Planet Marzipan - A Marillion and Fish Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Joining Craig & Mezza to discuss the mighty Afraid of Sunlight album are Mikie Kay, Grae Tennick and James Levey. There is a lot of love for the final album of the original EMI contracts and that is reflected in the conversation here.

Chat includes the origins of the Racket Club, the dilemma of following up the "Brave" album and EMI losing faith with the band. This crucial period for Marillion, sees the seeds of the current set up for the band being sown, H's lyrics taking on a more personal angle, Rothers moving away from his trademark sound, the spilt from John Arnison and leaving EMI.

Look out for Part 2 next week.

Mezza & Craig meet Sharon & Martin aka Candacraig to discuss their love for Marillion and their upcoming special gigs as a 5 piece band featuring a retelling of Marillion's Brave album.

Chat also includes the history of Candacraig, their 2 albums, the origins of their name and lots more besides, all with the usual PM level of irreverence !

For more details on Candacraig visit https://candacraig.net

For tickets for their gigs visit https://candacraig.net/tour-dates/

Craig and Mezza are joined by Georgina Wistow, James Levey and pod newby, Fraser Marshall, from the Web UK team, to discuss the Anoraknophobia album.

Chat includes track by track analysis (including the origins of the tracks), the end of the Castle deal and the return to EMI, the pre-order and the return of "Just for the Record".

Listen out for Part 3, next week, covering the Anorak tour and the "Anorak in the UK" live album.

The PM team are on the road again, joined by Mark Owens, they head off to Manchester for a weekend with The Steve Rothery Band, at the Band on the Wall!

Listen in for reviews of both SRB gigs, interviews with Leon Parr, Martin Jakubski and Steve Rothery from the SRB and a chat with Mike Barton, on merch duties for the weekend.

Mezza & Craig are joined by Lucy Jordache to talk about how she came to work for Marillion and the fun and games around the lead up to the Anoraknophobia album.

Chat includes the first pre-order campaign, the UK university tour, the BOGOF single campaign, re-signing with EMI, what a communications manager actually does and lots more besides.

Later on in the chat, Ian Mosley joins the discussion to share his memories and recollections of this exciting time in the bands history.

Listen out for parts 2 & 3 covering the album, tour and Anorak in the UK live album, soon.

The PM team travel to Gateshead's Three Tuns pub to catch the Cillirion (UK based Marillion tribute) boys, live, for the first time. As it's another PM on the road episode..expect an in depth review of the the gig, along with some interesting interviews of varying audio quality! :-)

Mark, Les, Ady, John and Mike talk to the PM guys about how they became a Marillo tribute band and their love for the bands music.

The band have UK dates booked for the rest of 2024. All details are on their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/cillirion

Join Mezza & Craig as they chat to Mark McCormac and Claude Micallef Attard from the Marko's Marillion Museum Facebook page. Mark and Claude tell the PM boys about how the MMM team came together. Hear about the origins of this vast collection of music, memorabilia and much more!

Talk includes the origins of the boys fandom, some of the rare items in the collection and an exclusive audio clip of the Stone Dome Band (including Fish & Diz Minnitt) from 1980.

Craig & Mezza are joined by James Levey & Dave Dobbie to discuss the final album of the deal with Castle Communications, Marillion.com! Chat includes the origins of the album, the trials of mixing the album, a track by track review of the album and talk of the Marillion.com tour.

Also hear Craigs story of Ron Smallwood - guaranteed to make you smile!

The PM team meet Georgina Wistow - aka the Port Zelande Merch Queen and author of the Ian Mosley book "Do I Owe you Money?". In a lively chat listen in as George tells us about how Marillion have made a huge impact on her life, meeting her best friend, Marillion Manager, Lucy Jordache, how she came to work for Marillion and her double life ! :-)

George also tells us which merch ideas worked and which were, erm, less than succesful ! Is your favourite item in the list?

Does she give away any of Lucy's secrets? Listen in to find out!

Join Mezza & Craig as they chat to Andrew Wild about his new book focussing on the early 80s wave of prog rock and centering around the Marquee club in London - "A Mirror of Dreams - The Progressive Rock Revival 1981 - 1983".

Gregory Spawton from Kingmaker Publishing (and Big Big Train) is also on hand to give some first hand tales of the time as well as the story behind the genesis of the book.

As well as lots of stories from the time the book features some wonderful photos (many previously unseen) of the origins of Marillion, Pallas, I.Q. , Twelfth Night, Solstice & Pendragon.

The book is available to order at Burning Shed https://burningshed.com/andrew-wild_a-mirror-of-dreams_book

Neil Cockles band, referred to in this episode, is The Mighty Bard. https://themightybard.bandcamp.com