Marillion

[TrevorR]

On 16/04/2025 at 00:13, Bassassin said:

and when I heard Hooks In You, the first release with h, I thought they'd been railroaded down a commercial pop-rock route & didn't bother listening to them for a very, very long time!

I can understand why it was released as the lead single at the time but it’s the worst (or at least, the most ordinary) song on Season’s End by a country mile. Still love “Easter”.

[davepb24]

Another big fan of the Fish era version, right from Market Square Heroes, saw them at Birmingham Odeon on the Script tour and I have still never seen anyone hold an audience so completely entranced as Fish did that night. Saw them again in Cardiff shortly after I started uni, memorable for both introducing me to the Cardiacs and especially for Fish's reaction to the audience's behaviour toward the Cardiacs... last time I saw them was at the NEC on the Clutching At Straws tour and at that point the bigger venue just didn't work. And unfortunately have just never got into the Hogarth era at all.

[Bassassin]

19 hours ago, TrevorR said:

I can understand why it was released as the lead single at the time but it’s the worst (or at least, the most ordinary) song on Season’s End by a country mile. Still love “Easter”.

 

100% agree - having rediscovered them & dug into the early Hogarth era, Seasons End is a classic & a superb debut for h. If Easter had been the lead single I'm sure I would have picked it up. Still kicking myself for all the tours I misssed out on.

[pst62]

I ignored them initially, then I happened to see them at Reading in 1983, where they were excellent. 

Went out and bought Script and was totally blown away, The Web being one of my all time favs of theirs.

I got to meet Fish and Steve at the HMV store in Middlesbrough around 1984/85, they came across as very humble and down to earth blokes.

I bought all the Fish era albums on their release, IMHO Clutching at Straws is one of the finest albums of the 1980's. Great band, I still isten to them regularly.

 

 

 

 

[Little Helios]

I became a fan in 1982 after picking up the 12" single of Market Square Heroes in a bargain bin for 50p. It has Grendel on the B-side, which remains one of my all-time favourites.

 

I saw them live in 1984 on the Fugazi tour at the Southend Cliffs Pavilion. Fish took a shine to me (well, I was 15 and pretty) and handed me a glass of coke which he'd been drinking from on the stage. I took a sip and found it was strongly laced with whisky. I kept the empty plastic cup for years with its dessicated whisky/coke residue, until one day my mum cleaned my room while I was out and chucked it out thinking it was rubbish.

 

In the 90s I bought a second hand Aria SB as my first 'serious' bass because Pete Trewavas played one. (Not the exact same model but close enough.)

[jezzaboy]

Fugazi has always been one of my favourites. Seen them a couple of times in the Fish era, one time a new years eve gig in the Barrowlands when Fish started singing Script form the middle of the crowd! The remastered version of Script from a couple of years back is so much better than the original pressings, really brings out the drums and bass.

[mikebass456]

I bought a copy of the remastered version on CD a couple of years ago, but having been brought up on the original vinyl found it too processed - I ended up buying a 'first edition' CD pressing which pretty much came straight off the vinyl masters instead.......

[davepb24]

Another little anecdote which I didn't actually witness but do trust the couple of mates who mentioned it, at different times... Marillion were playing in Birmingham, probably the old Hummingbird, a few mates (some years before I met them) were there, one of whom, Ben, is a *very* big Maori lad...apparently waiting at the bar Fish tried to muscle his way past Ben to get served, Ben was having none of it and told him to wait his turn like everybody else... a while later one of the band's crew came and found Ben and said Fish was quite impressed about somebody standing up to him and invited him for a post-show drink backstage. Ben said "Tell him he can go and .... himself"

(I have also found myself stood next to the singer of a well known goth troupe at the same bar in the Hummingbird, shortly before they went on stage, so it wasn't unknown lol)