The Corona Diaries

It's all got a bit of a 'rockumentary' kind of a vibe this time, as I take you behind the curtain at the ProgStock festival in Noo Joizee Recorded from my hotel room overlooking Manhattan, on the morning after the night before, and with me not altogether compos mentis. So in amongst the normal TCD bants, we talked about the gig a bit, as well as the details of a fab few days grooving around NY &am...

Listening back to this weeks chat, and it is fairly obvious that if you have never been to Cornwall, or holidayed in the UK for that matter, then a lot of the references might seem a bit bewildering. I am not sure it is possible to explain in a succinct enough fashion for the purpose of these notes so lets try a few images... This is a fairly typical example of static caravans on a UK holiday park...

There are certain things in life that are absolutes. For a start - the fastest way to find a stray piece of lego is to walk across the floor in stockinged feet, and you will find it in an instant (and with more than a modicum of extreme pain). Toast always falls butter side down, and if it is a pair of sunglasses or a laptop charger I am going to misplace it. The TCD absolute (...sorry Lucy), is t...

I happened to listen to the opening credits today, and this week's chapter is certainly a bit random, and a bit irreverent. What it really needs to accompany it is one of those maps that you get on travel programs, that indicate the route taken as the story unfolds. You know the kind of thing I mean, I have the one from Antiques Road Trip in mind but numerous other examples are available. You star...

Let’s start with the plaudits. High fives, if not big tens are due to John Sturm and Seamus Colgan for being the purple folk who said that we needed more chat about the Europeans. Tim Glasswell deserves the freedom of Luton for all the work he has put into the Rainbow Room website, which is dedicated to all things How We Live and Europeans. And next we move to whatever the opposite of plaudits is…...

It’s a case of life imitating art this week. It’s a minor bloody miracle you are actually listening to this at all because Ant had one of those head in hand moments whilst trying to download the episode from the Zoom recorder, and managed instead to format the SD card and delete everything we had . Fortunately he managed to rescue one half of the recording using some whizzy software that was able...

It’s a gentle and meandering affair for this chapter of TCD (…sorry Lucy) which is podcast code for not really planned, and certainly not thought through. Saying that, the vibe is about right for a chat that takes place at the seaside and touches on fence repair, cricket and Susie Dent. The thing I can’t forget is to mention the chaps in the boat, who are called Adam, David, Jack and Sam and you c...

For this week's episode of TCD (...sorry Lucy) we have been remembering Luis. So much of what Luis did had a touch of the mystical about it, he sprinkled musical magic wherever he went, and helped music transcend with just the shake of his tambourine. Of course that goes a long way to explaining his career, and the legacy he leaves behind, but it doesn't explain the multiple ways he has touched th...

Of the things that fly-in-and out of this week’s TCD (….sorry Lucy) Gene Wilder was already lodged well and truly at the front of the ol’ synapses. Having finished my evening in Berlin with him (and Anthony having a similar soft-spot), perhaps it wasn’t too much of a surprise that he found his way into the chat. Combining the letters D, M and T with the number 8 however, wouldn’t have even been a...

Well it feels like quite a while since we were here last… how have you been? What with the Leicester Weekend, and then dashing off on holiday I can't really remember where we had got up to, not that it really matters because this week was always going to be a bit of a catch-up and reset as far as TCD goes (...sorry Lucy). What I can tell you is that Lionel Plain, who is one of the Purple folk, cam...

There is a school of thought that TCD (...sorry Lucy) is just like listening to two blokes chatting in a pub, and there is indeed a lot in that observation that has merit. It would certainly go a long way to explain the slightly juvenile humour, the occasional grumpy chunter and the fact we often giggle uncontrollably and sound a bit pissed. And, as is the case with most good pub conversations, ev...

There is a paradox at the heart of this weeks episode of The Corona Diaries (see what I did there…) and it is this. Getting Lucy Jordache on the zoom call was easy, she was more than up for a repeat appearance on the pod. Getting her to actually talk about herself and her life, was a darn sight more tricky. But we are nothing if not determined (creatives code for just bloody nosey) and between the...

We have hit a bit of a milestone, and it is sort of crept up on us. Would you believe it has been five years (and a few days) since we announced the upcoming launch of The Corona Diaries, and pretty much five years to the day that the first chapter (This Strange Podcast) was offered up for your consumption. And haven't we been through some crazy stuff; in fact haven't we helped each other through...

I bet you never thought we would remember to pick up the Holidays in Eden chat. You know, the one we started before the first weekend at PZ. Well we did and we have. Of course it’s not without the usual TCD (…sorry Lucy) eccentricities. I was post-pub, post-airing cupboard and Ant was in a hotel library (who knew) that had more than a whiff of the Shining about it. But we did manage to get through...

I am not really sure how to describe this episode of TCD (...sorry, Lucy). If it helps to set the scene then you might want to consider the following; I am/was in Montreal at the time of recording, and Ant was ensconced in his villains lair, in Heckmondwike. The wi-fi was more than a bit iffy, in fact for the first five minutes so it was looking like a bit of a non-starter. I hadn't put much thoug...

Here we go then, an episode recorded over the kitchen table at Ant's chalet in PZ. Nothing too complicated in the notes because we are up against it for time, needless to say there are a few Marillion Weekend night one spoilers in here, so please consider swerving this one for the time being if you don't want that kind of intel. Right I have to dash, stuff to do, gin to drink. Love'n'four doors do...

Would you believe it’s been 34 years since we wrote and recorded the Holidays in Eden album… Yes of course you can, because you and I both know that a whole heap of stuff had happened since then. But still, 34 years, it does make you stop and think. Which is of course what I did, when I listened back to it the other day. So for this chapter of TCD (…sorry Lucy) we ar going to talk about side one o...

For your discerning palette. Appetiser: A fact-free riff on the history of the Rolling Stones, complete with rugs, confectionary and transfusions. Entree:  Quite an interesting chat about Holidays in Eden and its significance in terms of both the back catalogue, and the evolution of our work. Not the conversation we set to have, in true TCD style (sorry Lucy), but worth a listen. Dessert: A s...

As we approach the five year anniversary of the podcast (and who would have thunk that would have been a thing) I never thought I would have been reading a recipe out loud. But after a bit of kerfuffle at Ant's end, I received the JPEGs required to make it possible. There is of course good reason, and it's a little complicated, but it involves fish finger apathy and me forgetting to listen to Holi...

Apologies in advance for the first 5-10 minutes of this episode of TCD (sorry, Lucy) as Ant faffed around trying to get his microphone to send a signal to his recording software. We kept it in because it's a little insight into the technical challenges that men of a certain age often face. And on that subject I did finally manage to send Ant those two pictures I promised, only took three days... A...

Well hello, thanks for coming...it really is lovely to see you! Ant thought it might be nice to begin 2025 (HNY by the way, I hope you had a good 'un) with a bit of a pop quiz, based around what I can actually remember about my own podcast. Clearly he thought this would be hilarious, particularly as the only bit of a clue I was allowed was the chapter title and the date it was published. And becau...

If everything has gone to plan, and you are a Purple, then I am currently in East Sussex, preparing for the second of my Christmas h Natural affairs at Trading Boundaries. Let me tell you that last night was amazing, and I’ll try to improve on it tonight. If everything has gone to plan, and you are listening to this upon general release, then Trading Boundaries was an absolute blast and to quote o...

We are going back to '95 today as we continue on the promo-video chat, and get deep into the making of the Beautiful video. This if course is quite opportune, as most of these vids have finally been uploaded to the Marillion YouTube channel. Which means you can watch it right now by clicking here and then be slightly prepared for what is to come. Not much more you need to know before diving in, wh...

If you are a purple patron of TCD (sorry Lucy) then you will have heard some of this before, because we had a chat about the Brave movie (and working with Richard Stanley) in a recent Q&A. Well today we build on that conversation, as we have arrived at that point in our loose 'promo-video-reminiscences' timeline. And because of that slight crossover, now would be a good time to remind you that...

This week’s episode of TCD (sorry Lucy) is one of those where we really benefit from having a clever and creative voice in the room. You may recall that we have been talking about the Marillion promo vids on a kind of ad-hoc basis, and that the last time we touched on that topic we talked about the singles from Holidays. That took us to the legendary Howard Greenhalgh, a bit of a creative trailbla...