The Rest of Both Worlds Online

The Rest of Both Worlds Issue 5

Issue 5 of ROBW was released in January 2001. Full, as always with a variety of articles, reviews and humour, it is available now by mail order - see the Ordering info for details...

Articles

'There's only two things that smell of Fish!'

by Paul Hughes:

"For instance, Punch and Judy is an imaginary nightmare future for the unmarried Fish. We are confronted with a vile caricature of a harridan wife (it must be said, packing a hell of a lot of imagery into 2 and a half minutes) and a marriage gone to hell, much like Smiling Rog's 'Don't Leave Me Now' amongst others. The choruses seem to contain the lion's share of the accusing phraseology ("stripped the gloss from a beauty queen", and most notably the play on words "suburbanshee") whilst the choruses are more melancholy, yearning for the time before marriage when they were carefree and presumably in love."

The Lizard Meets Mark Wilkinson:

"It's very interesting this line of questioning, because I don't think anyone has ever asked that before, and it's certainly not in the book! Why we did try and make it dark, and why we did try and put the symbols? I mean it's in the book that the symbols are there, and where the symbols are derived from, but why we did it? I don't really know. It's probably because you don't want to lay yourself bare - you want to hide it a bit, you want to not be that direct, and I think it's the same with the lyrics. Superficially there's a song called Script for a Jester's Tear, but it's not really a song about a jester, it's about someone that perceives themselves to be the jester, and this is just a graphic way of portraying that. And yeah, it's very dark, and I think it's very rooted more in reality than some of the other people that we've been talking about."

Live Reviews

The Web Xmas Convention

by Walter Dunlop:

"Meanwhile, the towering edifice of rock godliness that is Ian Mosley takes on new proportions as he disappears halfway through the acoustic set for a chat with his wife, appearing immediately behind some extremely startled fans, and then appears to play "Memory of Water" without moving. At all. How the hell does he DO that?"

The Company Scotland Convention

by Max Rael and Andy MacIntosh:

"I hadn't seen Fish live since the Internal Exile tour (apart from last year at the SAS show at Shepherds Bush) so this was the first time I'd witnessed first the hand the sheer emotion Fish pours into the spoken section, and it took me back to being a kid and the first time I saw Fish and that point during Fugazi where he said in a booming voice 'THIS IS NO PLACE FOR CHILDREN... CHILDREN SHOULD NOT BE HERE...' and feeling small and frightened all over again..."

The Bass Museum

by Rich Harding and Ed Elloway:

"If they hadn't been before then from this point on I'm sure there wasn't a person in the room not totally transfixed by the almost magical warmth radiating around that building. And what better to continue with than singalonga-Sugar Mice, clapalonga-Gazpacho and yawnalonga-80 Days. Oops, sorry - I always feel really guilty when I slag that off. I do, honest!"

Arena Live

by Max Rael:

"During the Jump set I was wearing a grey long sleeved 'The Web' T-shirt (which later changed into a black 'Immortal? Tour' T-shirt!!) and seeing what I was wearing a man came up to me and said, "hello! I couldn't help notice you're wearing a Marillion T-shirt... is that why you're here, because of Mick Pointer?"
I thought long and hard… why was I here?"

Transatlantic live in the USA

by Michael Weintraub:

"Mike Portnoy's drum roadie had the roughest time, though, as a boom microphone on a swinging overhead mic stand (really, you had to see it) was required occasionally during the set. In mid-song, Portnoy would look over his shoulder at his tech and mouth something like "Now!" to him. The tech, bored previously, would awaken long enough to swing the boom mic around to him, only to swing it back out of the way upon completion of the necessary vocal part."

Reviews

Shot in the Dark

by David Owen:

"The first editorial statement of the film comprises vox pops with the fans outside which are all universally positive, and therefore totally unilluminating. The very last people to ask for insight on why a band has a devout following are those followers themselves, and the sheer emptiness of some of the viewpoints, as well as the incidental presence of gushing North American female fans leads one unavoidably to comparisons with the interviewees at the same point during This Is Spinal Tap. That was a comedy film, and this isn't, as evidenced by the smug sixth-form humour of the audient who protests he is under the impression he is at an Oasis gig. Oh, my aching sides. If the point of this is to demonstrate to any potential promoters that Marillion is still a viable going concern with a diverse and intelligent fan base, then it falls rather short of the mark, instead giving the impression that this band's followers are a closed shop of uncritical and unsophisticated devotees."

Dry Land

by Bob Struthers:

"More interesting is the second outtake Simon's Car. The existence of this track has been rumoured for several years as being the source of one of the parts 'welded' together to form Cover My Eyes, and sure enough the verses seem to have survived intact both lyrically and melodically. Otherwise the song is new to us, namechecking Mrs Peel (scoring MAJOR cool points!), Andy Warhol, Lou Reed and Dusty Springfield amongst others against an agreeable pop rock backing. It also appears to begin with a brief clip from Night of The Living Dead, which just warms me to it all the more!"

Taggart

by David McNay:

"His character, Dougie Todd, is not a poor character. He's poorly written, which isn't unusual as you have to remember this is Taggart we're talking about. Drunken thuggish wife-beater. Yup, that'll do. Let's cast Fish, he's free. This isn't a part written for Fish, anyone could have done it. I could have done it. However, he does his best with the little there is for him to do. And all he has to do is drink lager, shout and hit his aforementioned fat wife. Somehow the producers would have you believe she could accidentally kill him. By spearing him on a set of antlers hanging in his hallway. The mind boggles."

An Oddities of Nature Special - Spartacus

by The Panda: