In 1977, drummer Mick Pointer joined Electric Gypsy, which also included Doug Irvine on bass, Alan King on vocals and Andy Glass (later of Solstice) on guitar.

[14][15][16] Other sources have that the band name was shortened to Marillion in 1981 to avoid potential copyright conflicts,[17] at the same time as singer Fish and bassist William 'Diz' Minnitt[18] replaced original bassist/vocalist Doug Irvine following an audition at Leyland Farm Studios in Buckinghamshire on 2 January 1981.

The summer demo has three tracks; "Close" (parts of which were later rewritten into "The Web", "He Knows You Know" and "Chelsea Monday"), "Lady Fantasy" (an original based on an earlier Electric Gypsy song), and another version of "Alice".

Following Irvine's departure and replacement by Fish and Minnitt, the band recorded another demo tape, produced by Les Payne, in July 1981 that included early versions of "He Knows You Know", "Garden Party", and "Charting the Single".

[25] In April 1983, following the UK tour to promote Script for a Jester's Tear, Mick Pointer was dismissed due to Fish's dissatisfaction with what he later described as the drummer's "awful" timing and failure to develop as a musician with the rest of the band.

1 in the UK, knocking Bryan Ferry's Boys and Girls off the top spot and holding off a challenge from Sting, whose first solo album, The Dream of the Blue Turtles, entered the chart in the same week.

[34] The fourth studio album, Clutching at Straws, shed some of its predecessor's pop stylings and retreated into a darker exploration of excess, alcoholism, and life on the road, representing the strains of constant touring that would result in the departure of Fish to pursue a solo career.

That was when I knew that, if I stayed with the band, I'd probably end up a raging alcoholic and be found overdosed and dying in a big house in Oxford with Irish wolfhounds at the bottom of my bed.

[42][43] Hogarth was a significant contrast to Fish, coming from a new wave musical background instead of progressive rock, and possessing a very different vocal style, image and stage presence.

The first time Marillion would appear in public with Steve Hogarth as the new singer was under the banner of Low Fat Yoghurts, at the Crooked Billet pub in Stoke Row, on 8 June 1989.

Holidays in Eden wouldn't be released until June 1991, and was followed by a headlining appearance at the second and final Cumbria Rock Festival at Derwent Park in Workington 13 July 1991.

A dark and richly complex concept album inspired by a true news story, it took the band 18 months to write and record and marked the start of their longtime relationship with producer Dave Meegan.

Some of the material had been aired at that sole 1993 show in Utrecht, and was also previewed at low-key gigs in the Netherlands, Italy, and Germany before Marillion kicked off the Brave world tour at Liverpool's Royal Court Theatre on 20 February 1994.

Rothery's project with the female singer Hannah Stobart, drummer Paul Craddick (from Enchant) and Trewavas, called The Wishing Tree, released their album Carnival of Souls in September 1996.

Following the completion of the extensive 1997 tour (including Marillion's one-thousandth gig, on 27 October at the Amsterdam Paradiso), the band returned to their own studio, The Racket Club, in November.

[58] During 1997 to 1999, EMI issued 2-CD remastered editions of Marillion's first eight studio albums (Script for a Jester's Tear through Afraid of Sunlight), each with a second CD of non-album tracks and other archival recordings.

The Dot Com tour, again with dates only in the UK and mainland Europe, started on 13 October at the MCM Cafe in Paris, and ended with a special Christmas show for the Web fanclubs worldwide in Aachen, Germany on 5 December 1999.

[70] The band's management organised the biggest promotional schedule since they had left EMI and Steve Hogarth secured interviews with prominent broadcasters on BBC Radio, including Matthew Wright, Bob Harris, Stuart Maconie, Simon Mayo and Mark Lawson.

The band explained that although they do not support piracy, they realised their music would inevitably be distributed online anyway, and wanted to attempt to engage with p2p users and make the best of the situation.

The Deluxe Edition also included a 128-page book that incorporated lyrics, artwork and, as was the case with Anoraknophobia, Marbles and Happiness is the Road, the names of people who pre-ordered the album.

[93][94] In March 2018, Hogarth was involved with fellow musician Howard Jones in helping to unveil a memorial to David Bowie, which is situated close to Aylesbury's Market Square.

In early 2019, Marillion entered the studio with the intention to record songs from their catalogue with friends from the orchestra who played with the band at the Royal Albert Hall shows in 2017.

With Friends from the Orchestra was recorded at The Racket Club and Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios and features reimagined versions of songs accompanied by the In Praise of Folly String Quartet with Sam Morris on French horn and Emma Halnan on flute.

[97][98] In November and December 2019, the orchestra followed Marillion on tour in the UK, returning for two nights at the Royal Albert Hall, and they also played shows in the Netherlands, France, Italy and Germany.

Although the band has featured two very distinct and different vocalists, the core instrumental line-up[108] of Steve Rothery (lead guitar, and the sole 'pre-Fish' original member), Pete Trewavas (bass), Mark Kelly (keyboards) and Ian Mosley (drums) has been unchanged since 1984.

As Jon Wilde summarised in Melody Maker in 1989: At the end of a strange year for pop music, Marillion appeared in November 1982 with "Market Square Heroes".

"[73] In the Q & Mojo Classic Special Edition Pink Floyd & The Story of Prog Rock, an article on Marillion written by Mick Wall described them as "probably the most misunderstood band in the world".

"[44] In 2001, the television critic of The Guardian, Gareth McLean, used his review of the Michael Lewis BBC Two documentary, Next: The Future Just Happened, to concentrate on launching a scathing attack on the band, whose appearance only constituted one segment of the programme.

He also dismissed the band's efforts to continue their career without a label by dealing directly with their fans on the Internet, writing: "One suspects that their decision occurred round about the time that the record industry decided to shun Marillion.

"[133] Marillion are widely considered to have been one of the first mainstream acts to have fully recognised and tapped the potential for commercial musicians to interact with their fans via the internet, starting in around 1996, and are nowadays often characterised as a rock & roll 'Web Cottage Industry'.