KAYLEIGH

Time for a nostalgic trip, to the new year's night 1985/86. I'm 15 years old. Influenced by the vinyl collections of my big brother and sister (with a special interest for the early 80's albums by Saga, Asia, Yes, Jon Anderson, Mike Oldfield and Rush), I have been a music listener for a couple of years, but instead of having my own vinyls I only have a heap of home taped cassettes at this point. One of my favourite bands is Dire Straits. On the new year's night, there's an outdoor rock concert on the TV, with various artists. Then comes this unknown band whose vocalist has red paint on his cheek. The song that especially catches my attention contains lyrics with several lines beginning with "Do you remember". Sounds good, I want to know this band better! What was the name, Marillion?

And so, the following spring I finally start to buy vinyls, and the first one is Fugazi by this new-found band. I talked my friend over to get Misplaced Childhood. For the next couple of years I'm a *fan* the way I've never been ever since. Of course my "Marillionism" wore out because I always prefer to keep finding new stuff, new bands. But finding Marillion eventually helped me to find the whole progressive rock genre of which I already had had a more pop-oriented taste from my bro's & sis's vinyls without being aware of such thing as progressive rock. Soon I fell in love with the classic 70's albums by Genesis, Yes, Camel, Renaissance, etc. No doubt, sooner or later it would have happened without Marillion as well, but nevertheless Marillion -- and 'Kayleigh' in particular -- has a special place in my early listening history.

To counterbalance my personal memories, here's some information: 'Kayleigh' (from Misplaced Childhood concept album) was Marillion's most successful single in the UK, where it peaked at number-two and stayed on the chart for a total of 14 weeks. It also became the band's most successful single worldwide, reaching the top 10 in the Republic of Ireland, Norway and France, reached no. 1 in Poland, and became the band's sole appearance on the United States Billboard Hot 100, hitting number 74 in October 1985. The song popularised the name Kayleigh in the UK.

The B side of the single is 'Lady Nina', a pretty lightweight song for a prostitute. As a Marillionist I did buy several singles and maxi-singles too, but 'Lady Nina' became familiar to me from B'Sides Themselves compilation LP. I always appreciate it when a band (or artist in general) makes non-album B-siders, even when the song in question isn't so spectacular. Marillion were a good example of such band. 'Lady Nina' is best described as nice and harmless.