Following the success of the Steven Wilson remixed ‘Brave’ and accompanying box set earlier in 2018, the Marillion reissue campaign continues with an expanded ‘Clutching At Straws’ this November.
Although not as commercially successful as its predecessor ‘Misplaced Childhood’, the 1987 album reached the UK top ten, spawned hit singles and remains a firm favourite with long-time fans.
After the success of last year’s ‘Misplaced Childhood’ box set, the Marillion reissue campaign continues into 2018 with a similarly lavish multi-disc set of 1994 fan favourite ‘Brave’.
At Real Gone, we pride ourselves on covering a wide range of musical styles, but rock music is pivotal to our everyday listening. In the years building up to the site’s creation, Marillion were one of our all time favourite bands. They have arguably one of the most obsessive fan bases of any band ever. Hours have been spent discussing the merits of various works – with their ‘Radiation’ album being particularly divisive – and, while the fans often agree, they’re as likely to disagree on various things.
We’ve reached the end of 2015. It hasn’t been as thrilling a year for new music as 2014 had been, but there has been plenty to entertain. We’re still waiting on the proposed deluxe edition of Prince & The Revolution’s classic ‘Purple Rain’ (we could be waiting a long time) and those promised UB40 deluxe editions. Another year has passed without the arrival of Real Gone favourite Mick Terry’s second album. Lots of people in the UK have been (over)-excited by Steven Wilson’s ‘Hand.Cannot.Erase.’, but most of what’s impressed us the most at Real Gone – as is so often the case – is often just a little more underground.
Here are our year’s top picks…
Over the years, Marillion have released some great albums and played some fantastic shows. Their 2004 double album ‘Marbles’ and following tour very much represents a high point in the band’s career and post-80s fortunes – the shows on that tour were arguably some of the best they’ve ever played. Like every band that has ever set foot upon a stage, naturally, they don’t always get it right and some of the shows promoting their ‘Somewhere Else’ album in 2007 were frankly very dull indeed.
On this occasion, Marillion been given the honour of headlining the Prog stage at the very first Ramblin’ Man Fair, a classic rock and prog festival. It’s kind of ironic that a band who spent the whole of the nineties trying to convince everyone they were not a prog band would headline a prog rock stage, but the idea that Marillion have a headline slot at a UK festival is a very appealing one to both the band and their fans.