This Train is my life

I'm born and raised in Stoke-on-Trent England, moved to Sweden in 1994. First real musical memory I had was of playing a cassette of David Bowie's Station to Station over and over again in the mid 70's. Growing up in the 70's meant wearing shockingly bad clothes, flares and the charts were full of disco, soul and glam pop. First record bought on 7" was Judas Priest's Breaking the law (I think - it could have been Living after midnight). First Lp was either The Police "Regatta de Blanc" or ELO Greatest Hits Vol 2....

In my teens I listened to Ultravox, Japan, Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran and lots of other Electro pop of that era. Discovered Marillion after seeing them mime "Punch and Judy" on Top Of The Pop's circa 1984, became hooked when they released the singles from Misplaced Childhood which all charted highly. we had just got our first VHS recorder in 1984 and I do remember I recorded Marillion's Punch and Judy on TOTP. That tape has long since been recorded over. :(

First artist I started collecting was David Bowie. In the late 80's early 90's I became musically lost as I was completely obsessed with Kiss! God knows why as I can't stand them now.

Fell in love with Marillion all over again with the release of Holidays in Eden. Often considered to commercial by some fans, but I love it. It has too many gems on it to be discarded. Splintering Heart, The Party, Waiting to Happen and the "This Town" trilogy to name but 4.

In 2002, I discovered www.marillion.com and my Marillion OCD became permanent. I ordered everything I could get my hands on by the band. All the racket releases, T-shirts, car stickers etc. Really got into the run up to Marbles, Got all the versions of "You're Gone" and took part in the process that helped the band chart at no.7 in the UK. It was around this time that my wife also became completely hooked too :)

Was invited by Lucy to the Marbles listening party at Hardrock cafe, Stockholm. I met H and Rothers for the first time. An unbelievable evening. Saw the band live in Stockholm and Malmo May 12th and 13th 2004 (sadly, that was the last time the band played here) Met a guy called Johnny in Malmo and we have remained friends ever since due in part to our love of Marillion.

Saw Marillion in Oslo 2007 on the Somewhere Else tour and also was invited to a listening party for Somewhere else where I met and chatted with Pete :)

Since then I've seen the band on the Happiness tour and L=M both times in Norway Where we met the rest of the band. We attended our first convention in 2011 and made countless new friends. that was a magically weekend to say the least.

My daughter has just visited me here and she has renewed my love of record collecting. We traveled to a few cities and checked out record stores. There are advantages to being a Marillion fan in Sweden. If you come across a Marillion vinyl section in a record store, you can bet that your fingers will be the first that have touched those records in a long time. Which means that there is plenty to get hold off. Promos, bootlegs, Picture discs.

Spent the past couple of weeks tracking down items from ebay... Trying to complete my FRC collection and was lucky enough to get a copy of Brave on Vinyl. A very hard to get item.

Apart from Marillion, I'm a big fan of Pink Floyd, Sylvan, RPWL, Also Eden, The Reasoning, Porky Tree, Muse, Radiohead, Bowie and many more.

Favourite Marillion Album - Marbles
Favourite Marillion song - (Today anyway) This Strange Engine

Well, that's enough about me and my Marillion OCD..