I'm punting, I'm beagling, I'm whining, reclining....

[poltr1]

One of my favorite springtime tunes is "Garden Party" by Marillion, off of their first album, Script for a Jester's Tear. It's a somewhat romanticized version of the goings-on at an English garden party -- punting on the Cam, beagling on the downs (which I assume is a reference to a fox hunt), consumption of fine alcoholic beverages, and some casual trysts. The lyrics are here. (Not exactly safe for work.)

Marillion is one of my favorite progressive rock bands. Although I must admit I haven't heard much of their music after the departure of lead vocalist Fish. And I wish I can solo like keyboardist Mark Kelly. I often find myself playing air keyboard to some of his solos.

Comments

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Heh. Script is undeniably my favorite Marillion album (though I have a strong place in my heart for the earlier EP with "Grendel" and "Market Square Heros" (in fact, I always thought the latter ought to have been used by the NBA's Indiana Pacers when they played at Indianapolis' Market Square Arena)). But I always preferred side 1 -- sorry, old vinyl habits :-D -- that is, the first three songs, "Script for a Jester's Tear", "He Knows, You Know", and "The Web" slightly over side 2.

I should post you some of their early live stuff; not now, for I must sleep before work -- but later in the week, perhaps.

[poltr1]

I can wait. Years ago, a colleague in Holland whom I met via BITNET Relay sent me a cassette tape of "Real to Reel", the "Market Square Heroes" EP, and the singles of "Cinderella Search" and "Charting the Single". I would very much like to digitize that recording. And I'd like to get back in touch with him, if at all possible.

Indeed, "Grendel" is a POWERFUL piece of music, especially the last section. Blows away "Stairway to Heaven", in my opinion. But clocking in at 17 minutes, it's not likely to get any airplay.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

In liew of me posting some of mine, here's some links where you can grab your own, absent torrents:

http://qualitybootz.blogspot.com/search/label/Marillion Quality Bootz is an excellent site, and their material is lossless (reposted from various torrent sites) and I highly recommend them. I do suggest using both mirrors to decrease the time of your download.

http://dexondaz.blogspot.com/search?q=marillion Only one show here(1985-06-18
Arena Puccini, Bologna, Italy), and I hope it hasn't been killed off the server yet. Get it while you can. Lossless.

http://soundaboard.blogspot.com/search/label/Marillion Three more shows. I think they're lossless. Note that these guys have passwords for the RAR or Zip files you'll download, so I recommend tucking a quick text file into the download folder just in case. (I've lost a show or two when I couldn't figure out where I'd gotten it and couldn't crack the password.)

ETA: http://theultimatebootlegexperience.blogspot.com/search/label/Marillion 11 more; there may be some overlap. These are, I think, all in MP3 and include a couple of very old shows and rehearsals.

I recommend dbPowerAmp for converting FLAC to MP3; if you prefer not to pay or crack, FLAC Front End is completely free and works fine. (I don't think any of these are in SHN; if they are and you have trouble, let me know.)

Enjoy!