Aug 6: 'Grendel' and Beowulf

Grendel is a long song performed by Marillion when Fish was lead singer.

When released it was described as their version of Supper's Ready.

There's a section in the song in the same time signature (9:8) and with a similar feel to the Genesis song.

Grendel was a monster living in an area of fen, marshland or bog. He was eventually killed by Beowulf.

There's plenty of landscape description in the lyrics of the song.

This is part of the story of Beowulf - a lengthy Anglo Saxon poem and epic written 700-1000.

I saw this song performed live several times in the early 1980s in their early tours.

Jul 11: 1983

1983 saw the release of some favourite albums of mine.

I was in the first year of my degree at Huddersfield Polytechnic.

Eddie Jobson released 'The Green Album'.

He never got round to releasing his pink album which was teased in the lyrics.

I wrote to him back in 1983 and he sent back a newsletter and a signed letter which I have put somewhere safe... so safe I can't currently find it.

Here's Turn it Over....

And 'Who my friends'... the synthesiser sounds on this album are epic.

1983 also saw the release of REM's first studio album 'Murmur'.

Marillion released 'Script for a Jester's Tear'. There was quite a lot of buzz around this album. Their name was very prog, and I saw them live on their first tours to promote this and successive albums. It was very prog with its arrangements, dense lyrics, time signature changes, face-painted lead singer et al. And in 1983 I was very much up for that sort of thing...

Mike Oldfield released 'Crises', which featured the Fairlight synthesiser heavily... plus Simon Phillips' distinctive drum sound. The album's cover art was by Terry Ilott and was originally created as an illustration for an edition of J. G. Ballard's The Drowned World.

I was living in a very cheap house in Huddersfield for this first year. It cost me £9 a week including bills. I shared a room, and in the middle was my music centre and a selection of my LPs. I remember buying this and playing it for the first time there, having walked back up the hill to Newsome: at the top of a great big hill. It was released on the 27th of May, so it was still term time. Towards the end of the year, someone moved out and I moved into a room at the back of the house by myself. Similar room rate. Immersion heater turned on for a bath. Freezing cold bathroom in winter... A jungle unusable back garden. Good times...

Dio's 'Holy Diver' was also released that year. This has some great tracks on it.

Here's an album chart from August of that year.

Which of these did you have on your playlist back then?

Jun 30: Hackett and Rothery

A new album has been created by Steve Hackett (formerly of Genesis) and Steve Rothery (of Marillion).

It's called The Roaring Waves.

The first track is now out, and it doesn't really go anywhere... more drama needed. Looking forward to hearing the whole album.

What do you think?

Feb 14: M is for Marillion

I bought Marillion's first album: "Script for a Jester's Tear" on the day of release in March 1983 from a record shop in Huddersfield whose name escapes me, and saw the band play live quite a few times in those early years, including some gigs with Fish... facepaint, Grendel and all. 

The playing was not as polished as it was on later albums, but the tone and atmosphere it portrayed went right to my sensibilities. I saw the band play live three or four times in the early years, with Fish in his make-up prowling the stage. I will post about 'Grendel' later in the blog. There were comments about the time about the derivation of their name, the use of face paint, progressive time signatures etc.

I'm also a fan of the longer version of 'Assassing' and other songs from their 2nd album 'Fugazi'.

In 1985, they released 'Misplaced Childhood' - this tour was the last time I saw the band play live, so that's over 40 years ago!

They had several singles at the time, most notably 'Kayleigh', which is probably their most played song on the radio.

They have released many albums since, and changed after Fish's departure and the arrival of Steve Hogarth as vocalist and lyricist.

One of my favourite later albums of theirs was F.E.A.R. - from 2016.

On the title, Steve Hogarth said:

”This title is adopted not in anger or with any intention to shock. It is adopted and sung (in the song "New Kings”) tenderly, in sadness and resignation inspired by an England, and a world, which increasingly functions on an “Every man for himself” philosophy. I won’t bore you with examples, they’re all over the newspapers every day. There’s a sense of foreboding that permeates much of this record. I have a feeling that we’re approaching some kind of sea-change in the world – an irreversible political, financial, humanitarian and environmental storm. I hope that I’m wrong. I hope that my FEAR of what “seems” to be approaching is just that, and not FEAR of what “is” actually about to happen.”

Spoiler alert: it happened.

In 2022, they released an album which has references to climate change, COVID, Greta Thunberg, blood diamonds in Sierra Leone and a whole range of other issues of the modern day, with a reminder that as well as being kind to ourselves it might be better to be hard on ourselves...

Interestingly, I saw Tangerine Dream recently at the Roundhouse and the special guest guitarist for the final improvisation session of the concert was Steve Rothery: the Marillion guitarist. He was also in the audience for the final gig of Clannad - something I mentioned earlier this month, sitting in the row in front of me.

Here's the video for the opening track from that album: 'Be Hard on Yourself'.