P*I*N*K
F*L*O*Y*D
INTERACTIONS
DATABASE

Marillion
Fish

• The sleeve of A Saucerful of Secrets is reproduced on the artwork for Marillion's debut album, Script for a Jester's Tear, along with singles by Marillion and Bill Welson.

• The sleeve of The Wall appears on Fugazi, the follow-up to Script for A Jester's Tear, in 1984, as do two Peter Hamill LP sleeves. "Real music to slash your wrists to", said keyboardist Mark Kelly.

• In the unreleased Marillion song Institutional Waltz the phrase

  "the madcap laughed, he knew the score ..."

  can be found. This song has been released on the Yin album by Fish.

• Another unreleased, pre-Fish, Marillion track, called Lady Fantasy (a.k.a. The Madcap Embrace), is about Syd Barret.

• On the chorus section of the Spirit of the Forest video Fish can be seen between two of his heroes, Dave Gilmour and Kate Bush.

• "The first rock album I ever bought was A Saucerful of Secrets", said Marillion guitarist Steve Rothery. And in 1989 he named Gilmour as his favourite guitarist and Comfortably Numb as the track with his favourite guitar solo.

• Mark Kelly, according to his words, "was into the heavier side of things ... Pink Floyd and Yes were as light as I would go."

• The teenage Kelly went to see Pink Floyd in 1977:

  "I'd never seen anything like it. They were truly great; really impressive. I was absolutely amazed."

• In an early tour book, Rothery, Fish and keyboard player Mark Kelly listed Pink Floyd as a favourite band; Rothery and Fish nominated Animals and The Wall, respectively, among their favourite albums.

• In 1988 Fish acrimoniously exited Marillion amidst law-suit galore. However, he moaned,

  "I get really annoyed at the way I've been set up as a Roger Waters-type character ..."

• Had he not left in 1989, Marillion's next album, said Fish, would have been produced by The Wall".

• Fish (whose new studio is The Funny Farm) was replaced by Steve Hogarth, who named Pink Floyd among his favourites.

• The release of The Thieving Magpie, Marillion's live album from 1988, almost coincided with that of Pink Floyd's Delicate Sound of Thunder. Also The Division Bell and Brave, as well as P*u*l*s*e and Afraid of Sunlight were released in the same month, all by EMI.

• Photo sessions for Afraid of Sunlight were held, amongst other places, in Battersea Powerstation which could already be admired on Floyd's Animals in 1977. The same Battersea Powerstation can be seen somewhere in the background in Brave, the Movie.

• In the same movie we can find the title of a Pink Floyd album on the back of a postcard, which is of course Wish You Were Here.

• Pink Floyd's Fearless can be found on Fish's coveralbum from 1993, Songs from the Mirror. During the matching tour Fish opened his gigs with this song. The live version can be found on the double album Sushi.

• On the June 17 1995 (?) Dutch fanclub convention, Marillion played Arnold Layne during their encore. A week later Marillion's Stve Hogarth cited a part of Pink Floyd's song Bike.

• The river Cam, which lends Cambridge it's name, is used on Pink Floyd's Signs of Life video. Marillion sings about it in Garden Party:

  "Punting on the Cam can be fun"

  ---

• Finally, below is the collection of Fish's quotes in which he mentions Pink Floyd or its memebers:
  • On infinite diversity in infinite combinations :

    "Simple Minds used to play Genesis and Floyd. But you'll never catch Jimbo (Jim Kerr) talking about that."

  • On Pink Floyd and their offspring

    "Social comment, great ! But Animals was social comment in three- syllable words, rather than one-syllable guttural screams ... The Final Cut is so political, blatantly political. Roger Waters is a punk ! He wrote The Wall because he realised what was happening around 1974/75 both to himself as an individual and to the Floyd as a machine. Now we know what to watch out for. The Wall to us is a blueprint."

  • On a misplaced childhood :

    "After Genesis and ELO, I got into Pink Floyd. Meddle and Dark Side of the Moon were the first two Floyd albums I bought ... I missed the significance of pop in the early 70's because I was too busy getting deep and meaningful with my Genesis, Floyd and Van Der Graaf Generator albums."

  • On dinosaur death rattles:

    "Some bands managed to ride the storm: Floyd survived, Yes didn't ..."

  • On the injustice of it all:

    "What I find really disgusting is that the most powerful comment on the Falklands, Pink Floyd's The Final Cut, didn't reach as many people as it should have. You know why ? Because everybody was told it was sooo unhip to like anything by the Floyd."

  • On the teenage wastelands:

    "When The Wall came out, I used to play the whole album four times a night. I'd sit and analyse it, and that pulled me out of my depression and pushed me into the musical side."

  • On the bore and the bottle:

    "When I'm really pissed up, once I start talking about Dark Side of the Moon, just walk away !"

  • On street value:

    "I'm not involved in the pure Holiday Inn Roger Waters The Wall syndrome ... I insist on putting two feet out there."

  • On one, matey:

    "There are a lot of undeclared concept albums, where only the fans really know what the concept is. I owned Dark Side of the Moon for years before I realised what Roger Waters was going on about. The album is a tour with a rock band, from start to finish."

  • On the Tides of KAOS:

    "It's nice and positive. I've always loved Roger Waters' stuff, ever since the early days. He's very underrated as a lyricist; his subject matters and things he deals with. Also, we did interviews with Jim Ladd in LA the last time we were there, talking about loads of issues. He said, 'Yeah, Roger Waters phoned me up, three or four weeks ago, about the Falklands or something'. He said he regularly phones him and says 'Don't believe what the papers say'. It gets a little bit too political sometimes. As an album I love it; what I've got out of it. But you've gotta really study his stuff. It ain't something you can just put on and get exactly what it was about from first-hand."

  • On the Clash of the Titans:

    "Roger's stuff is a hell of a lot harder, and I find Dave's stuff just a little bit too light. The match between them works well, but that's gone now."

  • ... reviewing Dark Side of the Moon in High Fidelity:

    "What more has to be said about this album ! I first heard it on a cassette copy in '73 and every time I've ever bought hi-fi speakers I've taken this CD along for the demonstration. Of all the Floyd albums this is the one I go back to most. It's also one of the few albums from the progressive bands that still holds its own today. For me it was as major an album as Sergeant Pepper, pointing the way as a production model for the rest to follow. My favourite tracks on the album though, have to be Time and Us and Them. Give me three o'clock in the morning, a log fire, scented candles and a good red wine and watch me mellow-out. Just an old hippie really !!!"