Marillion

While Marillion are still closely associated with the charismatic, larger-than-life personality of frontman Fish, the Scottish singer actually left in 1988 and they've been fronted ever since by his replacement Steve Hogarth, formally of The Europeans, who has recorded over a dozen albums with them. Originally formed in 1979 by Mick Pointer and Steve Rothery, the band took their name from the J.R.R. Tolkien book The Silmarillion with Fish joining them as lead singer and main lyricist in 1981. They gigged constantly and their progressive, slightly mysterious music won acclaim for their first two albums Script for a Jester's Tear (1983) and Fugazi (1984), as they moved in a more commercial direction. Their biggest-selling album Misplaced Childhood produced the international hit ballad “Kayleigh” in 1985, though subsequent darker albums were less successful, and Fish quit to launch a solo career after a row with the band's manager. Fish's replacement, Hogarth, then made his mark with the albums Seasons End (1989), Holidays in Eden (1991), Brave (1994), and Afraid of Sunlight (1995), the band's last album with EMI. Further albums include This Strange Engine (1997), Radiation (1998), and marillion.com (1999). 2001's Anoraknophobia was a game-changing album which saw the band experiment by asking fans to pre-order the record before they had even started making it. They received enough orders to finance the album which split fans and critics owing to its new musical direction. Somewhere Else followed in 2007 and Happiness Is the Road was released a year later. Their 18th album, F**k Everyone and Run (FEAR), was released in 2015 and debuted at Number 4 in the UK Albums Chart and brought Marillion back into the forefront of progressive music. In 2019, they released With Friends from the Orchestra, featuring rearranged songs from the band's last 30 years accompanied by the In Praise of Folly String Quartet. After a three year wait, Marillion returned with An Hour Before It’s Dark (2022), which debuted on the UK chart at Number 2, their best showing since Clutching At Straws (1987).

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