Veteran prog-rockers Marillion address life in 2022 on their new album, "An Hour Before It’s Dark." Vocalist Steve Hogarth talks to Goldmine about the nuances of the latest release.
Last modified on Sun 21 Feb 2021 11.51 EST
Before Brexit, 44% of British musicians, including my showbusiness friend Fish from Marillion, earned up to half their income from now inaccessible European audiences. But, should Fish find some way around the governmentâs failure to preserve artistsâ touring opportunities, his unfortunate choice of stage name could mean he was still subject to time-consuming delays at EU customs. Thousands of pages of Fishâs Fish Health Certification documents would need to be checked by penny-pinching EU officials, and Fish from Marillion would be left rotting on the quayside like some eels, an undignified state for the 62-year-old progressive rock survivor.
Now, Fish, real name Derek William Dick, has added his voice to the outrage, saying that Brexit will “destroy” UK artist’s ability to tour in the EU.
In a lengthy post, which you can read in full below, Fish said: “I’m still reeling from the new regulations revealed by the UK Government just over 2 weeks ago regarding touring in the European Union post Brexit. I’ve been trying to make sense of it all from all the sometimes contradictory and often vague information available on various websites that are constantly being updated and working out how this affects my own business and career. It’s quite frankly confounding.