Introduction: Clutching At Straws was the fourth and last Marillion studio album to feature Fish on vocals. In some ways, Clutching is an odd album. This is mainly due to some of the discussion about it in the press that occurred after Fish's departure. Fish declared "Clutching At Straws was my self-penned obituary" in a post split interview (Gone Fishing - Kerrang! 1989) with the band's chronicler, Mick Wall.
Introduction: From an unnamed article in No1 Magazine written by Debbie Voller on 30 May 1987, sent to me by Kristie English:
Introduction: From an unnamed article in No1 Magazine written by Debbie Voller on 30 May 1987, sent to me by Kristie English:
Fish: "This song's about small, home town stuff; the dangers of getting trapped in the 9:00 to 5:00 syndrome and then
going down to the pub and talking about things you'll never really do, y'know, "I'd love to drive a Cadillac across America or backpack over the Himalayas". And the local hero's the best darts' player and you marry the girl you met in the pub at 16. Torch goes back to his old haunts and sees how he used to be and it scares him. And he watches all the drunks in the bar late at night tracing the circles from their glasses with their fingers - alcoholics always do that!"
Introduction: From an unnamed article in No1 Magazine written by Debbie Voller on 30 May 1987, sent to me by Kristie English:
Introduction: From an unnamed article in No1 Magazine written by Debbie Voller on 30 May 1987, sent to me by Kristie English:
Introduction: From an unnamed article in No1 Magazine written by Debbie Voller on 30 May 1987, sent to me by Kristie English:
Introduction: From an unnamed article in No1 Magazine written by Debbie Voller on 30 May 1987, sent to me by Kristie English:
Introduction: From an unnamed article in No1 Magazine written by Debbie Voller on 30 May 1987, sent to me by Kristie English:
Introduction: From an unnamed article in No1 Magazine written by Debbie Voller on 30 May 1987, sent to me by Kristie English:
Introduction: From an unnamed article in No1 Magazine written by Debbie Voller on 30 May 1987, sent to me by Kristie English:
Fish: "I was laying in bed in the Holiday Inn and looking up at the ceiling at some hearts 'n' stuff that some lovers had carved, and I was feeling really down. So I rang my old lady but it was a bad phone call; lots of long silences. I felt even more depressed. Torch has run away from everything and everybody and gone in search of a dream that doesn't exist!"
Introduction: From an unnamed article in No1 Magazine written by Debbie Voller on 30 May 1987, sent to me by Kristie English: 
'Seal ready for slaughter'
'Tux on'
Introduction: Mark Kelly, writing in the Clutching At Straws remaster sleevenotes: "Beaujolais Day was
written at Stanbridge during the writing for CAS but never got past this stage. We put the guitar solo to good use in Warm Wet Circles and the rest of the music ended up as Seasons End a few years later."
Introduction: Mark Kelly, writing in the Clutching At Straws remaster sleeve notes: "The rest of the unreleased songs on this disc were all written after we finished touring with CAS in '88. We spent a number of months meeting at Pete's house to write. By this time relations between Fish and the rest of the band had become a bit strained. On the days that Fish did decide to turn up he would usually stay long enough to have a cup of coffee and tell us the music we were working on was 'shite' and then leave. To be fair, we were as complimentary about the lyrics he showed us. In an attempt to move things along a stage further we booked into a demo studio called Tone Deaf to record demos of the material we had so far. Story from a Thin Wall, Shadow on the Barley, Sunset Hill and Tic Tac Toe were all recorded at this time.
Introduction: Mark Kelly, writing in the Clutching At Straws remaster sleeve notes: "The rest of the unreleased songs on this disc were all written after we finished touring with CAS in '88. We spent a number of months meeting at Pete's house to write. By this time relations between Fish and the rest of the band had become a bit strained. On the days that Fish did decide to turn up he would usually stay long enough to have a cup of coffee and tell us the music we were working on was 'shite' and then leave. To be fair, we were as complimentary about the lyrics he showed us. In an attempt to move things along a stage further we booked into a demo studio called Tone Deaf to record demos of the material we had so far. Story from a Thin Wall, Shadow on the Barley, Sunset Hill and Tic Tac Toe were all recorded at this time."
Introduction: Mark Kelly, writing in the Clutching At Straws remaster sleeve notes: "The rest of the unreleased songs on this disc were all written after we finished touring with CAS in '88. We spent a number of months meeting at Pete's house to write. By this time relations between Fish and the rest of the band had become a bit strained. On the days that Fish did decide to turn up he would usually stay long enough to have a cup of coffee and tell us the music we were working on was 'shite' and then leave. To be fair, we were as complimentary about the lyrics he showed us. In an attempt to move things along a stage further we booked into a demo studio called Tone Deaf to record demos of the material we had so far. Story from a Thin Wall, Shadow on the Barley, Sunset Hill and Tic Tac Toe were all recorded at this time."