Script For A Jester's Tear

Script for a Jester’s Tear is the first album by the neo-progressive rock band Marillion, released in 1983. It reached number seven on the UK album chart and stayed on the chart for 31 weeks, the second longest chart residency of a Marillion album.

The single released before the album was “Market Square Heroes”, with the double B-sides “Three Boats Down from the Candy” and the 17 minute epic “Grendel”.

“He Knows You Know” and “Garden Party” were also released as singles, and became Top 40 hits in the UK.

This is the only Marillion album to feature Mick Pointer, founding and current drummer for Arena.

Notes:
-Although their first single “Market Square Heroes” never appeared on the original album, it can be briefly heard during a short radio segment prior to ‘Forgotten Sons’.
-According to Fish, Script for a Jesters Tear is the first of a trilogy of albums, and classified as ‘bedsit thoughts’. Fugazi was deemed ‘hotel thoughts’ and Misplaced Childhood as ‘home thoughts’. This was to enable the listener to understand the feelings and surroundings that shaped the songwriting.
-There was supposed to be a rubber plant featured on the album’s cover, per Fish’s request - part of Fish’s stage theatrics at the time included tearing apart a rubber plant at the climax of The Web. However, Mark Wilkinson, who air-brushed this and several other albums for Marillion, forgot to include it.