“He said, ‘We can’t use this – people will think we’re a Christian rock band!’ I went and got myself a drink. There was no arguing with that kind of thinking”: Marillion’s battle over the cover for Afraid Of Sunlight

In 2019 Marillion’s eighth studio album, Afraid Of Sunlight, was reissued with a colourful cover that had languished on the reverse since 1995, after the band had a heated debate over its use. 30 years on, the members recall how tempers flared before eventually abating – as they always do in a band of friends.

“There are times when I see some potential artwork for the band and I think, ‘That’s it, that’s the one,’” says Steve Rothery. “Like when I first saw the Brave cover. But with Afraid Of Sunlight, it was a little bit harder to agree – let’s say that.”

For those who might have missed it, the 2019 deluxe reissue of Afraid Of Sunlight came with the revamped cover of a fluorescent Christ The Redeemer, the giant icon whose beatific gaze usually looks out over Rio. It had graced the back cover of the album up until then. It had originally been presented to the band by designer Bill Smith at Parr Street Studios in Liverpool as the potential cover, echoing the lyrics of the album’s title track.

For all the reservations that Rothery had, Steve Hogarth thought it was the perfect fit for Marillion’s eighth studio album. He recalls “that beautiful Jesus Christ with the blocks of colour and the whole thing glowing and shining.

“But the band still weren’t ready for something that wasn’t mean and moody. Mark Kelly said, ‘We can’t use this cover – people will think we’re a Christian rock band!’ I think at that point I went and got myself a drink, because there was really no arguing with that kind of thinking.”

“I’m not keen on organised religion; haven’t been since childhood,” Kelly explains. “So the idea that someone might mistake us for a Christian rock band was what bothered me about that cover back then. In hindsight, it was probably a bit ridiculous for me to think like that.”

Rothery notes: “Neither Mark nor H had much embraced diplomacy at that point.”

“These days that art wouldn’t seem out of place at all as a Marillion cover,” muses Pete Trewavas. “But H is probably right – we were being a bit safe. Both H and Mark have a way of saying what they think sometimes, and it became a bit of a bone of contention. Later, we realised that was the strongest image and reversed the cover.

“There’s a lot of things that niggle you about being in a band sometimes. We’re a band that really gets on. We genuinely are best mates, but there’s a whole other side to that. H may think that if he’d been in the band longer then, maybe he’d have got his way.”

Hogarth reflects: “Everybody’s a bit more relaxed about things like the cover these days. Anyway, they sent Bill Smith off and he came back with something much more brown, and everyone seemed happier with that. It was Bill’s son in a loincloth – this half-naked child, essentially – which seemed to be much more what the band were looking for...”

“I think that was the beginning of our brown album cover phase,” adds Ian Mosley. “It wasn’t quite as brown as This Strange Engine; that was a selection of different shades of brown and a heart. But going back to Sunlight, I think in retrospect that H was right about that cover. We could have been more adventurous.”

“You can’t argue with the band’s thinking at the time,” says Hogarth. “Not because it’s right – but because you can’t dignify it with a response. That’s how I felt at Parr Street. I was so frustrated, and we’re a democracy; but there are times where you just think, ‘I really ought to have the casting vote on some of these things, because what the hell is going on?’

“But we got past it eventually – we always do.”