The Rest of Both Worlds Online

The Rest of Both Worlds Issue 2

Issue 2 of ROBW is due to be released in early December. Full, as always with a variety of articles, reviews and humour, it is available now by mail order - see the Ordering info for details...

Seasons In The Sun 1989-1990

Ten Years of Seasons End by Paul Hughes, Ed Elloway and Rich Harding

"Then in January of 1989, with both Marillion and its ex-singer seemingly inactive, a tape turned up from a singer-songwriter called Steve Hogarth. The tape contained various tracks from Hogarth's previous bands The Europeans & How We Live, including 'Kingdom Come', 'Games in Germany' and 'Burning Inside You', and immediately piqued the band's interest. When the call was made by Hit and Run, Hogarth was seriously considering an offer from Matt Johnson to tour as keyboard player with The The (he had played on the 'Heartland' album the previous year), but he decided to head up to Pete's house in Aylesbury to see if he could fit in. Despite turning up a day late and having to hang about in the freezing cold of Pete's garage (H's allergy to Pete's cats precluded him entering the house), that first meeting went extremely well, resulting in a rough version of King of Sunset Town and in H going home to think over Marillion's offer of the vacant singer's position. It took him a week to come back with an answer, but eventually he joined for a trial period and the new Marillion came into being on the 2nd of February 1989."

Nostalgia Isn't What It Used to Be

The Marillion Reunion Debate by Bob Struthers

"Of the existing fanbase, the prime agitation for a reunion does seem to reside within the Fish camp. This is directly attributable, I suspect, to the respective attitudes of Fish and Marillion. The reunion proposals have exclusively come from Scotland and have usually met with indifference south of the border, and that willingness to deal shown by Fish may well have rubbed off on his fanbase. We also have to consider the somewhat harsher point of view that many Fish fans still consider the 1982-87 period to be the highlight of his career and therefore have a tendency to hanker for a return to those days - although this ignores the undeniable fact that many have been attracted since. This is not generally the case with the remaining hard core Marillion fanbase, who would be unlikely to still be there if they did not prefer the material the band have released with Steve Hogarth."

Marillion.com - The Sound of Joy? by Bob Struthers

The Haddington Files

by Andy MacIntosh, Stuart Mitchell and Andy Sanderson

"A chorus of "Geezabun" joined the clapping and stamping it was going to take to get the second encore. Before we were to get a song, a guest was welcomed to the stage - Steve Wilson, co-writer, guitarist and producer of Sunsets on Empire, as well as guitar god amongst those that know his music. Appropriately, it was the title track of this album that Steve was to play on, with a guitar borrowed from Wes, who also stayed on stage, in contrast to the last time a guitarist called Steve joined Fish on stage! Liz Antwi joined in to prove that, in spite of looking incredibly drunk by this time, she still has a voice capable of spearing your heart and soul. Fish then sung along with the final keyboard part, in a voice that sounded more in keeping with a shower room after a rugby match than a concert, and introduced the band one more time, and they finally left, more than 2 hours after the concert started."

The Lizard Meets John Wesley

I would say a good ten year period of my life - from my mid-twenties to early thirties - were just a rough time emotionally, you know. Divorce, single dadism - you know, I'm a single dad now - trying to find new relationships and going through all the challenges associated with that. I must have sorted through the entire psycho ward of several women's prisons - you know, I must have dated them all at some point!" At this point Wes laughed again, rather disturbingly, but then pointed out "So that makes good writing, you know!

Plague of Ghosts Deciphered

by Dave Cooper

"The opening spoken word section vividly illustrates his situation, the "unsolved murders and old revolutions" being the skeletons that he has kept in his closet for so long. However, these "bloated corpses", just like the real thing, have a habit of being found just when it's tempting to think that they've been forgotten, and these remnants of his past have surfaced in public view, "thrown up by the surf onto sterile beaches" or "trapped in the roots of mangrove cathedrals of the islands that gather in the bay". The second spoken word section describes his increasing fatalism in the light of all his current difficulties - this is a man that has failed before, but has previously had the strength to start again, as evidenced by the reference to allegory to new settlers that have the conviction to build "towers to the heavens", only to have them torn down by "the storm". Also of note here is the reference to their dreams being washed away into "the waters that surround them" - a reminder that however cosy the current situation, the water is always there waiting to wash away what has been built."

Does Anybody Else in Here Feel the Way I Do?

by Old Pink

"The theme of rock star alienation, ironically enough, was almost central to Marillion's output in the mid-to-late 80s, where there were echoes (groan) of dissatisfaction with the working life of a rock musician in Misplaced Childhood and, especially, Clutching At Straws. Possibly the most poignant moment in this respect is the protagonists realisation in Mylo from Misplaced Childhood that the person interviewing him cannot begin to understand where he is coming from: "I talked about conscience and I talked about pain / He looked out the window and it started to rain / And I thought 'maybe I've already gone crazy…'", a defining moment that mirrors that heard in Stop! towards the end of The Wall, where Pink suddenly realises how he has been acting and the pressure becomes too much."

Reviews

Hope for the Future

by Dave Owen

"Renditions of say The Beatles or Radiohead are commonplace; and hey, there's even a respectable outfit working out of Aylesbury that drops in the occasional cover; but whereas those bands are public property, one's beloved Marillion is quite distinctly something different, an organism sustained by its fanbase. There are no casual Marillion listeners, only fans. A Marillion tribute project thus has a potential market the size of a Marillion album. Equally significantly, those contributing will all be either associates or fans. And that's the core seduction of this disc."

Missionary Girl - Katherine Crowe

By Andy Sanderson

"Another male vocal, this time spoken, introduces the next track, as Fish's obvious brogue mutters about drugs "I took a lot of LSD etc. etc." and Friend of Mine starts. A song with almost a reggae beat to it in places, this is a richly textured song, again making good use of strings, and with an interesting background mix of unintelligible speaking."

Fish Live in the UK

by Ed Elloway and Christine Andrews

"At the end of the gig, we wandered out into a night that had turned very bitter and very cold, many of us thinking ahead already to the Guildford and, especially, the Cambridge shows and hoping that Fish would have the chance to rest his voice in the meantime. Even though this concert had been a bit of a disappointment, we knew that Fish would do something special for the last night of the tour. The next day, the Nottingham gig was cancelled and a day later the announcement was made that the rest of the tour had been pulled. So in the end, the Mean Fiddler was the last night of the tour. A few of us felt slightly robbed."

Marillion Live in London

by Paul Hughes

"Considering the terrible reaction Now She'll Never Know received last year, that House received one of the best responses of the evening says a lot. Indeed, after the trouble and strife of last year's London show, Marillion could have been forgiven for feeling more than a little trepidation as to the response they could expect from the notoriously diffident metropolitan audience. They needn't have worried as it happens; what heckling there is in a friendly spirit of banter and material old and new is welcomed by the vast majority including tracks drawn from 1998's evidently troublesome Radiation album."

The Marillion Track by Track

covers obscure unreleased track Beast of Burden to hardy perrenial Easter

Sillyness

Celebrity Marillion fans come out of the closet:

"George Takei, 'Mr' Sulu, square jawed hero in a yellow polo-neck: I was really into Genesis and Pink Floyd in the seventies and it helped me get out of my 'wilderness years'. Then all this New Wave shit started up and I kinda missed the keyboard solos, you know? Anyway, I was doing a convention in Bolton in 1982 when I stumbled into this seedy bar and saw this tall guy done up in face paint , and I went for it right there and then. I still think Grendel's the best thing they've ever done."

The Lizard's Weird & Wonderful World of Marillion

investigates the murky world of John 'Wes' Wesley