Marillion are an interesting band. You don't think so? Then you probably only know "Kayleigh", the only song of theirs that radio stations like to play these days. But Marillion's output is actually quite large, including (depending on how exactly you count) up to twenty studio albums and an almost uncountable amount of live releases, plus other oddities like demo albums. I'll take a closer look at the band's reissue strategy in a separate post but this is about the band and their music in general.
Marillion's roots go back into the late 1970s. While progressive rock might have been declared dead by the hip people in London, in more remote areas of the United Kingdom, the music of Yes, Genesis, Van der Graaf Generator, Camel and the like was still popular. Out of this scene, a group emerged in Aylesbury that initially called itself "Silmarillion" after the posthumous J.R.R. Tolkien book, which was then shortened to simply "Marillion".
The very first line-up included Mick Pointer on drums, Doug Irvine on bass and vocals, Martin Jenner on guitar and Neal Cockle on keyboards. The latter two were replaced by Steve Rothery and Brian Jelliman. When Doug Irvine left, he was replaced by two people – bassist Diz Minnitt and vocalist/poet Derek William Dick, commonly known as Fish (for a habit of taking extended baths, when he was living in a place that only allowed you to use the tub at specific times…). The band now had the classic five-man line-up of Genesis and Yes, and started developing into something of a local attraction.
Fish really helped to make Marillion a lot more professional. If you ask yourself what that entails, it included firing almost all the original band members! By the time of the debut single, only guitarist Steve Rothery and drummer Mick Pointer were left from the early incarnation, and Pointer had to go after the first album. (Finding a replacement proved to be a problem, though, only after a couple of drummers the band had found their ideal rhythm engine in Ian Mosley, who has been with Marillion ever since.) Mark Kelly replaced Brian Jelliman on keys and Pete Trewavas came in to take over from Diz Minnitt, which was especially hard on Fish since it was only through the friendship with Diz that he had even got in the band. Nonetheless, Jelliman and Minnitt left a legacy in form of the songs that had been written when they were still in the band ("Market Square Heroes", "Three Boats Down from the Candy", "Grendel", "He Knows You Know", "The Web", "Garden Party", "Forgotten Sons"), and the same goes for Mick Pointer, who's listed as the co-writer of all songs from the first EP and album. (Pointer remained to be pretty bitter about being fired from a band that was just starting to break through, but he later achieved some success with his own band Arena, which has been going for many years now, too.)
From the get-go, Marillion were an anomaly. After all, punk and new wave were supposed to have done away with the "excesses" of prog rock. Yet there they were, playing long, extended pieces with long, extended guitar and keyboard solos, different parts and even the odd odd meter (although Marillion used that element rather sparingly, and sometimes even made a normal 4/4 sound like something more complicated by dividing it up into things like 3+3+2, a trick that would later be used very successfully by bands like U2 and Coldplay!). The music press, especially those writers who thought they had the right to decide what was allowed to be successful and what wasn't, were quick to try and write Marillion off the scene. Alas, it didn't work.
Part of this was down to the fact that there was simply a lot of quality in the band - Steve Rothery's guitar playing was influenced by David Gilmour and Andy Latimer, and he displayed a great ear for a big guitar tone early on; Mark Kelly could dazzle listeners with technique but also lay down atmospheric keyboard tapestry, and Pete Trewavas approached the bass in a way reminiscent of Paul McCartney.
For a lot of people in those days, though, Fish was the main attraction. At first hearing, his voice has some similarities to both Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins (although he would insist that Peter Hamill was the bigger influence), but he's clearly doing his own thing. Fish's vocal delivery had an aggression to it, and on the first two LPs the whole band sounds quite edgy. In fact, while neo-prog (as the new movement would soon be labelled) can be seen as a counter-reaction to the dilettantism of punk and the coldness of synthpop, those trends didn't simply pass Marillion by. I'd wager that this was one reason why they didn't simply disappear, and why you couldn't label them as dinosaurs. They had something to say and they were relevant (not just to people who had lost faith in Genesis and Yes, both of which had become more and more commercial). They expressed a lot of the same angst that spoke through punk too, but with much more finesse and eloquence (Fish's talent as a lyricist and writer was evident right from the first line of "Market Square Heroes", a track that cleverly addressed the wish for revolution without a real goal).
It didn't make sense to the critics, though. Those had simply decided that prog was out and supposed to stay dead. (Steven Wilson, a first-hour Marillion fan and now a musician and producer in his own right, would later find out how much this affected some of the musicians of the first prog era like Robert Fripp, Ian Anderson or Steve Hackett: "They were brainwashed by the media into thinking everything they did in the '70s was worthless junk.") What made matters worse was that they drew crowds and gained a following, which gave some critics the idea that they could not only insult the band, but also its fans.
This ceased, to some degree, after the band's 1985 album "Misplaced Childhood". EMI had already been ready to drop the band given that 1984's "Fugazi" had actually sold less than the debut "Script for a Jester's Tear". Both albums are now regarded as absolute classics of the neo-prog subgenre, but the concept album "Misplaced Childhood" was much more accessible and warm sounding, and even produced several hit singles - not just "Kayleigh", but also "Lavender" (which was elongated for the single) and "Heart of Lothian". Marillion now played in the first row of 80s rock bands, opening for Rush or Queen (in fact they were approached with writing the "Highlander" score, which they declined; as we all know, Queen eventually did the task very successfully).
As is typical when a band has had a massive success, there was a lot of struggling to come up with a follow-up. This was also accompanied by internal wrangling: Some of the band members, especially Mark Kelly, felt Fish was writing too much about his own issues (the main character of "Clutching at Straws" is a writer named "Torch", struggling with alcoholism), and generally there must have been a lot of tension between the band members. "Clutching at Straws" mostly maintained the success of "Misplaced Childhood", but its singles ("Incommunicado", "Sugar Mice" and "Warm Wet Circles") weren't as big smashes despite probably being even more commercially appealing than the 1985 singles. The band reconvened to write its fifth album but by this point, relationships were very tense. The instrumentalists didn't like that Fish was now starting to write from a more political and Scottish point of view, and Fish simply didn't relate to the music he was supposed to marry his lyrics to. Also, he demanded a change of management, feeling that there was too much pressure to tour so that the manager could make money from the band. The other four members felt differently at the time and that was the end of the partnership. (For the record, Marillion parted ways with the management some years later, essentially proving Fish's point.)
Just like Genesis when Peter Gabriel left, a lot of people were quick to write off Marillion as a band. Surely they couldn't continue without their charismatic frontman and lyricist?? But the band simply continued to work on the music they had already started with Fish, and employed a writer named John Helmer (not knowing whether their new singer could write lyrics). In the meantime, Fish launched into his solo career, although the release of his debut "Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors" was delayed in order to avoid a clash with Marillion's first album without him!
Unlike Genesis, Marillion didn't recruit somebody from their own ranks. Steve Hogarth had sung with The Europeans and How We Live, but he wasn't very well known. His timbre was very different from Fish's, but he immediately made clear that his crystal-clear and expressive voice (somewhere between Bono and Mark Hollis) was a force to be reckoned with. "Seasons End" covered a diverse range of topics, from the Northern Ireland conflict ("Holloway Girl" and one of the first Marillion songs starting from an idea by Hogarth, "Easter"), across the Berlin Wall up to the danger of anthropogenic climate change in the title track, something that evidently was already discussed way back in 1989, but not done much about in the years since.
"Holidays in Eden" was probably the last true effort to achieve commercial success, at the behest of EMI, who wanted big single hits. "Cover My Eyes", "No One Can" and a re-recording of "Dry Land" by How We Live all had potential but didn't chart as highly as expected. The reaction was a long, dark and dense concept album called "Brave", which for the first time saw Hogarth and Marillion properly playing to each others' strengths and all pulling in the same direction. Nonetheless, the company was unhappy both with the long gestation period and the fact that the album was so hard to market. They made just one more record for EMI, the very highly praised but again not really big selling "Afraid of Sunlight". This was a more relaxed sounding album that fused many of their trademarks together, all the while opening up into new directions of sophisticated pop.
So now Marillion were on their own. The next three albums, "This Strange Engine", "Radiation" and "marillion.com" (co-produced by Steven Wilson, who'd already worked with Fish for "Sunsets on Empire") all appeared on smaller labels and showed a band somewhat searching for a new direction. All of those albums contained some great songs but also some failed experiments.
The positive experience with a US tour financed by the dedicated fans eventually got Marillion to realize they could release albums without the aid of a record company, thus becoming the pioneers of crowd-funding. 2001 saw the band reconnected with Dave Meegan (producer of "Brave" and "Afraid of Sunlight") and back with a much more focused record. The album was titled, quite cleverly, "Anoraknophobia", the cover adorned with the cute comic character "Barry". What sounds like "arachnophobia" (fear of spiders) is a nice tribute to the fact that Marillion tended to appeal to a "nerdy" audience, people who feel cast out, uncool or in some other way not quite capable of fitting in. The song "Separated Out" directly deals with this, and it wasn't the band's first ode to outsiders - Fish had already written "Freaks" (1985 b-side) in much the same vein.
The next album was a major undertaking, "Marbles" turned out to be Marillion's first official double album (unless you count "Brave", which occupies two vinyl records, but fits on one CD), although the full opus was initially only available through the band and the wider public got a scaled-down single CD. (Thankfully, the 2CD edition has been reissued and is now the de facto standard.) This somewhat conceptual piece of music, in its full glory, contains no less than three 10+ minute epics, including the absolutely glorious finale "Neverland", which in my humble opinion might just be the best song ever written and recorded by anyone – but that's just me.
Thanks to their eager fan base, the singles "You're Gone" and "Don't Hurt Myself" saw Marillion return to the British charts, the former even was their first Top Ten hit since 1987! Marillion had regained their position as a respectable band, and were no longer dependent on their fans. But here's the surprising thing: The fans really wanted to continue supporting the band. So, essentially, all the albums after "Somewhere Else" were pre-financed by the fan base.
I could go on and on about Marillion but to be honest, the Wikipedia entry does all this better (and I've nicked some bits from there too). But the relationship to the fans (aka "freaks" or "anoraks") deserves an even closer look. What is it that Marillion do differently? Well, for a start, they know how to satisfy fans hungry for music by their favourite band. This is why there are so many live releases (some only as downloads or fan-club exclusive releases), and why Marillion have also issued "making of" discs containing demos and writing sessions. They're not fussed about putting out material that they may themselves not be entirely happy with. They're not greedy and picky in that regard, which is a total opposite from many artists who like to control their public image so much that they don't release anything from their archives, or only a few precious outtakes. Marillion, on the other hand, don't mind being self-deprecating with titles such as "Proggin' Around the Christmas Tree" (for a while, they would release Christmas mini-albums for the fans, containing one festive classic and a couple of band rarities), "Unzipped" or "Keep the Noise Down". In fact, contrary to the main tenor of their music – which is definitely on the melancholy side of the spectrum – they have exhibited quite a bit of humour over the years with album titles and cover artwork.
Knowing that they have a steady and devoted audience that will likely purchase most of what they put out, Marillion have been able to make a decent living and are now actually making more money from their music than during what seemed to be their heyday. Even so, you can't really accuse the band of being money-grabbers. They give the fans what they want and the fans reward this with buying the CDs and concert tickets. Win-win situation!
There is a feeling of familiar closeness between the band and their fan clubs, too. Out of the fan conventions with small, intimate acoustic gigs (some of which were recorded for posterity), something much bigger grew: The Marillion Weekend! This is probably the - excuse me - wet dream of any devoted fan of a band. Just imagine: You spend an entire weekend with like-minded people and not only get to enjoy three (initially two) concerts by your favourite band, but can also interact with them during various activities such as "Swap the band" (jamming Marillion songs with the members themselves!).
Of course, virtually all the Weekends were filmed and recorded and released in the form of live DVDs and CDs, which partially explains why Marillion have released sooooo many live albums. Surprisingly, they aren't as redundant as one might think, because… a) Marillion songs have a tendency to improve live . For all the band's perfectionism in the studio, desire to recreate the studio recordings as closely as possible and not particularly jam-friendly nature, they often get elevated by the feedback of the audience inspiring the band to perform the songs more passionately. b) When you confront an audience of dyed-in-the-wool fans that know your catalogue inside out, you can't knock out your greatest hits and be done with it. Especially not if you see the same people the next night, and the night after that! Not to mention that they pay a lot to see different setlists, so Marillion always deliver. Often, these are themed setlists, and the most common one is simply playing an entire album (given that the Weekends happened long after Fish it's not surprising that it's only the post-Fish albums that have been played in full):
1989's Seasons End (2009, "Out of Season" and "Live in Montreal")
1991's Holidays in Eden (2011, "Holidays in Zélande")
1994's Brave (2002 and 2013)
1995's Afraid of Sunlight (2003, "Before First Light" and reissued as part of "Breaking Records")
1997's This Strange Engine (2007, "This Strange Convention")
1998's Radiation (2013, "Clocks Already Ticking" reissued as "Breaking Records")
1999's marillion.com (2017, "marillion.cl")
2001's Anoraknophobia (2015, "Out of the Box")
2004's Marbles (2005, "Marbles by the Sea", 2015, "Out of the Box")
2008's Happiness is the Road: Essence (2019, not released yet)
2012's Sounds That Can't Be Made (2013, "A Sunday Night Above the Rain" – but it's out of order)
2016's F*** Everyone and Run (2017, not released but probably because "All One Tonight" already contains a full live version of the album)
Other setlists have centered around singles, covers and rarities or – yes – the Fish era.
But even on a normal tour, Marillion tend to defy expectations. This doesn't come without drawbacks; I remember seeing the band in late 2018 (shortly after Mark Kelly had managed to somehow collide with a truck while running - but he was back on stage within days after the accident!) and trying to point out to a woman after the gig that there isn't really much point in Hogarth trying to sing "Kayleigh" when there is so much more material from his period with the band (13 albums vs. 4 with Fish) that also suits his voice better. Even then, they might sometimes overstep the line a bit by focusing on the long, dark material that mainly appeals to their hard-core fans, when they could also charm the casual concertgoers with more accessible songs like "Map of the World", "You're Gone", "Don't Hurt Yourself" or "The Damage".
All in all, Marillion are an admirable group of people. They have stayed around in spite of trends and fads, and have somehow managed to cement their place in the rock scene. Their music is instantly recognizable and unlike every other band - taking cues from Pink Floyd, Genesis, U2, Talk Talk, or even younger bands like Radiohead and Coldplay, they still managed to create an identity that's simply Marillion. The characteristic voices of (first) Fish and (later) Steve Hogarth, coupled with Steve Rothery's crystalline arpeggios and soaring leads and Mark Kelly's cinematic keyboard soundscapes, are the main columns of Marillion.
Their catalogue is well worth exploring. :-)