THE HISTORY OF MARILLION

 I am FUGAZI of TAURUS, and feel welcome to the second article in this
series about the magic artform of symphony rock.  In the first issue of
Buzz I published "The Beginner's Guide to Symphony Rock", a little
introduction to those who aren't very familiar with this kind of music.
And now I continue with an article that describes the history of Marillion,
perhaps the most successful symphonic band of the Eighties. This article
is about the early stages of their career, and lets you know just about
everything - from the very beginning. It was first published in the Swedish
symphony rock magazine Grendel, and was translated into English by me.


 On Christmas 1978, a group named Silmarillion was born. It was an
instrumental band of four from Aylesbury in southern England. The name was
taken from J.R.R. Tolkien's book with the same name, which happened to lie
on a table when they named the group. The basist got so enthusiasted that
he put the name on his bass guitar. Later it seemed like the interest had 
ceased somewhat, because he decided to delete the name. But he only managed
to cover the letters "Sil", and the rest of the letters - Marillion - were
left. 
 Their history ended in a hurry - after putting up a one hour show they
once played at the Hanborough Tavern in Southall and split up shortly after
that, after the unexpected resignment of the guitarist and the keyboardist.
 After putting in the usual advertisements in the music magazines, drummer
Mick Pointer and basist Doug Irvine started to test different guitar
players from all around England. Without result, until one early Sunday
morning in the summer of 1979 Steve Rothery from Whitby, Yorkshire turned up
without notice. Brian Jelliman from Aylesbury joined as a keyboard player,
and now the kernel of Marillion was built.
 With a feeling that new, fresh material was needed, they put up a new
repertoire, this time with Doug on vocals. Their first step was to record a
demotape in Enid's Studio in Hertford. Encouraged by the result they
made their first performance at the Berkhamsted Civic Centre on March the
1st 1980 in front of a crowd that was moderately interested.
 Marillion were prepared to play just about everywhere, which was to
include St. Alban's mental hospital (where the interest wasn't very high,
but still higher than in Berkhamsted) and a market in Watford where they
performed together with a wizard who for instance could drive two six
inches long nails up his nose. In November 1980 they could count to 14
performances, and at this time Doug Irvine decided to leave the band. 
 After a fast meeting (typical enough at a local pub) an ad was put into
the magazine Musicians Only looking for a new basist/singer. But it didn't
yet feel like they were in a need of a separate singer and front man.
 Doug's resignment unluckily coincided with the recording of a song (that
later on was going to be called "The Web") in Leyland Studio, close to
Buckingham. Because of this the recording continued with Steve Rothery on
both guitar and bass guitar. 
 During this time answers on the ad started to drop in. One of the answers
came from two guys - a singer and a basist from Scotland. The instrumental
song was sent to them as a hint of what kind of music Marillion played. The
two Scots travelled down for a test recording on the 2nd of January 1981 -
confident enough to bring all their belongings, and with lyrics finished
for the song! 
 The band immediately returned to the studio for a test recording, and Fish
(or Derek William Dick, which is his real name) and Diz Minnitt joined the
gang.
 Again all material was renewed, this time to comprise singer and lyrics.
The band worked hard and patiently, and was ready for their first
performance at the Red Lion in Bicester in March 1981. After this, every
possible place to perform at was bombed with booking permissions. They also
got invaluable help from the promotor of Friar's rock club, David Stopps,
who was impressed enough of Marillion to book them as a warm-up to John
Cooper-Clarke at Friar's Club during the Aylesbury Week of Art in May '81.
This was a real kick for the band, and they gained more publicity than they
had ever had before. 
 During this, the need of a demotape became more and more obvious. The
responsible persons for the places they were going to perform at were of
course interested in knowing what they sounded like before they booked
them. The nowadays legendary demotape featuring "Garden Party", "He Knows
You Know" and "Charting the Single" was recorded, mainly for this reason.
It was recorded in July '81 and was produced by Les Payne. As the result of
eager requests from the growing number of fans, they decided to make copies
of it to sell at gigs. About 400 tapes were produced and sold. The cassette
is no longer available though the interest still is very high among the
fans.
 Marillion had already realised the importance of visual effects on stage,
and for the earlier mentioned gig at Friar's a engineering of a cemetary
was arranged, with all ingredients (even carbon dioxide snow!). The props
were collected from Hammer Horror Films. The band appeared in monk's
frocks, that went totally transparent when the spotlights were turned on!
 Despite this little incident, the reactions were positive enough for David
Stopps to arrange a gig for them at Friar's main stage, as a warm-up to the
American group Spirit on the 1st of August '81. This gave them quite a lot
of attention, and during the rest of the year they became warm-ups to
artists like Budgie, Lindisfarne and John Martyn. The first gig at the
classical rock club Marquee in London was as a warm-up to Girl in November
1981. This, together with about 100 other gigs around England, gave them
many fanatic fans.
 In November Brian Jelliman left the group, and Mark Kelly was recruited
from Chemical Alice, a group that  Marillion had been warm-ups to at
Chadwell Heath.
 The first gig of 1982 was as warm-ups to Spider at Marquee, which later on
resulted in Marillion's first reservation as a main band at Marquee on the
25th of January. This was another great step forward.
 Now the media and radio One started to show their interest. Marillion were
offered an appearance in the Tommy Vance's Friday Rock Show, a program they
had been refused to show up in just a couple of months earlier! They
performed the songs "Three Boats from the Candy", "The Web" and "Forgotten
Sons". The program was showed on television on the 26th of February and
went in a rerun in May, "on public request". On the 27th of february the
first major article about Marillion was published in Sounds with the
headline "The madchap raps".
 In March 1982 Diz Minnitt left the band and was replaced by Pete Trewavas,
who left his band in Aylesbury, The Metros, to join Marillion.
 Pete had to learn the repertoir quickly - he had only been a member of the
band for two weeks when they started their six week tour in Scotland. As
far as we know it is the most extensive and intense tour ever made in
Scotland by an English band. The tour was entirely arranged by Fish, and
was one of the main reasons to the huge fanatic retinue that Marillion has
in Scotland.
 Marillion returned to England via Wales, where they made a gig at the
University of Bangor.
 Eventually the record companies started to show their interest, and
representatives started to show up at their gigs.
 In July 1982 John Arnison - a former manager of John Cooper-Clarke -
became the manager of Marillion. In August they played at the first
festival in Theakston, followed by the festival in Reading. On both
occasions, they were accepted with great enthusiasm.
 In September a contract with EMI was signed, and on October 25th they
released their debut single, "Market Square Heroes/Three Boats Down from
the Candy", with the almost eighteen minutes long "Grendel" on the B-side.
 It was followed by "He Knows You Know/Charting the Single" in February
1983. And on the 14th of March, the debut album "Script for a Jester's
Tear" was released, and it quickly got to the 7th spot on the English top
20. In June another single was released, containing Garden Party and
Margaret.
 Same month Mick Pointer left Marillion. He was the only member left from
the beginning in '78. He was replaced by ex-Camel drummer Andy Ward. The
following months the band performed at numerous festivals around Europe.
During the rest of the summer they made a tour across North America, which
had to be broken due to the resigning of Andy Ward.
 A number of drummers came and left, and in January 1984 Ian Mosley
(ex-Steve Hackett Band) was welcomed as a new drummer. This line-up (Fish,
Steve Rothery, Pete Trewavas, Mark Kelly and Ian Mosley) is the traditional
set-up of Marillion.
 The fourth single, "Punch and Judy", was released in February with new
versions of Market Square Heroes and three Boats Down from the Candy as a
B-side. Marillion's second album, "Fugazi", was released in March. This
album was more mature. On "Script" the songs were very complex and perhaps
too overworked. On Fugazi they showed that they had grown up a bit, with
sharp songs as "Incubus", "Assassing" and "Jigsaw", not to mention the
title tune.
 This was followed by a live album, "Real to Reel", and later on, in May
1985, they released "Misplaced Childhood". This was a theme album a la the
Seventies, which actually contained hits in the shape of "Lavender" and
"Kayleigh". The latter one became no. 1 in the English charts, and
Marillion was now an established band, known all over Europe.
 1986 was a year of touring, and in 1987 they released "Clutching at
Straws", a studio album with a more refrain-based style of music, not like
the traditional symphony rock.
 The rest of the year and some months of 1988 was occupied with concerts,
and in July 1988 they released their very last album as an original band.
It was a double live album entitled "The Thieving Magpie".
 In the end of 1988 Fish left the band to start his own career. Marillion
were left without their front man. They recruited the new singer Steve
Hogarth (ex-Europeans), and so far they have released three albums,
"Season's End", "Holidays in Eden" and "A Singles Collection". The music of
the new Marillion can simply be described as pop music, something that has
disappointed many Marillion fans.

  NEXT ISSUE: INTERVIEW WITH FISH