Web fans boost Marillion single

Singer Hogarth urged fans to buy "three copies or more"

Rock band Marillion look poised to enter the UK top five with their new single after a sustained campaign among fans on their website.

Retailer HMV's online arm has received a record 4,400 pre-orders for the song You're Gone, which is out on Monday.

It could become their biggest hit since Kayleigh, a number two success in 1985, according to HMV.

Marillion singer Steve Hogarth urged fans to buy at least three copies of the single to get it into the top 10.

You could dig deep, get into eight quid's worth of debt and buy three copies or more of our single Steve Hogarth

On the band's website, Hogarth said: "By our calculations, in the current UK single market, if you go out and buy one single each, we'll go top 40. If you go out and buy two versions, we'll go top 20.

"If, however, you'd like to make an old dog very happy, you could dig deep, get into eight quid's worth of debt and buy three copies or more of our single.

"We'd almost certainly go top 10 and I'd have my first ever top 10 single just before my 45th birthday!"

The song is available on two CD singles and a DVD single with a combined retail cost of almost £8.

'Loyal support'

Marillion spokeswoman Lucy Jordache said: "Whatever chart position You're Gone achieves will largely due to the fans' loyal support of the band.

"We hope that this will enable other people to hear the music and get into the band."

The band's fans are renowned for their loyalty. In 1997 they raised $60,000 (£32,000) to help finance a North American tour.

Marillion were among the first to embrace the internet as a means of marketing and selling their records, and communicating with fans.

HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo said the campaign had led to the most orders on its retail website since its launch in 1997, beating the previous best of 4,000 for the Stereophonics' Moviestar in February.