Keep Watching

Thousands of you have now downloaded our new track Whatever is Wrong With You, and according to all the feedback we've been getting, you're loving it. Thanks for letting us know... just wait until you get the album.

The video contest has also been running for just over two weeks ("What video contest" you say? See below for the details) and so far there are over 100 videos on YouTube - the good, the bad, and the ugly.

We're really enjoying watching them as they come in. If you haven't seen any yet, head over to YouTube and check some out at:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=marillion+whatever+is+wrong+with+you

Think you could do better? There's still PLENTY of time left to enter and win the £5000. Get your video up, tell your friends, family, pets, long-lost school mates, and anyone who will listen about it. 

Not the video-making type? We're spreading the word around the internet but you can help too: check out as many videos as possible, rate them, comment on them, pass your favourites on to friends... 

Linking to the contest or our website from your blogs, Facebook and MySpace pages, and even personal websites is a great way to spread the word - or if you ARE uploading your own video, a great way to get views! (Of course, having a particularly funny or unusual video that will make people watch it more than once would work, too...)

Keep watching, and keep 'em coming!

 
-- Marillion's Whatever is Wrong With You Video Contest --

Marillion are giving you the chance to win £5000 AND giving away a brand new song FOR FREE 

Download a special edit of the BRAND NEW song Whatever is Wrong With You? now at www.whateveriswrongwithyou.com - then use it as the soundtrack to your OWN video. 

What kind of video? Well it can be absolutely ANYTHING you want it to be - we don't want to limit your choices by even suggesting something. Just make something that YOU want to make: funny, interesting, serious, mysterious - but something that EVERYONE would want to watch! Then upload it to YouTube... and this is where the £5000 comes in.

The video you upload to YouTube MUST be called "Marillion - Whatever Is Wrong With You". The contest will run until the end of the Happiness is the Road Tour 2008, and on December 1st the video with the most views will win the £5000 cash Grand Prize - it's that simple. The better your video, the more people will watch it, and the more chance you have of winning. 

In addition to the Grand Prize, we will also be giving a special Spot Prize to the video we (Marillion) think is the best, regardless of how many views it gets.

There are terms and conditions that will apply - all of these, contest rules, and of course the new track 'Whatever is Wrong With You' as an MP3 are available at www.whateveriswrongwithyou.com

The new Marillion double album Happiness Is The Road (which includes Whatever is Wrong With You?) is due out in Autumn 2008, and is available to pre-order only from www.marillion.com/preorder. 
 

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Happiness is the Road is Almost Finished!

Well, folks, it looks like we're there! All mixes have been finished and tweaked to the band's satisfaction (poor Mike!) and Mike will go down to Devon next week to "master" the album recordings with genius mastering engineer, Simon Heyworth. By now you may well have heard the samples and have some idea of what a wide-ranging body of work we have produced this time. We're all very happy and proud of the music. Some of these songs will knock you down, and some will open to you over time and become your favourites.

Once again, big thanks to those of you who kept the faith and pre-ordered "Happiness" in the jaws of the credit crunch. You won't regret it. Sorry if it seems like we're bleeding you dry - it's just that we have a lot going on! 

There's been much talk and worry amongst our fans of late concerning the security of internet buying. Understandable, considering the much-publicized scams and credit-card fraud around. But don't worry - marillion.com is secure, safe, fast and easy to use (see people's own experiences below). 

If you don't have a credit card, or are nervous about using one (and you really needn't worry), check out PayPal - we're all set up to use that too.

It won't be long amigos.. Hooray! 

h, Ian, Mark, Pete, Steve

-- What Racket Records Customers have been saying... --

"I've ordered many items directly from Racket and I can assure you I never had any problem. In case of delivery problem Racket team solves the issue within few hours. They offer great service and superb communication, so you shouldn't be worried."
Mariusz M. Krause - Poland

"No one should think twice. Order from the Marillion Online Shop (Racket Records) at marillion.com! I've placed several orders catching up over the last year and every order was carefully packaged, and delivered very quickly! I'm in Canada and I've been getting my orders from Racket faster than Canadian online retailers - don't know how you do it!"
Merlin Watts - Halifax, Canada

"I can attest that ordering from Racket has been easy and hassle free. In addition, whenever I've had questions about my order, Racket staff has been more than helpful in answering my questions (usually within hours of my original e-mail). Overall, I'd say it's been a joy to deal directly with Racket and I have NO hesitation in doing so."
Ed Rush - Denver, USA

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The Plan
Current mood: accomplished

Thanks to all of you for the amazing feedback on our new song Whatever Is Wrong With You - we're blown away by the responses. If you missed the eWeb and don't know what we're talking about then check out www.whateveriswrongwithyou.com 

We are going to send Whatever Is Wrong With You to radio stations around the world, and - who knows - we may get some radio play! If we do, we will release it as a download single via iTunes on October 1st. 

Many of you have been asking if the album is now mixed and finished and when you'll get it, so we have decided to share The Plan with you at last. We have nearly finished mixing the album and it should be mastered in early August. It will then be sent off for manufacturing and (as long as nothing goes wrong!) we should have the pre-orders ready to post to you in early October.

The official release date for Happiness is the Road Volumes 1 & 2 will be October 20th, 2008; but in typical Marillion style we are not exactly going the traditional route! 

From release date the album will be available through www.marillion.com (on CD and as a download) and through the usual digital outlets (iTunes, eMusic, Napster, 7 Digital, etc.). However, there will be a very limited retail release: until at least spring 2009 the album will only be available on CD in shops in the USA, Canada, and Poland. So if you haven't pre-ordered from us already, or have friends who might normally buy their Marillion CDs in shops, we want to spread the word that it's simple, safe and easy to buy the album directly from us at www.marillion.com ... AND buying it direct from us helps us, well, directly!

We will also be selling the CDs at all our shows on tour, both this year and next year, but we're sure you won't want to wait that long!

Get those creative juices flowing and get to work on those videos in the mean time...

H, Pete, Mark, Ian, Steve

  
-- Marillion Weekend 2009 Updates --

After much waiting, tickets for Marillion Weekend 2009 - Canada, at the Théâtre L'Olympia in Montréal, are now on sale!

Just as they are going on sale, though, tickets for the Marillion Weekend - Netherlands are nearly sold out. There is still accommodation left, but the few remaining places are being snapped up quickly. 

Also, the band have announced that the Friday night performance at each Marillion Weekend 2009 will include a full performance of Seasons End to celebrate the album's 20th anniversary.

Full details on the Marillion Weekend 2009 and ticket links for both the Netherlands and Canada are at www.marillionweekend.com

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Download New Song and Win £5000 in Video Contest

Marillion's Whatever is Wrong With You? Video Contest

Marillion are giving you the chance to win £5000 AND giving away a brand new song FOR FREE 

Download a special edit of the BRAND NEW song Whatever is Wrong With You? now at www.whateveriswrongwithyou.com - then use it as the soundtrack to your OWN video. 

What kind of video? Well it can be absolutely ANYTHING you want it to be - we don't want to limit your choices by even suggesting something. Just make something that YOU want to make: funny, interesting, serious, mysterious - but something that EVERYONE would want to watch! Then upload it to YouTube... and this is where the £5000 comes in.

The video you upload to YouTube MUST be called "Marillion - Whatever Is Wrong With You". The contest will run until the end of the Happiness is the Road Tour 2008, and on December 1st the video with the most views will win the £5000 cash Grand Prize - it's that simple. The better your video, the more people will watch it, and the more chance you have of winning. 

In addition to the Grand Prize, we will also be giving a special Spot Prize to the video we (Marillion) think is the best, regardless of how many views it gets.

There are terms and conditions that will apply - all of these, contest rules, and of course the new track 'Whatever is Wrong With You' as an MP3 are available at www.whateveriswrongwithyou.com

The new Marillion double album Happiness Is The Road (which includes Whatever is Wrong With You?) is due out in Autumn 2008, and is available to pre-order only from www.marillion.com/preorder. 

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British Motor Show

Good news for any petrol-heads out there! Los Trios Marillos (Steve H, Pete T and I) will be performing at the British Motor Show in London on the 23rd of July. We will be playing two sets on the Bose stand at 1:00 pm and 4:00 pm (times are approximate) for between 30 and 40 minutes.

Details of the event are available on www.britishmotorshow.co.uk (I'm looking forward to checking out the rest of the show, too, as I am a bit of a car nut.)

I've nearly finished recording all my guitar parts for the new album. It's sounding great. Producer Mike Hunter has done an excellent job. 

In any spare time I have I'm slowly moving forward with the new Wishing Tree album. I really hope to have it finished by the end of the summer, it's driving me a little crazy! 

Steve Rothery
 
  
-- Tech Corner --

I'm also in the process of rebuilding my touring guitar rig. The two huge flight-cased set-up I've been using for the last few years is at times noisy and unreliable (not helped by some of the European gigs being next to train lines!). 

It also isn't ideal for a festival situation, so I've decided to simplify things and switch to using the guitar rig controller I used on most of the Los Trios shows as the main brain/switcher in the system. This is an amazing unit and well worth checking out if you play guitar.

www.thegigrig.com ;

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Something for the Weekend

We've had quite a week at Racket - on Monday we all sat down as a group to listen through to the whole double-album as it stands now, and are nearly there with a final running order.

Not only that, we have decided on an album cover! We've been debating several possibilities for the last month or so, but have all finally agreed that the glowing red 'Asylum Satellite 1' really fits the bill.

And speaking of Asylum Satellite - we've also just launched a new podcast of sound clips for the album in their nearly-finished state.

Check out the Marillion Online Podcast on iTunes, or in the NEWS section of www.marillion.com - here's what you'll find:

First, Asylum Satellite 1 - this is taken from the middle of the song where the orchestral crescendo of what most bands would call a "middle 8" leads into the beginning of an extended guitar workout by Mr. Rothery. 

Next, Happiness is the Road - as you can hear, this has a slight nod to Jamaica but soon launches into a chorus that you won't be able to stop singing after a few listens. Catchy, but not a single as it clocks in at around 9 minutes.

Finally, Whatever is Wrong With You? - there's nothing wrong with us. We may be old but we can still rock!

Mark
 
  
-- More from the Studio

Spent last night at the studio working on a song called "Wrapped In Time" with producer Mike Hunter. This one involved a free approach with me making up the melodies and some of the lyrics on the spot. We're both looking for happy accidents during this process. It can be a bit frustrating driving home afterwards and wondering what might have been created. I'll find out tonight when we have a listen.

Tonight I'm singing on another brand new creation called "Dreamy Street". This isn't exactly a song - more of a few lines of words working against Mark's grand piano themes which lead on to the next full song. CD1 "Essence" is going to fit together like a musical stream of consciousness, and we're still not sure how exactly this will happen, but all these decisions need to be made any day now so it's a time when the album really starts to define itself as an album rather than a bunch of songs.

h
  

Between playing around with music software and regularly checking my emails, I've been working on some backing vocal ideas and a strange little synth melody I sent to Mark that might fit in the "Half Empty Jam" idea. 

The relatively new track called "Dreamy Street" has also had our album artist Antonio Seijas and designer Carl Glover in a bit of a spin; more new images have now come back to us from Antonio for the album artwork.

Finally, a set list needs to be discussed and decided on for the festivals we are playing over the summer. We start rehearsing on Monday - well, I expect we'll be setting up the equipment and running a few songs to start with!

Bye for now - I'm off to put a bet on Spain! 

Pete

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Bring It On!

The Marillion Weekend 2009 Netherlands is selling very fast (see www.marillionweekend.com for details) - we've sold over 2/3rd's of the tickets, and very soon we will have to take away the option for you not to share your accommodation so that we can give as many fans as possible the chance to attend. If you've been waiting around to book then NOW is the time - especially if you don't want to share - though we can honestly say that you'll have a great time if you decide to share, as we're confident we can match you with people you like! 

The Marillion Weekend 2009 Canada is having the final touches added to it as we speak - we should be able to give you full details next week and put the tickets on sale shortly afterwards. We can't wait to bring the spirit of the traditional Marillion Weekend experience to North America and the band are really looking forward to a Montreal "homecoming". 

The new album, Happiness Is The Road is almost at the final mixdown stage and the album promotion is going to start happening over the next couple of months. We'll have some surprises in store for you - more will be revealed soon..

If any of you out there have any great ideas for promotion in whatever country you live, if you would like to be part of our Street Teams, or would like to help the band spread the word, then please visit the Marillion Online Forum at www.marillion.com/forum - the Online/Street Teams forum gives you a place to talk about your ideas with us and with other fans. We'll also continue to give out "thank you" prizes to those with the best ideas! 

The Happiness Is The Road Tour dates are all online now (and many are already on sale) - go to www.marillion.com/tour for full details. We look forward to being Happy On The Road with you - maybe even sooner at the summer festivals. Bring 'em on!

We are sitting down with producer Mike Hunter on Monday to listen to the most recent developments of the songs and throw in some final ideas and perspectives. We will send you some sound clips following this meeting. Whey hey! 

-- Pete's Day at Racket

Spent the day at the studio sorting out a bit of bass editing with Mike, and generally tidying up my bass tracks. I love Pro Tools! Ian came in a bit later and we listened to a thing called "Half Empty Jam" - which really is a jam in its raw form that we are tiddling with (and maybe adding a note or two here and there) to make it sound even better. It starts out quite tame but gets really full-on proper loud. Very exciting I think.

I then spent an age trying to get a CDR of me performing in Cervia for The Web Italy to play on one of our computers. I couldn't play it at home on my PC so I tried Mike's Mac. That wouldn't do it, so we tried one of the Racket PCs, then the Racket Mac. I could either watch the show with no sound or hear the music with no video. Eventually I left the problem up to Jon who let me know on my way home that after downloading several codec files and what not he has it all working for me to view next time I'm in. Phew.

Pete

-- Mark in Las Vegas

Hi Webbers from sunny Las Vegas. Sunny? It's like an oven here. People are saying, "At least it's a dry heat." I'll remember to say that to the next chicken I roast as I pop him into the oven for dinner.

You may be wondering if I have a gambling problem and couldn't wait until the album was finished before rushing out here to lose my house. Well I'm here for a meeting with a bunch of like-minded Sceptics (or as they spell it over here Skeptic) to discuss and listen to talks on "Modern Skepticism in the Internet Age" Here's a link if you are interested in finding out more:
http://www.randi.org/joom/component/option,com_registrationpro/Itemid,33/func,details/did,1/

I'll be back on Monday to get together with the boys and Mike to sort out a final running order and make a (hopefully short) list of what still need doing in the run up to the mixing. Right, I'm off for a few hands of Blackjack. Mustn't forget my lucky rabbit's foot.

Mark

-- Racket Records Spring Cleaning Sale Ends This Weekend

Spring is just about over, which means the Racket Records Spring Cleaning Sale is ALSO coming to an end!

This weekend is the last chance to pick up some great bargains at www.marillion.com/shop before prices change back on Monday morning.

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Adding to the Melee

First off I'd like to say thanks to all those of you who came and lent your support to the Childline concert at the Hard Rock Cafe the other Thursday. It was great to see you all there and raise so much money for such a good cause. Yes, I had a few technical problems, but apart from that I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Saturday the 24th saw us up in Litchfield and again many of you came out in the cold (well I thought it was cold) to see our show, so thanks for that.

On the recording front, Mike and Steve H have been busy in the studio, so I have been working at home on various overdub ideas which I then send to Mike to see if they might add to the melee. I mainly work on backing vocal ideas but sometimes come up with the odd keyboard or orchestral line which might add to a section. The other thing I am doing is trawling through all the jam ideas that I have previously marked as good or interesting, to see if any of them could be added between the songs as incidental music to enhance the whole album. One or two things of these are sounding promising to me.

Pete

"We have flown here from Chile to see you.. the plane circled Heathrow for ages and made us very late.. we only saw a few minutes of your set.. It was still worth it..." How can a statement like that not lift anyone's spirits? We really do have the best fans in the world.

I decided to break the routine and wear a white shirt for the Hard Rock Cafe gig... fatal. Five minutes before I was due to join the boys on stage, my glass holding a pint of Pepsi exploded for no apparent reason. Did make me laugh. Back to black in future. Although I was only playing a total of four numbers the gig was thoroughly enjoyable, and raising a few thousand pounds for Childline was the icing on the cake. A big thank you to everyone involved, especially Ian Duncan and all of his staff at the Hard Rock. What a great bunch of people. 

Instructions from Rich (our tour manager) for the Acoustic Festival: get to the gig at 5pm, on stage at 8.30. You can soak up the festival atmosphere and chill out for a few hours before the gig. Well, the atmosphere was really good, as were the Mexican burritos and chocolate/marshmallow pancakes that I sampled. As for chilling out, I was bloody freezing. I even toyed with the idea of buying a tie-dyed poncho just to keep hypothermia away. The gig itself - although marred by a few technical problems - seemed to go down very well. Thanks for the warm reception that you gave us. Hope to see you at a hot, sweaty, loud gig in the near future. 

Meanwhile in the Studio, Mike and H are very busy recording vocals this week. All sounding Fab. Mark's working on some great keyboard parts. Steve R has put down some fantastic guitar (I especially like what he has done on a track called Asylum Satellite). Pete, as usual, rock solid bass playing. He really is a twenty-four-hour musician. His enthusiasm is an inspiration. This is one of my most favourite times of the whole recording process; all the drums are finished and the boys are beavering away adding their magic. Very exciting...

Cheers...
Ian 

  
-- Win Marillion Weekend 2009 VIP Passes!

You can win two VIP passes for the Marillion Weekends 2009 in either the Netherlands or Canada! These passes are "Access All Areas" - you will be able to watch sound checks, come back stage and - of course - meet the band!

To enter, just send us a photograph of YOU wearing a Marillion T-shirt (or other item of Marillion clothing) in the most bizarre, glamorous, extraordinary or weird place you can think of - in front of the Taj Mahal, at the House of Commons, the Bride or Groom at a wedding, climbing Mt. Everest, or even outside Chenobyl in a Radiation T-Shirt (hmm... that last one sounds familiar) ...you get the idea.

Full details are available from www.marillionweekend.com
  
 
-- Marillion Online Forums Unavailable

Due to a major fire in the data centre that houses our Forum servers, our server has, well, melted! This problem has affected over a million websites - and we happen to be one of them.

We do apologise for this incident which is out of our control and are doing everything we can to get it back up and running. Thanks in advance for your patience - we have no timescale as to when service will be restored.
 
  
-- Racket Records Spring Cleaning Sale - Last Chance!

Spring is quickly turning into Summer (well, at least according to the calendar!) which means the Racket Records Spring Cleaning sale is ALSO coming to an end.

Many items have now sold out, but there are still plenty more still available at greatly reduced prices. Be sure to head over to www.marillion.com/shop and pick up a bargain before it's too late! 

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More Studio Updates

Hello from the Racket Club.

We have just put the finishing touches to the rehearsals for our up and coming acoustic shows this week (tickets still available for the Acoustic Festival at www.acousticfestival.co.uk) - all is sounding very nice.

We are now having a coffee and strawberry tart break, then it's back to work with Mike Hunter. First up we will be listening to a track called "Essence". This has recently been changed as Mark's sample in the middle 8 reminded Mike too much of a lavatory dripping constantly! 

Ian was at the Roger Waters gig last Sunday and said hello to quite a few Marillion fans - he hopes you enjoyed the show as much as he did.

We hope to see some of you at the weekend and that the sun comes out.

Ian and Mark

 
Just got back from the studio, where we were busy rehearsing for the upcoming gigs at the Hard Rock Cafe and Acoustic Festival. We have some really good versions of some of the less-played songs from the last few years ready for you to hear later this week!

Mike also sat us down to listen to "Essence" to see how it has evolved since we last heard it; Steve H and I have added some backing vocals, Steve Rothery has added more noodley guitar, and Mark's added a few more keyboard melodies in one section (and as I write this Mr H is singing the final lead vocal track). It is sounding very good and is probably a contender to be a "favourite track" from the album.

Hope to see at one or more of the shows we're doing over the summer, and more news from the studio soon.

Pete

 
WISHING TREE PERFORMANCE CANCELLED
 
Due to unexpected personal circumstances, the scheduled Wishing Tree performance at the Acoustic Festival of Britain has unfortunately been cancelled. This will not affect any Marillion performances. 

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What a Scorcher

Phew! What a scorcher! 

Well, we just had a meeting and decided on final artwork for "Happiness Is The Road". Well done to Antonio Seijas who has been creating the artwork in his native Spain. Erik N passed around a "blank" of the double book and slipcase which will form the special edition. It's looking classy. 

Mike H arrived back in the studio today after a much needed week off during which Jon - our new boy - sent off our Mac G5 to be updated and serviced. In other words we've oiled it's gigaROM and it's running more smoothly. I believe you can now stand a pencil on it during a guitar solo.

Next week we'll be recording by day and rehearsing by night for the forthcoming Hard Rock Cafe and Acoustic Festival Of Britain gigs.

Right, I'm off home to put up a hammock and mix some Pimms - it's my birthday on Wednesday. I might as well start celebrating now..

See you soon, cats

One love,

h 
 

THANKS FOR YOUR FEEDBACK!

Thanks to everyone who has replied to our eWeb from 2 weeks ago asking for ideas and opinions of a Super-Deluxe Edition of "Happiness is the Road". 

Based entirely on your feedback, we're not going to do it! The most common responses of high price, and wanting only some but not all of the proposed items has clearly shown us we need to re-think the idea.

But on the up-side, and based on the SAME feedback, we will probably be making some of the individual releases available separately at some point in the future.

However, what these are and when they will be available is something we're still working on. For now, though, we will be closing the email addresses... but do thank you for your honesty!
 

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