MARILLION Market Square Heroes 12″ used. The 1982 debut single incl. 2 unreleased songs (one of them “Grendel” a 17 minute song). check VIDEO

Description

Label: EMI ‎– 12 EMI 5351, EMI ‎– 12EMI 5351
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 33 ⅓ RPM, Single, Cream Labels
Country: UK
Released: 25 Oct 1982
Style: Prog Rock
Tracklist:
A1 Market Square Heroes 3:45
A2 Three Boats Down From The Candy 4:33
B Grendel 17:40
Published By – Marillion Music
Phonographic Copyright (p) – EMI Records Ltd.
Copyright (c) – Marillion Music
Pressed By – EMI Records
Manufactured By – EMI Records Ltd.
Producer – David Hitchcock
Written-By – Marillion
Dedicated to David R. Stopps & Friars Aylesbury.
Marillion Music
℗ 1982 Original sound recordings made by EMI Records Ltd.
Manufactured in the UK by EMI Records Limited.

© 1982. Lyrics reproduced by kind permission of Marillion Music

Three Boats Down from the Candy, (The song is about one-night stands, and in particular making love on Brighton beach. The title refers to the girl in the story wanting a memory of the night, however the boat next to them doesn’t have a name, the nearest one is named “The Candy” which is three boats away)

the 17 minute masterpiece Grendel. Non of these songs were included in the debut album Script for a Jester Tear

“Market Square Heroes” is the debut single by the British neo-progressive rock band Marillion, released in 1982 with “Three Boats Down from the Candy” as the B-side. The 12-inch single included an additional track, the 17:15-minute-long “Grendel”, making it an EP in terms of overall length.

The A-side is an anthemic rock song whose lyric vaguely describes the rise of civil unrest under some charismatic leader in the face of increasing unemployment; the original title was “UB 2,000,001″. According to Marillion’s singer and lyricist Fish, the “market square hero” is a “would-be revolutionary with all the necessary charisma and presence of a leader without direction or goals, just a sense of frustration and anger”. The track was the band’s “first attempt at deliberately writing a hit record and a ‘simple’ rock song to juxtapose against our meandering but dynamic ‘epics’.” 

Members of the band have attributed the inspiration behind the main character in the song lyrics to a person they knew in Aylesbury who went by the nickname of ‘Brick’. In a 2009 interview, Mark Kelly stated: “I don’t know whether Brick was a leftie, a militant or a skinhead but he was the inspiration for the character singing, “I’m a Market Square Hero”. Fish made reference to this theme and introduced Brick as a “leftie hero” before he performed the song with his former Marillion bandmates in Aylesbury at the ‘Hobble on the Cobbles’ concert in 2007. 

B-side 

Musically, “Three Boats Down from the Candy” (the first song co-written by keyboardist Mark Kelly) and “Grendel” are more typical of the progressive rockstyle. “Grendel” is a long and complex composition that drew frequent (mostly unfavourable) comparisons with “Supper’s Ready” by Genesis. As Fish himself admitted later,

“We were concerned about the similarity to the lengthy composition by Genesis called “Supper’s Ready” which also meandered and burst into sections, the end one in particular, which would add conviction to the many critics opinions that Marillion were more than influenced by Genesis.”^[2]

Inspired by John Gardner‘s novel Grendel, the lyric looks at the Beowulf myth from the perspective of the monster. Neither Marillion nor Fish have ever played the track live after 1983. In spite (or possibly because) of this, it developed into a cult favourite among die-hard fans; it is not uncommon to hear someone in the audience yell “Grendel!” at Marillion’s or Fish’s concerts even in the late 2000s.

Having categorically refused to play “Grendel” again for almost 30 years, Fish announced in May 2012 that he will be performing “Grendel”, as a one-off event, at a fan club convention to be held in Leamington Spa in October that year.^[6]

In 2008, on the 25th anniversary of the release of Marillion’s debut album, their founder and first drummer Mick Pointer (later with Arena) who had been dismissed from the band after the 1983 tour, formed a band which took that tour’s setlist and a detailed recreation of its stage show back on the road as “Script for a Jester’s Tour”. This band, which makes heavy use of a slightly modified version of Marillion’s classic-era logo and is sometimes promoted as “Mick Pointer’s Marillion” (despite Pointer being the only former Marillion member in the lineup), continues to play occasional shows which always include “Grendel”, “Market Square Heroes” and “Three Boats Down from the Candy”.

The record was produced by David Hitchcock, who had incidentally also produced the Genesis album Foxtrot with “Supper’s Ready” on it. Hitchcock was also contracted to produce Marillion’s upcoming debut album, but was heavily injured in a car accident when he drove home in a state of physical exhaustion after finishing work on the single. EMI used this occasion to convince the band to replace him with Nick Tauber, a more “modern” producer best known for his work with Toyah.

The cover art was designed by Mark Wilkinson, who went on to create all Marillion artwork until 1988 and most of Fish’s solo artwork after that. The cover introduced two distinctive visual elements that would identify the band in the years to come: the figure of the “Jester” and the logo, designed by Jo Mirowski.

The single did not enter the upper reaches of the UK singles charts, peaking at no. 60; however, sales remained stable for some time due to people backtracking on the strength of later, more successful releases. The song came fourth in Kerrang! magazine’s Singles of the Year 1982.