Tag Archives: fish

Features, PiercingMetal Says

Marillion Announces Remasters Of “Misplaced Childhood” & Classic Catalog

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As a big fan of this album in particular, I couldn’t wait to share this news with you readers. Check it out.

The Press Release:
Following the demise of our old record company EMI, our first 8 albums were taken up by Warner Music. With our assistance, they have decided it’s time to bring those albums up to date.

The first album to get the makeover will be “Misplaced Childhood”. The package will include a 5.1 mix by Steven Wilson and a new stereo master taken from the original analog 1/2” tape. This will be used to make a new vinyl and CD version which we believe to be superior to the 1998 re-master.
There will also be a documentary video on the Blu-ray version about the making of the album featuring Marillion, producer Chris Kimsey and Fish, where we reveal some previously untold stories about the writing and recording of “Misplaced Childhood”. We hope you will enjoy revisiting this album when it’s released in July. It is available to pre-order now:

CD/Bluray version: http://www.marillion.com/shop/albums/misplaced-deluxeCD.htm
Vinyl Box Set version: http://www.marillion.com/s…/albums/misplaced-deluxeVinyl.htm
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Features, Milestones

Marillion’s “Fugazi” Hits 30th Anniversary (1984-2014)

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The milestone anniversaries of albums is really getting under way for 2014 as I present numerous milestones for the albums I have enjoyed for a great number of years and that brings us to Marillion’s “Fugazi” which was released thirty years ago today. Now I’ve admitted in other blog posts that I was NOT the biggest Marillion fan until many months after the “Misplaced Childhood” album had been released and I kind of went backwards after I first heard them since this was later in the Fish era of the group. That being said I had heard about the band and liked the tune “Assassing” which I heard on a Metal compilation release that Kerrang! had issued but I will admit that I never looked deeper into them at the time which would have been smart to do but oh well. “Fugazi” is Marillion’s second album and most of the tunes on the release were epic in length with two of the songs stopping short of seven minutes and another pair surpassing the eight minute mark. My indulgence of “Assassing” was often as I really liked the feel and vibe of its composition and how it appeared to tell a story. I would later learn that so much of the Fish works were tales that brought you to different places and emotions. Thinking back on the album I would say that “Punch and Judy” was another favorite and the albums closing two monsters of “Incubus” and the title track. All words were penned by Fish and the music appeared to have contributions from just about everyone. According to the written history of the release its title was based on the dramas that it took to put together. It was the first with drummer Ian Mosely who had previously been a member of Steve Hackett’s band. The original track listing is below.
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Features, Milestones

Marillion’s “Script For A Jester’s Tear” Reading Fine At 30 Years (1983-2013)

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1983 really seemed to be a great year for music and I am not just relegating this to the Heavy Metal genre and all of the cool stuff that came out during this particular year but even in the now labeled as Classic Rock area and the Progressive Rock stuff too. That said we are now at the official thirtieth anniversary of Marillion’s iconic debut album “Script For A Jester’s Tear” and as I say these words a couple of immediate things pop into my mind along with some other more important revelations. The first one is that I was not even remotely a fan of the band at the time of this release but I had heard the name on a couple of occasions. I recalled a cloisonné pin that a girl I fancied wore on her denim jacket and her enthusiasm about them when they were brought up in music conversations. Sadly I would but I would not investigate further. At this point in my life I liked what I liked and was not always as open to new things. The second time would be when I purchased a UK Metal and Rock compilation LP that would have a song by the band called “Assassing” but that melody hails from the debut’s successor and hence has no real place in our 30 Year toast. I am just sharing what came to mind ? Don’t worry I would catch up on the band in due time, just not for a while yet. Let’s continue.
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Features, PiercingMetal Says

PiercingMetal’s “Best Of Decade”: 2000-2009: The Concerts

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As I’ve previously noted, we’ve always aimed to deliver a year end “Best Of” list and with the end of the decade just having happened, it’s time to continue our thoughts about what was the “Best Of The Decade” from 2000-2009 – I’ve already doled out the Music and Video picks and now it’s time to get into the live concerts that we found the most enjoyable over the past ten years.

I was not really planning on doing a decade spanning concert “best of” but many of the readers of the site had sent me emails after the list posted inquiring about those events which I thought were the biggest highlights to me. Based on the interest, I figured that it was better to append the article to also feature this information of be stuck answering emails over and over. I’ve been fortunate as a writer and photographer to get to enjoy a large number of shows and I hope that you enjoy the list I came up with.

Van Halen @ Madison Square Garden (Warner Music Group): The Brothers Van Halen reunited with David Lee Roth made this one of the highlights of my decade. Yes Michael Anthony was no longer a part of the band but I could live with that since it gave me back Dave. The hits were non-stop at the show and I think I watched it five feet above the floor where my seat was. Everyone in NYC was dancing the night away that’s for sure.

Iron Maiden @ Madison Square Garden (EMI Music): This show was for the “Brave New World” CD that many loved for bringing back Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith into the fold. I loved it for its amazing level of energy and how it showed just how good Maiden was and the fact that it had Rob Halford as the opener and Queensryche. OK I admit that I didn’t feel the Ryche were all that good that night and were rather slow after the Halford set. It was fantastic seeing Rob’s then new band in action of course as he was still years away from rejoining Judas Priest.

The Gathering @ The Knitting Factory (The End Records): I was a casual fan of The Gathering and my buddies who went to the show with me were much more into them, but seeing them in this smaller space was fantastic. Very moody and atmospheric stuff and done well in the live sense. Anneke sang like a siren and one of the openers was an unknown group called Unexpect. I’ve been a supporter of theirs since that night and feel that this appearance gave me a heads up on a terrific band many years before the rest of the folks would catch on.

HIM @ The Bowery Ballroom (Universal Music): While working at one of the investment banks from hell I scanned a video for HIM which was “Join Me In Death” and I was hooked and did my best to find a couple of the bands albums. Their first show on US soil in NYC would be at The Bowery Ballroom and the two nights were close to sold out. We caught the first show I believe but its been awhile and in any case it was amazing to see HIM in such an intimate room. Going forward we would watch the band play larger places each time and having all of the shows sell out well in advance.

Kamelot @ B.B. King Blues Club (SPV Records): I am referring to the first time that I ever caught Kamelot performing at B.B. King Blues Club and not one of the other four times. I was very new to the band and how they did things but it was a smoking show and one that made many fans for the guys who would rally to their cause in the future. They continue to impress the masses and we love them for it.
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Music, Reviews

“Early Stages” – The Official Bootleg Boxed Set 1982-1987 by Marillion

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Artist: Marillion
Title: “Early Stages” – The Official Bootleg Boxed Set 1982-1987
Label: EMI Music
Release Date: 11/28/2008
Genre: Progressive Rock
Rating: 5/5

I will be the first to admit to the readers that I am one of those fans that is referred to as a “Fish-head” when it comes to the music of the band Marillion. Of course I have to also offer up a little defense for myself as I am also one of those people who kept on following the band once the epic poet Derek Dick chose to move on from their ranks but those years are not the subject of the material that we are examining. While Fish was in the band he had recorded four extraordinary albums and each of them is presented in some fashion across these vintage concerts that were done for the BBC. Through these never before heard tracks we find early interpretations of the work we would come to find on “Script For A Jester’s Tear”, “Fugazi”, “Misplaced Childhood” and “Clutching At Straws”. Fish would move on to start a prolific solo career of his own and since his departure Marillion has released more than three times the amount of studio albums that he did with them along with an incredible amount of live recordings. Of course when Fish moved on there were also many fans that chose to move on as well because the band became a different group from the one that they had admired and was a lot less progressive in its song structure and seemed to be aiming for the ever elusive commercial market. While Steve Hogarth is a fine songwriter too many he was not the epic wordsmith that many felt that Fish was. Facts like these make an album set such as this one a terrific journey into the bands beginnings and time with Fish in the live sense because when it came down to the official releases we would only get “The Thieving Magpie” as the bands live effort. That album focused on “Clutching” and “Misplaced” the most and left far too much off for the heavy duty fan and that’s where these shows now come into play as an incredible find. They labeled this as “The Official Bootleg” boxed set and yet these are not the typical bootleg with lots of crowd noise and rumble instead of quality music and are instead high quality official recordings that were done with better equipment based on their audio sonics. There are six CD’s delivered in the set and they cover five different shows across the span of about five years and we’ve broken it down one by one to offer up some additional comments for your enlightenment.
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