Marillion

[ytserush]

Marillion announced an virtual Marillion weekend the first week of September, with shows each night streamed on YouTube

From what I can tell, they are going to be streaming old concert films, not performing a livestream concert just to be clear.

Announcement here: http://marillion.com/news/newsitem.htm?id=483

That's good enough for me depending on which ones they are.

[ytserush]

HOF, thanks for your reply!  I found it; it's a promo thing at Radio Madrid, Madrid, Spain, 18 June, 2004.  You got part right, though, because while the DVD has Don't Hurt Yourself and Easter, but they DID play Marbles I before DHY (they just didn't film it, I guess). 

Thanks though (and I'm still going to check out that link!).

I forgot about those. It's been a while since I pulled Colours and Sound off of the shelf.

[ytserush]

I've watched colors and sounds many times,  I love the shenanigans they get into on the road. Loopy Mark Kelly going into a service station in the middle of the night covered in toilet paper and with sunglasses on, looking like the invisible man.

It's a good doc; some people (Erik Neilsen for one) got a little too much screen time (and are a little too full of themselves) but the behind the scenes stuff is good.   One of the bonus sections shows Mark Kelly and Steve Rothery (independently) editing "You're Gone" for the single release.   It's fascinating to watch a band like Marillion; for all their "music first", EVERY ONE OF THEM knows the details of their business venture.  That's a good thing, by the way, not a knock, but if you followed them back in the day, it was very much a "we're playing, someone else is responsible for that" and we all know the stories about John Arnison (the manager that, in a way, came between the band and Fish; he gave a sort of "either he goes or I go" and we all know how that turned out).   They know all the budgets, what the spends are, Hogarth talked of the "Holland numbers" for Anoraknophobia, and could tell you the weekly chart positions of the Marbles singles... 

I also ripped a short - minute and a half or so - instrumental segment of "The Damage" that RULES.  It's about 20 minutes before the end of the main doc, under a montage of a load-in.  Pretty cool guitar part, if you ask me.

Well, they have had 25 years to learn their business. They got a head start on learning how the current "music industry" works today.  I still consider Fripp to be the pioneer because he was "forced" to learn it but Marillion were there within 5 years after that though I suppose you could argue Fish was in between those two but  he hasn't really excelled at it. He does explain his lack of downloadable material on his website in a recent Fish on Friday.

On a somewhat related note, Fish said that Rothery is starting his own thing and about an hour after Fish finishes every Friday.  Friday night is looking a lot like must see TV for me.

[Stadler]

I watched the rest of the bonus stuff - ugh.  The main doc was too long and suffers from the complaints I mentioned, and the bonus footage is that footage padded out.   It loses it's uniqueness hearing eight different people say the same things over and over (think "Nigel" in Spinal Tap while reading): "Well, the <lighting/sound/merch/whatever> is critical, really.  If the band doesn't feel like home, then the whole thing falls apart, dunnit?  No one really knows how long the days are, they're really long, and the work is so hard, and it's all in the details, right?  If <light/drum mic/flight case/whatever> is even six inches to the left, then the whole thing is bollocks, innit?  But I love what I do, and the people are... well, they're dicks, really."  <Cut to the guy who was just talking throwing a <light cable/t-shirt/empty paper cup/whatever> at Erik Nielsen or vice versa, or two or three of them dancing a stupid jig on the empty stage>. 

There was some insight; the keyboard rig fascinates me.  I for the life of me can't figure out if Mark Kelly actually plays piano, or isn't just a fancy DJ.   It seems that there are a LOT of moments where he hits one key and an entire figure plays out over the monitors.   I can't decide if that's really "playing" or not.   Also, Rothery's guitar tech during the Marbles and Somewhere Else tours (Colin Price) is now the guitar tech for none other than Dave Murray, so he must be doing something right.   

[ytserush]

There was some insight; the keyboard rig fascinates me.  I for the life of me can't figure out if Mark Kelly actually plays piano, or isn't just a fancy DJ.   It seems that there are a LOT of moments where he hits one key and an entire figure plays out over the monitors.   I can't decide if that's really "playing" or not.   

If he's playing something else after he presses the button I'm fine with it, but if he hits the button and just stands there then I'm with you.

[HOF]

Speaking of Mark Kelly, he has a new solo project coming out soon called Mark Kelly's Marathon. A short video with some background music that sounds promising is up on the band's Facebook page.

https://m.facebook.com/mkmarathon#!/story.php?story_fbid=127287069028591&id=104238538000111

Website with some gibberish to ponder:

https://marathonsounds.com/

Pre-order info apparently coming soon.

[The Walrus]

Had a listen through Marbles yesterday morning. Such a great album. Ocean Cloud 

[Stadler]

Had a listen through Marbles yesterday morning. Such a great album. Ocean Cloud 

AWESOME album.    Ocean Cloud is like the fifth best song on there, though.   The Damage, Drilling Holes, Genie, Marbles IV, Neverland....

Neverland; I saw Marillion on the FEAR tour and I literally cried the entire song.   

[The Walrus]

Had a listen through Marbles yesterday morning. Such a great album. Ocean Cloud 

AWESOME album.    Ocean Cloud is like the fifth best song on there, though.   The Damage, Drilling Holes, Genie, Marbles IV, Neverland....

Neverland; I saw Marillion on the FEAR tour and I literally cried the entire song.

I don't know whether to high five you for loving The Damage or cry that you like it more than OC!

[Stadler]

HAHAHA. 

[HOF]

The Damage is a fun little song, though I wouldn't rate it above Ocean Cloud personally. I love the funky middle section though. Have always really liked this performance of it from Marbles on the Road. Pete really nails that bass part here:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx7hebK6Ky0

[DTA]

Marbles is a great album, but I cannot for the life of me understand why everyone thinks so highly of Fantastic Place. I'm not the biggest fan of Neverland either, but that one I can at least understand why it's so beloved as it is quite moving in spots. But Fantastic Place...just another h-era plodding buzzkill of a semi-mumbled lyric with a decent outro. I'd even take Hope For The Future over it

[Stadler]

Buried in the "Colours And Sound" DVD is a minute and a half or so of the song without vocals, and it's such a great guitar line in that song.

[HOF]

Marbles is a great album, but I cannot for the life of me understand why everyone thinks so highly of Fantastic Place. I'm not the biggest fan of Neverland either, but that one I can at least understand why it's so beloved as it is quite moving in spots. But Fantastic Place...just another h-era plodding buzzkill of a semi-mumbled lyric with a decent outro. I'd even take Hope For The Future over it

Fantastic Place might be my favorite Marillion song and one of my favorite songs ever. It's a beautifully crafted and recorded song. I believe it was Dave Meegan who said the idea was for the song to start small and just slowly zoom out to this big beautiful panorama of sound. The lyrics are great, the solo is great, it's just kind of got everything I love about Marillion. But I'm a sucker for sentimental stuff (even if the song isn't necessarily as sentimental as I originally thought).

Take me to the island
I'll watch the rain over your shoulder
The street lights on the wet stone
The moment outside of real life
...
Forgive me if I stare
But I can see the island behind your tired, troubled eyes
*climactic guitar solo*

Just beautiful.

[Stadler]

My opinion only, but the Meegan records are the best H-era Marillion records.   Clearly they are going for something different now, but just like the two Kimsey records are the best of the Fish-era, so these.  I'd love it if they go back to working with him.

[HOF]

My opinion only, but the Meegan records are the best H-era Marillion records.   Clearly they are going for something different now, but just like the two Kimsey records are the best of the Fish-era, so these.  I'd love it if they go back to working with him.

I think FEAR was a pretty big step forward for the band under Mike Hunter. It's the best thing they've done since Marbles IMO, despite a few awkward passages. I also really liked Sounds and I don't hate Somewhere Else or Happiness. I kind of think each of the Hunter produced albums has improved over the one before it, and I thought he did a fantastic job removing Afraid of Sunlight and Radiation. But I would also love to see them work with Meegan again, or maybe some totally off the map producer. I don't love the idea of having a producer who is essentially a full time employee of the band just on principle.

[DTA]

Marbles is a great album, but I cannot for the life of me understand why everyone thinks so highly of Fantastic Place. I'm not the biggest fan of Neverland either, but that one I can at least understand why it's so beloved as it is quite moving in spots. But Fantastic Place...just another h-era plodding buzzkill of a semi-mumbled lyric with a decent outro. I'd even take Hope For The Future over it

Fantastic Place might be my favorite Marillion song and one of my favorite songs ever. It's a beautifully crafted and recorded song. I believe it was Dave Meegan who said the idea was for the song to start small and just slowly zoom out to this big beautiful panorama of sound. The lyrics are great, the solo is great, it's just kind of got everything I love about Marillion. But I'm a sucker for sentimental stuff (even if the song isn't necessarily as sentimental as I originally thought).

Take me to the island
I'll watch the rain over your shoulder
The street lights on the wet stone
The moment outside of real life
...
Forgive me if I stare
But I can see the island behind your tired, troubled eyes
*climactic guitar solo*

Just beautiful.

Those are good lyrics, I'll admit. I can listen to a song 1000 times and never even "hear" the lyrics so unless there's a line/phrase that really jumps out, it's just not something I ever focus on. I just don't hear the music the same way you (and seemingly every other Marillion fan) do. I don't get swept away in it, I just get annoyed and wish it would hurry the fuck up to the end. It's weird, I have patience for some bands taking a ton of time to get somewhere (lots of post-rock) but it bothers me when Marillion does it. 

[HOF]

Marbles is a great album, but I cannot for the life of me understand why everyone thinks so highly of Fantastic Place. I'm not the biggest fan of Neverland either, but that one I can at least understand why it's so beloved as it is quite moving in spots. But Fantastic Place...just another h-era plodding buzzkill of a semi-mumbled lyric with a decent outro. I'd even take Hope For The Future over it

Fantastic Place might be my favorite Marillion song and one of my favorite songs ever. It's a beautifully crafted and recorded song. I believe it was Dave Meegan who said the idea was for the song to start small and just slowly zoom out to this big beautiful panorama of sound. The lyrics are great, the solo is great, it's just kind of got everything I love about Marillion. But I'm a sucker for sentimental stuff (even if the song isn't necessarily as sentimental as I originally thought).

Take me to the island
I'll watch the rain over your shoulder
The street lights on the wet stone
The moment outside of real life
...
Forgive me if I stare
But I can see the island behind your tired, troubled eyes
*climactic guitar solo*

Just beautiful.

Those are good lyrics, I'll admit. I can listen to a song 1000 times and never even "hear" the lyrics so unless there's a line/phrase that really jumps out, it's just not something I ever focus on. I just don't hear the music the same way you (and seemingly every other Marillion fan) do. I don't get swept away in it, I just get annoyed and wish it would hurry the fuck up to the end. It's weird, I have patience for some bands taking a ton of time to get somewhere (lots of post-rock) but it bothers me when Marillion does it. 

I definitely like quiet moments and crescendos, and don't mind letting a song take its time to build to something. I've noticed that softer or more introspective songs that strike me as really beautiful can just sort of get lost on others. Which is totally OK, we all hear and like different things in music.

[ytserush]

Marbles is a great album, but I cannot for the life of me understand why everyone thinks so highly of Fantastic Place. I'm not the biggest fan of Neverland either, but that one I can at least understand why it's so beloved as it is quite moving in spots. But Fantastic Place...just another h-era plodding buzzkill of a semi-mumbled lyric with a decent outro. I'd even take Hope For The Future over it

Neverland is one of the best Live Marillion songs ever. At least it used to be. I think the tempo was a bit slower when I last saw it about 4 years ago.

I like Fantastic Place too, but I would probably take Hope For The Future instead.

[HOF]

People seem to generally hate Hope for the Future. I don't mind it at all, I just think they kind of whiffed on the arrangement. There's something inauthentic sounding about all the Caribbean/Latin instrumentation, and it kind of feels like imitation world music. I'd have to look, but I'm guessing it's all keyboard patches instead of real instruments. It's something that would have been cool to revisit as part of Less is More or even the Friends from the Orchestra album though.

[ytserush]

Speaking of Mark Kelly, he has a new solo project coming out soon called Mark Kelly's Marathon. A short video with some background music that sounds promising is up on the band's Facebook page.

https://m.facebook.com/mkmarathon#!/story.php?story_fbid=127287069028591&id=104238538000111

Website with some gibberish to ponder:

https://marathonsounds.com/

Pre-order info apparently coming soon.

Always on board with projects from Rothery, Trewavas, and Mosley (and Fish obviously), but that's kind of where it ends for me.


Need to learn more about this one.

[ytserush]

People seem to generally hate Hope for the Future. I don't mind it at all, I just think they kind of whiffed on the arrangement. There's something inauthentic sounding about all the Caribbean/Latin instrumentation, and it kind of feels like imitation world music. I'd have to look, but I'm guessing it's all keyboard patches instead of real instruments. It's something that would have been cool to revisit as part of Less is More or even the Friends from the Orchestra album though.

I'm a huge fan of This Strange Engine (might be my favorite Hogarth vocal performance) and I like that aspect of it.  I suppose it might sound inauthentic, but that never really bothered me because of the lack of a budget they had at that time. 

[HOF]

Has Kelly done anything outside of Marillion besides the DeeExpus album he played on a little while back? He's certain kind of the quiet one in the group musically speaking. I get the sense he has a number of hobbies outside of music, and when he isn't working his day job at Marillion he hasn't felt the need for additional musical outlets.

TSE is kind of an odd album for me. I love some of it and am indifferent to some of it. Man of a Thousand Faces is great, Estonia is a classic, and I've come to really love the title track. I like One Fine Day and Eighty Days well enough. I don't really like Accidental Man that much (borrows a bit too much from The Police). Memory of Water is another example of a song that needed a more authentic touch (they finally got it right on Less is More IMO). Then Hope for the Future is ok but has its issues as well. It's not a bad album, just not my favorite from Marillion.

[ytserush]

Has Kelly done anything outside of Marillion besides the DeeExpus album he played on a little while back? He's certain kind of the quiet one in the group musically speaking. I get the sense he has a number of hobbies outside of music, and when he isn't working his day job at Marillion he hasn't felt the need for additional musical outlets.

TSE is kind of an odd album for me. I love some of it and am indifferent to some of it. Man of a Thousand Faces is great, Estonia is a classic, and I've come to really love the title track. I like One Fine Day and Eighty Days well enough. I don't really like Accidental Man that much (borrows a bit too much from The Police). Memory of Water is another example of a song that needed a more authentic touch (they finally got it right on Less is More IMO). Then Hope for the Future is ok but has its issues as well. It's not a bad album, just not my favorite from Marillion.

Really only aware of DeeExpus and I don't recall being impressed.

This Strange Engine is a Top 5 Hogarth studio Marillion album for me. I really love the timbre on it as well.

[HOF]

I went through a pretty extensive Marillion kick in March/April when the shutdown hit, mostly live stuff, and thought I had exhausted that for a while. Then the topic of Pete's bass playing with Marillion came up in the Transatlantic thread and for the last two days I've been listening to Marillion again with an emphasis on soaking up all the Trewavas bass playing goodness.

I made a comment that he's pretty much equal parts Squire and McCartney on bass, and I think that holds up. You probably get more of the Squire side of him in the Fish era and in projects like Transatlantic, and more of the McCartney side in the H era. Though he does have his more modern rock/trip hop/EDM moments as well, and has his own unique style apart from his influences.

One thing I love about Marillion is because they aren't a heavy riff band, Pete gets to really fill in the sound with his playing. He can be both really meaty in terms of a sound that drives the song, but also melodic/harmonic in a way that really colors the track.

He's particularly awesome on Afraid of Sunlight (Gazpacho being probably my favorite PT moment) and Clutching at Straws, but he never really lets up on any of their albums. One song that hit me listening to it again was The Uninvited Guest. It's not necessarily a favorite song of mine, but Pete is all over that track, giving it a whole different vibe than if he had just played it straight. Another song on Seasons End that he really forms the basis for is Holloway Girl. It opens with a repeating base figure that sounds like a guitar lick (something he does throughout their catalog), then he comes in with the bass pedals and just makes this monster of a sound.

Those are just a few of the awesome moments. Marillion are a band of formidable players/musical personalities, but I can't help but feel that Pete is absolutely critical to their overall sound and longevity. He has so much musicality, and I suspect he wears more hats than just bass player when it comes to writing and arranging, as well as just being a swell, down to earth guy who probably keeps the rest of the egos in the band in check a bit.

[romdrums]

One thing I love about Marillion is because they aren't a heavy riff band, Pete gets to really fill in the sound with his playing. He can be both really meaty in terms of a sound that drives the song, but also melodic/harmonic in a way that really colors the track.

He's particularly awesome on Afraid of Sunlight (Gazpacho being probably my favorite PT moment) and Clutching at Straws, but he never really lets up on any of their albums. One song that hit me listening to it again was The Uninvited Guest. It's not necessarily a favorite song of mine, but Pete is all over that track, giving it a whole different vibe than if he had just played it straight. Another song on Seasons End that he really forms the basis for is Holloway Girl. It opens with a repeating base figure that sounds like a guitar lick (something he does throughout their catalog), then he comes in with the bass pedals and just makes this monster of a sound.

He really is a master of the low end in that band.  He's very similar to the way Mike Rutherford worked in Genesis, only he does his rhythm guitar work on the bass.  My favorite example of that is the outro to King.  He builds the intensity with his bass line on the bass, and then, when he brings the bass pedals in, he switches his playing to more of a rhythm guitar line as the section builds.  So well done.  Add in the samples he triggers, and the backing vocals he does, if he covered some keyboard parts, he'd be Marillion's Geddy Lee.

[HOF]

Yeah, I definitely see similarities to Rutherford, at least in terms of his placement within the band's sound. But he also captures Rutherford's style at times on Transatlantic for sure. Definitely love the way he mixes in the bass pedals as well.

[Stadler]

 I seem to recall somewhere, on a doc or something, that the band has acknowledged he's probably the most purely "musical" of the members.  He can sing, and in that same acknowledgement I think it was Rothery who said "if Pete picks up an instrument, he can play it" or something along those lines.   

[HOF]

I seem to recall somewhere, on a doc or something, that the band has acknowledged he's probably the most purely "musical" of the members.  He can sing, and in that same acknowledgement I think it was Rothery who said "if Pete picks up an instrument, he can play it" or something along those lines.

I've seen him play guitar, bass (guitar and pedals), piano, and that marimba sort of thing on the Live at Cadogan concert, and he sings, so pretty versatile!

[SoundscapeMN]

Has Kelly done anything outside of Marillion besides the DeeExpus album he played on a little while back? He's certain kind of the quiet one in the group musically speaking. I get the sense he has a number of hobbies outside of music, and when he isn't working his day job at Marillion he hasn't felt the need for additional musical outlets.

-the Ayreon album "The Source."

-Edison's Children's debut album "In the Last Waking Moments..." which has all of the other members of Marillion as well.

[romdrums]

I seem to recall somewhere, on a doc or something, that the band has acknowledged he's probably the most purely "musical" of the members.  He can sing, and in that same acknowledgement I think it was Rothery who said "if Pete picks up an instrument, he can play it" or something along those lines.

I've seen him play guitar, bass (guitar and pedals), piano, and that marimba sort of thing on the Live at Cadogan concert, and he sings, so pretty versatile!

I've heard there may be audio out there of a show Marillion played as a 4-piece with Pete on lead vocals that they did in between Fish's departure and H joining the band.

[HOF]

Has Kelly done anything outside of Marillion besides the DeeExpus album he played on a little while back? He's certain kind of the quiet one in the group musically speaking. I get the sense he has a number of hobbies outside of music, and when he isn't working his day job at Marillion he hasn't felt the need for additional musical outlets.

-the Ayreon album "The Source."

-Edison's Children's debut album "In the Last Waking Moments..." which has all of the other members of Marillion as well.

I have heard that Edison's Children album but didn't realize the other guys from Marillion played on it.

[Stadler]

I seem to recall somewhere, on a doc or something, that the band has acknowledged he's probably the most purely "musical" of the members.  He can sing, and in that same acknowledgement I think it was Rothery who said "if Pete picks up an instrument, he can play it" or something along those lines.

I've seen him play guitar, bass (guitar and pedals), piano, and that marimba sort of thing on the Live at Cadogan concert, and he sings, so pretty versatile!

I've heard there may be audio out there of a show Marillion played as a 4-piece with Pete on lead vocals that they did in between Fish's departure and H joining the band.

I've heard that the show happened, I didn't know there was audio.   I LOVE that kind of stuff.  The Kiss show as a trio with Gene singing, the Sabbath shows with Rob Halford as fill-in... fun stuff (though probably not for the band). 

[ytserush]

One thing I love about Marillion is because they aren't a heavy riff band, Pete gets to really fill in the sound with his playing. He can be both really meaty in terms of a sound that drives the song, but also melodic/harmonic in a way that really colors the track.

He's particularly awesome on Afraid of Sunlight (Gazpacho being probably my favorite PT moment) and Clutching at Straws, but he never really lets up on any of their albums. One song that hit me listening to it again was The Uninvited Guest. It's not necessarily a favorite song of mine, but Pete is all over that track, giving it a whole different vibe than if he had just played it straight. Another song on Seasons End that he really forms the basis for is Holloway Girl. It opens with a repeating base figure that sounds like a guitar lick (something he does throughout their catalog), then he comes in with the bass pedals and just makes this monster of a sound.

He really is a master of the low end in that band.  He's very similar to the way Mike Rutherford worked in Genesis, only he does his rhythm guitar work on the bass.  My favorite example of that is the outro to King.  He builds the intensity with his bass line on the bass, and then, when he brings the bass pedals in, he switches his playing to more of a rhythm guitar line as the section builds.  So well done.  Add in the samples he triggers, and the backing vocals he does, if he covered some keyboard parts, he'd be Marillion's Geddy Lee.

Fair assessment. 

King kills me EVERY SINGLE TIME (especially live)  Far and away my favorite song from that album.

[ytserush]

Has Kelly done anything outside of Marillion besides the DeeExpus album he played on a little while back? He's certain kind of the quiet one in the group musically speaking. I get the sense he has a number of hobbies outside of music, and when he isn't working his day job at Marillion he hasn't felt the need for additional musical outlets.

-the Ayreon album "The Source."

-Edison's Children's debut album "In the Last Waking Moments..." which has all of the other members of Marillion as well.

I really dig all of those Edison's Children albums. It's not Marillion, but tasty sweet nonetheless.