80 Days

Introduction: In an interview with Ed Sciakyfrom WMMR, 93.3 in Philadelphia, Steve Hogarth said: "80 Days is quite interesting because it was an attempt to write a song which was not only for the fans, but about the fans. We have an incredible, cult following, but it's a big cult following. It's a cult of a few hundred thousand people around the world. And there is a cult mentality within our fans. The band is very precious to them. They turn up early for the shows, stand around all day, sometimes in the freezing cold, just for a chance to stand on the front row, they're usually there hanging around after the show in the street to talk to us afterwards, and we always go out and chat. And we're very close to our fans.

And through the developments now with the Internet, we're getting even closer to them because there's a technology now for us to communicate directly with our fans globally, really, from moment to moment. But, it was an attempt to write a song for the fans that was about the fans and to kind of acknowledge what they go through on our behalf, and also to talk about what touring does to me and how the travelling and the barrage of information and movement affects you over a period of time."

h would later remark from the stage in Port Zelande during a Marillion Weekend on the irony that according to polls, 80 Days was actually one of the least popular songs among fans, calling us ungrateful bastards!

'All over the World in 80 Days'
This is, of course, a reference to the Jules Verne novel Around the world in 80 Days, in which enigmatic Englishman Phileas Fogg makes a wager that he can travel around the world in only 80 days. With his faithful valet, Passepartout, the two men set off on an adventure with an inept detective, Mr. Fix, who has mistaken them for bank robbers, close behind.

'Staring down from this high window'
Kate Marshall recalled that during Marillion's Astoria show on the Anoraknophobia Autumn Tour in 2001, h remarked that it was prior to a gig at that venue when he looked down from a window as the crowd queued for the show on Charing Cross Road in the rain.

Songs with a link have explanations.

• Introduction 
• Man of a Thousand Faces 
• One Fine Day 
• 80 Days 
• Estonia 
• Memory of Water 
• An Accidental Man 
• Hope for the Future 
• This Strange Engine
  

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