Overdosed on sentiments and pride

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

20/03/83 : Script For A Jester's Tear - Marillion

So, I finally broke my Marillion duck earlier in the year with their latest album and now we go back to where it all began.  I think I heard this at the time and found it all a little overly earnest which has somewhat coloured my view of them over the years (despite them doing their best to change my mind with "Kayleigh").  So I was interested to listen to it as an older and wiser being (well, older anyway) to see what I thought.

But, before we get there, we have another compilation album to consider - K-Tel's Hotline which was at #6 this week and is a double album, with a surprisingly eclectic mix of 30 tracks across the two discs.  Of the tracks I know, I don't think there's a dud in there but I do have to balance this with there being 17 I can't remember.  However there are some vaguely remembered names in that 17 which means I suspect I'd enjoy checking it out and reminding myself of them - Sharon Redd, Billy Griffin, Rockers Revenge and Tyrone Brunson.  Oh, and there's UB40 and Shakin' Stevens as well.  So let's move swiftly back to Marillion...

Ooooh - it's really very prog, isn't it?  Or neo-progressive, as Wikipedia tells me.  I can totally see why teenage me didn't like it, but slightly-older-than-teenage me didn't mind it, although s-o-t-t me is still tempted to declare it a pretentious load of rubbish.  Partly to annoy people but a big part of this is that, well, it is a pretentious load of rubbish - but it was quite enjoyable nonetheless and I can see that owning the album back in the day and listening to it over and over to discover new sonic gems would have been fun.  I have to admit to listening to the original version at a pleasingly brief 46:46 (for 6 tracks!) as opposed to the bonus version which came in at 95:49 (nobody needs that).  It also won't surprise you to hear that neither of us have ever come close to owning this - 11.5/41.

We're at #7 with a new entry this week - they managed a 21 week run, which is a fine effort indeed.  They then managed another 7 appearances in the very lower reaches of the charts over the next couple of years before finally disappearing in October '85.  Above it in the charts this week were Tears For Fears, Michael, Eurythmics and U2.  What?!?  I've just gone to find the link for this and I can't - mostly because there isn't one because I've not done it yet.  So I guess we're getting a Brucie bonus this week.  Coming back to this write-up, we've also got a couple of compilations above Marillion in the chart - Chart Runners and Hotline.  The next new entry was at #15 from Saxon who were very popular with that particular crowd at the time.

Wikipedia has a reasonable amount on the album, but the content is basically "they made it and people liked it" - although it does also tell us that this is the only album with Mick Pointer drumming before he got fired for being a terrible drummer, so he became a kitchen designer.  It did pretty well for a debut though, but did surprisingly well on the continent as a reissue in 2020 - #5 in Germany!

"Customers also listened to" Fish (who knew, eh?), Camel and Magnum.  Who I'm sure are very fine groups, but let's just stick with me not minding yet another Marillion album for the time being, eh?  They're very lucky to have got the write-up because they wouldn't have if I'd realised I hadn't done U2 yet, but I was pleased I was made to listen to it and might even be tempted back to it.  It's not going to stop me being rude about them though.

20/03/83 - One I like, but not as much as I feel I should
27/03/83 - Some fine pop quiz questions