Marillion

Marillion came out of Aylesbury in 1979 and spent the '80s proving that progressive rock could survive punk. They were the flagship of neo-prog, a band that took the sweep and drama of the classic prog records and filtered it through the grit of Britain's post-punk scene, and nobody in that movement sold more records. Guitarist Steve Rothery has been there from the beginning, with keyboardist Mark Kelly, bassist Pete Trewavas and drummer Ian Mosley joining between 1981 and 1984.

With Fish out front, they debuted with the single "Market Square Heroes" in 1982 and followed it with the 1983 album Script for a Jester's Tear. Misplaced Childhood went to number one in Britain in 1985 and gave them "Kayleigh" and "Lavender", aching, dramatic songs that smuggled prog ambition onto pop radio. Clutching at Straws, with "Incommunicado", was Fish's final studio album with the band; late in 1988 he walked out to go solo.

Steve Hogarth stepped in, and Seasons End showed the band still had a pulse. The mainstream eventually drifted away after they left EMI in the late '90s, but the fans didn't. Marillion became pioneers of fan-funded records, landed "You're Gone" in the UK Top 10 in 2004, and have sold more than 15 million albums.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.