POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE
Carl Glover lets us in on a few secrets about the Brave album cover…
The identity of the silent girl found on the severn bridge who inspired brave isn’t the only mystery surrounding the album. its cover features an equally enigmatic portrait of a woman whom neither the band nor the man who designed it know.
carl glover was the designer who created brave’s striking artwork. he was working for design studio bss at the time, and had been collaborating with marillion since seasons end, the first album they made with steve hogarth. “obviously [original sleeve artist] mark wilkinson had gone with fish, and we’d moved away from the previous look, which was very strong,” glover tells Prog. “using photography was the big thing.”
the band gave glover an outline of the story, and he remembers meeting up with steve hogarth “for a few shandies, so i knew the visual space it inhabited pretty well – alienation is a recurring theme in music”.
the photograph itself came from an unlikely source. “in those days, photographers used to send us what were effectively postcards as a showcase for their work,” he says. “this one just stood out. my boss liked it, and he came up with this idea of having that with a load of writing on it across the face. i can’t remember how we came across the writing but it turned out to be from the diary of anne frank, which was a pure accident.” glover remembers the name of the photographer – michael Johnson – but has no idea what happened to him. “he seems to have disappeared without trace. i’ve got a feeling that he was trying out a new career and decided to do something different instead.”
and did he ever find out the identity of the girl in the photo? “no, i never knew at all. there’s someone out there on a marillion cover and doesn’t even know it. but that happens more than you think.”