Steve Hogarth

Steve Hogarth born May 14, 1956, Kendal, also known as 'h', is the lead singer of Marillion. Hogarth was formerly a keyboard player and co-lead vocalist with The Europeans and lead singer with

Steve Hogarth born May 14, 1956, Kendal, also known as 'h', is the lead singer of Marillion. Hogarth was formerly a keyboard player and co-lead vocalist with The Europeans and lead singer 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 1989. 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.