Project Nine
Brave
On 7th February 1994 the UK progressive rock band Marillion released their seventh studio album titled ‘Brave’.
The concept for the album was based upon a local news story from the 1980’s about a girl that was found wandering along the Severn Bridge. When the Police asked the girl who she was and why she was there, she was unable to speak.
The questions raised by this story explore the idea of how she came to be on the bridge? What traumas had she experienced that left her bereft, numb and speechless?
As a young man, the themes and musical landscapes of this album touched me deeply.
I still listen to the songs on this album regularly and marvel at the textures, motifs and lyrics used to explore this girl’s feelings of loss.
As 2024 is the 30th anniversary of the album release, I have decide to complete a photo project exploring some of the themes. I have reached out to Lucy Jordache the band’s manager, to seek permission and let her know my intentions for the project.
All lyrics included on this page to support images are credited to Steve Hogarth and John Helmer.
Please check the Marillion site for more information about Brave and the band here
Bridge
Staring out over the bridge
A million photo flashes from the water down below
When you ask her name
Would you please explain
She simply chooses to say
Nothing
Living with the big lie
It all began with the bright lights
Bright lights and the noise
Alone in the city at Seventeen
With the hollow and the lonely
Drowning and the drowned
Runaway
Was a runaway girl all they chose to see?
All they were prepared to admit to
So you cower in the town’s forgotten place
and you make your bed with unfamiliar faces
You pretend to wait for washing in some laundromat
You’d starve before you’d let him get his hands on you again
Poor little runaway
Mad
Tell me I’m mad
How should I know
Tell me I’m mad
I’ve been here for so long
The Opium Den
Hold your breath till you feel it begin
Here it comes
Get used to it
Come to my madness
My opium den
Come to my madness
Make sense of it again
Hard as love
You know that love can be as hard as six inch nails
Nothing else has ever been as hard as love
The Hollow Man
I think I have become one of the Hollow men
As i shine on the outside more these days
Stand us in our silly clothes
Put our batteries in
Line is up like fairground ducks
Watch us grin and grin and grin
Alone again in the lap of luxury
I could be anywhere right now
If I only had the nerve to leave this house
I don’t remember the last time I cried
I don’t remember much except lies
Paper Lies
When you kill the truth
You can make a killing
Why don’t you let us take a piece out of you
I know something that you don’t know
When you look into the money
Do you see a face you hardly recognise?
Brave
What a brave, brave girl
Never lied before
Such a plain deceit
Every one would eventually know
And so he tried
In his own way
To find the heart
Of a tight packed rose
She’s gone
But oh
She aches
She aches
Now wash your hands
You give up hope
You settle down
The Last of You
Just when I thought I'd seen the last of you
You come here scratchin' at my door
Your pain and anger's in the howling dark
Of every corridor I walk
So tell me more about the love that you rejected
Tell me more about the trust you disrespected
I still don't know, why did you hurt the very one
Why did you hurt the very one
That you should have protected?