Was our Kayleigh on Kay’s Car Share?
GUITAR HEROES KEEP THEIR DRIVE DUE TO SUPERFANS
THREE of Marillion’s most recent songs are more than 15 minutes long.
Played live, you might be looking at close to 20, especially if singer Steve Hogarth bursts into tears halfway through.
“That happens all the time,” he chuckles. “I’m such a luvvie!
“The trouble is, when your emotion swells in your chest to the point where you cry, it becomes impossible to sing.”
Not that Marillion’s fans are likely to mind. First, because “at least they know I mean it”. And, second, because their loyalty to this band – together now for 40 years and about to embark on yet another UK tour – is on a scale other acts would surely kill for.
Marillion fans don’t just buy the odd album and stroll along to gigs. They gather in their thousands at regular Marillion conventions, the biggest being every two years in Holland.
“Japanese, Mexicans, Americans, Brazilians, you name it,” says Steve. “They fly in from all over the planet.
“People even get married there. I married one couple myself, dressed as a priest!”
Not only do the band play a different show every night at these events, they happily mingle with fans the whole weekend. Whoever wins the regular quiz, for instance, gets to test their Marillion knowledge against Steve and co. “They invariably beat us,” he says.
There’s even a feature called Swap The Band, where a few lucky fans who can play or sing themselves can step up on stage for one song, while Steve or whoever sits it out. “I don’t know any other band that does that,” he says.
The roots of this bond go back to the mid-90s, when Marillion effectively invented crowdfunding.
After they’d split from their record label, donations from die-hard fans meant they could set out on an otherwise unaffordable US tour.
It also later financed a number of albums. “We learned that they were prepared to buy stuff that didn’t even exist yet. That was their level of faith.
“We also learnt that, whatever this
internet thing was, we’d better get on it! So we were ahead of the curve, really.”
Marillion also have a part in a piece of history. Their song Out Of This World, is about Donald Campbell’s fatal attempt to break the world water speed record in 1967.
Diver Bill Smith heard the track and was inspired to look for the wreck of his boat Bluebird in Coniston Water in the Lake District. This led to the craft being raised in 2001 and it has since been restored.
Of course, there’s one piece of Marillion music that resonates even with non-fans and that’s the
1985 hit Kayleigh, recorded when Steve’s predecessor Fish was still the singer.
It reached No2 in the charts.
No doubt Steve is tired of being asked about this, but when Kayleigh resurfaced so prominently just a couple of years ago, soundtracking the most tearjerking scene of Peter Kay’s hit comedy Car Share, how huge an impact did this have on the band?
Steve sounds puzzled. “Did that end up being on Car Share?” he replies.
“Well, it certainly had no impact on me because I didn’t even know that had happened!” Even so, he’s aware of its significance in Marillion’s history. And in some ways it’s a tricky one.
“I wouldn’t quite call it a millstone around our necks,” he says, “but it does pull the focus away from what we’ve become musically. That’s unfortunate. “But then maybe without Kayleigh we’d never have had the creative freedom we’ve had these last 30 years.” November’s tour and tie-in album are called Marillion With Friends From The Orchestra Live, inset, for which songs from their back catalogue are enhanced by horns and strings.
After that, they’ll be back in the studio – a routine Steve sounds deeply content with. So how, these days, does he define success? “Being able to pay the mortgage while being free to do what the hell you like,” he says. “That’s the Holy Grail. “You can be a millionaire but so famous you can’t walk down the street without being hounded.
“That’s no way to live.”
● Marillion With Friends From The Orchestra Live. For tickets go to marillion.com/tour