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linked keyboards, such as a Yamaha DX7 and
a
Roland Juno 106 was new and exciting,
although I still needed both pieces of
hardware at my disposal to be able to do it.
But rather than continuing to add more
keyboards to the rig, I started to make some
tough choices, replacing older keyboards as
I
bought
newer ones. When I
acquired a
Roland
D50, the
Juno
had
to
go. Next,
the DX7 disappeared in favour of a tiny
TX7 module and the Jupiter 8 made way
for a rackmount MKS80 Super Jupiter.
As the 1980s rolled on, MIDI significantly
altered the way that I — and most other
multi-keyboard players — approached
creating
sounds
on
stage. I
had
become
heartily fed up with playing with one hand
and trying to stuff a floppy disk into
a
sampler with the other, while at the same
time trying to select the next patch on
something
else, all in time for the chorus.
The programmability of my new MIDI controller
keyboard (a Roland MKB1000) was the key. This
gave me control over my growing rack of
Tascam DA88s, but later upgrading to a Pro
Tools system with a
Logic
front
end.We
all
have Logic at home so, for the first time, the
act of recording became something we were
able to do independently from one another,
and
in
our
own
time.I
really
enjoyed
working
in this way, and it gave me the time
and the
creative freedom to start
experimenting with
Marillion backgrounder
sounds in ways that were previously
impossible.This was
when I started to
become
interested
in
soft
synths.I
realised
that their scope was enormous: from simple
recreations of my old Minimoog and
Mellotron, to the DX7 and PPG that I had used
for many years, and way beyond, they could
(almost)
do
it
all.Suddenly
I
had
a
huge
»
modules, and it enabled me to layer some
interesting sounds, while reducing the
The whole band during the Philadelphia leg of their recent US tour.
number
of
keyboards
on
stage. I
particularly
liked the new approach of programming the
changes in the songs in advance and stepping
on a footswitch to switch patches during
the
show. For
once, my
keyboard
tech
and I were
happy simultaneously. Nevertheless, I soon
became frustrated with
the
MKB1000.I
needed
a
more
powerful MIDI patchbay and
router, so a friend offered to write a program
to my specification, to run
on
an
Atari
ST
computer. In
the
months leading up to our
next tour, the software seemed to be doing
everything I wanted, so with a few final
tweaks I took it on tour. Disaster! It started to
crash in a dramatic and embarrassing fashion,
and I was soon under pressure
to
replace
it. I
quickly
bought
a
programmable MIDI
patchbay and said
goodbye to the Atari.
As each album came and went, so did the
keyboards. But
far
from
finding
life
getting
easier, I was becoming buried, as the band
expected me to recreate ever-more complex
keyboard
arrangements live. We
wanted to
be able to reproduce the sound of our CDs on
stage, without resorting to tapes or backing
tracks. In
1994
it
took
me
no
less
than
six
weeks to program my keyboards and samplers
in an effort to reproduce both the analogue
sounds of our early material and the
complicated, modern layers of sound on the
then-current album,
Brave
.
It
was
time
for
another new approach.
The introduction of VSTis
In 1995 we began to record our albums at our
own studio in Buckinghamshire, initially using
Feature by Mark Kelly
For those who haven’t a clue who Marillion are, here
are a few of the bits I can remember from the last
25 years…
The band was formed in 1979 by guitarist Steve
Rothery
and
drummer
Mick
Pointer. I
joined
two
years later, by which time vocalist Fish was fronting
the band and doing his best to secure gigs in every
pub, club and student union bar that would have us.
Pete Trewavas (bass) joined a few months after
I
did, and the five of us spent the next 18 months
slogging around London and the South East of
England. In
1982, a
dozen
sold-out
nights
at
the
legendary Marquee club forced the record labels to
recognise that we might have a future.
We struck a deal with EMI, and our first album, Script
For A Jester’s Tear (1983) sold well in the UK.
Nevertheless, we parted company with Mick Pointer
at the end of the first tour and former Steve
Hackett
drummer Ian Mosley joined us in 1984 for our difficult
second album’, Fugazi. This didn’t sell as well as
Script, so we were packed off to Berlin (to keep
costs down), to record Misplaced Childhood, in
1985.This
was
a
turning
point for the
band,
because the first single from the album, ‘Kayleigh’, was
a
huge hit
all
over
Europe.
We
were
No.1 in many
countries, and everyone’s favourite for 15 minutes.
But despite appearances, all was not happy on
planet Marillion and, following the tour that
supported 1987’s Clutching At
Straws, Fish quit the band to pursue a
solo
career. After
six
months
of
searching, we found a replacement
vocalist
in
Steve
Hogarth. Looking
back, it seems we spent a couple of
albums settling down with our new
line-up, at the same time moving
away from our old sound with the
albums Season’s End (1989), and
Holidays In Eden (1991).
Two of our best albums were to follow. Brave
(1994) proved hugely popular with our fans, and we
followed this soon after with Afraid Of Sunlight
(1995).Our
fans
felt
that
we
were
on
great
form,
but
EMI
nevertheless ‘let
us
go’.
We
then
signed
a
three-album deal with an independent label, but
began to regret it almost immediately, as the label
would spend little on promotion, counting on our
loyal fans
to
seek
out
our
work. This
resulted
in
slowly diminishing sales and what we considered to
be a bleak future for the band.
In 1997, I posted a message on the Internet,
informing our US fans that there would be no
American tour to support our next album, simply
because we couldn’t afford to lose any more money
touring
North
America. In
response, a
fan
instigated
a
whip-round
on
the
Marillion
mailing
list.
They
raised $60,000 and made it possible for us to tour
after
all. This
woke
us
up
to
the potential
of
the
Internet, and we made plans to set ourselves free
from
our
record
label.
Having
released
two
of
the
three contracted albums, we had one more album to
make under the existing deal and we called it
Marillion.com (1999) to advertise our newly-launched
web-site and record label.
This was when we also dreamed up the idea of
asking our fans to pre-order and pay for the
recording costs of our next album, some 12 months
in
advance
of
its
release. It
was
a
revolutionary
concept and it hit the headlines in 2001.
Astonishingly, over 12,000 of our fans pre-ordered
and we struck a deal with EMI to market the
resulting
album, Anoraknophobia, in
the
shops. We
launched a similar campaign to fund our
most recent release, Marbles, but this
time all the money raised (£350,000)
went
into the campaign fund to promote
the
album. It
worked.In
April
2004, we had our first top 10 hit since
1987 with ‘You’re Gone’ (which reached
No.7)
and
followed
it
with ‘Don’t
Hurt
Yourself’, which
reached
No.16
in
the
summer. Some
DJs
accused
us
of
cheating because we used the internet to
encourage our fans to go out and buy the records.
I
couldn’t quite understand why that was cheating.
Oh well…
If you want to decide about Marillion for yourself,
you can hear what we do by visiting our web site,
We’ll
even
send
you
a
free
CD,
Crash Course, to introduce you to our music.
Info
Photographs by Joe del Tufo, Studio M
May 2005 SOUND ON SOUND LIVE
13