Стив Хогарт: Marillion вокалисі және музыкалық жолы

English singer

Steve Hogarth (born Ronald Stephen Hoggarth, 14 May 1956), also known as "h", is an English musician. Since 1989, he has been the lead singer of the rock band Marillion, for which he also performs additional keyboards and guitar. Hogarth was formerly a keyboard player and co lead vocalist with the Europeans and vocalist with How We Live. AllMusic has described Hogarth as having a "unique, expressive voice" with "flexible range and beautiful phrasing".

Hogarth was born in Kendal, Westmorland, England. His father was an engineer in the British Merchant Navy. He was brought up on a council estate in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, from the age of two. As a child he became interested in music, his earliest influences being the Beatles and the Kinks, and taught himself to play piano. Leaving school at the age of eighteen, Hogarth spent three years studying for a degree in electrical engineering at Trent Polytechnic (now Nottingham Trent University). The band split in 1981 and Hogarth left his engineering degree, moving to London to further his music career. In the end he accepted the position with Marillion, won over as the band wanted an equal partner and were offering a potentially permanent arrangement. Hogarth's first album with the band, released in September 1989, was Seasons End, their fifth studio album. Since then, Marillion have recorded a further fourteen studio, and numerous live albums, with Hogarth on vocals, the most recent being An Hour Before It's Dark released in March 2022. 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 synthesiser/keyboard maestro Richard Barbieri, former XTC guitarist Dave Gregory, Blondie drummer Clem Burke, bassist Chucho Merchan and percussionist Luís Jardim. Subsequently, Hogarth's side project, The H Band, has played live across the UK and Europe featuring a variety of musicians, including former the 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 Rattan on tablas and Stephanie Sobey Jones on cello. With Barbieri and Gregory, this line up recorded a double album entitled Live Spirit: Live Body at Dingwalls on 8 and 9 August 2001. It was released one year later. In 2006, Hogarth undertook a solo tour, 'h Natural', during which he played around 20 dates in the UK and Europe It was billed as an evening of music and conversation with Hogarth at the piano. These shows were mixed and released for download, one at a time and for a limited period only, on Hogarth's (now defunct) H Tunes website. On 14 May 2010, Hogarth performed at the Relentless Garage in London to celebrate his birthday. On the following two days he also performed in Liverpool and Sheffield. To coincide with these shows a CD was released featuring some of the best tracks taken from his H Natural shows. This collection is called H Natural Selection and was available at the shows and from the Marillion website. In 2012, Hogarth joined forces with Richard Barbieri again, releasing an album as a duo called Not the Weapon But the Hand. In 2014, it was announced that Hogarth was releasing two volumes of diaries, written between 1991 and 2014. The first was released in June 2014 by Miwk Publishing and is called The Invisible Man. Volume 2 followed in December 2014. Hogarth collaborated with Swedish chamber rock band Isildurs Bane on an album titled Colours Not Found in Nature, released in 2017. Hogarth had written the lyrics and recorded the vocals in hotel rooms around the world while on tour with Marillion.

Hogarth has three children: a daughter named Sofi and a son named Nial with his first wife Sue, and a son named Emil from his current relationship with Linette, who is from Denmark. Hogarth is violently allergic to cats, first learning this when hospitalised as a child after visiting a Liverpudlian Auntie " whose house was full of 'em!". Marillion bass player Pete Trewavas had cats in January 1989 when they had their first meeting so Hogarth could not enter his house. He is a fan of the football club Manchester United.

In an interview for HuffPost in 2012, Hogarth cited the Blue Nile, Paddy McAloon, Mike Scott, John Lennon, David Bowie and Joni Mitchell as musical inspirations, and Peter Gabriel, Sting and Massive Attack as artists he would like to work with. On Sting, Hogarth commented: "It's weird how few artists mention Sting and pull him out but he's such a brilliant talent."