Offering an original, quite hard edged take on the britpop theme, Marion’s closest brush with commercial success came in early 1996 when their debut album, This World And Body, reached #10 in the UK album charts. But packed though the album was with potential singles, the individual releases made little headway, with Sleep becoming the band’s highest charting single at #17 in March 1996. Jaime Harding’s well documented drug addiction quickly began to get in the way of the band’s promising career. Marion did release a second album in 1998 (The Program) but this was not widely acclaimed, and sold poorly. In the two short years since the band’s first long-player, the britpop ship had sailed and left them behind. The band split up in 1999, with Cunningham later becoming a touring guitarist for Electronic and a member of New Order. Harding recorded a series of demos that later became known as the Sister EP with Wayne Ward, and these circulated over the internet while never gaining an official release. At the beginning of 2006, Jaime Harding and Phil Cunningham started working together again, writing new songs, and planning to put together a band for a gig in Bath in early April. Bringing in local musicians Jake Evans on guitar and Che Hargreaves on bass, and recruiting Jack Mitchell from Haven on drums, they duly played a show comprising both old and brand new songs. Further sold out shows were played in Manchester and London in September and then again in December to even bigger crowds, with new songs debuted both times. In 2007 guitarist Jake Evans was replaced by Nat Wason (also a member of Haven) and in 2008 Tony Grantham rejoined the band when Nat Wason broke his hand. They have recently released the download only Live In The Studio Sessions EP on Townsend Records, which features the first new Marion material in ten years. The tracks can be heard at www.marionuk.co.uk. 2)|Marion Rung is a singer from Finland, who has represented Finland twice in the Eurovision Song Contest. She releases her albums under the name Marion. 3)|Marion was also the stage name of Marion Mitchell (16 at the time) during the UKM Rogaland 2007 competitions. She represented the municipality of Forsand, and sang a pop version of Eagles’s “Desperado” |
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