by Lang Reid
In
today’s troubled world, there is another unfortunate schism appearing
within the world’s religions, resulting in two apparently opposing sides
- Islam and non-Islam. It is beyond the scope of a book review to analyze
or postulate all the reasons for this, but current middle-East conflicts
and separatism in the South of Thailand are obvious examples.
Islam (ISBN 81-7436-056-5, Rolli and Janssen BV, first
impression 1998 and third impression in 2004) has been written by eminent
sociologist Azra Kidwai, a woman who has spent many years both as a
participant within, and as an observer without, of the Islamic religion.
The book begins with a chapter called Genesis (sounds
familiar?), followed by four more covering Expansion, Customs and Beliefs,
Sufism and finally Arts and Creativity. Each section has text and
excellent illustrative colour plates.
The book describes the beginning of Islam and its
relationship to the Bedouins, tribes geographically between the opposing
Byzantine and Sassanian empires, with their religions of Christianity and
Zoroastrianism respectively.
Muhammad was born in 570 AD in Mecca, but he was an
adult before he realized that he was the messenger of God. He then
preached allegiance to Allah and proposed a community based on common
faith, not on the ties between clans or tribes. This took him away from
Mecca and the religion of Islam really began to take hold in Medina.
Finally, he took Mecca by peaceful means, bringing the inhabitants into
the Muslim community.
It has gems of information, such as where the crescent
moon came from in the Islamic world (it was originally the emblem of the
Sassanian Empire) and details the origins of dancing dervishes. Even the
Islamic calendar is not equivalent to that used in the West, despite the
fact that it has 12 months. Based on the lunar year, it is eleven days
shorter than the solar year, resulting in the Islamic century being three
years shorter than a solar century. Confusing perhaps, but not to the
followers of Islam.
It was also of interest to read that in the Muslim
world, Baghdad was once the centre for science, with the great scholars
from around the world gravitating to Baghdad to author scientific material
in Arabic. There have been some unfortunate changes in the ‘new world’
order. Having a familiar ring to it is the belief that the prophet
Muhammad was born on the 12th of Rabi ul Awwal (March) and died on the
same day. There appears to be more than one reason to beware the Ides of
March!
The only disappointment for me was the lack of an index
and bibliography. The book deserved their inclusion, there is such a
wealth of detail between the covers. This book reveals a fascinating
insight and many world leaders would have benefited from reading this
before commencing on irrevocable courses of action.
The review copy came from Bookazine and had an RRP of only B. 450. For
a large hardcover book, in colour, and authoritative, this has to be a
real bargain. It is offering the non-Muslim reader an insight into this
very important religion, one professed by one fifth of the world’s
population.
Marilled
by Mott the Dog
Lioned by Ella Crew
1/2 Star
To think that back in 1985, when Marillion released
their third album ‘Misplaced Childhood’, the unsuspecting and
gullible public had still not cottoned onto the fact that they really
were a mere imitation Genesis band. Why they did not just get up on
stage and play ‘Supper’s Ready’ or the whole of ‘Lamb Lies Down
On Broadway’, is a mystery to me.
At least proper tribute bands try and mimic their
heroes honestly. However, not Marillion. Oh no, they claimed that they
were writing new stuff that just happened to sound a bit like another
progressive rock band. (They even got themselves signed to the same
record label, Charisma. It must have been like deja vu.)
Every song on this album sounds like a reject from
one of Genesis’ Peter Gabriel era albums. Now when Genesis came out
with albums such as ‘Nursery Crime’ or ‘Foxtrot’ in the early
seventies, they were indeed original. Although the band went on to reach
even further heights in their career later, the classic lineup of
Genesis most people considered then was with Peter Gabriel on vocals (he
also wrote most of the lyrics and used to add a bit of flute in between,
wearing all sorts of different costumes on stage to emphasize the songs
stories); a young Phil Collins on drums (he previously had been a child
actor before stepping into the spotlight at the front of the band and
building his own separate solo career as one of the world’s top
drummers); Steve Hackett, a slightly eccentric lead guitarist; Tony
Banks with his banks of keyboards and the studious one of the group; and
then on bass and filling in the gaps was Mark Rutherford (he added the
Ringo element before forming Mike and the Mechanics in his spare time
and being in two of the world’s most successful bands simultaneously).
Now, if you take these five very talented musicians
and get five cheap doppelgangers you get Marillion. But everybody fell
for it (for a while anyway). The album roared up the European charts.
Three tracks from ‘Misplaced Childhood’ were released as singles and
all reached the higher reaches of the Top Twenty (the Americans never
fell for the Marillion ruse). They even had a singer with a funny name:
“Fish”. I would of thought his real name of Derek Dick was funny
enough.
Of course, within a year the game was up. You can
only fool some of the people some of the time, never all the people all
the time. “Fish” managed to bail out before the ship went down,
retaining some dignity. He was replaced by a person simply called
“H”. With “H’’ on board the others have soldiered on to this
very day, each album selling less and less to their diminishing crowd of
anoraked fans.
‘Misplaced Childhood’ has been re-released with
all the necessary trimmings, like digitally re-mastered, etc., but,
cruelly, they have added on yet another disc which runs at over an hour.
It contains demo versions of the original songs, plus a clutch of songs
deemed not good enough for the album in the first place. So why unleash
them on the listening public now? This means we have to put up with
‘Kayleigh’ three times and all of the other songs again, only in a
slightly different running order, and mixed in are the songs not good
enough to be recorded for an album.
The only way that Marillion would sound half way
decent is if you had never heard anything by Genesis. But if you want to
hear the real music, better get one of the brilliant original Genesis
albums, and give this bunch of wannabes a miss.
Marillion
Fish - Vocals
Mark Kelly - Keyboards
Ian Mosley - Drums
Peter Trewavas - Bass Guitar
Steve Rothery - Guitar
Songs
Disc One - The Original Misplaced Childhood
Pseudo Silk Kimono
Kayleigh
Lavender
Bitter Suite
Heart Of Lothian
Waterhole (Expresso Bongo)
Lords Of The Backstage
Blind Curve
Childhoods End
White Feather
Disc Two - the Bonus Disc
Out Takes etc.
Lady Nina
Freaks
Kayleigh (alternative mix)
Lavender Blue
Heart Of Lothian (extended mix)
Album Demo’s
Pseudo Silk Kimono
Kayleigh
Lavender
Bitter suite
Lords Of The Backstage
Blue Angel
Misplaced Rendezvous
Heart Of Lothian
Waterhole (Expresso Bongo)
Passing Strangers
Childhoods End?
White Feather
To contact Mott the
Dog email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.mott-the-dog.com
Mott’s CD review: Marillion - Misplaced Childhood