Marillion – Afraid Of Sunlight
“I hope for your sake, you’ve got what it takes, to be spoilt to death”
1993 was a rare year for Marillion in that they didn’t play a single live gig as a band. Pete and h did perform at a fanclub convention in Utrecht, Netherlands on June 19 1993 well before the Brave album was completed but from which they debuted a few of the songs. The Brave tour began February 20 1994 in Liverpool and ended 75 shows later on September 3rd in Mexico City, their first time playing in The Land of Enchantment. They also played 3 shows in Japan as well as the UK and the EU…but no North American shows and specifically no Toronto show, the selfish bastards. How could they leave us out? It is a question that has repeatedly come up over the course of the band’s history. Every time they tour, they are plagued with questions as to why they aren’t going to…well every country that they aren’t going to. The question has been addressed on multiple occasions and suffice it to say that the various costs associated with touring North America, Visas, taxes, venue size, hotels, flights, and a host of other challenges has always made touring abroad prohibitive at best and a financial loss at worst. The Brave show was a production unto itself, featuring screens with slides showing artwork and movie stills to help illustrate the story. Hogarth would dress up in various costumes and makeup (see I told you like 18000 words ago that I’d mention costumes again). He dressed as a priest initially and then changed into the female main character who I’m going to christen Dolly….actually no I’m not going to…that’s a shitty name for her…Right so Hogarth would tie his hair in ponytails, wear lipstick and eyeliner. There were candles and chandeliers and roses. By all accounts the original production of Brave was perhaps their greatest show to witness. I wouldn’t know because the bastards didn’t…..
An amazing live version of the album was recently released on the Deluxe reissue of the album – taken from La Cigale Theatre, Paris April 29th 1994. It captures the power of the performance vividly.
Almost two and a half years passed between the initial writing sessions for Brave and the release of the movie in 1995. This is a long time even by Marillon standards…actually it is a short time by Marillion standards but back in the 90’s it was a long time. Marillion had overblown their budget on Brave and EMI were at this point looking for a hit single on a new album that wouldn’t take forever to record and would be done as cheaply as possible. The band agreed to work faster and working again with Dave Meegan, picked up on some ideas they had during the writing of Brave. Somehow as if in some form of a modern miracle, the album was actually written and recorded between January and March of 1995 and released on June 24th, just 16 months after Brave was released. With the money from the Brave advance funding the outfitting of a small studio, the band were able to record the album in their own space dubbed The Racket Club, for the first time. The band’s ability to write and record in their own space without having to incur rental costs and timelines was paramount to how the band would be able to survive moving forward. It is not a minor point. I truly feel if they hadn’t taken the opportunity to create their own space, I’m not sure they would have survived. It was the first step in the road to extricating themselves from record companies and ultimately allowed them to define the foundation of their freedom and sustainability.
While not a concept album exactly, Afraid Of Sunlight has a thread of commonality that weaves through it, touching on the idea of the destructive and self-destructive nature of celebrity culture. The power of fame as a harbinger of chaos. The album references OJ Simpson, Brian Wilson and Elvis Presley as well as Jake LaMotta (or possibly Mike Tyson), John Lennon and Kurt Cobain, across several songs. That being said it is more of a loose idea…like subliminal connective tissue. Not simply a collection of random songs but also not quite the conceptual framework of Clutching at Straws.
The album begins with an announcer introducing a title boxing match and John Lennon talking about hallucinations as a child and finally the line “the house is surrounded by helicopters” overtop an almost angelic sounding keyboard synth pad. This is quickly followed by a crisp clean melodic guitar motif and confident bass/drum combo. Gazpacho is an infectiously catchy song which rings out with clarity and warmth. It is about as far musically removed from Brave as could be imagined. It sounds like Malibu in summer and it is a welcome shift from the heaviness of the previous record. No matter how much anyone loves Brave I don’t think anyone needed a second dose of it. Gazpacho doesn’t really commit to a single story line, instead drawing imagery from Jake LaMotta (raging like bull to an empty ring) mixed in with OJ Simpson and Brian Wilson into what amounts to a feeling of hazy horror. Lines like “The bottle and the doctor get you through the day, the boys who run the house’ll make it all okay” seemingly referring to Wilson’s doctor Eugene Landy and at the same time referencing the Beach Boys…or maybe even Kato Kaelin. Other lines like “And the stains on her Versace scarf, were they really just Gazpacho” on the other hand are clearly alluding to the Nicole Brown murder. It is a deftly woven web of imagery suggesting an almost interchangeable cast of crazy. The first verse almost sounds like it is referencing Dennis Wilson’s death and there are references throughout the song to The King though it is unclear if it is an Elvis reference or a LaMotta reference or maybe OJ…Maybe it is actually all of them. The reference returns at the end of the album with the final song, titled King, which no doubt was meant to tie the album back on itself. Bonus marks to Pete for his lovely melodic bass line in this song. It is sublimely awesome. Also, Ian Mosely’s almost effortless drumming is in fine form. I’ve watched him perform many times and I’ve never seen a drummer play with such power yet with seemingly so little effort. The song ends with the infamous news report of the OJ Simpson low speed car chase and the sound of helicopters…looping back on the opening quote. Some people dislike this song. I can’t conceive of how that is even possible. The last line of this song is “Drive the road” which would reappear as the first line of the title track.
The Pink Floydian choppers give way to brand new territory for the band. Cannibal Surf Babe is like a revved-up nod to the Beach Boys with full-on four-part harmony backing vocals. Pete has an ominous sounding mid-range bass tone that is excellent and underscores the weirdness of the lyrics. Musically it is all over the 60s map with marimbas and theremin. The whole thing sounds like it should be part of the soundtrack to Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks film. The band sound like they had a blast writing and recording this song which namechecks Brian Wilson and seems to embody the whole 60’s Laurel Canyon hippie vibe. There is even a spoken word section “And the sun came up over the mountain, And the waves rolled in across the bay, And the fabulous brightly-coloured birds flew up out of the forest, And she said “Well we’re all heaven’s beautiful children living together in paradise, Lie down my dear… you’re going to enjoy this”.” From day one I have absolutely loved this song as it really showed a different side and influence for the band, which again seems to have been incredibly divisive. For me one of the best things about Marillion isn’t that they made some great prog rock albums, it was that they grew and expanded beyond the limitations of that format. Even though they almost lost me on Holidays In Eden, I honestly think that it was Gazpacho and Cannibal Surf Babe that actually really re-captured my attention and made me take notice of them in a different way. These two songs were like calling cards to the future and a statement of a change intentions to the scope of influence and style that has existed from that point in time forward. I can’t really say Brave pulled me back into the fold as I don’t believe I actually heard it until after AOS was released. Anyway, similar to Gazpacho there are a lot of people that really dislike this song and again it doesn’t even compute for me how this could be possible. It is such a fun, crazy, wild song that showed the band had a sense of humour and were willing to have some fun. As the song ends a woman’s voice is heard speaking French which as it turns out is the translation of the spoken word section mentioned prior.
One of the promises made by the band was they would try to write another hit single. The band gave it their best shot and came up with an absolutely Beautiful song, both literally and in name. What I mean to say is the song is called Beautiful and it is literally a beautiful song. It may very well be the prettiest song the band has ever written. A gorgeous lyric and melody that speaks to building people up vs tearing them down. It is kind of the antithesis of Social Media. It also has a great bridge. I love when a bridge is done well…just once…and just enough to pivot a song on from good to great. It was the only single issued from the album and it just barely scraped the top 30 in the UK. It is a shame. In a just world Beautiful would have been a massive hit single. Alas it would be the best placement they would see in the singles charts for another 9 years. Hannah Stobart provided lovely backing vocals and would go on to work with Steve Rothery in their Wishing Tree albums. Two b-sides were available on the single release as well. Icon is more of a mishmash of musical ideas from the album than a proper song. Live Forever is a bluesy song that…well…neither song is really seminal stuff…they are both somewhat inconsequential in the scope of the band’s output. How the mighty b-sides have fallen.
The slow acoustic and heavily melodic Afraid Of Sunrise follows, which is a precursor to the title track that follows two songs later. It may be the most chill song the band has written with possibly the exception of House and some of Essence. It is a very pretty, innocuous tune. I have found very little written about this song as it is somewhat overshadowed by its successor and title track Afraid Of Sunlight. Not for unjust reasons as it is the lesser of the two songs but thematically tied to it…almost like a counterbalance. The lyrics are almost the same but not quite. I’m not 100% sure what they mean but I think it is a road trip song through the US southwestern desert region at night. Maybe it is about escape. I feel the best thing about the song is that it serves as a set up to the emotional payoff that is the title track. But not quite yet.
Before the title track, and what was originally the first song on side 2 of the vinyl release (which I have an OG copy of), is Out Of This World. A rare fade in to a song for the band. This is another slow burner that tells the true, sad story of Donald Campbell who set both land and water speed records over the course of his lifetime. In an attempt to regain his water speed record on January 4 1967 after losing it in 1965, he took the Bluebird II boat out on to Coniston Water in Lake District National Park near the Isle of Man against the advice of his team. As he attempted to break the record his jet boat took flight and slammed down on the water and quickly sank taking Campbell with it to the bottom. Here is footage of the actual crash https://youtu.be/4xemKc2In5Y. The song is deeply moving and heavy sounding and incorporates his last transmission before losing control. It wouldn’t be the last time Marillion wrote a song about death and water. They could probably do an entire set of songs about it if they wanted to…maybe at a future convention. Thirty-Three years later this song inspired professional diver Bill Smith to search for, and recover the vehicle which was raised between October 2000 and May 2001. Here is a news broadcast about it as well.
https://youtu.be/CH-ahfgRo00. The song ties into the underlying theme of the album as it addresses the desire for fame and being the best of the best, but with destructive results.
Then comes Afraid Of Sunlight, which is a breathtaking song in every way. It starts almost inaudibly before…I think maybe the first time that I can recall, a drum machine being used in one of their songs…Let me just say right here that this song is probably my second or third favourite Hogarth era song after The Great Escape, along with This Strange Engine, The Invisible Man and Neverland from Marbles. It is a beautiful piece of music that talks about the idea of resignation to the futility and fatality of life. It starts with the line “Drive the road to your surrender”, continues with “Been in pain for so long I can’t even say what hurts anymore” before peaking with the lines “Don’t be surprised when daylight comes, To find that memory prick your thumbs. You’ll tell them where we run to hide, I’m already dead, It’s a matter of time”. It is heady, emotional and heavy stuff, but it is…well…so sad…and so great. My wife sometimes refers to my taste in music as “Bedwetter Music”…like lying in bed too sad to even get up to use the bathroom. I contend that Afraid Of Sunlight might be the best bedwetter music song I know…though all of The Cure’s Disintegration album is pretty strong competition. Give this song a listen if you have to pick one song from this album to consider. https://youtu.be/dioS1utXZ_k. It is one of those songs I’ve mentioned that, can reduce the most Squonkish males to a pool of tears. When my band Tempus Fugit were working up songs for our Brutopia show in 2011, this was one of the songs I really wanted to perform. We worked on it and the band actually sounded great but eventually I axed it from consideration. It is a phenomenally difficult song to sing and even more difficult to sing well. As we were working it up, I realized that there was no way I could do it justice and there was no way I was going to risk the humiliation and shame of trying and failing. Not with this song. As it turned out Kayleigh was the Achilles Heel of the show for me.
Just when you think things couldn’t get any grimmer comes Beyond You. It is a spectacular dichotomy of quiet control and release both vocally and emotionally. I recall hearing that the song was so personal to Steve Hogarth that he didn’t want to perform it live. And in fact, the song would not see its live debut until June 25 1998 despite being released three years prior. It was played six times in 1998 and 1999 and then not again till 2003. The song itself was recorded in mono and was meant to be reflective of Phil Spector’s Wall Of Sound technique. It is almost more a musical emotion than it is an actual song. Lyrically it seems to be a very raw and personal reflection on adultery. It is almost too uncomfortable to endure…like an open wound of sorrow and sadness and humiliation and grief.
Last up is the King…referenced in the first song Gazpacho. It starts with multi layered radio interview clips from John Lennon and also references to Elvis Presley’s death before Hogarth starts with the line “How long can you stand tightening up, avoiding the fight, avoiding the truth”. The song moves through waves and troughs of quiet contemplation and absolute uncontrolled chaos and noise. It is an immensely powerful song that the band often perform live. In fact, if you look at setlist.fm it is actually the 10th most frequently played song by the band with over 420 live performances. I used to think the song was about Elvis and fame and I was partly right…except in reading up about the song I have discovered that it is actually more about Kurt Cobain. The last show Nirvana every played live was at Terminal 1 in Munich Germany on March 1 1994. Kurt Cobain committed suicide on April 8 1994 and the first band to perform at Terminal 1 after his death was Marillion on April 10 1994…performing Brave…an album that dealt specifically with questions of mental health and suicide. The dynamic of the song seems to point to the quite/chaos approach of grunge music, which was popularized by Nirvana, and ultimately produced its biggest casualty. It is an explosive ending to an album that really digs into many musical styles and moods.
I just want to say that I absolutely fucking love this record. I know that when asked what my favourite Marillion album is I will always start with Clutching At Straws. My favourite Hogarth era album is a bit more of a moving target, however. At any time I might say it is Brave, or Marbles, sometimes it is even Essence…but the vast majority of the time I will go with Afraid Of Sunlight. Brave is denser and complex, Marbles is more varied, Essence is more chill…AOS feels like hope…which is odd considering the lyrical content…but it feels bright and upbeat and fun, but also deeply personal in places. It is bold and different from anything the band had done prior. Interesting that many fans’ favourite Fish and h Era albums were both loose concepts that followed both of their full blown concept masterpieces.
Recommended Listening: I’m not sure what to even leave out – but If I had to pick a few I’d say Afraid Of Sunlight, Gazpacho, Beautiful and King…but also Out Of This World and Beyond You…and Cannibal Surf Babe….maybe throw in Afraid Of Sunrise as well…
