FUGAZI

Marillion are an odd bunch. I love what the Steve Hogarth has said about the name and the stigma that goes with it. "It's such a grave injustice that the media constantly calls us a 'dinosaur prog band'. They only say that out of ignorance because they haven't listened to anything we've done for the last 15 bloody years. If you hear anything we've done in the last five or six years, that description is totally irrelevant." The band is not able to really be shoved into a can. Genesis? No, not even close. Sure Fish's voice was similar to Gabriel's and "Grendel" was essentially a sort of, kind of like "Supper's Ready" and they intended it when Mick Pointer started the group.

That is another serious flaw. I get it! Pointer's drumming was at best basic and he was not a prog drummer. He had been asked to take additional lessons and as Fish said, "That went over like sick in a space suit!" But he started the band and named it and worked his tail off to get it together and Fish being the person he is liked to fire everybody he once called friend saying basically, "No offence, it's just business." Poor Pointer was so traumatized he didn't pick up sticks for 10 years and I would be devastated as well! But he should have listened and done something to improve. Rothery was recruited by him and then Fish and they (Fish) fired the bass player (who was Fish's best friend) and out went Jelliman and in came Pete Trewavas and Mark Kelly.

Listening to "Script" I was not all that impressed and it took a while to grow on me. Garden Party is about the only song I really like much. The lyrics of music usually go over my head so I am attracted to the instrumentation and that is why I love prog. I love the long instrumental sections. Fish's lyrics were written a lot on acid so they make little sense to me. All that being said, I am not the best one to write a review on Marillion's albums. I have grown over time (Marillion is like that for me) to like "Misplaced Childhood" as the best of Fish era material.

Fugazi is a hard one for me. most of the material for "Script" was written without Trewavas or Kelly and so they had not written together as a band much. Drummer Replacement #1 was one of my all time favorites, Andy Ward as I grew up on them so that should have been an instant off the charts addition but with his hidden issue of a suicide attempt after the Camel "Nude" tour and a bi-polar disorder yet revealed and alcoholism, it was not to be. After Drummer Replacement #2 & 3, they landed Ian Mosely. I had Hackett's "Highly Strung" album and like it but did not know at the time he had played on it.

Hackett described him as "a phenomenal drummer" and "phenomenally fast" and rated him up there with Phil Collins. His prog talents were exactly what Marillion needed and the band said that during the tour it was obvious he was musically further along than the rest of the band were and that would profit them tremendously. So, if you are even still reading this I have to say on my reviews here I usually include certain historical pieces as I am a lover of band bios.

That being said, this album was a struggle for them to put together and they ran up a massive tab recording it and to me, that explains a lot. There are a few good moments here and there but the album sounds like one that a band struggled to get material for. "Lady Nina" did not make the album but was released as a studio track on their quick "Reel To Reel" and that would have been a better one than most that made the album. "She Chameleon" is an interesting song and I like the flow through it. The keyboards are dark and brooding and Rothery's solo is a bit Gilmourish like. "Emerald Lies" is decent. "Incubus" sounds a bit like a song that could sit well on "Misplaced" The title track has some good licks on it as well.

There are definitely some good music on this album but as Sean Trane stated it had that "sophomore jinx" to it and it seems a bit that way. I like it better than that but this really was a band in development.