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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Tag Archives: mick pointer
“Smoke & Mirrors” by Arena
Artist: Arena
Title: “Smoke & Mirrors”
Label: Music Video Distributors
Release Date: 4/25/2006
Genre: Progressive Rock
Rating: 4.5/5
Celebrating the bands 10th Anniversary comes a wonderful concert film from Progressive Rock giants Arena. Filmed at a spacious theatre in front of an apparently sold-out crowd, the folks at Metal Mind Productions have given us another quality concert to enjoy. I have to admit going in that I hardly knew what to expect from Arena since I had never followed them before or had much exposure to their material in the ten years that they have existed. This made watching the DVD film a little sketchy for me until it began and I found myself caught in some very interesting Progressive Rock music. As a long-time fan of old Marillion, I definitely caught some similarities in the style between Arena and the Fish years for Marillion. Singer Robert Snowden is a great front man with a voice that suits the material very well. He also has a couple of costume changes during the set which bring to mind influences of Gabriel and Fish from Progressive years past and help out with the overall effect of the bands music. The music is performed to perfection by John Mitchell (guitar), Clive Nolan (keyboards), Ian Salmon (bass) and Mick Pointer (drums). Readers who were up on the band as much as I was might also find it interesting to realize that drummer Pointer was one of the early members of Marillion. Overall the music is welcome to the fans of a semi-Progressive fan, it does not go off on tangents and break into too many directions for the average listener to follow but instead melds itself with some Hard Rock feels and uses the Prog influence to raise the musicianship up a notch.
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![“Recital Of The Script” [DVD] by Marillion](https://www.piercingmetal.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/DVD-Marillion-Recital-Of-The-Script-e1404602882335.jpg)
“Recital Of The Script” [DVD] by Marillion
Artist: Marillion
Title: “Recital Of The Script”
Label: EMI Music
Release Date: 11/2003?
Genre: Progressive Rock
Rating: 7/10
Several years ago a close Friend of mine loaned me the “Misplaced Childhood” CD from Marillion. It soon became one of my very favorite pieces of music. The richly textured songs combined with the poetic lyrical arrangements made this the case. I would find myself looking for one particular song to enjoy and end up listening to the entire CD again and again. Marillion was one of those groups that you either liked immediately or did not even care about. It is a shame that some fine acts always fall into this mode with people. When I first heard them, I was totally into them. Over the past two decades of its existence Marillion has gone through lead singer changes (Fish left to be replaced by Steve Hogarth) and somewhat of a musical direction change. Albums had more “single” type songs than previous albums had. This DVD showcases the talents of the first lead Singer Derek Dick a.k.a. “Fish”.
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