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Marillion are a British Rock group formed in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England in 1979, whose career of 13 studio albums to date is generally regarded as comprising two distinct eras, delineated by the departure of original frontman Fish in late 1988 after their first 4 albums and the subsequent arrival of replacement Steve Hogarth ("h") in early 1989, with whom a subsequent 9 albums have been released thus far.

The core lineup of Steve Rothery (the sole remaining original member), Pete Trewavas, Mark Kelly and Ian Mosley has stayed unchanged since 1984. The band has enjoyed critical and commercial success with a string of UK top 10 hits spanning their career, an estimated 15 million total worldwide album sales and even an entry into the Guinness book of records.

The band's music has changed stylistically throughout their career. The band themselves have stated that each new album tends to be a reaction to the last one, and for this reason their output is difficult to 'pigeonhole'.

Their original sound (with Fish) on vocals is best described as guitar and keyboard led progressive rock of a style similar to Genesis (prior to 1981), Pink Floyd, and Van der Graaf Generator. In late 1988, Fish left the band and was replaced as vocalist by Steve Hogarth.

The band's sound since has steadily evolved and can now be approximated to art rock along the lines of Radiohead, Keane, Coldplay et al. The band themselves, on their current sampler CD, offer the description (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) of "Songs about Death and Water since 1979..."

Many current fans would endorse the characterisation of 'complex, melodic rock with a spiritual and sometimes melancholic edge'.

Representative samples of Fish-era Marillion (1987) and h-era Marillion (2004).

Marillion are widely considered within the industry 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 circa 1996, and are nowadays often characterised as a Rock 'Web Cottage Industry'.

The band are renowned for having an extremely dedicated following with some fans regularly travelling intercontinentally to attend single gigs, driven in large part by the close fanbase involvement which the band cultivate via their website, podcasts, bi-annual weekend conventions and regular fanclub publications.

The 14th studio album "Somewhere Else" is due for release 26 March 2007