Steve Hogarth Steve Hogarth years_active = 1980-present Country England, United Kingdom Genre(s) Progressive Rock Label(s) Racket Records Members Steve Hogarth (aka "H") Steve Hogarth born May 14, 1959, Kendal, also known as 'h', is vocalist with the band Marillion. Hogarth was formerly a keyboard player and co-lead vocalist with The Europeans and vocalist with How We Live. Following record company changes, How We Live's debut album Dry Land was poorly promoted, resulting in a flop. Hogarth imagined he would have to leave the music industry - seriously considering becoming a Milkman (as he later related) - but a meeting with his publishers (and a certain amount of matchmaking by longtime friend, Darryl Way, sometime of Curved Air) persuaded him to send a tape to Marillion who were recruiting for a new lead vocalist following the departure of charismatic Scotsman Fish in late 1988. Marillion heard the tape and were interested enough to ask for a meeting with the singer. Later accounts of this first meeting record that Hogarth turned up at Bandmember Pete Trawavas' house with his demo tapes contained in a red plastic firebucket. The Band were immediately impressed by his vocal prowess. Hogarth himself, however, took a little longer to make up his mind, holding as he did at the time a potentially lucrative offer to tour the US on keyboards with The The. In the end he accepted the Marillion gig, won over by the fact that Marillion wanted an equal partner who would input their own ideas - rather than a simple stooge or Fish-a-like.
Marillion have, by 2005, released 9 studio albums with Hogarth as vocalist. Hogarth has also released one solo studio album under the name 'h' called Ice Cream Genius. This album had contributions from ex-Japan/ Porcupine Tree synthesizer/keyboard maestro Richard Barbieri, former XTC guitarist Dave Gregory, Blondie drummer Clem Burke, bassist Chucho Merchan, and percussionist Luis Jardim.
Subsequently, Hogarth's side-project; The H-Band, has played live across the UK and Europe featuring a variety of musicians, including former Stone Roses MKII guitarist Aziz Ibrahim, Massive Attack and The Bays drummer Andy Gangadeen, session musician Jingles on bass, Aziz's regular musical partner Dalbir Singh on tablas and Stephanie Sobey-Jones on cello. With Barbieri and Gregory, this line up recorded a double album entitled Live Spirit : Live Body in 2002. Writing for a forthcoming second solo studio album occurred in December 2004.
Most recently, a solo tour entitled 'h Natural' saw Steve play around a dozen dates in both the UK and Europe in Spring 2006, billed as an evening of music and conversation with Steve at the piano.
Steve is violently allergic to cats.
