| # | Quote |
|---|
| 1 | When Fish left after four albums, we were already growing apart musically. Had he stayed we would have possibly made one or two more records together and called it a day. |
| 2 | One of the main memories is that I kind of got into listening to progressive rock through the Alan Freeman show. Most of my friends more embraced the punk and new wave movement when it came through, so we used the have these Saturday night listening sessions where they'd put on their latest favourite punk records, The Sex Pistols or The Clash or The Damned, and I'd whip out Return of the Giant Hogweed. |
| 3 | [on "A Case of You"] One of my favourite songs of all time. Joni's actually been quite a big influence on me as a musician, as a guitar player. A lot of her songs, especially the early songs, she wrote in various open tunings, and it was a very harmonically rich sound. The way that influenced me was that I would try and approximate that on a conventionally tuned guitar, so some of the things I would write would have that sort of flavour that she brought to her music. But really it's as a lyricist that she just stands out to me, one of the greatest lyricists ever, so poetic, such songs of sadness and love and loss. |
| 4 | [on "Shine On You Crazy Diamond"] This was actually the track that really made me decide to be a musician. I was actually listening to it on a portable cassette player on the beach at night under the stars and felt 'Wow, life doesn't get any better than this ... this is what I want to do with my life' and that was it really. Everything else kind of went out of the window. Pink Floyd and Genesis and Camel were the bands I listened to an awful lot when I was learning the guitar, and Dave Gilmour (David Gilmour) is still a major influence, and this track just never gets old. |
| 5 | There is something very special about British guitarists, maybe it's the fact that our roots lie in traditional folk music instead of blues or jazz or maybe it's that we feel the need to express in music the misery of living in our cold and damp climate. Whatever the reason, we've produced some of the finest and most individual musicians and music in the history of pop and rock. |
| 6 | A vocal melody nearly always follows the chords not vice versa. For me one of Fish's great talents was coming up with interesting melodies and phrasing across whatever music we wrote. |
| 7 | The only musical input I remember Fish ever having was playing me an album of Islamic music that Peter Hammill had given him and me using the Arabic type tonality of the music as the inspiration to write the introduction to Assassing. I wrote most of the music in the Fish years and we had a great chemistry together. It was when we no longer inspired each other that the rot set in. When H joined the musical direction didn't change that much. A lot of my musical ideas for Seasons End were written whilst Fish was still in the band. In the Fish years quite often we'd write what we thought was going to be an instrumental section, Fish usually saw them as a blank canvas on which to create and to expand his lyrical ideas from the section before (which he did very well). |
| 8 | I'm not sure who first reported that I had no interest in playing the older songs. It seems to be enshrined in Marillion folklore these days. It's never anything I've said or even thought. I'm proud of all the Marillion songs. When H (Steve Hogarth) joined 23 years ago we all agreed that he would have to be able to relate to a song to be able to perform it and to bring his own personality to it. Some of the older songs can only be sung in an intense almost vitriolic style that would not have worked for H. The Fish era songs we play occasionally are the only ones he's comfortable singing and the band and 99% of our fans understand that. |
| 9 | My main influences are Hendrix (Jimi Hendrix), Santana (Carlos Santana), Dave Gilmour (David Gilmour), Andy Latimer (Andrew Latimer), Steve Hackett, Jeff Beck and Joni Mitchell. I tend to listen to songwriters more these days but I enjoy the playing of Damien Rice and Glen Hansard. |
| 10 | The development of my style was at first influenced by the guitarists from the seventies like Andy Latimer (Andrew Latimer), Steve Hackett, Dave Gilmour (David Gilmour) and Gordon Giltrap. It was always the more melodic and emotional approach that appealed to me the most. My style is all about atmosphere and emotion with bending and vibrato taking precedent over the fast legato approach. I try to find a part that enhances or completes the song in the most sympathetic way possible. It shouldn't be about ego or wanting to show off your chops. |
| 11 | "Kayleigh" was a hit single [in 1985], and therefore the album, Misplaced Childhood, did well. But quite often success is driven by being fashionable, and we've never been fashionable. We're not the elder statesmen like The Rolling Stones or Pink Floyd, but we are a band that's been making records for 25 years, and we've become kind of an institution. And that's a good thing, because we've still got 100,000 people around the world who believe very passionately in what we do, and new people are discovering us all the time. We're like the band that won't go away! |
| 12 | I like Fender Stratocasters, but they're not the easiest to play. I have a custom-made 12-string Steinberger, which is one of my favourite guitars. |
| 13 | The thing about the guitar is that it's such an emotional instrument, and I'm sure that people would much rather hear a guitar if it's played with emotion and feeling than just racing up and down the fret-board. |
| 14 | Doing it ourselves, we've noticed the turnaround. If you get a £150,000 advance from a label then two-thirds goes on studio costs. That leaves you with £50,000 to divide between five of us. Plus, you no longer own the record, so you'll be lucky to see any of the royalties. Doing it ourselves, we've cut all that out. |
| 15 | "Some people have already made up their minds about what the band stands for. The only way to get round that is radio play. We've had more airplay than in years, but on digital, so most people can't hear it." (Speaking in 2004) |
| 16 | There's some good music - Coldplay I like a lot. The others I like don't make the charts, like Sigur Rós. |
| 17 | "We still sell a lot of records. It's just people's perceptions that have changed. Unless you have a single in the charts, people don't know you're around." (Speaking in 2004) |
| 18 | We pay for our own marketing and promotion. A lot of major labels won't pay for it, it's not worth their while, at least as far as they're concerned. |
| 19 | We've definitely evolved to a point where we have our own particular sound. I can't really see where 'Kayleigh' sounds like any Genesis tracks I know. |
| 20 | My wife to be, Jo, asked me to explain how I came up with my musical ideas, picking up a nearby guitar I started improvising what later became the 'Kayleigh' riff whilst explaining that I tried to combine melody and rhythm. I sometimes wonder if we would still have written 'Kayleigh' if she had asked me if there was anything good on the telly instead! |
| 21 | Considering some people had written us off after Fish had left, it (Seasons End) was a very strong statement that the band still had a lot going for it. And proved that what we found with Steve Hogarth was something equally exciting and original as we had with Fish. It is an album that I am extremely proud of, and includes some classic songs. |
$7 Million
