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Prog & Progeny

Mark Kelly & Tallulah Kelly

Prog and Progeny is a podcast hosted by father-daughter duo Mark (keyboardist for Marillion) and Tallulah, exploring his life in music, the ups and downs of being in a band, and the personal stories in between.
Episodes loosely follow chapters from Mark’s memoir Marillion, Misadventures & Marathons, with space for honest conversations, the occasional guest, and plenty of tangents.

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  • 27 episodes
  • fortnightly
  • Avg 49 min
  • English

Episodes 27

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  • S1 · E43
    October 7 · 51 min

    "A Band Is Kind of a Fake Family" - John Helmer

    Former Piranhas guitarist, novelist and Marillion lyricist John Helmer joins Mark and Tallulah. He talks about Top of the Pops and Tom Hark, signing with Pete Waterman, and how one brief taste of success broke up his band. He explains the thinking behind his Marillion lyrics. John also remembers the night at Stanbridge Studios when he turned up in a suit and a Stetson during the writing of Holidays in Eden and sang a murderous cowboy song to a room of mushroom-fuelled "Mexicans." Links: The Tech Imaginarium Podcast https://learninghackpodcast.com/shows/the-tech-imaginarium/ Tom Hark - The Piranhas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpfcPe_aFwk

  • S1 · E42
    September 23 · 1 hr 4 min

    Seasons End - Part 1

    We begin our deep dive into Seasons End - Marillion’s first album with Steve Hogarth. Mark and Tallulah explore the first four tracks - The King of Sunset Town, Easter, The Uninvited Guest and Seasons End - from the stories and meanings behind them to how they came together during a huge period of change for the band. Mark recalls finding H, whether there was ever a Plan B if fans rejected him, and why Marillion briefly considered changing their name. Link: Marathon singer Oliver Smith new E.P. https://open.spotify.com/album/68ky2prcbswKAT78xeEu5d?si=f0q775D6ShGoaPUMhHCFAQ&utm_source=copy-link

  • S1 · E41
    September 9 · 41 min

    Sounds That Can't be Made - part 2

    Mark and Tallulah finish Sounds That Can't Be Made. Why Power's lyric leaves Mark cold, how Mike Hunter pulled a buried vocal melody out of Invisible Ink, the home piano noodle that became The Sky Above the Rain, and whether Montréal deserves the bad press. If you click on this link before listening to the podcast you will probably wonder what that has to do with Marillion: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/04/260406192809.htm

  • S1 · E40
    August 26 · 1 hr 1 min

    Sounds That Can't Be Made - Part 1

    We jump forward to 2012's Sounds That Can't Be Made. We discuss the writing and recording of the first half of the album track by track.

  • S1 · E39
    August 12 · 48 min

    Script for a Jester's Tear, Part 2

    We wrap up our two-parter on Marillion's 1983 debut, moving from the songs the band left behind to the reasons they did. Also, the gear and the studio decisions that shaped how the record sounds, where Fish was drawing his lyrics from, and what it's like to hear your first album again 40+ years on. Links: The Web trumpet interpretation by Gil Pinatel that we discussed in this episode can be heard here https://youtu.be/LDW5K4Wx8bc?is=2Gb5JlemgdmCcqMu

  • August 5 · 13 min

    Mini Episode: Pompeii and Sugar Mice (in the rain)

    A short catch-up episode. Mark and Tallulah discuss their Pompeii experience — the choir, the pre-show keyboard crisis, playing "Sugar Mice" in the rain — plus podcast meetups, the UK tour and more...

  • S1 · E38
    July 22 · 1 hr 3 min

    Sticking To The Script

    Mark and Tallulah deep dive into Script For A Jester's Tear, Marillion's 1983 debut — six songs, forty-six minutes, more chaos than the record lets on. Razor-blade multi-track edits, £1,000 for Trevor McDonald was too much, a secret backwards message meant only for Kayleigh, and stories behind Mark Wilkinson's cover art. Plus: plague pits, a stolen Small Faces melody, and the bass fluff that made the final mix. He Knows you Know early demo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l507pRZEz4

  • S1 · E37
    July 8 · 1 hr 7 min

    The Final Chapter: Cement Mixer Blues

    Mark joins Tallulah from backstage in Bonn as Marillion's German tour begins with the live debut of "Ribbons and Lace." The book's final chapter covers the story behind "Gaza," the Frankfurt cement mixer accident, sudden hearing loss, marathon mishaps, a famous F1 fan, and a Nick Cave encounter.

  • July 2 · 4 min

    Update

    A little pre-tour update...

  • S1 · E36
    June 24 · 50 min

    David Stopps & Marillion — The Friars Aylesbury Story

    Mark and Tallulah are joined by David Stopps, the promoter behind Friars Aylesbury, which he founded in 1969 and has run for 56 years. David recalls the club's earliest nights — including King Crimson and Genesis — managing Marillion for 5 short weeks, managing Howard Jones, and the Kickstarter behind Aylesbury's David Bowie "Earthly Messenger" statue. Plus Marillion's hometown return on 21 September. Links: How to make a Living from Music - David Stopps David Bowie "Earthly Messenger" statue, Aylesbury Friars Aylesbury Stagehand (the road-crew charity David fundraised for during Covid)

  • June 18 · 3 min

    [PREVIEW] Number Station

    In episode 35 we discussed the making of the Marathon album and our first attempts at writing together. These early efforts never came to anything, but for your amusement here's the music I sent to Guy to inspire him to write some lyrics. You might recognise the opening bars as I used them for the intro of the song 2051. It came out of a couple of days of jamming at the Racket Club in 2012 with Steve Lawson (bass) and Roy Dodds (drums). You can find out more about Steve's work here and Roy's here. Mike Hunter recorded and edited these jams into something more coherent — much as he does with the Marillion jams when we're writing — though it's still far from what you'd call a finished song. Adding the number station recordings was Mike's idea, and I think it gives the piece an intriguing atmosphere. I hope you enjoy it. Mark

  • S1 · E35
    June 9 · 45 min

    Unknown Unknowns: Guy Vickers on Lawsuits, Lyrics and Marathon

    Mark and Tallulah are joined by Guy Vickers — barrister by day, musician and lyricist by night — the man behind the lyrics on Mark Kelly's Marathon and the legal brain behind Marillion's battle with EMI. 00:25 — Introducing Guy: weekend warrior, full-time barrister 03:13 — How Pete's dinner introduction kicked off the EMI streaming dispute 06:03 — The dissolved companies crisis: six months to save the pre-'96 royalties 10:05 — Pitching the box sets to EMI, and Fish's pub reunion proposal 13:27 — Marathon begins: number stations, spies and lyrics as relationship code 19:30 — The Anthropocene concept and what makes a human human 21:02 — Writing Amelia and 2051: Earhart, Kubrick, Clarke and Stephen Hawking 23:00 — Finding Ollie and hearing Amelia sung for the first time in New Orleans 29:15 — Why "Marathon"? The Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow logic 34:07 — The lost song about plagiarism (and Led Zeppelin's borrowed blues) 39:00 — Why Amelia crashed: Morse code, blind spots and unknown unknowns 43:47 — Wingsuits, risk and how you'd want to go out

  • S1 · E34
    May 26 · 1 hr 2 min

    The Queen Nearly Got Our Royalties

    This week we dive into Mark's years on the FAC and PPL boards, fighting for artists' rights while Marillion were being short-changed by their old EMI deal. The lawsuit that followed and the after-the-event insurance gambit, the sleepless night when EMI claimed Marillion had no legal standing because Marillion Limited had been dissolved! Plus the Portugal writing session that ended in a tactless row with H over a lyric, and the six-month silence that followed.

  • S1 · E33
    May 13 · 1 hr 1 min

    How We Learnt to Admit When a Song Isn't Good Enough

    This week Mark calls in from Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios — with a quick video tour and the story of meeting Peter Gabriel for the first time. Then into deputising for Adam Wakeman in Travis (with "drink beer" written across half the setlist) and a candid post-mortem on Somewhere Else — the dropped pre-order, the EP that never was, Mike Hunter's confidence taking a hit, and which songs hold up (and which really don't). Plus "Almost a Midwife Mark", and the tweet that got Mark to delete Twitter, tour meet-ups, and a Marillion quiz coming for Patreon members.

  • S1 · E31
    April 15 · 53 min

    Interview with Marillion manager Lucy Jordache

    This week we speak with manager Lucy Jordache about her 30-plus-year journey, from a teenage Marillion fan to EMI catalogue manager, band manager, and Ian Mosley’s wife. Along the way, she discusses taking a pay cut to get into the music industry, a rocky first meeting with Fish, and how she and Ian got together. Plus, a frank conversation about what the future might hold for Marillion

  • S1 · E30
    April 1 · 1 hr 2 min

    All For One: Risk, Royalties & Anoraks

    This time we discuss how Marillion took a leap nobody else had dared, and accidentally changed the music industry. Lucy Jordache’s evolving role, and why the band chose not to capitalise on their invention. How sharing everything brought Marillion closer together. Mixing stress and why risk has always been Mark’s default setting. Also: Noel Gallagher delivers a deadpan insult, Mark bets on tripe, and Tallulah arrives with twelve names.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

  • S1 · E29
    March 18 · 44 min

    Before Crowdfunding Was a Word

    This week we chat with Erik Nielsen. He was a 22-year-old help desk worker in Cleveland, Ohio when a woman he was seeing dragged him to a Marillion gig and changed his life. He ended up as Marillion's keyboard tech, moved into Mark's spare room, got deported, and — almost by accident — helped invent a model of direct-to-fan music commerce that the whole industry now takes for granted. Hear the inside story of the Freaks mailing list, the yes@marillion.com inbox, the Guinness logo rip-off, and why Erik eventually swapped the Marillion kebab hut for working for Elton John.

  • March 4 · 1 hr 1 min

    The Freaks Who Funded a Marillion Tour

    This week we cover Marillion's short stint with Rod Smallwood (Iron Maiden's manager) and the Sanctuary empire, how Mark met Tallulah's mum and the origin of the song Rich. Also, the birth of music crowdfunding: how a single post on the Freaks mailing list led to fans raising $60,000 to fund a US tour. Also featuring: Neil Armstrong at a soundcheck, a phone call from the International Space Station, and a Delta Airlines domain name dispute. Next week: Eric Nielsen joins to share his memories of his time working with Marillion.

  • S1 · E27
    February 18 · 40 min

    Episode 27 - Listener Questions

    This week, Mark and Tallulah answer some listener questions. Covering everything from the choices they might have made differently in life to a fight that almost broke up the band.

Showing 1–20 of 27 episodes