What do the band Marillion sound like?

[WaldoMcFroog]

I'm a huge fan, but amongst us fans, there's a notion that people generally don't know what the band sound like these days, for various reasons. What's your perception of the band? If you don't like them, can you explain why that is? Interested to know.

[happysax]

Tell people to listen to Genesis. Basically Marillion are a Genesis tribute band, but I like them. And Fish is an OK guy by me.

[WaldoMcFroog]

Hmmm. That's an interesting response. With the best will in the world, Marillion only ever sounded even vaguely like early Peter Gabriel-era Genesis on their first two albums, and even then, they sounded 'influenced by' (hardly a crime), rather than the rip-off you seem to indicate. The Genesis comments were often used by journalists, but through laziness rather than having a clue what they were actually talking about - this has been admitted by a former Sounds journalist who accused them of that self same thing - he'd never even heard Genesis. But more pertinantly, Fish left after the 4th album, and they're on their 13th album now. They don't sound like the same band. So it's interesting to read that that is your perception. It shows the mountain the band face to get people to listen to their stuff.

[kags]

You asked for peoples' perceceptions - rightly or wrongly I have the same perception as happysax, that they are a band in the same vein as Genesis in the Gabriel days, who happened to have one very commercial song. This may well be laziness on my part - if you can recommend a good track for me to download and listen to I am more than willing to give them an ear!

[sft42]

Waldo McFrood New Marillion press officer....a bunch of washed up has beens who's fifteen minutes of fame with Kayleigh and Lavender has long since passed (though there best song was Incommunicado).

Not listened to them for years and couldn't tell you any more about them than that......so I couldn't begin to tell you remotely what they sound like these days....they could have turned into a new wave synth/expressionist band for all I know.

[thewillow]

Young answerbankers (well younger than me anyway) may very well have heard Marillion without knowing on last week's episode of Nighty-Night when Julia Davis's character does an anguished dance to Marillion's Lavender. It was hysterically bad and was an excellent choice of music for the scene. Marillion hadn't entered my mind for decades till I saw the programme. They were appalling.

[j2buttonsw]

Can't say I like Marillion but dispute they are washed-up has beens. The best thing about Marillion was Steve Hogarth, although the best thing about the h-Band is Dave Gregory. BTW, how was that h-Band gig last September, Waldo? I had every intention on going but...

[WaldoMcFroog]

Some interesting replies, which, I'll address in turn, if I may. Firstly, it appears that the fan's perception of general awareness is pretty much right; people don't know who the band are these days and rely on their knowledge of the Fish years - understandably so, since this was their commercial peak.

On the positive side, there's quite a few new people on the various forums and lists of late teens and early 20's who, unaware that the band is considered uncool, judge the music by it's merits - which is all we could hope for anyway - no one's naive enough to believe that every one who hears them will experience an epiphany! I'm not blaming anyone for having these views, by the way. I'm as guilty as anyone of having assumptions about bands. Maybe the last Atomic Kitten album is really great... but I'm guessing it's dreadful, based on their previous works..! ;-)

Kags, there's a downloadable MP3 of a track called "This is the 21st Century" at http://www.mp3.com/anoraknophobia but on www.marillion.com there's a lot of soundclips available under the music section. Maybe I'd suggest the real media file of Between You and Me -http://www.marillion.com/discog/anorak/between.rm.

In fact, if anyone's interested, they can get an 8 track sampler free from http://www.marillion.com/discog/crash/index.html.

[WaldoMcFroog]

Which brings me onto sft42, who thinks I'm Marillion's press officer. I'm not. I'm just a fan - Marillion fans tend to be passionate, that's all. I'm part of the team that runs the fan club magazine, but that's unpaid. The band wouldn't know me from Adam! I would say that the band sound significantly different than they used to; maybe the links are worth checking out, if you're interested?

j2buttonsw - the H gig was in the Union Chapel in Islington, which is an amazing venue for bands anyway. Very good set, loads of great covers played in the inimitable h band style, plus the Ice Cream Genuis stuff. Wonderful evening of first rate music - Andy Gangadeen even turned up for the last song, despite being absent for the rest of the tour. Dave Gregory and Aziz Ibrahim were both godlike as usual, and Richard Barbieri continues to conjure majic from a keyboard without seeming to press more than one key per song!

[Starman 2112]

I admire the way Hogarth has steered the band in new directions since he has been involved. I must say though that I am a Fish era fan. If they ever wanted to make a quick buck, bring back D.W.D.

[Tim Anderson]

To lend some solidarity with Waldo, I never cease to be amazed and perplexed by the hatred people have for this band. "Genesis wannabees", "washed up has beens", "appalling" are all comments made by people that I think are quite offensive towards one of the few bands in the British music charts during the 80s that had an ounce of musicianship. I can't deny they often had a distinctly preposterous quality, but I don't see why that is such a bad thing. Better than the many bands who think they are God's gift to music and produce pretentious tripe without any realisation that they are doing just that. Lavender, for instance, was not intended to be taken seriously and showed they had a sense of humour, surely? And was quite a nice tune and played as expertly as I came to expect from that band.