Clutching at Straws by Marillion and The End of the Fish Era

Clutching at Straws by Marillion (1987),  Fish's final studio album, was the last of a four-album series that included Script for a Jester's Tear (1983), Fugazi (1984), and Misplaced Childhood (1985), which revolves around Jester, the jester played by Fish during the live concerts supporting the album.

Since this album marks the end of an era for this great band, it's worth remembering that Marillion is a British band formed in 1979 that made a fundamental contribution to neo-progressive rock.

The band has spanned two distinct eras, defined by their two lead singers: Fish and Steve Hogarth.

The Fish era spanned from their early days in 1981 to 1988. Their name was originally Silmarillion (after the book by J.R.R. Tolkien), later shortened to Marillion, and they reached the pinnacle of creativity and fame with Fish (Derek Dick). Their sound was a complex, dark progressive rock that is often compared to early Genesis. This phase saw great success, with all albums charting high (especially in the UK), peaking with Misplaced Childhood, which reached #1, driven by the singles "Kayleigh" and "Lavender."

Fish left the band in late 1988, after the release of their fourth album, Clutching at Straws, due to a variety of reasons: creative and personal tensions with the rest of the band, a desire to pursue a solo career, and increasingly difficult artistic differences, especially regarding the band's musical direction and long-term planning. Fish decided to seek more personal expression. After leaving Marillion, Derek Dick focused on a successful solo career, producing several excellent albums, maintaining a progressive-rock sound while also exploring more traditional rock-oriented sounds, often with introspective and complex lyrics.

The Steve Hogarth era spans from 1989, when the former member of Europeans replaced Fish as lead singer, to the present day. Hogarth's arrival changed the band's musical direction, incorporating rock and pop influences and distancing themselves from their previous neo-prog sound.
Even with Hogarth, the band's success continues to be significant; their first album, Seasons End (1989), even reached the top ten.

Another characteristic of this band is that they were among the first mainstream groups to make extensive use of the internet to connect with fans and are pioneers of crowdfunding. For example, their 2001 album, Anoraknophobia, was pre-ordered by fans to finance the recording process, a fairly common practice today.

They have had numerous successes, with their 2022 album, An Hour Before It's Dark, reaching number two in the UK album charts.

The band's current lineup has been solidified for years and consists of:
Steve Hogarth on lead vocals, Steve Rothery on guitar, Mark Kelly on keyboards, Pete Trewavas on bass (who we mentioned for his side project Transatlantic), and Ian Mosley on drums.

Clutching at Straws is an album that, like the three masterpieces that preceded it, is simply beautiful and contains all the nuances that made us love Marillion up until that point, and listening to it today, it loses none of its charm.

It's an album characterized by great emotional depth, poetic lyrics, and atmospheric rock songs. It contains under-recognized masterpieces like "Sugar Mice," which is also one of the band's best singles, a very emotional ballad, but also the energetic "Incommunicado," the atmospheric "Warm Wet Circles," and the powerful "White Russian." The album's themes revolve around alcoholism, loneliness, and drug abuse, with a concept that follows the protagonist in a bar.

During the writing of this album, tensions began between Fish and the other band members, with the sad ending of his departure during the album's promotional tour.

It's incredible how certain fantastic stories end so abruptly, like that of Peter Gabriel and Genesis, and those who loved them so much are left with a mixture of shock and disbelief: how many more masterpieces could they have given us?

So all that's left is to listen to the immense ones they gave us, like this one. What power! What atmosphere! What voice! And what bass lines!!!

Note: All links to the musicians' works are in the TAGS under the article title or on the "Artists" page.