“IT WASN’T LIKE WE WEREN’T SPENDING MONEY ON THEM.”

Nick Mander, Marillion’s A&R man while they recorded Brave, answers his critics…

n ick mander is frequently painted as the villain of the brave story, at least from marillion’s point of view. but the man who worked as the band’s a&r during that period has his own version of events.

“i’d been in the a&r department at emi for quite a while, and i’d had some big hit records with bands like emf,” mander tells Prog. “i was asked if i’d a&r a marillion album. i knew they’d been through the whole trauma of fish leaving and trying to reposition themselves as a band, but i knew nothing about them beyond that.”

as a young kid, mander had been a fan of yes and genesis, and he recognised what marillion wanted to do. “when they told me they wanted to make this record about this girl, i thought, ‘this is the lamb lies down on broadway, this is fantastic!’ i would say they probably would never have made that record with another a&r guy.”

it was mander who brought dave meegan into the picture – the producer was married to his Pa. “i asked marillion if they’d be interested in having him on the record, they met him and they liked him,” he says.

he laughs when reminded of the fact that he apparently said he wanted to make a cheap, fast album. “if we’d wanted to make a cheap, fast album, we’d have done it in the uK. we sent them to the fucking dordogne. i don’t remember any pressure to deliver, but maybe there was. there was a lot of toing and froing and a lot of recording – it was a complicated record they wanted to make. we let them record in a french chateau, we let them make a movie – it wasn’t like we weren’t spending money on them.”

mander remembers having “a brilliant time” making brave, though he concedes that the album probably did damage the band’s relationship with the label.

“i think that was the beginning of the end,” he says. “i think they weren’t a band who suited being on emi. they were always on the outside of the establishment, which is a great thing. they were coming to breaking point with the label, and maybe it was overdue. look where they are now – the best thing that happened to them was that they left emi.”