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One of the most forgotten bands of the 1980s, Marillion were - it seems hard to believe now - one of the biggest British rock bands of the decade, something which is often ignored in retrospectives of the era. They emerged from the short-lived progressive rock revival of the early 1980s and went on to enjoy remarkable success in the UK charts for a band labelled progressive rock at a time when it was supposed to be dead and buried.
Formed in 1979 in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, they took their name from The Silmarillion by the author J.R.R. Tolkien, of whom founding drummer Mick Pointer was a fan. The band were signed by EMI after headlining legendary venues like The Marquee in London and Aylesbury Friars. They would go on to earn a stronger following due to their constant touring. Their first single was called "Market Square Heroes" and it was a minor hit in 1982. They were also voted the "Best New Band" of 1982 by readers of rock magazine Sounds. They released their first album, "Script for a Jester's Tear", in 1983. Much of the music press dismissed them as clones of Peter Gabriel-era Genesis, but the dark and Gothic-styled album gave them a Top 20 hit single, "Garden Party", and another Top 40 chart entry, the creepy "He Knows You Know".
The band that recorded the second album, "Fugazi", was as follows: Scottish singer Fish (b. 1958), guitarist Steve Rothery (b. 1959), keyboardist Mark Kelly (b. 1961), drummer Ian Mosley (b. 1953) and bass guitarist Pete Trewavas (b. 1959). This was the line-up that was to gain the greatest commercial success. "Fugazi" (1984) produced two more Top 30 hit singles, "Punch and Judy" and "Assassing".
The band then went to the famous Hansa Ton Studios in Berlin (where David Bowie had recorded "Heroes" and U2 would later record "Achtung Baby") and recorded their most successful album, "Misplaced Childhood". It was to become the band's only chart-topping album. The single "Kayleigh" reached the number two position on the chart in 1985 and "Lavender" also made the top five. Marillion's fourth studio album was "Clutching at Straws", which reached the number two position on the album chart and produced another Top 10 single for the band, "Incommunicado".
Fish left Marillion in 1988 for a solo career and the band replaced him with Steve Hogarth. They continued to have hit singles until 1995, but with their style constantly changing from album to album and no radio airplay, their mainstream fanbase dwindled into a smaller cult following.
