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| Marillion are more than just 5 guys in a room making music... On this page are some names you may recognise from album credits, and faces of the staff of the Racket Club and Racket Records |
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| Stephanie Bradley |
| Racket Club staffer Stephanie is involved with coordinating the Marillion Street Teams, as well as additional marketing and promotion of the band. |
| Stephanie also oversees the enormous task of the Marillion Weekend booking operations. |
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| Roderick Brunton |
| After the departure of Stewart Every in Late 2001, Marillion found a new studio manager and engineer to begin working on their then-upcoming album Marbles |
| Rod became Front of House engineer in the autumn of 2004, and continues to mix live sound for the band, although he has left his staff position at the Racket Club. |
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| Stewart Every |
| Stewart started out as Marillion's studio assistant engineer and keyboard tech during Afraid of Sunlight. When Privet left the TSE tour in 1997, Stewart took over live sound. |
| Continuing to work in the Racket Club as both engineer and studio manager, Stewart finally gave up his life of rock'n'roll in 2001 and moved to Cornwall with his wife and 2 children. |
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| Chris 'Privet' Hedge |
| Privet was Marillion's front-of-house sound engineer since the early days of the band through to 1997. Many people ask us what happened to him; here is the definitive answer! |
| Privet passed the FOH torch to Stewart Every in the middle of the This Strange Engine tour when he left to join Genesis on what would be their final tour. After this, he went on to work with many band, including Westlife, Mike and the Mechanics, and Gabrielle amongst others. |
| In 2002 Privet returned to the mixing desk for Marillion for a one-off festival appearance, and still pops by the Racket Club from time to time to say hi! |
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| John Helmer |
| When Marillion were looking for a singer in 1988, they were confident they could find a singer, but didn't know if they would also find an accomplished lyric-writer! So EMI put them in touch with lyricist John Helmer. |
| When Steve Hogarth signed on in 1989, he brought with him several songs and lyric ideas, but by that time the band had chosen several Helmer lyrics they also liked. Although the collaboration continued actively through This Strange Engine, Steve Hogarth now writes the majority of Marillion lyrics solo. |
| Helmer was previously part of the Brighton punk band The Piranhas, and is also a published writer - his first book Mother Tongue was released in 1999. He has also contributed lyrics to Steve Rothery's Wishing Tree project. |
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| Mike Hunter |
| Mike worked as an assistant engineer on the Brave album, both at The Racket Club, and at Marouatte in France. In addition to creating the River ambient/instrumental album as intro music for the Brave tour, he also became Mark's keyboard tech. After the tour finished, he returned to Liverpool and Parr Street Studio, working for such bands as Mansun, The Coral, and Alfie. |
| In 2004 he returned to the Racket Club to mix the majority of Marbles and was then invited to produce Somewhere Else. With an in-depth knowledge of the music from these albums, Mike also mixed the soundtracks to the Marbles on the Road and Somewhere in London DVDs and several recent Racket Records live releases. |
| Since August 2007, Mike has been at The Racket Club producing the new album Happiness is the Road |
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| Brian Jelliman |
| Brian was Marillion's original keyboard player, who contributed to the writing of several of the early Script... tracks. However, he was replaced by Mark Kelly in late 1981. |
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| Diz Minnett |
| Fish and bassist Diz were good friends who traveled together to Aylesbury and both joined Marillion in 1981 (at the same time the band dropped the original 'Sil-' from their name). |
| As with Brian Jelliman, Diz was involved with the writing of several Script... tracks, but was eventually replaced by Pete Trewavas in 1982. |
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| Richard Pettifer |
| Richard has worked on the Marillion Online website since 2001, providing and maintaining the Marillion Online Forums. |
| He has also provided other interactive portions of the site, and is working on more surprises for the future! |
| Richard also runs his own marketing company. |
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| Mick Pointer |
| One of the founding members of the original 'Silmarillion', Mick Pointer played drums for the band in their early days and appears on the first studio album Script for a Jester's Tear. |
| During the promotional tour for the debut album, Mick left the band and was succeeded by several temporary drummers until Ian Mosley joined in 1984. |
| In 1995, Mick Pointer re-emerged on the music scene with the band Arena, who continue to record and tour. |
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| Former Marillion lead singer, 1980-1988 |
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| I've thought a lot about [leaving the band] and where it went wrong. I recently met up with the other guys in Oxford and we talked about the break up. We've all changed and age has done us all proud. Five family guys sat 'round a table and we discussed the affair as adults, and most importantly as good friends. |
| We toured far too much and always in the same areas to the point of overexposure. We all needed a break from each other and to recapture our private and personal lives away from the band. We needed to grow as people not as a band. |
| I left the band after 7 years and 4 great studio albums with no regrets and a sense of pride and accomplishment. In answer to those who still hold a torch for that era and a reformation of the '81-'88 line up I can only say that I'm sure as individuals we'll work together somewhere in the future, but as for anything else you would be clutching at straws. |
| Fish, Autumn 1999 |
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| Personal Notes... |
| Working for Marillion is always a blast. The fans are friendly and welcoming and it's always nice to be treated so pleasantly when you see them all at gigs and Marillion Weekends. |
| It would certainly be hard to go and work for another band now as I would always compare the fans and the band themselves and I am sure it would be a let down - so let's hope I don't have to do that for many years to come. |
| I have lots of exciting plans for the future for the band and we'll keep trying to dig away at the media and try and get Marillion the respect they deserve! |
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| Marketing and Communications Manager |
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| Lucy Jordache joined the Marillion organisation in March 2000. Before this Lucy had worked at EMI Records for 6 years which is where she had met the band whilst working on remastering their back catalogue. They asked her to come and work for them and try and help raise their profile. |
| 5 years later and Lucy is now multi-tasking on a daily basis. She books and promoters all the band's gigs worldwide, runs the hugely successful Marillion Weekends, liaises with the distribution companies round the world to try and make the various releases run smoothly and is always looking for the next press and PR opportunity. Lucy is also in direct communication with a vast proportion of the fan base and regularly asks them for opinions and feedback which are crucial to the business. |
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| Personal Notes... |
| Fans I talk to are always amazed by 2 things, so I will explain them here! |
| First is the American accent. I was born in Cleveland, Ohio, but have been living in Oxford, England since 1998 (no, I'm not a student, thank you!), and am now both American AND British. |
| Second is that there isn't another Erik working for Marillion. I was once Mark's keyboard tech; I design, program, and run the website; I also oversee Racket Records and the Front Row Club. Thankfully Colin manages the day-to-day running of it, which leaves me more time to get new projects up and running, coordinate the new releases, master 'Marking Of' and FRC albums, and design artwork for Racket merchandise and the Front Row Club (amongst others)! |
| And now the shameless plug: Check out my band The Plugs at www.theplugs.com |
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| Website Designer,
Racket Records / Intact Records Business Manager |
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| In 1997 Erik Nielsen joined Marillion in the USA during the This Strange Engine tour as Mark Kelly's keyboard tech after answering an "ad" on the band's then fan-run website. |
| After finishing the tour in Europe, Erik began developing Marillion's new "Marillion Online" website and re-launching the band's Racket Records label. Since its re-birth in 1998, Racket has gone from a one-man operation in a loft-space to an office with its own staff; and allowing the band direct control over every aspect of their business. |
| From the revolutionary pre-order campaigns of Anoraknophobia and Marbles to the Front Row Club, Anoraknophobia Remix Contest, and large catalogue of merchandise and Racket releases, Erik continues to meet the challenges of turning both the band's and his new ideas - no matter how crazy - into reality. |
| After the 2004 Marbles tour, Erik took off his keyboard technician's hat for good to concentrate on the Marillion Online and Racket Records websites and the future of Intact Records. |
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| Personal Notes... |
| Those of you lucky enough to be doing your 'dream' job will probably relate to the following question: Where the HELL has the past 5 years gone?? |
| It pays to be flexible working for these guys. You really do not have a clue what is coming next. We should all be wearing lab coats with 72 pens in the top pocket. Its all a bit mad really. |
| Also...is it me or do I look like Donald Pleasence in that photo? |
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Racket Records Manager,
Guitar Technician
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| With Anoraknophobia pre-orders looming, Racket HQ sent out an email in 2000 to 'local' residents to find an extra hand at Racket Records. Colin was among those who answered, and both his previous experience and knowledge of the band made him a great addition to Planet Marillion. |
| His arrival during the 'boom' phase for Racket was perfectly timed, as he was able to throw whatever was pointed in his direction, including emergency guitar tech (which later became permanent), Postmankind album cover model, and photographer (his artistic photos decorate all Front Row Club releases) |
| Colin now manages Racket Records, still likes Bagpuss, and continues to tour with the band as guitar tech. |
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| Producer: Brave, Afraid of Sunlight, Anoraknophobia, Marbles |
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| Dave Meegan has been responsible for producing the 4 albums that the majority of Marillion fans rate as their personal favourite, as well as mixing This Strange Engine, Anorak in the UK, and The h Band's Live Spirit : Live Body - earning him the honorary title of "Marillion's 6th Member". |
| Dave first crossed paths with Marillion way back in 1984 working as a tape-op on Fugazi before producing Brave 10 years later. |
| His work on Marbles from 2002-2004 pushed him to the edge of his own sanity, and once he's recovered we hope to get his thoughts of the project in retrospect! |
| Dave has worked with countless artists, from U2 to Yes, and PIL to New Order - for a condensed 'Dave History' check out the album notes on this website for Anoraknophobia |
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| Artist, Photographer, Graphic Designer |
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| Carl Glover has been designing album covers for Marillion since 1989 (originally as part of Bill Smith Studios, and more recently his own company Aleph), on both studio albums and Racket Records releases, as well as posters, ads, t-shirts, or anything else you can print on! Always presenting us with new and interesting ideas, |
| He has become part of the Marillion family, getting as excited about new albums (if not more so!) than the band. His artwork and photography are now synonymous with Marillion. |
| Carl owns his own London-based graphic design company, Aleph, with partner (and occasional cover-art subject!) Christine. |
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| Mark's artwork dons the covers of all the Marillion albums and singles from 1982 through to 1988. |
| Born on October 3, 1952 in Windsor, England, Mark Wilkinson has been working as a free-lance illustrator for the past twenty years. Most of his current work is in the realm of fantasy, and he has seen his illustrations used in a wide variety of formats, from book jackets, magazines, record sleeves and posters to stamp designs, advertising and film merchandise. |
| A recent collection of his artwork, including the Marillion album covers, has been published in a book, The Masque. Mark has also recently returned to the old Marillion images for the Front Row Club Curtain Call boxed set artwork. |
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