Marillion’s 2004 album Marbles saw the band return to the singles chart for the first time since 1987. Lead track You’re Gone reached UK No.7, leading to some unusual experiences for the band, as they told Prog.
Some things you never see coming, and a latter-career hit single was probably one of those for Marillion. The choppy, rhythmic loop of You’re Gone – the lead track from 2004 album Marbles – reached No.7 on the UK’s Official Singles Chart, their first Top 10 since 1987’s Incommunicado. (The Dutch, who like Marillion the way a cat likes cream, propelled it to No.8.)
Quite the turnaround for a band who’d had to revert to crowdfunding their previous album, Anoraknophobia. “It still didn’t stop people asking me about Fish, though!” lead singer Steve Hogarth observes wryly.
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“We couldn’t believe it – you have this Top 10 hit and suddenly everyone gets excited and starts phoning you up. I haven’t changed; I haven’t done anything different, and now you’re all doing backflips because of a number on a chart? It’s very weird from the artist’s point of view.
“I remember someone from Radio 4’s Front Row programme wanted to talk to me suddenly, and one of his questions was, ‘Do you think motivating your friends to buy your record so you can have a hit single is a distortion of the marketplace?’ That was his question: ‘How dare you make this happen in spite of the BBC?’ As they certainly weren’t playing it. This ‘stay in your lane’ sort of vibe. That said, perhaps it was just a clever question to see what it would draw out?
“The song itself was built on a loop, and not a conventional structure. it came out of Steve Rothery playing around with Logic. He wrote those sections on the computer with a keyboard, and it was this new sound that we thought was kind of interesting.
The pre-sale was one of our biggest ever, but there’s something about having a hit single again
Ian Mosley
“It’s not what you would play by choice – like there was a little bit missing. There’s a lot of our music that’s like that. Even when we’re jamming, Mark Kelly will play some chords but they’re almost like a challenge: ‘If you can put a melody on this then you’re doing well!’ But quite often that brings out the most interesting stuff.”
Bassist Pete Trewavas adds: “I really liked that it featured that kind of Ian Dury/Blockheads Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick-style bass line. It was a bit trippy with those jazzy, trip-hop loops, especially for Marillion. And then these lush chords across it gave it this soul; and this great melody line; and suddenly we had this surprise hit.”
“It really lifted everyone’s morale, having a hit single,” says drummer Ian Mosley. “We knew the album was good, and the pre-sale was one of our biggest ever, but there’s something about having a hit single again.
“And it wasn’t what I suppose you’d call the classic Marillion sound: it was built up from this drum loop that I played along to. We use that loop live, too. It makes me laugh because we were doing it once and the technology wasn’t quite keeping up. It was sounding great – this real swing – and then halfway through the loop just stops, and we instantly turned into a sort of working men’s club band!
“Great song, though.”
