You’ll have to pardon my changing up the Music Milestone premise from a particular release of note to an actual band member anniversary but I have just learned that Mr. Steve Hogarth has been singing for the Neo-Progressive band Marillion for twenty five years now. That’s pretty darn cool for sure.

Now before I say anything else, readers should know that I loved the bands original voice in Fish but I had gotten into them at the time that Fish was already making his departure and while that stuff spoke to me very deeply, I had high hopes for the direction that would be maintained with this “new guy” Steve Hogarth. My friend Rocky owned “Side Street Sounds” at the time and he ordered me a copy of the “Season’s End” album and then “Holidays In Eden” when that one had come out. I had to say that it was rather different from the styles that I had been used to with Fish but I can say that I liked it and found quite a few of the songs growing on me. Steve Hogarth brought a soaring vocal register to the band and quite honestly appeared to have a better range than Fish (no offense of course). The bands material also seemed to be aimed at shorter and more to the direct point songs Since I loved live shows, my friends and I made the plan to catch the band if they ever visited and we would get our chance when they hit The Ritz (when the club was located on 54th Street in the old Studio 54 building). The actual ticket from that show is pictured below for your indulgence and thanks to the powers of Setlist.fm I was able to mentally revisit the set that was performed that night. It was heavy on the classic “Fish Era” stuff but that was probably based on their only having two releases under their belt with the new voice at the time.

Continue reading Happy 25th Anniversary To Marillion’s Steve Hogarth →