About
Taking the name from J.R.R. Tolkien's book "The Silmarillion", the band was originally formed in Aylesbury, Bucks, UK, in December 1978, featuring Mick Pointer on drums, Steve Rothery on guitars, Doug Irvine on bass and vocals, and Brian Jelliman on keyboards. By early 1981, the band's line-up changed with the departure of Doug Irvine. He was replaced by Diz Minnitt and Scotish singer Derek William Dick (alias Fish), who had been involved together in a short lived experimental band called Stone Dome Band, prior to seeking like minded souls, first in the Cambridge scene and later the Scottish Borders. At this stage, the creation of this new line up led to a burst of creativity and the band change it's name to Marillion and recorded their first professional demo tape in July, produced by Les Payne and featuring the tracks "He Knows You Know", "Garden Party" and "Charting the Single".
Marillion first appeared in a recognisable form in early 1982, when the line-up of Fish (vocals), Steve Rothery (guitar), Mark Kelly (keyboards), Pete Trewavas (bass) and Mick Pointer (drummer) began exhaustively touring around the Aylesbury and London area. The combination of imaginative, enthralling m…