Snardbafulator wrote:This is a great thread, prowler. Thanks muchly.
I've never heard Marillion but I'm sure I'd loathe them from the first ginormous Mellotron chord. Progrock isn't a "style" to begin with, so when you try to calcify it into one you defeat the purpose in a way you never would with blues.
Well for starters I don't think Marillion ever used a Mellatron except maybe in their pre-recording deal days some 30odd years ago.
Secondly, Marillion have been trying to shake a tag that the music press have pinned on them since day one which bears no relation to where the band have been for some decades now, i.e. a "a prog-rock band that sing about goblins" (to quote whatever orifice Jonathan Ross excreted that one from).
Sure, there are elements of what one could consider "prog" just as there are in Cardaics, but then there's other influences in both bands music across the whole range of styles, but for some reason its the "prog" on that always seems to stick - after all using a drum machine doesn't make a band "dance" does it?
While I'm a newly converted fan to Cardaics (after seeing them 28 years ago mind) I'd wager there's a lot of - albeit non musical - similarities between them and Marillion, i.e. ignored misunderstood by the music press or treated with hostility, marginalised by the mainstream, musically diverse bands that refuse to fit neatly arranged labels, loyal fan following who have equally eclectic musical tastes rather than being fans of one genre of another.
And I'll tell you what - there's an awful lot of long-time Marillion fans who remember Cardiacs with a lot of affection and respect. I often wonder whether time has filtered out the musically intolerant element who even rejected the band for not doing the same old shtick over and over again.
I'm always pleasantly surprised by the breadth, diversity and sometimes downright oddness 
of the fans musical tastes.