The Bathtub of Adventures

Marillion

'The Road To Anoraknophobia'

Home page http://www.marillion.com/

I've had a love / hate affair with Marillion for some twenty years now. When I first saw the band supporting Chemical Alice, I was distinctly unimpressed -with the possible exception of their larger than life singer. By the time Grendel appeared I was in Cambridge working with my own band Déjà Vu. We thought Grendel was just hilarious, with its completely unashamed reworking of the classic 'Suppers Ready'.

What was all the fuss about?

'Script For A Jester's Tear' appeared, and once again I dismissed it as just amateur, with appalling sound quality. I was far more into the other Neo-Prog bands of the era - Pallas, Solstice and Twelfth Night. To me these bands sounded so much more original than the Marillion 'Genesis wannabes'.

In 1985 something happened. It was one of those 'road to Damascus' events (actually the M11 to Cambridge). Someone had given me a tape of Marillion's new album, 'Misplaced Childhood'. It was the lyrics that did it. I'd been there, done that, thought that. Fish was writing about times, places, people and feelings I had complete empathy with. This was wonderful, and the next three years saw me going to every Marillion concert I could, and at the same time watching the band change from a cult phenomenon to household names, playing stadiums and headlining festivals.

Live, I grew to love some of the tracks from the earlier albums, especially 'Script's title track. It was obvious that something magical was happening here. Fish had not only become one of the world's great front men, but had somehow though his lyrics managed to tap directly in to a whole generation's psyche. The biggest memory of that time is of one particular Hammersmith Odeon concert where Fish sang the first line of the piece - "So here we are once more" - and turned his mike to the audience, who then continued to sing, word perfect, the rest of the lyric. And I'm not talking about a verse - the complete song!

In 1988, at the height of their fame, Fish left.

His last release with the band, 1987's 'Clutching At Straws', I tend to think of as the quintessential Neo-Prog album, and its opening interconnected 15-minute song suite (Hotel Hobbies-Warm Wet Circles-That Time of the Night (The Short Straw)) the very best of anything ever written in the genre.

At the same time, due a lot to events in my personal life, my interest in both parties waned. I still heard their albums 'Seasons End' and 'Vigil', but to these ears both works were but a weak shadow of the former greatness. My interest was slightly heightened again with 1994's 'Brave', but never to the extent that I wanted to see them live. When 'Brave' was followed by the awful, as I then thought, 'Afraid Of Sunlight' (how wrong could I be?) any interest I had in the band ceased.

So we skip forward to 2000, with a newfound interest in music, the Internet, and writing. A friend lent me all the CD's from 'Afraid Of Sunlight' to the just-released 'Marillion.com'. It had taken a few years, but I was finally able to listen to these albums without any emotional baggage. To listen to them as if this was a completely new band.

First of all, you have to realize and accept that the 'new' Marillion has really nothing to do with the old, Fish-led Marillion. You have to accept that the two eras are completely different. The Neo-Progressive rock of the 1980's has been replaced by a Hogarth-led modern songwriter approach, and as 'H' has commented himself, it might have been best for all parties if on the departure of Fish, the band had carried on with a different name, thereby avoiding all misconceptions. In the UK, where music is now more of a fashion than a musical statement, the name 'Marillion' has become something of a millstone around their neck. As far as the dreaded Neo-Prog reference is concerned, it's a fact that Marillion have not made an album in that genre since 1994's 'Brave' - five albums ago.

Listening now to the albums 'Afraid Of Sunlight' (especially) and 'This Strange Engine', this band should have been hailed as one of the most important English pop/rock bands of the mid 90's. They had everything - strong song writing, catchy melodies, great musicianship, and a distinctive-sounding vocalist. As a 'new' band they had once again found their own unique sound. It's no wonder that, reportedly, Radiohead looked to them as a contemporary influence.

Anyway, to cut a much longer story short, this is how I found myself at my first Marillion concert for 13 years, and buying on the day of release their latest album, 'Anoraknophobia', which if you believe all the hype, appears to be their strongest since at least 'This Strange Engine'.

Tonight's concert appeared to be mainly about two albums - 1995's 'Afraid Of Sunlight', and the new one, with over two thirds of each album being played.

Whereas 'Afraid Of Sunlight' is fast becoming my favourite Marillion album ever, 'Anoraknophobia' is still growing on me. It's definitely not as immediately accessible as AoS, and on the first couple of hearings I almost dismissed it as the band trying to take on too many 'fashionable' influences (mainly from the U2 'Stadium Rock' school and the UK Dance culture), and losing their own unique sound in the process. The album is one of extremes, from the high point of the wonderfully dreamy, techno-influenced, 'This Is The 21st Century', which was missed from the live set but was played as an instrumental introduction tape, to a new low in the messy 'If My Heart was a Ball it would Roll Uphill'.

I'll leave Gareth to do the track-by-track breakdown, and I generally agree with his comments, although I do think he is being a bit too hard on the album. I will say that live, the heavier tracks like 'Between You and Me' work quite splendidly. However, seeing the band on stage after all these years was a very strange and puzzling experience: one minute they were world class (especially everything played from the Afraid Of Sunlight - This Strange Engine era); the next they sounded . . . well . . . like a bunch of amateurs (the sound man certainly was). How a band can go from one extreme to another with such inconsistency within the space of two hours is perhaps the biggest puzzle of all.

Live set list - Hemel Hempstead May 2001

Separated Out
Rich
Man of a Thousand Faces
Quartz
Go
Map of the World
Out of This World
If My Heart Were A Ball It Would Roll Uphill
Afraid of Sunrise
Mad/Opium Den
Last Of You
Falling From The Moon
King
Between You & Me
Answering Machine
Waiting to Happen

Ian Oakley July2001

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