Forget Fish.....
Forget Fish.....
Forget Fish....
He left Marillion in the late 1980’s. This band may have 4/5ths of the members of the “Kayleigh” version of the band, but musically they have progressed significantly from “that” version of the band.
Today they are a mature rock band with intelligent songs played by 5 musicians of great ability and to pigeonhole them by reference to a 30 year old version of the group is at best lazy, at worst ignorant. Replacing the lead singer with another was an issue in 1990, not now they’ve released 15 very successful albums. (It didn’t help when Alan Partridge included a detrimental joke in his “Alpha Papa” film!).
These days they have a dedicated fan base who attend regular fan conventions across Europe at which the band play 2/3 shows, each different and curated to please the fans (they do even drop in the odd “Fish” era classic!). They were one of the first bands to “crowd fund” albums which tapped into the dedication of the fan base. These days they describe themselves thus “if Pink Floyd and Radiohead had a love child that was in touch with their feminine side, that would be us”.
I’ve only seen this version of the band once, late in 2019, and they were brilliant, augmented by a string quartet, flautist and french horn. It’s a night I’ll always look back on fondly (and not just because doing anything like that now would be soooo welcome!)
This track is the first song on the 2012 album “Sounds that can’t be made” and was also the opener when I saw them in 2019. Yes it’s 17 minutes long so the prog tag gets used, but it’s about the Palestinian situation. On their YouTube channel, under the studio version of the track, Steve Hogarth, the lead singer wrote
“This is a song for the people – especially the children – of Gaza. It was written after many conversations with ordinary Palestinians living in the refugee camps of Gaza and the West Bank. I spoke also to Israelis, to NGO workers, to a diplomat unofficially working in Jerusalem, and took their perspectives into account whilst writing the lyric. It is not my/our intention to smear the Jewish faith or people – we know many Jews are deeply critical of the current situation – and nothing here is intended to show sympathy for acts of violence, whatever the motivation, but simply to ponder upon where desperation inevitably leads. Many Gazan children are now the grandchildren of Palestinians BORN in the refugee camps - so called "temporary" shelters. Temporary for over 50 years now. Gaza is today, effectively, a city imprisoned without trial."
For me the key section of the song and the lyrics that hit home to me from the first time I heard it are
There are grieving mothers on both sides of the wireAnd everyone deserves a chance to feel the future just might be bright
But any way you look at it - whichever point of view
For us to have to live like this
It just ain't right
It just ain't right
It just ain't right
We all want peace and freedom that's for sure
But peace won't come from standing on our necks
Everyone deserves a chance to feel the future just might be bright
But any way you look at this - whichever point of view
For us to have to live like this
It just ain't right
It just ain't right
It just ain't right
The version on Facebook along side this post is a live version, which shows how good they are live and below I’ve put a link to the studio version
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