The Marillion Round Table

Hello, Eric. Nice to see you.

The thread burps into life only sporadically these days. Needs a bit of a kick start, really.

Anyhow, I will ask a simple question. FEAR. I think it is a work of genius, and well in the top five of Marillion albums.

Agree or disagree?

Dellinger I think you'll find that the new album is not only more like the "Epic Style of writing" that is "The Final Breath Before November" but probably exceeds it. And yes they did re-release the first album and added Haunted Memories to it as a hidden track which is one of their best previous songs (which was a b-side from A Million Miles Away). 

I agree with you about SBHAT that it is a bit of a mashup with some very good moments (Growing Down in Brooklyn is a very cool song) but in the end was a bit all over the place. The fact that the band went dark for 4 years after it and not explaining it except for a brief commentary on the inside of the album didn't help matters. Finally Pete Trewavas came out publicly to let the world know about a month ago what that was all about and why E.C. disappeared for so long while leaving behind the "cutting room floor album" Somewhere Between Here and There which was meant to introduce Rick Armstrong (Son of Neil Armstrong - 1st man on the moon and one great step and all that) after Rick had played with them live before Eric's severe injury. 

The Lead singer/lead guitarist Eric Blackwood who wrote a large part of the two epic albums with Pete Trewavas was badly mangled in an accident where he does Special FX for big Hollywood motion pictures. (Blackwood did the FX on I Am Legend and American Gangster and Spiderman 3 and Men In Black 3 and dozens of others as you can see on wiki). While Pete Trewavas won't come out and say publicly exactly what happened and Eric Blackwood has been very tight lipped about it and says he legally can't talk about it, one of Marillion's techs who I know well said that his bicep was completely severed in the accident and whatever was left had to be "drilled into his armpit" causing him to not be able to play for several years and several surgeries later Eric is still trying to learn how to use the arm which is in a constant state of pain. If that wasn't bad enough Blackwood was also rumored to have caught MRSA which was on a few of the Marillion boards. Eric mentioned at the recent Marillion weekend that while that was a rumor he did have one of the worst cases of Lyme Disease after being bit on the knee by a poisonous spider and was hooked up to an IV for several years which Pete Trewavas confirmed in a video he put out about Eric Blackwood's condition last month. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6FxpjpFFlM  The band decided to put out an album of "non-epic" related stuff (thus the title Somewhere Between Here and There) while the original album they were supposed to put out "The Disturbance Fields" was put on the back burner until Eric could play again properly. With Rick Armstrong now making the band a trio, Rick was able to finish up Eric's parts while adding some of his own style and the album that was supposed to come out back in 2015 and didn't (which led to the release of SBHAT), finally came out on 7/20/2019 which was the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong landing on the moon. 

So the reason for Somewhere Between Here and There was to let the fans know that they weren't gone forever but taking a break while they figured out what to do with all of Eric's sudden health crisis issues. It was meant to keep the fans from forgetting about them in the meantime but it may have had the adverse effect in that it may have scared away some who were left wondering "what exactly is this"?

Luckily The Disturbance Fields which may have left us waiting since 2013' The Final Breath Before November for the "real new album" was worth the wait. Eric Blackwood also was able to finally take the stage again and though he admitted he was "heavily medicated", actually did a fine job live playing with Edison's Children at the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong's Apollo 11 Celebration at Cape Canaveral. His vocals were as good as ever and they played a lot of classics and a few new tunes along with the encore of Games People Play with the Alan Parsons Project. Just would have preferred after hearing how good this album was that they did more of the new album and more of The Final Breath Before November. Especially "The Approaching Front/Indigenous" which along with A Random Disturbance and Asphyxiation, may be the best things they've done. I do understand though they were playing for astronauts and people there to celebrate Apollo 11 and probably had to do a "festival set" with their hits more than the AOR style of songs I would have preferred to hear like The Longing and Where Were You.

I started listening to Marillion 35 years ago and never stopped. In 1983 CHOM-FM (in Montreal, Canada) did start to play He Knows You Know on a regular basis, and I told myself "prog seems to be back". I ran to the music store to look for that new band and found out that album with its so nice artwork. Bought it immediately and loved it

I will say that I never will consider Marillion a solid favorite as I never have liked either Fish’s or H’s vocals. I mainly turn to Marillion for the guitar work of Rothery.