted to say that those early Fish gigs were better than the later ones he did with Marillion, especially because of the more intimate venues. But I don't expect everyone would agree with me!

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