Marillion with Fish. Bon appetite

When I was just a young Carl, discovering the world around me and definately not liking the music that was popular in those days, I once bought an Album when I was in Scotland with my nephews. I didn't have the best youth you can imagine, and partly that came because I was rather strange. (medium, see earlier post)

The album I bought was a decision made by the cover of the album, I hadn't heard a note before I bought it and the only chance I had to check it out was when I would be back in the Netherlands.

I played the album and the first song I heard was;

Script for a jester's tear;

Video taken from YouTube uploaded by rapunzzl

I immediately fell in love and listened the whole album over and over again.
I had to discover where the name of the band came from, "Marillion".
So I started searching and found a group of Dutch Marillion fans who told me it was taken from a book called
The Silmarillion written by JRR Tolkien.

It was only in English, so I had to translate a lot to understand what it was about.
JRR Tolkien is the great mind behind "Lord of the rings", Silmarillion is the first part of a long series ending with LOTR.

After reading the book I went to a Dutch Marillion fanclubday and I met the band. To see that big singer named "Fish" aka Dereck William Dick, Was overwhelming. There he was, the voice of my tears and hidden pain, the man who wrote lines especially for me, I felt he knew me and described me in every line. I still can remember the smell of the whiskey he drank.

At the fanclubday a guy attended me to a record that was sold there. The record was named "Market Square heroes", and on the B-Side there was this song named "Grendel" that lasted almost 18 minutes. I played the record as soon as I came home...

Video taken from YouTube uploaded by a random user.

Grendel, I found out, was a monster from a story named "Beowulf" Tolkien, hey there's that guy again, wrote about him in 1936. As he tried to explain the monster Grendel. Marillion definately got their inspiration from that version as you can hear in the song.

I was fan for as long as it lasted. With the release of the album "Clutching at straws"The period Marillion with leadsinger Fish ended. A final tour was announced, and I was there, In Holland, Germany and the UK. I had to see them as many times as I could afford, and I did.

The tour was called "La gazza ladra aka the thieving magpie"
It started with "La gazza ladra" composer Rossini, an Italian Opera, followed by "slainthe math"

Here you can see the intro of the concert;

Taken from YouTube uploaded by David Bacon