| Postmankind : March 2000 |
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At the age of 12, Ben Castle saw Marillion at the Milton Keynes Bowl, Buckinghamshire, England. He even bought the T-shirt; but he didn't want to tell his parents he'd spent the 7 pounds. Little did he know that 14 years later he'd be on stage with us. How did this come about? Well I'll tell you. |
| Ben made contact with me originally shortly after the Milton Keynes concert to ask me some questions regarding cymbals and hitting things - back then, he was an aspiring drummer. A few years later, I was in the airport lounge in Cannes, awaiting my return flight from a very wet weekend holiday. This very young person wearing a Zildjian T-shirt came up and introduced himself to me. This was, of course, Ben. He had been in France with his family. The weather had been particularly dreadful, and through sheer boredom, he had decided to travel back to England to continue playing gigs. After discovering that he didn't have a ride home from Heathrow, I offered to give him a lift as he only lived up the road from me in Gerrards Cross. On Christmas Eve that year, there was a knock at my front door, and there was Ben and his father bearing gifts of champagne and chocolates as a thank-you for the free ride home. (What lovely people!) |
| Over 10 years later on the Radiation tour, Ben was in Wolverhampton for a recording session, and coincidentally we were playing at the Wolverhampton Civic Centre. He was wandering around the shops in the afternoon, and started seeing lots of people wearing Marillion T-shirts, so he thought he'd come and check us out. We met up after the concert and had a lengthy chat. I was to discover that Ben had progressed from playing drums and had become one of England's top saxophonists (and all things wind); he'd recently been working with bands such as Kula Shaker and Brand New Heavies. I asked Ben if he had any material, and if he'd like to get together for a jam, time permitting. Due to pressure of work, we left it at that. |
| Meanwhile, after the Radiation tour, Marillion returned to the studio and began writing marillion.com. One track in particular (Deserve) seemed to be crying out for a saxophone solo, so straight away Ben sprang to mind. After hearing the results, I really became very enthusiastic about working with Ben on some kind of project. |
| In some down time at the Racket Club, in between finishing marillion.com and the tour, Ben myself and Pete got together to jam. Ben came to the studio with rough arrangements of 8 or 9 tracks - things progressed very quickly, and after 3 days we decided to carry on and make a record! Now we're in March 2000 and all the backing tracks are complete, with the help of keyboard player Mark Edwards (Incognito, Aztec Camera, Marc Almond). We are at present inviting various guitarists to come and make fools of themselves. Possibilities so far include John Etheridge (Soft Machine, Stefan Grapelli, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie), who incidentally I worked with in my first professional band - Darryl Way's Wolf - when I was 18... (but that's another story!); Steve Hackett (ex-Genesis); and Steve Rothery (who I've definitely worked with before somewhere...). And there's still a brass section to go on there as well. |
| The thing that I've noticed throughout the whole process of recording this album so far is that it has been extremely enjoyable. Everybody is just having a bloody good time. Hopefully this will be reflected in the finished project, however trying to describe the music is like trying to glue down smoke, as it is so diverse. |
| From Ben being an aspiring drummer at the age of 12, to becoming a comrade in the trenches of making music, seems all a little bit Celestine Prophecy to me. But, hey, being positive is not such a bad thing! (Bit I never read the Celestine Prophecy part 2, and it might have all gone horribly wrong!) |
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