By the release of
Fugazi,
Marillion were a huge
band in the UK, and on the cusp of real
stardom.
So for their next album, what do they do? Release a bunch of ultra-accessible 3 minute pop diddies? No. They hole themselves up in Berlin (this is cold war, pre-unification Berlin, by the way) and decide to write a concept album.
You can imagine what the record company EMI thought. But the band had an ace up their sleeve--a song called Kayleigh was growing out of the concept as a single.
So the band makes the album, and Kayleigh becomes a hit (missing number 1 in the UK only because of a charity single in the way), Misplaced Childhood becomes their biggest selling album yet, and they get their closest taste of success in the USA--"Kayleigh" cracked the top 40 and the video got some MTV airplay (this was the summer of "Money For Nothing", though.) They also opened some US dates for Rush--they would come out, play all of Misplaced Childhood, and leave. People, even Rush fans, didn't quite know what to make of it.
So now, they're officially big time rock stars. You think there were drugs and alcohol involved? Read on. . .
Tracks:
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