 voice today on the show. First time Steve Rothery. Guitars, extraordinaire of Marillian. How's that? Yeah, well, yes. It's a good intro. Talk to Mark Kelly. I've talked to Steve Agarth in the past, but I finally get you on the show. Very excited. A co-founder from the early days. Yes, 44 years this year since I joined the band. Just to give everybody a quick update, Marillian Weekend in Italy, April 28th to 29th, Montreal, that's where I'm at, May 12th to 14th, UK 27th to 28th of May, and Berlin, Germany 23rd to 24th. And I guess my first question to you is, since we're kind of pushing the Montreal angle a little bit, and we'll have a little bit of trivia for everybody. Let's see what's how Steve does on the Montreal trivia questions. I'll toss them in between questions. First question is, what is this relationship that Marillian has had with Montreal? Tell me about the relationship Marillian's had with Montreal over the years. Well, it goes way back to the first time we played there back, I think, in 1984, the spectrum. It's always been an amazing audience. It's always been the highlight of any tour of the States and Canada, really. Incredible. I mean, the first live album we recorded, part of that was recorded at the spectrum, reel to reel back in 84. Yeah, just magical. I mean, we've had so many fantastic shows in Montreal over the years. Was it anything specific that triggered the following in Montreal? Do you remember? Was it the radio play? Was it just the push? Why more so in Montreal then than, let's say, Toronto? I just think maybe the tastes are a little bit more European, maybe. It just seems to be more of a basic understanding of what the band stood for and a passion for what we did. I mean, Toronto is always good as well, but not to the same degree. It seems to be something that Montreal audience seemed to take us to their house. Absolutely. I remember those days. I remember there was a lot of radio play, especially on reel to reel and just the first album. So we were talking to Kingdom Come, the band that sort of had that Led Zeppelin vibe in 84, 85 around there. They got popular. They're always looking for the next Led Zeppelin when Led Zeppelin sort of stopped in 80. So there was like this demand. Do you think that since you're a co-founder back in the early days, Peter Gabriel is out of the picture, there was a demand for that sound? I'm not saying you guys sounded like them exactly, but of some sort of mystique, romantic prog? I think there's always going to be a certain sort of person who's looking for something that's just a little bit more interesting than straight ahead rock. And I think that's true for every generation. And I think we came through the tail end of the whole punk new wave movement. And in a way, that did kind of change something in terms of how we presented ourselves. I think there's an energy and an attitude even going way back to the early days that you could tell that we'd been through that. It's about as far from ELPs, Love Island, for example, as you could get. So we had those influences of those early and mid 70s bands and those classic albums, but also get a channel through this maybe additional energy. You look at Fisher's lyrics on the first album, things like He Knows You Know and Forgotten Sons. There's a lot of anger there that you wouldn't really get on most, if you want to call them pure prog records. So I think there was something that set us apart. And I think every generation wants to find and discover something new. And we had quite a young audience in those early days. Maybe their older brothers were kind of into heavier music or whatever. People discovered their own thing and followed those devoted leads since those days. And I will say that I've got the Lux box sets here. Here they are. Can you see that? And I want to tell everybody out there, these are beautiful. And the sound quality is just phenomenal. It's a beautiful sort of record of this era. I've got Fubazi 12 and I'm waiting for Holidays in Eden and Season Z. Yeah, it's like the ultimate versions of those records, really, which I think it's a really worthwhile thing. If that's the one you're going to lead people with. Do you guys own the masters of these? Or is it just strictly for the record company? It's a record company, but we cooperate with them in terms of producing the extra contents. And we've got a halfway decent deal. Nothing compared to the later albums that we own. But just the nature of the beast, really, we're dealing with majors. And you sign a deal in those days in perpetuity. So they own it. Perpetuity is the word. Yeah. So you make the best of that situation. All right. So let's jump to some trivia. You ready? Yeah. Since you're coming to Montreal, I might as well throw out some Montreal trivia. You may know what you may or may not know. Don't feel bad. Don't feel bad at all. Maybe you know all that. All right. What is the name of the mountain in the center of Montreal? I will give you two choices. I will give you two choices. Mont Royal or Mount Everest. I think Montreal is probably the one. Ding, ding, ding. You're doing good. Did you know that? Did you know that answer before? No, I didn't. I mean, it was spent a long time in Montreal over the years, especially with the different weekends. So I've seen a fair amount of the city, but not that. So now you know, there's a mountain right in the middle of Montreal. It's called Mont Royal. That's where they derive the name Montreal. Okay. I got you right. Yeah. Now here's an easy one. I'm going to throw a couple of easy ones at you. Céline Dion is from the greater Montreal. True or false? I know she's Canadian. So I'll say yes. Ding, ding, ding. You got it right. That's two out of two. Great stuff. The last question for now is Montreal an island? True or false? True. You got it. True it is. Montreal is an island. Not in the Caribbean sense, but sort of it is an island that you have. You need to get on some bridges to go onto the island. So yes, the greater the sort of central Montreal is an island. All right. Just going to talk quickly about the new album. Here it is. I know you played it last time when you came into Montreal. I'm not sure if you could give away any spoilers. Are you going to be playing a big part of the album this time around? I mean, you can do the same thing more or less. Well, it will be a very different set, but we will include the new album. I mean, people are absolutely loving it. It gets such a strong response from the fan base. And the Montreal Weekend is the only other three-day event, apart from the first one in Port Zealand. All the rest of these weekends are just two-day events. So yeah, so it's going to be very special. An hour before it starts to pick it up, I think it's probably one of my favorite Merleion albums as it stands today. I just, there's something organic and there's something memorable. And I think it's more melodic this time around. It's a lot more melodic. Yeah. It's just amazing, really. It's like it says how it came together. And Michael and to the producer has to take a lot of credit for having the vision. But then when you add all these different elements in like the choir, and it kind of raises the music up a different level. I mean, I did my guitar solo at the end of Chrome Nightingale before the choirs had been added. So then to hear the final mix with those as well, it's quite emotional, really. It is, especially post-COVID when you listen to it, the lyrics really resonate with sort of the losses that happen and the confusion. No, definitely. That's a subconscious theme that's running throughout, right? Yeah. And especially with the track Care, really. It's an album that could only have been made by living through the pandemic, really. And I think it's, I'm very proud of it. I think it's quite a remarkable album. And the difficulty is going to be trying to follow it with the next one. That is always the case. Yes, always. All right. Tell me about, so Montreal is the only official three-day weekend. What can fans expect? Say somebody wants to go to this weekend. What can they expect if you had to just sort of like to pitch them in 30 seconds? Yeah. Like I say, it's a second three-day event after the first original one in Port Zealand. But it's a full-on marine experience, really. I mean, we have the best audience in the world. So there was a passion and the excitement for the music, I think is very, very rare these days. It's a great live band, a great light show, and it's a party, really, for people who like good music. Are there sort of like afternoon events? I remember last year there was like a book signing during the day. I think it was Mark Kelly who was signing. Yeah. Are there little sort of events that are going on throughout the day or not? I don't know, actually. I haven't seen the timetable. I mean, there's normally like unofficial things that are happening down at the Brutopia pub. So I'm sure there'll be some things that are happening, but I haven't actually had the timetable. Let's get Lucy on the horn. All right. Just quickly, I'm going to be jumping back and forth throughout time. As a big Merlion fan growing up, big Iron Maiden fan growing up, Rod Smallwood was, I guess, your official or non-official consultant in the US back in the day. Tell me about that relationship. And I'll tell you where I'm going with this, because there's a lot of metalheads who are Merlion fans and a lot of Prague fans who are metalhead fans. Absolutely. I think people can enjoy a wide spectrum of music. Yeah, Rod. Rod's a real character. John Arneson brought him along like a consultant manager in that time in the 80s when we were trying to break America. I've known him since those days. I mean, there was a period after we left John Arneson and hit and run management where Sanctuary manages for a year or two. And yeah, he's one of a kind. Was the whole sort of marketing of Rod? Guys, let's also get in crying. Let's also appeal to those hard rockers, metalheads at the time. Yeah, that just came about quite naturally. I think we were maybe partly because of the logo was so distinctive on the first records. You know, you'd see people with denim jackets or leather jackets with the logo written or painted on. I think so there's a very strong identity. And it's, you know, that's one in your own thing, one in your own new band for your generation. But then, you know, we had tracks like Kaley and Laminder in the top of the heavy metal charts, which obviously is about as far from heavy metal as you could get. But it was just rock fans, really, I would say, more than heavy metal fans. Just people who like to hear guitars, who like music with a bit of attitude. And yeah, I think there was quite a crossover especially in the fish years with that kind of audience. Tell me about Mick Pointer and his sort of his stay and what was and again, you know, I followed Irina as well. And I know you even guessed it on Irina. I believe it was a guitar song or the tracks. I mean, is the relationship still is it still strong today? Or is it you guys are amical? Yeah, I saw Mick for the first time when we're doing the filming for the documentary to go along with the script for a Justice Tier reissue. I saw him very briefly. It's the first time I've seen him in, I don't know, 10 or 15 years. So there's not really a kind of relationship there as such. You know, it was making the original bass player, Doug Irving, who was marooning or still marooning in those days when I auditioned and joined back in 1979. I always got really well with Mick. It's part of his personality that could be a little bit prickly. But when fish join, it was it was a bit of a clash of egos between the two of them, really, where they both thought of the band as being their bands. And of course, who were wrong? It was my band. But it was just one of those things, you know, Mick, I think, was a little complacent. He wasn't the most natural drummer in the world. You know, he had a certain flair, but he was a very technical player. And we came up against quite a lot of limitations recording the first album script for Justice Tier. And then like this personality conflict between him and Fish got to that point where, you know, there had to be a change, really. Is it true you wrote most of the music on the first few albums? Who? Mick? You. I mean, I was going to say, yes. I'll make you. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the this parts of script, I wrote more of sections, big sections in the web have got the sun's parts of script itself. Quite a lot of Chelsea Monday, I suppose. Yeah, during the fish years, I probably wrote about 80 to 85% of the music, at least the initial ideas, you know, you then you're arranged and maybe everyone does their thing and then both paint and mark are brilliant to coming up with parts, but the basic structures or the chord changes or the, you know, some of the most important parts I came up with. That changed slightly when, when Steve Hergath joined with more of a sort of like a mixture these days, where some certain people will write certain sections or somebody will write a section and then we kind of develop it. But yeah, it's it's one of the few things I'm really good at. I mean, it must have been somewhat of a relief when Steve Hergath joined. Okay, now all the pressure is not on you, but now you can also flesh out ideas that he has started with. Yeah, absolutely. When we first started playing the Easter idea, I mean, it was just the first part of the song without the guitar solo and the guitar part was actually what the what the keyboards playing on the record. So I kind of brought my own interpretation to that. And then the solo section was something that I improvised that we just happened to record that I could go back and relearn and we could incorporate. So yeah, it's it was a great and it is a great musical chemistry. You know, you've got five very creative people in the band. Sometimes you have more music than you can use, which is a it's a good problem to have. It's a good problem to have. All right, back to trivia. You ready? Yeah, a little bit. Frank Marino of Mahogany Rush is from Montreal, true or false? Uh, true. Yeah, Frank Marino is from Montreal and he still lives here. Right, I did have a Mahogany Rush. I had a Mahogany Rush album, actually, one vinyl. Oh yeah. Is Getty Lee from Rush originally from Montreal, true or false? False. You got it. You're doing great so far. Look at this. Hey, was April Wine formed in Montreal, true or false? Oh, I wouldn't know. True. Nope, it's it's somewhat true. It's actually they formed in Halifax on the East Coast, but then came to Montreal to sort of break the band. Oh, well, I'm not sure if you're an April Wine fan or not. No, not really. Okay. All right. Here we go. Who was not a Montrealer? Who was not a Montrealer? Leonard Cohen, Oscar Peterson, or Alanis Morissette? Not. I'll say it again. Leonard Cohen, Oscar Peterson, the jazz pianist, or Alanis Morissette? Freaky one, huh? I'm going to get it wrong anyway, but I say Alanis Morissette. You got it right. Leonard Cohen, yeah, grew up in Montreal, was raised in Montreal, recorded in Montreal, and of course, he went off to Greater Pastures, passed away. Oscar Peterson from Montreal, from immigrant parents, and he even has like an auditorium named after him in, you know, in the University of Montreal here. Right. I remember he used to have a TV show in the UK, and I remember, yeah, Keith Emerson appearing on it. Oh, yeah. All right. Tell me about Steve Hackett now. Steve Hackett, you're going to do some shows. That's pretty exciting. Yeah. Well, Steve and I have been working on a project together for quite a long time now, which I've tried to move forward recently. We had another session a few months ago based on some music we did together some six years ago on the previous writing session, and I kind of, with my keyboard player from my solo band, Riccardo Romano, did quite a lot of arranging of these ideas. And yeah, I think we've got the basis of a quite an interesting album. Are you going to play some shows together as well? It really depends. I mean, he's so incredibly busy, and my timetable with Marillian keeps me pretty busy. I mean, I sneak in some solo shows. Occasionally, I've got a few throughout Europe in June and September, October this year. But generally speaking, yeah, Marillian, it's a pretty much a full time. I'm in the middle of making three different projects at the moment outside of Marillian, this album with Steve Hackett by Reventulae's Space-Themed Instrumental Album and an album with Thorsten questioning from Tangerine Dream. So I'm keeping busy. Okay. Let's go back to trivia. French fries with gravy and curd cheese is called Putin or Putin. Oh, yeah, this could go very, very wrong. Putin or Putin? Putin. You got it, my friend. It's a good, it's a good choice. It's a good answer. Is Montreal best known for Philly steaks, Philly cheese steaks or bagels? Well, I don't think I've had either of those. So that's a really difficult question. Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve, you haven't had a Montreal bagel? Yeah. There's a hint right there. Oh, well, I think it's going to be bagels. So Montreal is known for its bagels. So when you come to Montreal, make sure to pick up some bagels. Will do. They're iconic. If you like bagels, maybe you don't like bagels. Love bagels. Yeah, I'll be there for a week. So make sure I will buy one of them. All right. Is Montreal best known for smoked meat or smoked meat? Is Montreal best known for smoked meat or smoked meat? Smoked meat. You got it. Everybody gets that wrong even in Montreal. People say smoked meat. It's not smoked meat. It's smoked. That's the proper English. That's why I have an Englishman on. Yeah. Here's one more. Here's the last one. True or false? The Montreal flag, the official flag of Montreal represents the English, the French, the Aboriginals, the Scottish and the Irish as the sort of founders of the city who built the city up. True or false? False? True. True? Well, Montreal flag has the English, what's the symbol of the English? Union Jack. Yes. No, not the Union Jack. Not the Union Jack. That's the British. Oh, the England. Right. Right. The shield. The flower. The rose. The rose. The rose. The rose. See, I even forgot. The French Fleur de Lis. The Aboriginal, I think it's a pine tree. The Scottish and of course the Irish, what they're for leaf clover. So those are the pictures on the Montreal flag. So when you pass by Montreal, take a look at the flag and say, wow, I didn't know that. That's pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. We'll check that out when we land next time. All right. Let's get back to it. What about music for a new album? Are you guys, are you just tossing ideas around, thinking about it? Yeah. You know, it's a very different state of mind when you turn your focus to writing. So at the moment, we're just in performing mode, you know, it's like, to do these brilliant weekends, you have to keep between six and seven hours of music in your head. It doesn't leave much space to come up with new things. Having said that, I mean, there was some ideas from the last album that we didn't use that we might well revisit. There's one complete song that was great, but just wasn't didn't fit in with with the rest of the stuff for the for the record. So we've got probably going to be spending most of 2024 writing and then probably start recording towards the end of it, hopefully for a release in 2025. But you know, when you spend six to eight months of the year rehearsing and then playing these weekends around the world, it doesn't leave much time to do anything else. Yeah. All right. Naming your favorite solo in the fish era and your favorite solo in the Steve Hogarth era? In the fish era, probably incubus. That's the first solo I've had. I felt like I really kind of defined what it was I wanted to do on the guitar. And so many solos were the hate era, but probably the last solo in this strange engine. Always an amazing response. Yeah. What about name your favorite album in the fish era and your name, your favorite album in the Steve Hogarth era, which is probably a little more difficult because there's a lot more albums there. I get that. Yeah. Fish era, I'd say probably clutch in its rows. So the Steve Hogarth era is almost impossible. But I'd say probably afraid of sunlight. I think it's a great collection of very different songs. Yeah. I would agree with you, too. I mean, I would say that afraid of sunlight in this album are like on par with each other. Yeah. No, I kind of go along with that. And it had that same vibe. Is there anything you want to say about the upcoming shows that I didn't actually ask you? No, not really, I think. I would just look really looking forward to it. It's always such a pleasure to visit Montreal and try and explore the city and do what you can. You get over the jet lag as soon as possible so you can go off exploring. Okay. So now you know about the bagels. You know about the smoked meat. You know about the flag. You know about who came from here as musicians. Now you're going to look for all these little things. Yeah. Yeah. And it's a real pleasure to walk around. You know, there's loads of interesting parts I find to the city, not just the old part, but you know, some of the other places. I can't even remember the names of them because my daughter took us around a few places. But yeah, really, really interesting. All right. And on that note, Steve, thank you so much. Look forward to seeing you guys in Montreal watching the shows. Much appreciated. Thank you for your time. Cheers. Good speechy.