Don’t get me wrong, those are two wonderful albums. Across that album and the next one, Fugazi, you can hear us trying to find our own style. I hear the youth, the naivety and the aspiration in it all. When I think now of singing like that, six nights in a row… fuck that for a game of soldiers.īad singing aside, what else do you hear in that album? I didn’t understand anything about music and keys, and I was singing very high. That high falsetto voice, it was very forced. I hear somebody singing in very bad keys! Sometimes I don’t even recognise the guy who’s singing on that album. What do you hear now in that first Marillion album, Script For A Jester’s Tear? They were in pop world.ĭid it hurt when critics branded Marillion a poor man’s Genesis? No, they were in Abacab territory by then. ![]() In your defence, Genesis weren’t writing songs like Supper’s Ready in 1982. It’s funny, many years later I spoke to Tony Smith, the manager of Genesis, and he said that if he’d known about Grendel way back then, he would have sued us! Steve and I put the song together and it just swung into that Supper’s Ready thing. The lyrics were inspired by John Gardner’s book Grendel. The music came from a song that Silmarillion had, The Tower. We just thought: ‘Let’s write a big, long song, because that’s what progressive rock bands do.’ But yes, it was very, very Genesis-oriented. Was this your attempt to out-prog Genesis? And with the band signed to EMI, debut single Market Square Heroes was released – featuring, as the B-side, the epic 17-minute track Grendel. There was a revised line-up, with Mark Kelly on keyboards, and Pete Trewavas replacing Diz Minnitt on bass. ![]() The band’s name had been shortened to Marillion. We talked music all the time, and there was a great energy between us.īy 1982, much had changed. We were all brought up on those 70s progressive bands, but the Genesis influence was the most powerful – the one in the Venn diagram that brought us all together. It was an incredible feeling, singing your own words with a bunch of guys who all had a similar taste in music. I was a big fan of The Who, and when Keith Moon died, I wrote a whole set of lyrics on that theme.Īt what point did you realise the band had something special? So I said, “I have lyrics…” I already had the idea for Script For A Jester’s Tear. It was also very clear to me that Steve Rothery was a brilliant guitarist. What did the band sound like before you joined? I’d picked up the name Fish in 1979, and with that name, and the make-up I’d wear on stage, I was able to build up my confidence. In a new place I could be whoever I wanted to be. It was an opportunity to reinvent myself. Were you apprehensive about moving south, away from home? We convinced them to take on a separate bassist and singer, and the rest just fell into place. And then, in 1981, we saw an ad in a music paper from a band in Aylesbury that wanted a bassist/singer. We tried to set up a band up in the Scottish borders. I met up with Diz Minnitt, a bass player. I was 21 when I did my first ever gig, at the Golden Lion in Galashiels, singing covers – Steely Dan, Aretha Franklin. When did you find the balls to get up on a stage and sing? I thought: “That’s something I could do.” So that was my dream, singing along to the mirror in my bedroom. Rod was obviously pissed and having a fantastic time. I did after I saw Rod Stewart and the Faces on telly. Then my dad bought me an accordion, for fuck’s sake! That’s when I decided I was never going to be a musician.īut you still fancied yourself as a singer? When I realised it needed all this work, I was despondent, in tears. I thought you just picked it up and songs came out. At school I played the recorder and I couldn’t get a tune from it. ![]() And because I was the sensitive kid who spent most of his time in an attic room listening to records, I got into the words. I remember singing along to Hey Jude when I was at primary school, but it was in high school that I really got into music – Emerson Lake & Palmer, Genesis and the Floyd. ![]() When did music first become a major part of your life? Fish with Marillion in 1987 (Image credit: Getty Images)
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