Advertise on podcast: Prog & Progeny

Mark and Tallulah finish their deep dive into Seasons End. Mark explains to Tallulah what a hair band is, and why Hooks in You put Marillion a little too close to being one: Rothery’s riff, synth brass with a nod to Jump, and a record label wanting a hit. Also how a critic’s “overworked guff” about The Space became “underworked guff”. Plus a £700 curfew bill in London's Hammersmith Apollo.

Former Piranhas guitarist, novelist and Marillion lyricist John Helmer joins Mark and Tallulah. He talks about Top of the Pops and Tom Hark, signing with Pete Waterman, and how one brief taste of success broke up his band. He explains the thinking behind his Marillion lyrics. John also remembers the night at Stanbridge Studios when he turned up in a suit and a Stetson during the writing of Holidays in Eden and sang a murderous cowboy song to a room of mushroom-fuelled "Mexicans." Links: The Tech Imaginarium Podcast https://learninghackpodcast.com/shows/the-tech-imaginarium/ Tom Hark - The Piranhas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpfcPe_aFwk

We begin our deep dive into Seasons End - Marillion’s first album with Steve Hogarth. Mark and Tallulah explore the first four tracks - The King of Sunset Town, Easter, The Uninvited Guest and Seasons End - from the stories and meanings behind them to how they came together during a huge period of change for the band. Mark recalls finding H, whether there was ever a Plan B if fans rejected him, and why Marillion briefly considered changing their name. Link: Marathon singer Oliver Smith new E.P. https://open.spotify.com/album/68ky2prcbswKAT78xeEu5d?si=f0q775D6ShGoaPUMhHCFAQ&utm_source=copy-link

Mark and Tallulah finish Sounds That Can't Be Made. Why Power's lyric leaves Mark cold, how Mike Hunter pulled a buried vocal melody out of Invisible Ink, the home piano noodle that became The Sky Above the Rain, and whether Montréal deserves the bad press. If you click on this link before listening to the podcast you will probably wonder what that has to do with Marillion: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/04/260406192809.htm

We jump forward to 2012's Sounds That Can't Be Made. We discuss the writing and recording of the first half of the album track by track.

We wrap up our two-parter on Marillion's 1983 debut, moving from the songs the band left behind to the reasons they did. Also, the gear and the studio decisions that shaped how the record sounds, where Fish was drawing his lyrics from, and what it's like to hear your first album again 40+ years on. Links: The Web trumpet interpretation by Gil Pinatel that we discussed in this episode can be heard here https://youtu.be/LDW5K4Wx8bc?is=2Gb5JlemgdmCcqMu

A short catch-up episode. Mark and Tallulah discuss their Pompeii experience — the choir, the pre-show keyboard crisis, playing "Sugar Mice" in the rain — plus podcast meetups, the UK tour and more...

Mark and Tallulah deep dive into Script For A Jester's Tear, Marillion's 1983 debut — six songs, forty-six minutes, more chaos than the record lets on. Razor-blade multi-track edits, £1,000 for Trevor McDonald was too much, a secret backwards message meant only for Kayleigh, and stories behind Mark Wilkinson's cover art. Plus: plague pits, a stolen Small Faces melody, and the bass fluff that made the final mix. He Knows you Know early demo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l507pRZEz4

Mark joins Tallulah from backstage in Bonn as Marillion's German tour begins with the live debut of "Ribbons and Lace." The book's final chapter covers the story behind "Gaza," the Frankfurt cement mixer accident, sudden hearing loss, marathon mishaps, a famous F1 fan, and a Nick Cave encounter.

A little pre-tour update...

Mark and Tallulah are joined by David Stopps, the promoter behind Friars Aylesbury, which he founded in 1969 and has run for 56 years. David recalls the club's earliest nights — including King Crimson and Genesis — managing Marillion for 5 short weeks, managing Howard Jones, and the Kickstarter behind Aylesbury's David Bowie "Earthly Messenger" statue. Plus Marillion's hometown return on 21 September. Links: How to make a Living from Music - David Stopps David Bowie "Earthly Messenger" statue, Aylesbury Friars Aylesbury Stagehand (the road-crew charity David fundraised for during Covid)

In episode 35 we discussed the making of the Marathon album and our first attempts at writing together. These early efforts never came to anything, but for your amusement here's the music I sent to Guy to inspire him to write some lyrics. You might recognise the opening bars as I used them for the intro of the song 2051. It came out of a couple of days of jamming at the Racket Club in 2012 with Steve Lawson (bass) and Roy Dodds (drums). You can find out more about Steve's work here and Roy's here. Mike Hunter recorded and edited these jams into something more coherent — much as he does with the Marillion jams when we're writing — though it's still far from what you'd call a finished song. Adding the number station recordings was Mike's idea, and I think it gives the piece an intriguing atmosphere. I hope you enjoy it. Mark

Mark and Tallulah are joined by Guy Vickers — barrister by day, musician and lyricist by night — the man behind the lyrics on Mark Kelly's Marathon and the legal brain behind Marillion's battle with EMI. 00:25 — Introducing Guy: weekend warrior, full-time barrister 03:13 — How Pete's dinner introduction kicked off the EMI streaming dispute 06:03 — The dissolved companies crisis: six months to save the pre-'96 royalties 10:05 — Pitching the box sets to EMI, and Fish's pub reunion proposal 13:27 — Marathon begins: number stations, spies and lyrics as relationship code 19:30 — The Anthropocene concept and what makes a human human 21:02 — Writing Amelia and 2051: Earhart, Kubrick, Clarke and Stephen Hawking 23:00 — Finding Ollie and hearing Amelia sung for the first time in New Orleans 29:15 — Why "Marathon"? The Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow logic 34:07 — The lost song about plagiarism (and Led Zeppelin's borrowed blues) 39:00 — Why Amelia crashed: Morse code, blind spots and unknown unknowns 43:47 — Wingsuits, risk and how you'd want to go out

This week we dive into Mark's years on the FAC and PPL boards, fighting for artists' rights while Marillion were being short-changed by their old EMI deal. The lawsuit that followed and the after-the-event insurance gambit, the sleepless night when EMI claimed Marillion had no legal standing because Marillion Limited had been dissolved! Plus the Portugal writing session that ended in a tactless row with H over a lyric, and the six-month silence that followed.

This week Mark calls in from Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios — with a quick video tour and the story of meeting Peter Gabriel for the first time. Then into deputising for Adam Wakeman in Travis (with "drink beer" written across half the setlist) and a candid post-mortem on Somewhere Else — the dropped pre-order, the EP that never was, Mike Hunter's confidence taking a hit, and which songs hold up (and which really don't). Plus "Almost a Midwife Mark", and the tweet that got Mark to delete Twitter, tour meet-ups, and a Marillion quiz coming for Patreon members.