''Fugazi'' (titled after a

Military slang Military slang is an array of colloquial terminology used commonly by military personnel, including slang which is unique to or originates with the armed forces. In English-speaking countries, it often takes the form of abbreviations/acronyms or d ...

term well-known at the time of release), is the second

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by the British

neo-progressive rock Neo-progressive rock (also known as neo-prog) is a genre, subgenre of progressive rock which developed in the UK in the early 1980s. The genre's most popular band, Marillion, achieved mainstream success in the decade. Several bands from the genre ...

band

Marillion Marillion are a British rock music, rock band, formed in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in 1979. They emerged from the post-punk music scene in Britain and existed as a bridge between the styles of punk rock and classic progressive rock, becomin ...

, released in 1984. Produced by

Nick Tauber Nick Tauber is a British record producer best known for his work with Thin Lizzy, Toyah and Marillion in the 1970s and 1980s. Nick Tauber continues to manage, produce, and consult with acts/artists/and producers. In the late 1990s, Tauber was in ...

, it was recorded between November 1983 and February 1984 at various studios and was the first to feature drummer

Ian Mosley Ian F. Mosley (born 16 June 1953, Paddington, London, England) is an English drummer. He is best known for his long-time membership of the neo-progressive rock band Marillion, which he joined for their second album, ''Fugazi'', released in 19 ...

, following the dismissal of the band's original drummer

Mick Pointer Michael Pointer (born 22 July 1956) is an English drummer. He is known for his work in the neo-progressive rock bands Marillion and Arena. Away from music, he has also worked as a kitchen designer. Career Pointer was the original drummer and a ...

. According to

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, the album "streamlined the intricacies of the group's

prog rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Initi ...

leanings in favour of a more straight-ahead

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

identity". Built upon the success of its predecessor, ''

Script for a Jester's Tear ''Script for a Jester's Tear'' is the debut studio album by British neo-progressive rock band Marillion, released in the United Kingdom on 14 March 1983 by EMI Records. The album reached number seven and spent 31 weeks in the UK Albums Chart ...

'', ''Fugazi'' reached the UK Top 5 and went Gold.

Background

Following their first album and its support tour, Marillion found themselves behind schedule, under pressure from

EMI Records EMI Records (formerly EMI Records Ltd.) is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British flagship label by the music company of the same name in 1972, and launched in January 1973 as the succ ...

to deliver a second album. Producer Nick Tauber worked the band hard, having them stop into various rehearsal and recording studios to write songs, and to find a drummer. All three drummers to date - Mick Pointer, Andy Ward and John Marter - had been fired. American drummer

Jonathan Mover Jonathan Mover a.k.a. "Mover" is an American drummer, engineer and producer. He is a former member of the bands Marillion and GTR. Early life and career Mover was raised in the Boston area and began playing drums at age thirteen. Primarily s ...

auditioned in London in September 1983, and two days later was performing with Marillion in Germany. Marillion settled into

Rockfield Studios Rockfield Studios is a residential recording studio located in the Wye Valley just outside the village of Rockfield, Monmouthshire, Wales. It was originally founded in 1963 by brothers Kingsley and Charles Ward. Facilities Rockfield is a two- ...

in Wales to compose some songs. According to an interview with Mover, the various band members had been working separately on songs when the band's front man,

Fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

, asked whether they agreed with his new idea that it should be a

concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...

's ''

The Wall ''The Wall'' is the eleventh studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released on 30 November 1979 by Harvest/EMI and Columbia/CBS Records. It is a rock opera that explores Pink, a jaded rock star whose eventual self-imp ...

''. The more veteran band members said "maybe," but new drummer Mover said it was a bad idea, that the current crop of songs was not connected by any theme, and would have to be scrapped. According to Mover, Fish took this as a challenge to his authority and he was fired from the band. Fish said later, "Jonathan Mover left me cold, but the musicians loved him because he was super-technical. I felt I was being railroaded. All he could talk about was drums, and he didn’t fit in to the band's social element." Mover received a writing credit for the single "

Punch and Judy Punch and Judy is a traditional puppet show featuring Mr. Punch and his wife Judy. The performance consists of a sequence of short scenes, each depicting an interaction between two characters, most typically Mr. Punch and one other character w ...

". The production schedule ran so late that Marillion had to begin their album support tour with new drummer Ian Mosley before the album was ready.

Release

Critical reception

As Marillion used ten different studios to record the album and the line-up had undergone a change, ''Fugazi'' proved to be a slightly incoherent follow-up to ''Script for a Jester's Tear'', which was noticed in the retrospective review by John Franck of AllMusic. Nevertheless, he awarded the album a 4-star rating, singling out such songs as "

Assassing "Assassing" is a song by the British neo-progressive rock band Marillion. It was the second single from their second studio album, '' Fugazi'' (1984). The single reached no. 22 on the UK singles charts in May 1984. The 7" single's title track ...

", "Incubus", and "Fugazi". Writing for ''Ultimate Classic Rock'', Eduardo Rivadavia observed:

''Fugazi'' proved just as diverse, ambitious, even preposterous (in the best possible prog-rock sense) as ''Script''. They matched epic, complex musicianship with oblique wordplay to perfection on the likes of "Assassing", "Jigsaw", "Incubus", and the title track – all of which would become perennial concert favorites for years to come. If anything, the new album was, at once, more polished (in terms of both production standards and song arrangements) and a tad less consistent than its predecessor, unquestionably falling short of heightened expectations on the somewhat less-than-stellar "Emerald Lies" and certainly the subpar "She Chameleon".

Commercial performance

''Fugazi'' reached number 5 in the UK Albums Chart, spending a total of 20 weeks there. It was certified Gold by the BPI on 9 July 1985 for sales in excess of 100,000 copies. The album produced two singles which became Top 30 hits, "

" (UK no. 29) and "Assassing" (UK no. 22).

Formats and reissues

The album was initially released on LP, 12" picture disc and cassette. The first CD issue appeared sometime afterwards. As part of a series of Marillion's first eight studio albums,

re-released ''Fugazi'' on 23 February 1998 with 24-bit digital remastered sound and a second disc containing bonus tracks. The remastered version was also made available without the bonus disc in 2000 and again in 2005 as a Japanese mini-LP replica. A new 180g heavy-weight vinyl pressing identical to the original 1984 edition was released in 2012. On August 31st 2021, a deluxe edition of Fugazi was released via Parlophone as a 3CD/Blu-ray set along with a 4LP boxed version. The deluxe edition includes a completely new remix of the original studio album and a live concert recorded in Montreal, Canada on June 20th 1984 (which had previously been partially available on Real to Reel), as well as, on the Blu-ray disc, new high-resolution stereo and 5.1 surround remixes by Avril Mackintosh and Andy Bradfield. The set also includes a 'making of' documentary containing interviews with all then band members as well as their track by track breakdowns of the genesis of each of the songs. Also included is a live concert from 1984 that was filmed and broadcast by Swiss TV.

Sleeve artwork

In 2012,

Gigwise ''Gigwise'' is a British online music news site that features music news, photos, album reviews, music festivals, concert tickets and video content. Founded in June 2001, the site is based in London, England. History Gigwise was launched in 2001 ...

chose the sleeve design by

Mark Wilkinson Mark Wilkinson (born 3 October 1952) is an English illustrator. He is best known for the detailed surrealistic cover art he created for a number of British bands. Wilkinson's breakthrough came through his association with the neo-progressive r ...

as 29th in its countdown of the "Greatest Album Artwork of All Time". Holly Frith wrote: "Despite the arguable quality of their music, Marillion most certainly gave a shit about their album artwork and this multi-tiered image of a young man suffering an apparent overdose is their most startling, brilliant and thought-provoking."

Track listing

*All individual writing credits are from the 1998 remastered edition. According to the original 1984 version, all songs were written by the whole band; all lyrics are credited to Fish.

Personnel

;Marillion *

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

; cover concept *

Steve Rothery Steven Rothery (born 25 November 1959) is an English musician. He is the original guitarist and the longest continuous member of the British rock band Marillion. Outside Marillion, Rothery has recorded two albums as part of the duo the Wishing ...

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

s; photography (1998 remastered edition) *

Mark Kelly Mark Edward Kelly (born February 21, 1964) is an American politician, former astronaut, and United States Navy captain who has served as the junior United States senator from Arizona since 2020. A member of the Democratic Party, he was electe ...

–

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

Pete Trewavas Peter Trewavas (born 15 January 1959) is an English musician, known as the bassist of Marillion. He joined in 1982, replacing Diz Minnitt, while acting occasionally as a backing vocalist and acoustic guitarist. Trewavas was born in Middlesbroug ...

– bass *

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

;Additional musicians *Linda Pyke –

backing vocal A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are used ...

(on "Incubus") *Chris Karan – additional percussion ;Technical personnel *

– Original album

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

*Simon Hanhart – Original album

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

and mixing * Andy Bradfield, Avril Mackintosh - 2021 remix *

– sleeve design and illustration; photography (1998 remastered edition) *Julie Hazelwood – sleeve design and illustration (pictures on the wall) *

Peter Mew Peter Mew is a retired British music audio engineer. He worked at Abbey Road Studios, where he was the senior mastering engineer. He came to Abbey Road in 1965 as a tape operator and has since worked with many artists at the studio. Kevin Ayers of ...

– 1998

digital remastering Remaster refers to changing the quality of the sound or of the image, or both, of previously created recordings, either audiophonic, cinematic, or videographic. The terms digital remastering and digitally remastered are also used. Mastering A ...

(April — July 1997 at

Abbey Road ''Abbey Road'' is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It is the last album the group started recording, although ''Let It Be'' was the last album completed before the band's break-up in April 1970. It was mostly re ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

) *Bill Smith Studio – repackaging design (1998 remastered edition)

Charts

;Album

Certifications

References

;Notes ;Citations

External links

The Official Marillion Website
{{Authority control Marillion albums 1984 albums Hard rock albums by British artists EMI Records albums