A very odd (and too lengthy to summarise) sequence events has recently led me to pick up a copy of Sam Brown's recently remastered album '43 Minutes.'
Sam Brown will either be a name you already know or find yourself asking 'why does that sound familiar?'
This is the same Sam Brown who had a chart hit in 1988 with 'Stop!' and went on to be a backing singer for Pink Floyd, Barclay James Harvest, Deep Purple and Gary Moore (among others.) She may be more recognisable for her frequent appearances on 'Later... With Jools Holland.' Being a massive Marillion-head, I was mostly aware of her due to her duet with Fish on 'Just Good Friends.'
Yes, Sam Brown had a lovely and very distinctive voice, and it's very sad she's lost it. I, too, found out about this recently after re-watching Pulse on youtube, and which got me thinking whatever happened to Sam Brown, and then googling. At least she seems happy, well and still making music.
I didn't know she duetted with Fish, I'll have to search that out. I've been getting into Marillion a lot recently, which is a big turnaround for me as I wasn't really a fan back in the day. When Incommunicado came out, I was a huge Genesis fan, and felt rather miffed that they'd clearly lifted the keyboard riff from Supper's Ready*, so after that I was rather anti-Marillion. Which, in hindsight, was silly really as they - unlike Genesis in 1987 - were making music close in style to be my beloved Gabriel-era Genesis, so I should have celebrated them for that, at least.
Soon after I tactically withdrew from prog rock completely, as it was very much so the least fashionable thing to be into circa 1987 and I was convinced at a fundamental level it would be a contributing factor in my dying a virgin (luckily, a bullet I have subsequently dodged) and so got into quirky American fayre such as Talking Heads and REM, and then over to Pixies, Sonic Youth and that kind of thing. But I re-discovered the taboo, illicit joys of prog 5-10 years ago, and I've long since bled dry the classic albums of the original "big-6" prog groups, so I thought I'd give the Marillion boys a go a few months' back. And I'm very much enjoying their work. I've been going through their catalogue in order, and am so far up to Afraid of Sunlight, and that may just be my favourite yet. Definitely the best Hogarth-era album so far, IMO.
* In particular from Part 3 - Ikhnaton and Itsacon and Their Band of Merry Men, prog fans.
