The Rest of Both Worlds Online

The Rest of Both Worlds Issue 6

Issue 6 of ROBW was released in June 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!' Part Two

by Paul Hughes:

"Our examination of his 1980s Marillion albums in the last issue brought us from the perhaps not fully formed thoughts and musings of a young man in 1983, up to the new concerns of an international rock star (and also crucially a married man) in 1987. During this time we have seen the most obvious signs of fear and distrust (not under any circumstances to be confused with hatred, which I found little evidence of) towards women mellow out and eventually of course we found that the man who wrote Punch and Judy had obviously gotten over that little phobia. This wouldn’t of course make Fish unique within his gender, as I would hazard a guess that most men don’t completely trust women, but regard this as a weakness in themselves that they eventually shrug off as maturity overcomes them. It is after all, just a case of meeting the right woman - or so the Samaritans keep telling me."

Dutch Tour Diary

by Max Rael:

"I half led, half carried Fi through the crowded bar and back to the hotel room, put Fi on the bed, took her boots off, then left locking the door behind me. Back to the bar as fast as I could, gave the man his key back, ran all the way back to the venue, gave the jacket back, walked straight back into the gig area. As I walked in Tiki 4 was playing and Fish was singing, ‘And the darkness, it zips up the city like a body bag’. This was sounding a little different from the acoustic version previewed at Charlie Browns!

Feeling more than a little tipsy myself I got straight back into dancing... a nice Dutch couple (Ron & ? ) befriended me and plied me with a couple more beers. Then quite unexpectedly another new song, ‘3D’ totally blew my head off, with some damn fine axe work from the marvellous Mr Wesley. Next stop party central, as the celebratory Lucky, Credo and Vigil gloriously pervaded the air. The band left the stage... the audience cheered and clapped... I visited the toilet and bought a couple of beers (wanted to give one to Ron, but couldn’t see him anymore, so I gave it to a random stranger!)"

Live Reviews

Welcome To The Garden Party

by Andy MacIntosh:

"On the same day, but further down the motorway, at Wemberly stadium, Wham were playing their farewell gig. The roads were full of coaches, some full of hairy arsed Marillion fans and some full of pre pubescent girls off to see George and Andrew. Let’s just say the hairy arsed fans were showing the Wham fans that they were truly hairy arsed!"

Reviews

Anoraknophobia

by Paul Hughes:

"The band seems well aware that their biggest problem is the stigma that surrounds their name; the usual Kayleigh/Scottish Heavy Metal/Kilt/Tartan Suit associations that the general public have. To this end we find an accompanying press release that rather portentously sets out the rules for any potential reviews, and makes a variety of the usual well-worn clich�s (Genesis, heavy metal, progressive rock, etc.) out of bounds, warning that anyone who does use these phrases must not have listened to the album before reviewing it. Anyone who saw the reviews in Q, Classic Rock and Loaded! will know how counterproductive this move turned out to be."

Fellini Days

by Bob Struthers:

"Let’s get one thing straight, the run up to the recording and release of Fellini Days has been filled with more pretentious Fish-speak than we’ve ever seen before, difficult as that may be to believe. Still the almost running commentary we get on Fish’s life these days, thanks to the Internet, allows us carefully sculpted insights into the way his mind works and perhaps allows us a greater insight into the works that come out of it.

Certainly, there’s been a great deal of optimism about the quality of the musical side this time round. John Wesley really won over his doubters on the Raingods With Zippos tour and with he and new keyboard player John Young both established solo artists in their own right, hopes were high as to what would be accomplished. When the live versions of the new songs also gained great reviews on the Internet, these hopes could only be bolstered."

The Web Xmas Free CD

by Walter Dunlop:

"This, the third christmas pressie from the firm of Hogarth, Rothery, Trewavas, Buzzard, Stubble and Boot contains edited highlights of the band's two day bash in a brewery last november. Tickets sold out faster than Moby on hearing word of a new advertising campaign, so this cd is for many of
us the only opportunity to savour what seems to be a particularly unique performance."

Also in ROBW 6