Mark Kelly – Progradar

Review – Marillion – Seasons End 2023 Remix (Deluxe Edition) – by Leo Trimming

‘Seasons End’, first released in 1989, is the last release in Marillion’s series of EMI era deluxe re-issues. It is also the most pivotal album in the band’s history as it marked the beginning of the ‘h’ era of Marillion with Steve Hogarth as the vocalist. Steve Hogarth has been around ever since and has imprinted his mark and class on the Marillion brand so indelibly that it is hard to remember what it felt like at the time when he emerged from virtually nowhere to replace Fish. This deluxe re-release gives us the opportunity to re-evaluate ‘h’s debut with the band.

Whilst we can look back on this album as an assured and high-quality album it belies a period of great uncertainty leading up to its recording and release. Following great success with albums and singles the future of Marillion was far from clear after they parted company with Fish in 1988. There was an assumption by many that the band could not survive without their charismatic front man, but the remaining band were confident in their music and knew that Marillion were far more than just a backing band for Fish. A largely fruitless search for his replacement commenced with tapes received and various auditions, (including Stuart Nicholson of Galahad). Meanwhile around the same time Steve Hogarth’s band How We Live was coming to a disappointing end due to a lack of success and he was thinking of leaving the music business entirely, such was his disillusionment. Ian Mosley spotted his potential from a tape sent in of Hogarth singing the How We Live song ‘Games in Germany’ and the band agreed to give ‘h’ an audition. Even at that point it took a mutual friend of Hogarth and Mosley, Daryl Way of Curved Air, to persuade ‘h’ to consider doing the audition as he was seriously considering joining the touring band of The The for a major tour instead. To cut a long story short Hogarth eventually agreed to join the band and they set about writing their first album together. So what did they manage to put together?

Most readers will know ‘Seasons End‘ well, and will be most interested in the remix and additional material, but there may be some new to this album. Therefore, we will go through the album, and there may be some things even the most devoted fan may not know or gain new insights into this album. After initial and deceptively easy writing sessions at the Mushroom Farm studios near Brighton the band convened at Hook End Manor Recording studios in Oxfordshire, formerly owned by David Gilmour. The ‘Seasons End‘ writing and recording sessions were deceptively easy for the band, as they came to discover at the far more problematic sessions for the follow-up album ‘Holidays in Eden.’ In truth the ease of the process was because much of the music had already been written in previous unused sessions with Fish for the album after ‘Clutching at Straws’ which, of course, did not happen. Additionally, before Hogarth joined, they had also looked for lyricists to help, including asking Van Der Graaf Generator’s Peter Hammill (who declined) and a peculiar meeting with the eccentric Viv Stanshall, which persuaded them that he was probably not a great fit! They eventually commissioned lyricist John Helmer (of the punk band The Piranhas) to produce some lyrics to go with their music, which definitely gave the album writing sessions quite a head start. Helmer composed the lyrics independently of the band, but in the fascinating accompanying video documentary ‘Seasons Change’, Steve Rothery did share he suggested the idea of doing a song about ‘Berlin’ due to the band’s connection with the city, and the concept for the lyric which eventually emerged as later song, ‘The Collection’. Significant elements for King of Sunset Town, The Uninvited Guest, Seasons End, Berlin and The Space… (plus the eventual ‘B-Sides The Release and The Bell in the Sea) were all in place for the album which the band worked on together to hone with Hogarth.

What all the band agree upon is that there was immediately a chemistry with Hogarth which reinvigorated the band, who felt rather liberated from the shadow of their former front man. It was also clear that this album was not going to sound like some of the more baroque old style progressive rock with which they had emerged in the early 80’s. It is apt that the first song on ‘Seasons End‘ is also the first song Steve Hogarth sang in his audition outside Pete Trewavas’ house (as it turned out he was allergic to Trewavas’ cats!) One of the things which impressed the band and helped persuade them to offer Hogarth the vocal role was his ability to immediately improvise the vocal melody in the audition. In his excellent autobiography ‘Marillion, Misadventures and Marathons’ Mark Kelly recalled: ‘By the time he got to the refrain “watch a big wheel turning round…” we knew we had our singer’. Hearing Hogarth belt that out so dramatically and clearly on this remix one can understand the excitement of the band back then – there was definitely something special about this guy! Apparently, some of the music for King of Sunset Town is based on the aborted ‘Sunset Hill’ song with Fish (on the bonus disc of the 1999 remaster of ‘Clutching at Straws’), but a comparison will show King of Sunset Town is a polished and stirring piece a very long way from the embryonic ‘Sunset Hill’. There is an atmospheric synth, bass and drums opening before Rothery comes in with an anthemic guitar line, and the song recedes to the vocal section and Hogarth’s memorable opening line:

A Ragged Man come shuffling through, A Puppet King on the 4^th of June

The original lyric was largely written by John Helmer, but whilst the album was being recorded the Tianenmen Square massacre was occurring in China on June 4^th, 1989, watched with horror by the band on the TV news at Hook End Manor studios. Hogarth incorporated elements of that event in the lyrics, including the rhyming ‘puppet king’ of Chinese premier Deng Xiaoping and a later reference to ‘Before the 27^th came…’ about one of the units of the Chinese army sent to attack the protestors. It is a testament to Hogarth’s lyrical skill that the introduction of this theme helped elevate an already good song with a fantasy feel into one of the finest opening songs on any Marillion album with a contemporary political perspective. It certainly announced Hogarth as a significant talent in his own right with his own distinctive lyrical and vocal skills. It also marked that the band were moving away from the intensely personal ‘confessional’ type introspection of much of Fish’s lyrics, and focusing on a wider range of issues and subjects.

Famously Hogarth had a bucket of tapes for ideas and from it he produced the almost complete and wonderful Easter, originally intended for his band How We Live. Rothery added a beautiful, lilting guitar solo, apparently improvised from the start in the form which is still played today – intuitive, fluid and evocative. Jean Pierre Rasle’s pipe playing added a subtle Irish flavour to the song. Hogarth has described it as his ‘Skye Boat Song’ for the Irish, and shared in his ‘Corona Diaries’ podcast that it is partly inspired by the poem ‘Easter 1916’ by W.B. Yeats. The gentle folky, melodic style is certainly a world away from the caustic, rocking anger of much of ‘Clutching at Straws’, signalling that this band was going in quite a different direction, and it remains one of the finest songs in the Marillion musical canon. The Uninvited Guest is a very different beast, with its origins in some ideas played around with at the aborted Dalnagar castle sessions with Fish in 1988. Ian Mosley starts the piece with a quirky drum part before the band drive it along at quite a furious pace, but with a hint of whimsy although the lyrics are rather sinister. The Uninvited Guest ends with a ‘cuckoo’ noise, indicating an invasion into our nest. Lyricist John Helmer has revealed it was about the shadow of AIDS in the 1980’s, the ultimate unwanted ‘guest’ in sexual relationships. Hogarth tweaked some of the lyrics and there may be a tongue in cheek reference to the previous singer, or maybe not?!

One of the most prescient songs on Seasons End is the outstanding title song with Helmer lyrics about climate change. A simple chiming guitar riff slowly emerges from the synth mists along with Hogarth’s mournful voice and there’s a real feeling of something portentous as the song builds. This is another piece with its roots in the Dalnagar sessions and an embryonic version of the music with different lyrics can be heard in ‘Beaujolais Day’ (another song available on ‘Clutching at Straws’ 1999 remaster. Fish later recycled some of the lyrics for ‘Fortunes of War’ and ‘Just Good Friends’.) This thought-provoking piece is a real showcase for Hogarth’s vocal range, rising gradually in passion. There is a sense of magisterial progression as the song gathers power but with restraint up to a tasteful guitar solo and an orchestral keyboard peak (which always made it a prime candidate for adapting for the 2019 ‘With Friends with the Orchestra’ project.) Hogarth’s evocative, echoing final words: ‘You never miss it till it’s gone, so say goodbye, say goodbye’ bring the main theme to a close but Marillion flow on with a wistful coda of tinkling synths, a subtly floating guitar motif, gentle throbbing bass and shimmering cymbals, whilst in the distance ‘h’ dreamily reprises some of the lyrics. It is a haunting, gorgeous finale to an ageless song still sadly relevant today.

Steve Hogarth shared in the ‘Corona Diaries’ that a waving hand from a window in Holloway Women’s prison was the inspiration for his emotive lyric of Holloway Girl, and is one of only two songs from ‘Seasons End‘ which was fully formed in the studio writing sessions with nothing drawn from previous sessions. Strangely, in the ‘Seasons Change’ documentary Hogarth stated that he has ‘never been quite been sure about it’. I view this as one of the most under-rated Marillion songs. Right from the start with Pete Trewavas’ unique opening playing the pick over his bass strings to give that distinctive metallic intro into Rothery’s subtle spectral guitar line as the tempo and volume increases to Hogarth’s impassioned cry ‘One day Freedom will unlock your door, so hold on, believe on…’ this is a song which grabs you and speaks for many of the poor inmates of the prison. Hogarth learned from a TV documentary that many Holloway inmates would have benefited far more from help with their mental health issues than from incarceration. This is also a real collaboration musically between ‘old Marillion’ and ‘new boy’ Hogarth with ‘h’ writing the music for the verses and Mark Kelly composing the more anthemic chorus passages.

Berlin is a city with a special meaning for Marillion as they recorded their most successful album ‘Misplaced Childhood’ there at the famous Hansa studios, and it turns out Hogarth also had some interesting experiences in this city with such a turbulent history. It probably helps to recall that Berlin was still a divided city back in 1988/9 when Rothery suggested it would make a good theme for a song to lyricist John Helmer. Berlin is probably the song most similar to their earlier much more old school ‘Prog’ style. This is hardly surprising as musically it can trace its roots back to the Dalnagar sessions with Fish in ‘Story from a Thin Wall’ (available on ‘Clutching at Straws’ 1999 remaster). Indeed, musically ‘Story from a Thin Wall’ is almost identical to Berlin so it seems they felt they were on to something. Fish later used the powerful lyrics from that song on ‘Family Business’ on his solo debut, but Marillion replaced them with some excellent new lyrics. Berlin may be one of Helmer’s best lyrics as his words seemed to capture the tense, desperate atmosphere of a city split by a wall built by a dictatorship imprisoning its population on one side and a rather hedonistic lifestyle on the other side, seemingly feverishly generated by the shadow of oppression over the wall. Hogarth sings it with such intensity and the band put on a stellar performance. An atmospheric opening led by Rothery’s delicately played guitar, supported with some suitably restrained bass and percussion, supports the scene setting vocals of decadence and desperation from Hogarth… and for the first time ever in a Marillion song a suitably seedy saxophone from Phil Todd emphasises the decadent ‘Cabaret’ feel of this city. It simply reeks of Berlin of that era. The whole piece recedes in the middle section with crows ominously crowing over a synth and guitar soundscape. The atmosphere changes and the tempo quickens as Hogarth screams passionately ‘With a Hole in our Hearts’. The whole band drives forward with a tidal wave of rock as Hogarth recites a litany of ‘the quick and the dead’, presumably all the sorts of varied people who yearned to cross the wall to freedom, many of whom were shot over the years. Balancing along the top Rothery teeters with a tortured and twisted guitar solo reflecting such desperation. This all fades to a mournful synth wash with ‘h’ reprising the opening lines about ‘the Mascara’d Blonde from the Berliner bar’, seemingly fated to endlessly repeat her prostitute life without hope. Berlin was a powerful statement, clearly designed to be a centrepiece of the album, with outstanding lyrics and great rock music fused together with such skill and impact… but the good thing is that in some ways that the Fall of the Berlin Wall less than a year after the album was released soon made this feel very much like a period timepiece – and that’s not a bad thing!

On the original vinyl release of ‘Seasons End‘ the little gem After Me was not included, and was released as the B-side for the single release of Hooks in You. It was available on the CD and cassette version and it is rightly on this deluxe edition in all it’s delicate beauty. Rothery picks out a gorgeous acoustic guitar intro with Hogarth’s richly resonant voice dripping with regret, singing words written for his then wife about how little time they were spending together. Halfway through a tinkling, shimmering keyboard cues in a much more assertive passage with the whole band backing his increasingly impassioned vocals. The finale with Rothery’s climbing arpeggio guitars is derived from the final section of another 1988 Dalnagar session song, ‘Voice in the Crowd’, (which as the name suggests Fish took the lyrics for the title song of his ‘Vigil’ debut solo album, and is another song available on the 1999 ‘Clutching at Straws’ remaster edition) – but this is a song which Hogarth very much owns with his own rather personal and touching lyrics.

Hooks in You was formed in the studio with Hogarth out of a cracking riff Rothery was jamming which Hogarth loved and they pulled together a cracking 3-minute rock/pop song. The high energy rock launches in spectacularly with drums and bass in 7/8 under the chopping guitar riff before a keyboard fanfare underpins that infectious Rothery riff, which Rothery has likened to It Bites whom he was into at the time. The lyrics are lightweight fluff about a girl having ‘Hooks in You’ – it’s simple, straightforward and just great fun. There’s no deep meaning or complexity – it’s just rock and roll, and also indicated that Marillion were not afraid to dive into some of the Van Halen type ‘hair rock’ type anthems popular at the time. The direct commercial appeal of this song marked it out as a single but in hindsight it may not have been the wisest choice as the first single of the album as it was so unlike anything Marillion had ever released, and it only reached Number 30 in the U.K. charts.

The finale of the album is the expansive and elaborate drama of The Space… In the ‘Seasons Change’ documentary Rothery shares that the music for this piece had its origins again in the 1988 Dalnagar sessions which he says was inspired by seeing Pink Floyd at Wembley. One can certainly hear the more expansive ambition of this piece with a relentless orchestral keyboard string intro with Hogarth’s echoey voice describing the fickleness of fate, as Mosley and Trewavas join in rhythmically. Rothery’s guitar swoops wraith-like above this increasingly weighty musical vehicle as it drives forward. The song then opens out with the refrain ‘The Space around the stars is something that you know’ with some lovely flowing piano from Mark Kelly underpinning the main driven theme. The initial opening section is recapitulated with added power, before the whole piece drops into a more introspective and restrained passage. However, this is a brief respite before the main musical storm returns with particularly Rothery’s overarching manically spasming guitars and Kelly’s choir keyboards. The final section commences with the echoing Hogarth proclaiming anthemically:

‘Everybody in the Whole of the World, Feels the same inside, Everybody in the Whole of the World…’

The band take it home majestically with sweeping synths and stately drumming and The Space… seemingly just fades away into the distance. It’s quite a dramatic and ambitious finale for the album. Hogarth explained in the 1997 remaster edition sleeve notes that the lyrics were partly inspired by seeing a tram in Amsterdam ripping the side off a car without even slowing down, and wondered whether the driver even noticed the great damage his vehicle had casually inflicted (indeed, the demo version of this song on the Blu-ray is called ‘Amsterdam’). Hogarth went on to state rather poetically ‘I have occasionally been the tram. And I have often been the car.’ There is also a rather curious song writing credit for this song, which apart from the usual band members, includes Colin Woore, Geoff Dugmore and Fergus Harper. These were all previous band mates of Steve Hogarth in The Europeans (and Woore was also in How We Live). It eventually emerged that Hogarth had used the exclamatory ‘Everybody in the Whole of the World’ vocal section in an unreleased song by The Europeans called ‘Wrap me in the Flag’, and the opening vocal melody of ‘Amsterdam / The Space…’ had its origins in a How We Live song which never came to anything. Hogarth had used those sections thinking that as he had more or less written them that it was OK to recycle them in this song, but at the time of the album release this did cause a bit of a controversy. These former Hogarth band mates were subsequently all co-credited on the 1997 remaster, and it appears that Hogarth and Woore are now reconciled on this issue as the last line of this edition’s sleeve notes is a ‘thank you’ to Colin Woore for inspiring The Space… – who knows how we influence each other sometimes?

That’s the album – so what do you get with the deluxe edition, particularly if you are already familiar with the original album?

Michael Hunter has done the remix with his usual care and attention as is his way – he’s like an extra member of Marillion such is his intuitive relationship with the band and their music. To be fair, the original mix of this album by Nick Davis, who on the back of his good job on his first album as a producer went on to produce Genesis, was already of a very good standard. What we do not have here is the totally transformative experience heard with the massive improvement in the remix of ‘Fugazi’ which was frankly rather shoddy originally. This remix is definitely more dynamic and ‘brighter’ (if that makes sense) with more of the subtle nuances standing out, such as the ‘Cuckoo’ at the end of The Uninvited Guest. Seasons End does seem to particularly benefit from the remix with Hogarth’s gorgeous tone of voice full of restrained power and feeling and Kelly’s keyboards so lush. The improvements are not startling or revelatory which is a compliment to the original production, but they are noticeable. Of course, one’s perceptions about the differences in this remix will be largely affected by the quality of one’s sound system. The more you invest in such systems the more you are likely to hear some subtle improvements and differences… and if you’ve spent a LOT of money on your system you will REALLY want to hear those differences, even if in truth you may need the auditory senses of a bat to actually hear them! (😊)

As is customary with these deluxe editions CD’s 2 & 3 are of a live gig associated with this album. On previous deluxe editions these shows have been of shows contemporary with the release of the album, but on this occasion they have chosen to use their brilliant performance of the album at the U.K Marillion weekend in Leicester in May 2022. This has been the source of some disappointment from some fans because… well, I’m not entirely sure why? Some fans just don’t like change, which is ironic when you consider this album marked the biggest change in the history of the band. My guess the main reason the band did not include a recording from their first tour with Hogarth in 1990 is that there is already a cracking version of the 1990 Leicester show from that tour released on the ‘The Official Bootleg Box Set Volume 2’ in 2010. Normally that would have been the ideal live show to include with such a deluxe edition, but if the band had included it one can already hear some fans complaining that this material had already been released… and to be fair they would have had a point. However, another reason for using the 2022 live recording could be to show just how well this gem of an album has aged in the last 30+ years. The Leicester De Montfort 2022 show is an excellent performance with fantastic clarity of production and thrilling performance. Another difference between the 1990 show and the 2022 show (apart from the total lack of any Fish era material) is that the audience were now so much more familiar with the album and sang along and rapturously received such masterpieces as Easter, Seasons End, Berlin and the stellar, celebratory B-Side The Release with such joy. Holloway Girl really shines in this show, right from Trewavas’ cool metallic bass pick intro to Rothery’s steepling guitar runs and Hogarth’s impassioned vocals. This recording also completely dismisses any notion that Hogarth is starting to lose his voice – yes, he’s over 30 years older so his voice has aged and is not identical to 1989, but in some ways he has grown into these songs so much and wears them with such assurance, confidence and passion. Oh… and the other reason you won’t find me moaning about having the 2022 show on this deluxe edition is because I was there – it was a stunning gig and joyous experience. The main show featured only the ‘Seasons End‘ album and the associated B-Side The Release as the band now realise that one instrument they really do need to protect for a full three intense nights in a row is Hogarth’s voice, particularly as he does not hold himself back with the intensity and passion of his vocals. CD 3 comprises the encore of only two songs, but when those two pieces are the excellent and stirring epics of Gaza and The Leavers that was quite enough to satisfy the crowd.

The main attraction for many of these deluxe editions are the extras, including the ‘Seasons Change’ documentary in which each band member and the producer Nick Davis are interviewed at the legendary ‘Crooked Billet’ pub in Oxfordshire where Steve Hogarth made his debut live with the band in a packed room of a country pub with hundreds in the roads outside! Previous editions have often interviewed the band collectively, but an advantage of individual interviews is that you hear more from band members whom are usually more reticent in a band / group setting. It is particularly interesting to hear more from drummer Ian Mosley, whom you can tell STILL loves being in this rock band after an early career of theatre and session work. This documentary is well produced by Tim Sidwell whom is becoming a past master at these presentations by Marillion.

The Blu-ray includes the album in 5.1 Audio which reveals the album in gorgeous surround sound clarity if you have the equipment. It sounds massive, expansive and more resonant in this splendid 5.1 version. The B-Sides and Bonus tracks from the ‘Seasons End‘ 1997 remaster are also included on the Blu-ray, including the excellent The Bell in the Sea and The Release. These are two more songs with roots in the 1988 Dalnagar sessions also available on the ‘Clutching…’ 1999 Remaster. ‘Tic-Tac-Toe’ provided a lot of the music for The Release, and ‘Shadows on the Barley’ was the basis for The Bell in the Sea. There will be some fans without that previous 1997 remaster disappointed that these tracks are confined to the Blu-ray on this edition. Interestingly there are also some previously unreleased demos of songs and song ideas, including a couple of cool string grooves from Dalnagar sessions which may explain just why this was a band who were confident that they still had something to offer without Fish. The Audio content is completed by a ‘Montreal Bootleg’ from a gig in 1990, presumably to satisfy the desire of some fans for an audio show from that era. As the name suggests the sound quality is not superior but for a bootleg it is very good quality, but to be honest if I want a show from this era I would put on the later ‘Rock Steady’ show.

The Blu-Ray is jam packed full of video content, including 3 promotional song videos which now look like curious time pieces. The Uninvited Guest does provide some fascinating imagery with Hogarth suspended in mid-air maniacally in an armchair! The previously released early documentary ‘Stoke Row to Ipanema’ is an interesting look back to a band striking out in a new direction with a new front man. Last and certainly not least, one of the crowning elements of this deluxe edition is the ‘Rock Steady’ Concert Film, which is the TV show recording of the audio show from Leicester De Montfort Hall in 1990, previously released on ‘The Official Box Set volume 2’ in 2010. The quality of the performance and the filming is excellent, with plenty of great close ups of all the band members (although Kelly seemed a little under -represented in that department!) Looking back now it is hard to believe that this was Steve Hogarth’s first tour with the band, such is the incandescent and staggeringly confident nature of his performance. What is also remarkable is the assured way he handles the Fish era material, especially Warm Wet Circles and Script for a Jester’s Tear – he was not trying to be Fish, but inhabited these iconic songs with his own personality.

Once again, the deluxe edition book and lyrics are decorated inside with some great artwork from Simon Ward and Rich Wilson provides some interesting sleeve notes. The box set artwork has caused some debate with some fans disappointed that much of the original cover design has been ditched or only subtly referenced. To be honest, I can understand why the band wanted to re-package the artwork. The original cover was a conscious effort at that crucial juncture in their career to remind fans that Marillion were still around with the original classic logo still in place (for the last time) and photographic imagery subtly referencing Fish era elements, such as the Jester’s face and hat. Fast forward 34 years later and there is absolutely no need for the band to re-use such self-conscious imagery and it felt entirely appropriate to leave the old logo and those other references well behind and use more subtly presented images of the Four Elements.

Personally, I can distinctly recall getting ‘Seasons End‘ when it first came out with some trepidation as I was a great Fish era fan. What was this ‘new bloke’ going to sound like and what he done to ‘my band’?! At the time I do remember thinking this is ‘pretty good’ – I may even have thought that rather grudgingly, such was my feeling for Fish at the time! However, as the years have gone by, I have increasingly come to realise that this album was far better than ‘pretty good’ to say the least. It is an excellent transition album, utilising some of the elements of their previous manifestation fused with a new style and sensibility introduced by an equally charismatic but very different front man.

What this deluxe edition of ‘Seasons End‘ most certainly does do is underline and remind us what an outstanding ‘debut’ album this was for the Hogarth era of Marillion. ‘Seasons End‘ was a magnificent re-birth of the band and ignited a different trajectory in their career, and this excellent deluxe edition cements its place as one of the finest albums in the history of Marillion.

TRACK LISTING:

CD One – Holidays in Eden 2023 Remix

King of Sunset Town
Easter
The Uninvited Guest
Seasons End
Holloway Girl
Berlin
After Me
Hooks in You
The Space…

CD Two – Live at De Montfort Hall, Leicester, 29^th May, 2022) (pt 1)

King of Sunset Town
Easter
The Uninvited Guest
Seasons End
Holloway Girl
Berlin
After Me
The Release
Hooks in You
The Space…

CD Three – Live at De Montfort Hall, Leicester, 29^th May, 2022) (pt 2)

Gaza
The Leavers

BLU-RAY DISC

Audio Content:

‘Seasons End’ 2023 Michael Hunter Remix – 5.1 Audio Version:

Same Track listing as CD 1

B-Sides, Demos & Early Versions

Strings Groove (Dalnagar Castle – August 1988)
String Groove (with Synths) (Dalnagar Castle – August 1988)
Amsterdam (The Space… Demo – March 1989)
Easter (Demo – March 1989)
Hooks in You (Early Version – March 1989)
At the End of the day (The Release – Early Version – March 1989)
Sunset Town (M8 idea – H Dictaphone – March 1989)

(All tracks below previously released on 1997 remaster edition)

The Uninvited Guest (12” Mix)
The Bell in the Sea
The Release
The King of Sunset Town (Demo)
Holloway Girl (Demo)
Seasons End (Demo)
The Uninvited Guest (Demo)
Berlin (Demo)
Bell in the Sea (Demo)

Montreal Bootleg – Le Spectrum, 2^nd & 3^rd February, 1990

The King of Sunset Town
Slainte Mhath
Script for a Jester’s Tear
Easter
Warm Wet Circles
That Time of the Night (The Short Straw)
Holloway Girl
Berlin
Seasons End
Kayleigh
Lavender
Heart of Lothian
Hooks in You
The Space…

Video Content:

‘Seasons Change’ – Documentary Film (83 Mins)

‘From Stoke Row to Ipanema’ – Documentary Film (63 Mins)

Rock Steady Concert Film

Live at Leicester de Montfort Hall, 1990 (90 mins)

Promo Videos

Hooks in You
Easter
The Uninvited Guest

MUSICIANS:

Steve Hogarth – Voice

Steve Rothery – Guitars

Mark Kelly – Keyboardsm

Pete Trewavas – Bass

Ian Mosley – Drums & Percussion

With:

Phil Todd – Saxophone (Berlin)

Jean Pierre Rasle – Pipes (Easter)

THANKS:

Progradar would like to thank Fraser Marshall of the website:

‘Marillion – Explanations of Song Elements’ for his permission to refer to his blog about some of the background to the songs.

Other information is available at:

http://marillionations.blogspot.com/

Sources include:

Jon Collins – Marillion biography – ‘Separated out’
Mark Kelly – ‘Marillion Misadventures and Marathons : the Life and Times of Mad Jack’
Steve Hogarth – ‘The Corona Diaries’ podcast

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Year of Release : May 19th, 2023 (Original version released in 1989)

RECORD LABEL: Parlophone Records

LINKS: http://www.marillion.com/

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/MarillionOfficial/

Review – Marillion – Holidays In Eden – 2022 Remix Deluxe Edition – by Leo Trimming

‘Holidays in Eden’, first released in 1991, is the latest edition in Marillion’s series of deluxe re-releases. This was a release for which their record company E.M.I. had high expectations of the band after Steve Hogarth’s debut album with the band in 1989. ‘Seasons End’ was relatively successful, but crucially for E.M.I. it did not spawn any great singles success which would have helped it ‘cross over’ from the niche rock market, as ‘Kayleigh’ had so memorably done in the mid-80’s. Therefore, the pressure was on for Marillion to become more commercial although the band were largely more interested in writing more ambitious pieces than three-minute radio hits. Out of this tension developed an album which certainly divided opinion at the time, but which also produced some classic Marillion songs, particularly the stark brilliance of Splintering Heart, which remains to this day a staple of their tours, often opening shows with a dark grandeur.

So let’s put this album in context – It is a common perception that most bands have a ‘difficult second album’ (and Marillion certainly did so with ‘Fugazi’ with Fish in 1984!!), but uniquely somehow Marillion contrived to have a ‘second difficult second album’ as ‘Holidays in Eden’ was a far from smooth process for Steve Hogarth’s sophomore album with the band. What the band were finding is that working on the next release with Hogarth was simply not flowing in the same way as their experience with ‘Seasons End’. Writing sessions at Stanbridge studios near Brighton were lengthy and frustrating, producing little material. ‘Seasons End’ had already had a lot of the music formed with sessions with Fish that never reached fruition. Lyrically, John Helmer had also written significant contributions, so when Steve Hogarth joined it felt deceptively easy to hone this material with some added material, such as Hogarth’s ‘Easter’, into an excellent album. Their second album with Hogarth was much more of a challenge, starting more or less from scratch. Hogarth and the band were discovering they had very different approaches to song writing and it took them some time to adjust to each other. Indeed, at one-point tensions grew to the point that Hogarth was effectively ‘sent home’ as his more rapid, business-like song-writing style just was not matching the rest of the band who were rather more into improvised jamming over long periods, looking for that elusive spark amidst hours of often fruitless playing. However, after that ‘break’ Hogarth returned two weeks later with a whole new song for the band, ‘The Party’ very much in the Marillion mould. Additionally, in his absence the rest of the band returned to material they had originally demoed in 1988 with Fish in ill-fated sessions at Dalnagar Castle in Scotland and eventually out of those ideas grew the closing suite of ‘This Town / Rake’s progress / 100 Nights’… but it was clear that generally things were not quite flowing second time around.

The band attempted to recreate their happy memories of the recording of Season’s End, returning to Hook End Manor in Oxfordshire – but they do say ‘never go back’. Marillion found this was not such a magical experience, partly because it was in winter and not a glorious summer as it had been for the previous album, and possibly because E.M.I. were not being quite so ‘laissez-faire’ with funding their rather extravagant life in the country! Marillion’s previous producer Chris Kimsey was not available so E.M.I. put forward Chris Neil as their next producer, who had previously starred as Jesus on the West End in ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’… and rather more curiously had also been the lead in a cheap early 70’s sex comedy film ‘Adventures of a Plumber’s Mate’! In the music industry he was rather more well known for great success with pop acts like Shakin’ Stevens, Dollar and Sheena Easton. In the period leading up to ‘Holidays in Eden’ he had also produced Mike and the Mechanics for their massive hit album and single ‘The Living Years’, so it seems evident that E.M.I. had aspirations for Marillion to similarly have success as a chart friendly soft rock band. Chris Neil’s association with the main ‘Mechanic’ Mike Rutherford of rock behemoths Genesis certainly made him a palatable and quite enticing option for the band. Chris Neil also told them that his son was a massive Marillion fan, so he really did not want to mess them up. On the other hand, he also knew that the record company were expecting him to produce three hit singles off the album to project the band onto the next level and match their previous mid-80’s chart successes. Hence, out of that tension between Marillion’s progressive leanings and a record company’s desire for ‘hits’ was born the curious creature of ‘Holidays in Eden’.

It is probably fair to say that fan reaction at the time was mixed. Jon Collins in his fine Marillion biography ‘Separated out’ shared that the Dutch Progressive Rock Page reported that on the ‘Holidays in Eden’ tour at the Ahoy in Netherlands ‘a substantial part of the audience booed when Steve Hogarth announced they would be playing quite a lot from the new album’. In contrast, notable fans such as guitarist Janick Gers of Iron Maiden has said that ‘Holidays in Eden’ is one of his most favourite albums and apparently Formula One Racing driver Jacques Villeneuve used to listen to the album while practising for races! Pete Trewavas wisely said in the fascinating accompanying Blu-ray ‘Pain and Heaven’ documentary, for some fans who had started following Marillion with ‘Seasons End’ or ‘Holidays in Eden’ this album may well be one of their favourite Marillion albums as ‘these albums end up becoming other peoples’ really.’

So how does it sound over 30 years later?

There will probably be two sorts of potential listeners considering this album – those that have bought it previously and are interested in the musical ‘extras’, the remixed sound, and the packaging. There will be others who may be discovering Marillion more recently who may know little about this album and wonder whether it’s worth buying?

The short answer is a qualified ‘YES’ – in truth this album was too hamstrung by compromises to be considered as one of their best albums, but there is enough quality in the original material and the extras to satisfy punters old and new. Unlike the flawed and rushed original mix of ‘Fugazi’, which the deluxe edition remix transformed wonderfully, this remix of ‘Holidays in Eden’ does not have the same transformative effect, as the original version was pretty well produced and mixed. However, this remix does add a new dimension to some of the songs and there is much else to attract longer term followers. A little more information on the tracks may help new listeners, and may provide some insights for long-time fans.

The more progressive elements of Marillion are well represented on this album with ‘Splintering Heart’, ‘The Party’ and the closing ‘This Town’ suite. ‘Splintering Heart’ started out rather differently in the demos, beginning much more heavy with a wall of wailing guitars, as can be heard rather spectacularly on the Blu-Ray with an early version recorded live at the Moles club. Chris Neil in Steve Hogarth’s ‘Corona Diaries’ podcasts has shared that he felt that the original version did not have enough dynamic range as an album opener so he suggested a different spookier intro, which rather belies the notion that he was just there to make them sound more ‘poppy’. Steve Rothery and Mark Kelly spent quite some time devising the atmospheric opening sequence of loops and synthesisers – it helped transform a fairly standard rock song into a classic, dripping with menace as ‘h’ sings with such feeling over the extended intro until the jaw dropping moment when he sings ‘but not as much as this…’ and the whole band crashes in like an avalanche, with Rothery’s guitar screeching like a banshee. The piece drops again into a more contemplative, shimmering section based on guitar samples Hogarth used to trigger with his white midi-gloves for live renditions of the ‘Seasons End’ song ‘Berlin, apparently one of the few times that something emerging from a Marillion gig soundcheck has evolved into a song. The song rises to a crescendo with Rothery seemingly wringing the neck of his guitar with pain filled guitar sounds and one can really imagine someone’s heart shattering. Hogarth has previously shared in the 1998 remaster version that he wrote the lyrics in a rather icy Toronto in 1990 and that he was ‘imagining a heart shattering from its own hardness… or coldness’. Splintering Heart continues the fine Marillion tradition of brilliant album opening songs and it remains a sure fire way to start a Marillion gig all these years later.

The more Progressive flavour of the album continues with ‘The Party’. Hogarth had started work on this during the ‘Seasons End’ writing sessions but largely finished it whilst he was on his aforementioned ‘break’ during the ‘Holidays…’ sessions. This song goes totally against the idea by some fans at the time that Hogarth was the pretty ‘pop boy’ trying to commercialise Marillion – as Hogarth wrote in the 1998 remaster sleeve notes ‘if Splintering Heart and The Party are pop songs, I’ll eat my pink telecaster!’ Indeed in the ‘Pain and Heaven’ documentary Pete Trewavas described ‘The Party’ as ‘quite classically Marillion’. ‘The Party’ is a recollection of teenage parties, drawn from Hogarth’s adolescent memories of dubious underage drinking and the sexually charged atmosphere pervading such gatherings. Some of the lines were also inspired by another party – Hogarth’s experience with Magic Mushrooms after a memorable ‘Mexican Party’ at Stanbridge studios! ‘The Party’ starts quite simply with Steve Hogarth singing about a girl buying a bottle of cider over a simple Kelly piano motif, initially mirroring the naivety of a young girl going to her first party. The rising tempo and power of the music evokes the developing drama with ‘strange aromas, and noises and candles, that was where he found her’. Chris Neil recently shared in ‘The Corona Diaries’ podcast how impressed he was with Hogarth’s lyrics for ‘The Party’. He loved the lyrical story with its plot and nuances, describing Hogarth’s songs as ‘one act plays’. The rest of the band provided the backdrop for this drama as the trippy middle section in which ‘she never felt like anything like this before’ gives way to a distorted, guitar solo and great rumbling bass work and dissonant drumming, evoking how she would have been feeling after her first drug experience. Hogarth screams in anguish before the inevitable ‘come down’ over a plaintive piano and Hogarth’s voice conveying the feelings of the girl after losing her virginity in less than romantic circumstances. In some ways there are echoes of the much more celebrated classic psychodrama ‘Incubus’ song from ‘Fugazi’, and in my view ‘The Party’ is a highlight of ‘Holidays in Eden’, and rather an underestimated gem in the Marillion songbook. Curiously, Hogarth also shared with ‘Prog’ magazine that the teenage party upon which this story is based was also the first time he ever heard ‘The Yes Album’ by Yes which he says ‘changed my whole idea about music’– sounds like quite a party!! (😊)

The album is closed with the 12 minutes progressive rock three act play comprising ‘This Town’, ‘The Rake’s Progress’ and ‘100 Nights’. During the early writing sessions the band were struggling to find a creative spark so they returned to material from the abortive Dalnagar sessions in 1988 with Fish, and they found the basis for this closing epic.’ ‘This Town’ rolls in on a police siren , a wave of Mosley’s drumming and some gritty guitar from Rothery. Kelly’s keyboards rise as they reach the rousing chorus. Rothery’s guitars get dirtier as the story descends into corruption and Hogarth’s vocals become more strident, and after the final chorus Rothery’s guitars reach skyward conversely just as the narrative takes a decidedly darker descent:

‘This Town takes us down, takes us down, I feel like I’m losing you to This Town,

The morning breaks and I watch you awake and This Town takes you down away from me again.’

The semi-autobiographical but mainly fictional story focuses on how a couple move to a city to make their fortune. However, they discover that cities can corrupt, and it starts to tear them apart as they follow their own ambitions. The short middle bridge in the suite, The Rake’s Progress, takes a very different direction musically with muted dreamy synth tones, subtle bass pulses, restrained rolls and splashes of toms and cymbals and eerie guitar phrases conveying a sinister, shadowy world in which our main protagonist transforms from being the jilted broken heart into a manipulative, cynical gigolo. The title is also a play on words as ‘The Rake’s Progress’ is a series of paintings by C18th painter William Hogarth (no relation!) about a young man’s descent into drunken debauchery and eventual insanity.

The final piece of this suite is the dark brooding ‘100 Nights’ which chimes in on a simple echoing guitar motif and synth accents with our anti-hero manipulating all around him without compunction. Hogarth sings with deceptive gentleness, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, ruining a relationship with cool indifference. Rothery’s screeching guitar break almost screams out the real corruption at the heart of this story and Hogarth’s vocals rise in power with the whole band. ‘100 Nights’ seems to just fade away with a rolling guitar riff and echoing vocals on a subtle bed of keys, drums and bass – maybe it signifies that the main protagonist will drift on exploiting others endlessly, but it is rather disappointing as a finale. In the documentary Mark Kelly comments that in his view ‘we skimmed the surface of it in terms of what we could have done with it instrumentally’ which seems to confirm the nagging feeling that this was a lost opportunity with a great foundation which was not fully explored or expanded enough. Kelly has also said that Chris Neil worked very quickly and that his no nonsense approach rather limited musical experimentation, especially for the keyboards, except notably his inspired suggestion for the start of ‘Splintering Heart.’ For a producer with an ear for hooks and hits it is probably not too surprising that when it came to helping the band fashioning more ambitious extended pieces, he was rather less motivated or instrumental in realising those sorts of musical visions.

This is perhaps borne out by the interesting lineage of ‘This Town’ which can be traced on the deluxe edition as the Blu-Ray includes a very early demo version at Stanbridge, and then a later live demo at the Bath Moles club, through to the recorded album version. What is notable about the Stanbridge demo, recorded without the producer, is that it has a distinctly staccato and rockier feel much in the vein of classic songs by The Who – indeed Ian Mosley shared in the documentary that it was known as ‘the Who number’ in the Stanbridge sessions. The later Moles Club version seems to take it further into heavier territory with great energy. In that context it is easier to understand some of the disappointment expressed by both Ian Mosley and Steve Rothery in the documentary about the loss of that energy and feel in the final recorded version. Steve Rothery did remark that the new remix does restore some of the ‘meat it lacks on the original’ album version. It is also notable that now if Marillion play the ‘This Town’ suite they embellish it sonically and with much more power as if making up for not having done so originally.

Mark Kelly in his entertaining autobiography ‘Marillion Misadventures and Marathons : the Life and Times of Mad Jack’ describes ‘Holidays in Eden’ with the old football analogy as ‘an album with two halves. The pop approach of our singles… and, so not to scare the horses and some of our older fans, the longer episodic pieces…’ Before venturing into the ‘Pop half’ there is one halfway house in the shape of the far more straightforward rock of title tune ‘Holidays in Eden’. Based on a John Helmer lyric about going on holiday and losing your identity ‘Holidays in Eden’, begins with birdsong and a jet plane before launching full tilt into the main riff with crashing drums, banks of keyboards and power riffs before receding into jangling guitars and soft drumming on a synth bed. The rolling anthemic refrain precedes some meaty organ work from Kelly and the whole piece bounces along rather jauntily before some steepling guitar lines at the rather apt mid-song break ‘You wake up one morning, wondering who you are’, which may have crossed the minds of the band during this recording process as they sought to find their new identity.

The song ploughs on with the same rock driven pattern with a rising Rothery guitar and Kelly keyboard crescendo and a rather abrupt ending and a muted ‘well, that was a laugh, wasn’t it?’ heard in the background. It’s a straightforward engaging piece of rock/pop but it seems to have disappointed the band. Written by the rest of the band whilst Hogarth was on his ‘break’, in the 1998 remaster notes he suggests the music could have been a lot wilder to reflect the primal elements of the story. Pete Trewavas shares this reservation stating that it ‘should have been more than it was’. Similarly, Rothery states in the documentary that their live version gives it more energy and rawness, and in his view the remix has restored some of that edge.

Chris Neil had a brief from E.M.I. to find three hit singles. The first obvious candidate was ‘No One Can’, based on a chord sequence by Mark Kelly upon which Hogarth wrote a touching love song for his wife and shared memories with his children, about distance not mattering if you are in love. Mark Kelly considers it a good pop song although felt a little frustrated that for Neil the main focus was always about the vocals, which are lushly arranged with Hogarth sounding gorgeous, but no real room for any musical experimentation or embellishment, except a short clean and compressed guitar interlude. There are definite echoes of the smooth jangling chimes of The Police’s ‘Every Breath you take’, but alas despite extensive radio play at the time and a stylish video it did not really penetrate the higher reaches of the U.K. charts. It is probably the most commercial song the band have ever produced and certainly caused some consternation with some older fans at the time, but looking back now it just feels like a pleasant, pretty pop song – indeed, as Hogarth has said in his ‘Corona Diaries’ podcasts it definitely sounds like a hit from 1992… but it wasn’t!

The first single off the album was the rather more upbeat pop/rock of ‘Cover My Eyes’ (Pain and Heaven)’ which was not even a song before Chris Neil joined them to produce the album. He suggested marrying a distinctly U2 or Simple Minds like guitar riff and vocal melody by Rothery with a verse from an old song by Hogarth’s previous short lived ‘How We Live’ band, called ‘Simon’s Car’. Apparently, the lyrics are partly inspired by the glamourous 60’s British film actress Eleanor Bron, probably embodying all such unobtainable beautiful women, as reflected in the beautiful women populating the rather stylish pop video. It is a fun piece of rollocking pop/rock with an anthemic ‘hey, hey, hey’ call echoing a certain Simple Minds refrain. The band roll along to great polished effect with Rothery sounding suitably heroic on guitar. One curiosity about this song is that for some strange reason Chris Neil brought drummer Roland Kerridge into the studio to sample Ian Mosley’s drums so they could be played on an electronic kit, which was quite the fashion at the time. Mosley plays the drums on this song but they are all electronic, hence their rather ‘shiny’ and ‘bright’ sound – they sound ‘OK’ but why sample drums electronically when you have a drummer of the class of Ian Mosley in the studio? Chris Neil has since had the good grace to admit that this probably not his best idea!

There was still one more ‘single’ Chris Neil needed to fashion for the album to satisfy the label, so he suggested that Marillion cover ‘Dry Land’ from the only ‘How We Live’ album. Hogarth explains in the documentary that this felt rather awkward and weird for him as it was ‘not something I would have pushed for myself’, thereby squashing further the notion that it was Steve Hogarth who was pushing the band in a poppier direction. Nevertheless, Hogarth gives a great vocal about the sexual tension of thinking there may be something going on with someone you like, but not being quite sure. ‘Dry Land’ is very close to the original ‘How We Live’ version – indeed , it’s almost a carbon copy! Marillion smoothly lay out a bed of softly chiming guitars and string synths underpinned by a cool bass and drums foundation. The main variation to the original is Rothery’s delightfully tasteful guitar solo, which surprisingly Rothery states is the solo he is most proud of on the whole album.

Every Marillion album has at least one ‘hidden gem’ which seems to not quite gain the attention it may deserve in comparison to other more celebrated songs. For me on this album it is Waiting to Happen, and it was pleasing to note in the documentary that Steve Rothery feels it is one of his favourite songs from the album and ‘it’s what I would have wanted from the whole album’. Apparently, the band were considering dropping it, but Chris Neil wisely encouraged them to persist with the song which was eventually beautifully realised. It starts gently on a pillow of acoustic guitars and softly undulating synths upon which Hogarth sings with such grace about the magic and beauty of Love just below the surface in our lives. Hogarth shared that this lyric was based on a memory of lying in bed in his house unable to sleep ‘I lie awake at night, listening to you sleeping, I hear the darkness breathe’ and such is the gentleness of the words and music you almost feel you are in the same room. Out of this soft cocoon the spirit and music build to the bright sunburst of the chorus. Steve Rothery inevitably crowns this gem with a short but lovely guitar solo. The balance of the restrained verses and the celebratory choruses is the real power of this song, and Hogarth excels himself with some beautifully poetic imagery… insomnia never sounded so glorious!

Despite the attention Chris Neil and the band skilfully paid to these three ‘pop’ elements of the album none of them reached far up the charts, and from that album onwards it was clear that E.M.I. were losing patience with the band. Similarly, after the experience of being guided in a direction with which they were not totally comfortable Marillion were determined that in future they would remain in full control of future albums. Being typically Marillion they next moved almost 180 degrees from the ‘poppiest’ album of their career to one of their most progressive and ambitious releases, ‘Brave’ in 1994… but their days with E.M.I. were numbered. The main flaw with ‘Holidays in Eden‘ is that it simply tried too hard to satisfy conflicting aspirations, chart pop success versus expansive progressive rock pieces, and frankly it was largely unsuccessful on both counts. That does not make it a poor-quality album – there’s some great songs on here, and none of them are below standard. However, that unresolved tension resulted in diluting the focus with significant compromise and undermined the cohesiveness and feel of the album. The consequence many point to that arose from ‘Holidays…’ is the very different ‘Brave’ which was clearly a reaction to this one, but interestingly in the documentary Pete Trewavas intelligently draws a link to their great ‘Afraid of Sunlight’ album in 1995. He feels that what Marillion were trying to do on ‘Holidays in Eden’ was an album like ‘Afraid of Sunlight’, but ‘we just didn’t know how to do it’, which is a fascinating thought.

That’s the album – so what do you get with the deluxe edition, particularly if you are already familiar with the original album?

There is not the revelatory experience akin to the remix of ‘Fugazi’ for this remix, but it is definitely crisper and more impactful. It is perhaps significant that the songs which benefited most from the remix were the more ambitious, expansive pieces. Splintering Heart’s sinister programmed intro is more resonant and chilling, and The Party is noticeably sharper, with Pete Trewavas’ bass definitely and pleasantly higher up in the mix. ‘Holidays in Eden’ clearly has more ‘balls’ sonically. The remix for the shorter, more pop oriented pieces seem less obvious in impact, but in truth none of these changes are startling which is a testament to the quality of the original production. Of course, some with high end music systems will probably be able to detect the tiniest differences and pick up on them, but to most mere mortals with standard equipment the differences are not enormous, but definitely do improve some of the songs.

Discs 2 & 3 of the deluxe edition contain a brilliant recording of the band at Hammersmith Odeon in 1991 – it’s a fantastic recording of a great gig. Marillion may have gone through some changes and challenges in their career, but they are never less than great on stage. There is a healthy mix of old and new material, and it was clear that by this time Hogarth was growing into the skin as the new Marillion vocalist. Unexpected gems include the sinisterly delicate ‘A Collection’ and two deep cuts from ‘Misplaced Childhood’. The material from ‘Seasons End’ sounds particularly effective in this show, especially ‘King of Sunset Town’ and ‘The Space…’, as they had more time to ‘bed in’ with the band.

The main attraction of the deluxe edition are the extras, including the ‘Pain and Heaven’ documentary in which each band member and the producer are interviewed individually. This may have been a covid issue, but interviewing them singly does seem to free up some band members who may not speak so much in a group interview. There are some fascinating insights from the band members into the album, although it is interesting to note that Steve Hogarth has admitted in the ‘Corona Diaries’ podcasts that the director Tim Sidwell had to re-edit the film as they were so self-critical that ‘it comes across everyone thought the album was a huge mistake’!! (😊) To be honest, you still sort of get that sense underlying Steve Rothery’s contributions, but it would be unfair to completely dismiss the album when one considers the quality of some of the songs already described.

In addition, the Blu-ray includes the album in 5.1 Audio which reveals the album in more satisfying surround sound clarity. The B-Sides and Bonus tracks from the 1998 remaster are also included on the Blu-ray, although I know some fans without that previous version will be disappointed that these tracks are confined to the Blu-ray on this edition. There are 4 videos of the band, including the great ‘crunchy’ original Stanbridge demo of ‘This Town’. The Blu-Ray also features the glossy videos for the three aforementioned singles – these are definitely ‘of their time’, but are fascinating insights into the ‘Pop machine’ E.M.I. wanted Marillion to join… but they resisted… and are still going strong over 30 years later.

Finally, one of the best elements of the deluxe edition is ‘Rockpalast’ video of their gig in Germany in 1991. What is clear is that this is a highly professional and confident live outfit with impeccable musicianship. Needless to say, they all look SO much younger, and Hogarth is impossibly handsome as their dynamic front man – no wonder E.M.I. wanted him to feature in the videos. It’s a television recording, but the quality on Blu-ray is fine and the crowd seem to lap up the show. What is rather different to the Hammersmith show is the extended encore section with five Fish era songs, perhaps with a German TV audience in mind, which Hogarth handles with aplomb. Somewhat unexpectedly they break into Cliff Richard’s ‘Summer Holiday’ during ‘Garden Party’ and ‘Sugar Mice’ is presented acoustically without Rothery’s guitar solo. The deluxe edition is presented in the usual attractive book form with Sarah Ball’s original striking beautiful blue illustration given more space – this as the first Marillion album to ditch the classic Marillion logo as it seemed clear they wanted to break from that image. The book and lyrics are decorated inside with some gorgeous artwork from Simon Ward and there is an interesting essay by Rich Wilson.

‘Holidays in Eden’ will never be regarded as one of the great Marillion albums. It showed a band at the crossroads, looking for a new direction but still not sure where to go at the time and pulled in different directions. Nevertheless, it is a significant album which strangely did influence their next step and underlined to the band the importance of artistic freedom when writing their music. Look back and wonder what might have happened if one of those singles had been a big hit – what would we have missed? Look back and see a band evolving towards a different future – clearly there was ‘Something Waiting to Happen.’

TRACK LISTING:

CD One – Holidays in Eden 2022 Remix

Splintering Heart (6.45)
Cover My Eyes (Pain & Heaven) (4.04)
The Party (5.37)
No One Can (4.46)
Holidays in Eden (5.23)
Dry Land (4.45)
Waiting to Happen (4.55)
This Town (3.19)
The Rake’s Progress (1.54)
100 Nights (7.47)

CD Two – Live at Hammersmith 30^th September, 1991 (pt 1)

Splintering Heart (6.47)
Garden Party (7.13)
Dry Land (4.51)
The King of Sunset Town (8.12)
The Party (6.08)
Easter (6.34)
The Space… (7.50)
Holloway Girl (4.05)
A Collection (3.14)
Waiting to Happen (5.08)

CD Three – Live in Hammersmith 30^th September, 1991 (pt 2)

Cover My Eyes (Pain & Heaven) (3.55)
Lords of the Backstage (1.51)
Blind Curve (4.15)
The Uninvited Guest (4.25)
This Town (3.44)
The Rake’s Progress (2.15)
100 Nights (4.46)
Slainte Mhath (5.10)
Holidays in Eden (4.47)
Hooks in You (3.15)
No One Can (4.56)
Berlin (8.14)
Kayleigh (3.52)
Incommunicado (5.11)

Blu-Ray Disc

‘Holidays in Eden’ 2022 Stephen Taylor Remix – 5.1 Audio Version:

Same Track listing as CD 1

B-Sides & Bonus Tracks (1998 Remaster Bonus Tracks):

Sympathy
How Can it Hurt
A Collection
Sympathy (Acoustic version)
I Will Walk on Water (Alternate Mix)
Splintering Heart (Live at Moles Club)
You Don’t need Anyone (Moles Club Demo)
No One Can (Moles Club Demo)
The Party (Moles Club Demo)
This Town (Moles Club Demo)
Waiting to Happen (Moles Club Demo)
Eric
The Epic (Fairground) (Mushroom Farm Demo)

Film – ‘Pain and Heaven’ (Approv 85 Mins)

The Story of Holidays in Eden (Documentary)

‘Rockpalast’ Live show – German TV 1991.

Order direct from Marillion here:

marillion.com | Racket Records Store

Review – Marillion – An Hour Before It’s Dark

“No matter how corrupt, greedy, and heartless our government, our corporations, our media, and our religious & charitable institutions may become, the music will still be wonderful.” ― Kurt Vonnegut

With ‘An Hour Before It’s Dark’, Marillion release one of their most upbeat albums of their career while, at the same time, they once again do not shy away from uncomfortable topics, reflect on their own behaviour, and put their finger in the wounds of time.

The band’s 20th studio album, Like its predecessor, 2016’s critically acclaimed and chart-topping album ‘F*** Everyone And Run (F E A R)’, was recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios. But, whereas it’s predecessor was more a dark and condemning comment on the government and the bureaucrats who ran the country, this new release deals with the pandemic in a much more hopeful and enriching manner leading to the band calling it their most upbeat album in quite a while.

There’s no getting away from it, a new Marillion album is always a great occasion and a cause for celebration but the release of ‘An Hour Before It’s Dark’ coincides with us hopefully seeing the pandemic diminishing rapidly and a sense of normality returning to everyday life and mirrors this new found feeling of optimism and promise.

I’d been one of the lucky ones who saw the band on their ‘Light At The End Of The Tunnel’ tour (in fact, I saw them on at the first gig in Hull) so my appetite had been whetted by already hearing the wonderfully dramatic Be Hard On Yourself, albeit in a live setting. Nine minutes of intense but fast paced music with Steve Hogarth’s distinctive vocals at the centre of this impressive track, it certainly opens the album in style. Reprogram The Gene delivers a powerful missive with the hard edged guitar and drums driving the song along, aided and abetted by a sharp suited bassline and keyboards. Steve Rothery has been given free reign to deliver some mighty power chords and Ian Mosley delivers an utterly mesmerising performance behind the drum kit. There’s a determined and catchy feel to this song and it resonates throughout the album as the short, sweet instrumental, Only A Kiss segues into the second single from the album, the irrepressibly infectious Murder Machines, a song that was born in the challenging times of lockdown and social distancing and has become so much more than just a mirror of our times, more than a song that deals with the precious as well as dark sides of human relationships. Steve Hogarth is in fine voice, especially on the buoyant chorus and Rothery’s guitar just sings perfectly.

Three songs into the album and I’m already hooked, it’s a record of, and for, its time, emotive and emotional and that is felt throughout the wistfully brilliant The Crow And The Nightingale, a nostalgic nod to Leonard Cohen and one of my favourite tracks on the album, one that just flows beautifully and shows the band’s thoughtful and contemplative side impeccably. That reflective tone carries on into the sublime Sierra Leone, another great song that sees the band in a storytelling frame of mind. This is a set of musicians who are playing at a ridiculously high level and delivering some of their best songs of a long and illustrious career, a band who are comfortable with themselves and their music and it is really obvious. This track builds gradually, the tempo increasing almost imperceptibly, before Rothery’s guitar breaks out, accompanied by Hogarth’s ever more dynamic voice. There are lulls as it ebbs and flows elegantly, always holding your attention, a fine piece of music indeed.

This superb and entrancing album comes to a close with one of Marillion’s finest ever tracks. In a long career of superlatives Care has to be right there at the top, a three part song that plumbs the depths of despair before rising through to end in promise and optimism. Pete Trewavas shows he is still one of the best bass players around and Rothery’s guitar is just transcendent, he really is at the top of his game. Mark Kelly delivers some bewitching keys throughout the album but none more so than here. This track really showcases the band’s impressive song writing abilities. Impassioned and passionate and, ultimately, uplifting, it is, possibly, the most perfect song they have ever written.

I have been a fan of Marillion for over three decades and, in a career of superlatives, ‘An Hour Before It’s Dark’ can truly be seen as one of their most accomplished albums. It is an outstanding piece of music that the band should be incredibly proud of and, even though we are only in February, it will take something amazing to knock it off the top of my album of the year list.

Released March 4th, 2022

Order from the band here:

Marillion Album 20 Official Pre-order Store (ear-music.net)

Marillion – ‘The Light At The End Of The Tunnel’ Tour – Live At Hull City Hall – Sunday, November 14th, 2021

“Live is Life…”

Life came full circle at Hull City Hall on Sunday evening, 14th November 2021. I first saw Marillion at this venue on the 9th July, 1990 and, thirty-one years later, here I was, about to watch one of my favourite bands on the first gig of their ‘The Light At The End Of The Tunnel’ tour.

It’s been a long time since Marillion last played live to their loyal fans, as Steve Hogarth said at the start of the gig, over 700 days! and you could sense the excitement in the venue beforehand. For the only time in living memory, the queue for the merch stand was way longer than the queue for the bar!

The support act was a duo called Antimatter and their short set was an excellent appetiser for what was to follow. Powerful vocals with electric and acoustic guitars made for a great listen and the audience were very appreciative.

The atmosphere in Hull City Hall had been building to a crescendo as the band came onto the stage full of vigour and enthusiasm and an honest joy at playing in front of a live audience again.

I saw the band last at the Royal Albert Hall nearly two years ago, in November 2019 and they just seemed to be so up for this gig, Steve Hogarth was laughing and smiling had a great rapport with his band mates, Pete Trewavas was bounding around the stage with obvious energy, Ian Mosley was a powerhouse behind the drum kit, Steve Rothery patrolled his corner of the stage in his usual stately manner and Mark Kelly was dominant, raised at the back of the stage behind his impressive bank of keyboards.

Steve Hogarth explained that the setlist would be a sort of greatest hits that the band had collaborated on and the concert opened with a blistering version of Sounds That Can’t Be Made and followed it up with the iconic King, Hogarth central on the stage with his guitar raised in tribute. There was a fizzing intensity and power to the band’s performance this evening and, while the venues acoustics may have not been up tot he standard of some of the modern arenas, it certainly did not effect the enjoyment of the enthusiastic crowd.

A rather emotive version of Beautiful had a lump in my throat and a scintillating rendition of one of my favourites, You’re Gone, had the whole hall in thrall. It’s been so long since we have been able to enjoy live music that everybody in the room was obviously enjoying themselves immensely, standing up and cheering and whistling at the end of every track.

The party was in full swing and Mr Hogarth was evidently enjoying himself as the band ran through really strong renditions of The Party, Bridge, Living With The Big Lie and Runaway, every song raising the roof even higher. Steve Rothery’s guitar playing just blows me away every time and the power and precision of Ian Mosley’s drumming has to be seen in a live setting, the man is just a machine!

Steve Hogarth is a most engaging frontman and has a very special rapport with the audience, his utter joy at being out at the front of the stage was obvious to all, no more so than when introducing Be Hard On Yourself, the first single form the forthcoming new album ‘An Hour Before It’s Dark’ and, according to Steve, ‘It’s going to be a belter…”.

Well, Be Hard On Yourself was an absolute belter in itself and Steve was in fine vocal form, delivering a finely tuned and stirring vocal, ably backed by Pete Trewavas, the band building in confidence as every song was performed. Fine performances of Berlin and The Release led into my favourite song of the evening, an utterly spellbinding arrangement of perennial favourite, the haunting and electrifying Neverland that closed out the set.

Of course there was going to be an encore, the crowd demanded it with their hands, voices and feet (all in a good natured fashion, of course!) and the band returned to rapturous applause to deliver a rather fantastic version of every part of The Leavers, a phenomenally compelling and powerful piece of music that always makes it mark. We weren’t happy with just that song though and, as the band left the stage again, the noise levels rose to a crescendo before we were treated to a rocking, fun, sing-along version of Garden Party that brought the house down and finished things on an ultimate high!

Nearly two years of frustration and pent up energy were released in considerable style at Hull City Hall tonight and it will be a gig that will live long in my memory, oh what a night…!

Setlist:

Sounds That Can’t Be Made
King
Beautiful
You’re Gone
The Party
Bridge
Living With The Big Lie
Runaway
Be Hard On Yourself
Berlin
The Release
Neverland

Encore:

The Leavers: I. Wake Up in Music
The Leavers: II. The Remainers
The Leavers: III. Vapour Trails in the Sky
The Leavers: IV. The Jumble of Days
The Leavers: V. One Tonight

Encore 2:

Garden Party

Interview With Steve Hogarth – 29th September, 2021

Legendary British progressive rock band Marillion embark on a UK tour, ‘The Light At The End OF The Tunnel’, in November 2021, ahead of their recently announced 20th album ‘An Hour Before It’s Dark’ and I sat down to chat with frontman Steve Hogarth about the upcoming live gigs…

Progradar: Hi Steve and thanks for talking to me, I am coming to see the band play on the first night of the upcoming tour, Hull City Hall, on the 14th November and, in a strange kind of synergy, the first time I ever saw Marillion was at Hull City Hall on the 9th July, 1990, so you’re talking 31 years ago!

Steve Hogarth (SH): Blimey! Do you know, I think that was the last time we were there.

Progradar: I’m pretty certain it was too! You know what, I saw you twice before lockdown, at the Royal Albert Hall in 2019 and I also saw you at the York Barbican in 2018, I can remember the songs better, obviously, from the last two but the one that sticks out most in my mind was that one, going back all those years ago. I even remember that Little Angels were the support band, a local band from Scarborough.

SH: Yeh, they were good, I remember them.

Progradar: It’s funny how you can remember these things from all those years ago. Are you looking forward to getting back out there again and playing in front of a live audience?

SH: Yes, very, very much, I think it’s all the more precious because it’s been denied us, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. I think, for the audience and the band alike, it will be quite something to walk back on stage in Hull. I’m looking forward to it immensely, yes.

Progradar: I went to see Keane at the open air theatre in Scarborough and it just threw it down with rain all through the gig but I just didn’t care, it was spine tingling to see live music again. I am so excited about seeing you guys in November, I’ve been a fan for over thirty years. The ‘Seasons End’ album and tour are where I really got into the band so, to actually think I’m going to get to see you guys where it all started for me, over thirty years ago is a quite a spine tingling thought actually.

Do you find that there is a difference in audiences in the UK and audiences when you go to the continent or all they all pretty much the same?

SH: Yes there is, audiences even vary from one part of the UK to another, to be honest. To be fair, about 18-20 percent probably travel, so there are people in the UK that are moving around. In that sense the geography is not as important but there are certain hotspots in the UK, Manchester, Liverpool are always terrific, Birmingham and London are usually good. Cardiff is a bit of a slow burner, they’re usually quiet but they go nuts at the end. You get used to the kind of dynamics of what to expect from a crowd, after a few years.

Across in Europe, again, certain parts of Germany, you know you are going to have an amazing show. We’ll have a great show in Cologne and Munich, we’ll usually have a great show in Hamburg. Not so much in Frankfurt and Hanover and, if you go over to France, we’ve always had amazing shows in Paris, it’s just about my favourite place to play on earth. Lyon will be good but not that same electric thing you get in Paris.

Over in Holland, it’s only a small country so it doesn’t vary quite as much there but playing Utrecht and Amsterdam is also special as well.

Progradar: I get a strong impression that Marillion fans have a real affinity with the band and you have a real affinity with the fans, do you agree and do you think it helps when you do the live gigs?

SH: Yes, absolutely, like a family. It’s not ‘us and them’ anymore, it’s very much ‘us and us’, we’re all in this thing together. Way back, at the end of the 90’s, when we (together) invented crowdfunding and we found a way to move forward by having fans pre-order the albums we hadn’t even finished yet, that’s almost become a commonplace thing now but it didn’t exist before we did it. That brought us closer together with the fans, it kind of gave us common cause, in a lot of ways.

The feeling of trust when somebody sends you their hard earned money, sometimes quite a lot of it! We are selling these packages where you don’t get much change out of fifty quid, they buy them with no guarantee at all that we won’t just go to Rio and have a party with their money. There’s a lot of faith and trust there and responsibility on us not to let anybody down, that’s pulled us closer together (with the fans) as well.

Progradar: I think for a lot of fans, you genuinely feel involved in what’s going on with a new album. A lot of bands involve the fans in what’s going on so they do feel invested and that helps when you come to the live stage. Fans feel they are going to see people they know, to a certain extent, play a gig. I feel you will have the goodwill from day one of a tour as 70-80 percent of them will have been fans from day one.

SH: Yes, I’ll probably recognise half of the front row just from all the years of doing it and seeing people. Bit by bit, we, as musicians, become conscious of who’s listening to us, I recognise people at the front and it is very much a family now.

Progradar: Do you get many fans who literally pay to go to every gig on a tour?

SH: It’s quite common to see and to get a message from someone to apologise for missing one like, “I’m sorry I couldn’t get down to St Austell”, and we’re like ” I’m not bloody surprised!”. We do, there are people that will travel to all of the shows and wear that like that a badge of honour, there are people who have even travelled around Europe as well! Similarly, Ive met people from all around the world who’ve travelled miles for a show, Americans who’ve just flown in for one gig and flown out again.

A few years ago we did a show at Shepherds Bush Empire and I met a couple of guys in the alley by the back stage door from Venezuela! I asked them what on earth they were doing there and they said we’d come to see you! So, when people are prepared to do that, it’s extremely mind blowing.

Progradar: I’d imagine it’s pretty humbling when you think they could have spent the equivalent of six months salary just to see one concert?

SH: It is humbling, it’s extremely humbling, it makes my head swim. I don’t think I’ve ever travelled more than sixty miles to see a band in my entire life! I can’t imagine getting on a plane and going to see somebody.

Progradar: Like I say, I saw you at the RAH in 2019 and, apart from having the most uncomfortable seats of any venue I’ve been to, it was an amazing gig, do you find that there is a difference in the atmosphere when you play the bigger venues to when you play the smaller ones?

SH: You can’t really generalise because you can amazing gig in a little club and you can have an amazing gig in a football stadium and every size in between. Each venue, and the space of that venue, has its own character. My job is to walk out there on the stage, get a feeling for it and wring it out like a cloth, get the very best out of that space that I can. That’s part of my job, although it’s not necessarily a conscious process to be fair, part of my job is to go, right, what can we do with this then?

Royal Albert Hall, November 2019, Picture is Author’s Own.

Progradar: I’ve been to concerts where they’ve really dragged and I’ve been to gigs, like the RAH and York Barbican gigs, where the time has flown by and I haven’t wanted to leave. We won’t call it working the audience as you say it is not a conscious process but, you certainly look like you’re enjoying it when you’re up on stage?

SH: Yes, to be honest, it’s dead easy to do when you’re meeting those waves of affection that I’m very fortunate to meet. It doesn’t make my job very difficult at all, all I’ve got to do is kind of bounce it back and see it for what it is, not take it for granted. Just go with what is special about a show from one moment to another, the vibration in the hall, I’ve kind of got to have my radar up, to pick that up and acknowledge it.

Progradar: I would imagine that, even if you played the same set list in two different venues, you’re still going to have two different events, two different concerts?

SH: Totally, yes!

Progradar: So, the new album, which you’ve had a bit of fun with, the fans guessing the album name, there were some quite interesting ones that came up in the Facebook group, some humorous ones as well!

SH: Yes, my favourite was ‘All Hard Bastards In Doncaster’, that really creased me up!

Progradar: You said that you are probably going to play one or two tracks from the new album, are you excited about giving the new music an airing in that live setting?

SH: Yes I am, because a lot of the stuff on this new album is really quite upbeat and will work really well live. In the end, we decided we would only play one track. When I say one track, it is about ten minutes long, it’s the equivalent of three of anyone else’s.

Progradar: Long gone are the days of tracks like Hooks In You, three and a half minute radio friendly stuff!

SH: Never say never but, we haven’t written a three minute song for quite a while now, it takes us three minutes to get to verse one these days. We’ve got a song called Be Hard On Yourself and I can tell by the nature of how we wrote it that it is going to be great live, it’s really going to kick arse! I’m looking forward to giving that an airing for sure.

Progradar: I’m really looking forward to hearing it, I have been prevaricating but finally got around to ordering the double vinyl today, especially when I saw it was the last day to get your name in the credits! I don’t know about you but, I grew up on vinyl and cassette tapes, then sold it all to make way for CDs and now we are buying vinyl reissues and remasters at ten times more than we we paid for them when they first came out in the 70’s and 80’s!

I have bought good quality pre-owned copies of ‘Holidays In Eden’ and ‘Seasons End’ and boxsets of ‘Marbles’ and ‘Brave‘. If you pushed me I would say that ‘Marbles’ is my favourite Marillion album, closely followed by ‘Seasons End’.

SH: Great, what’s your favourite track on ‘Marbles’ then?

Progradar: Funnily enough, I have just been listening to it in the car, it’s Fantastic Place, it’s one of my all time favourite Marillion songs. You played it live in York with a couple of my other favourite Marillion songs which are Seasons End and Easter but I absolutely love Fantastic Place.

SH: That’s a feather in my hat because I wrote two out of the three of those songs.

Progradar: There’s also Steve Rothery’s guitar in that song, it has no edges, do you know what I mean? It’s smooth and the solo just bleeds emotion. Leading on to the next question, you’ve also said you are going to play what you consider to be the best of your catalogue. With so many albums behind you, how do you pick the tracks on the setlist? Is it a democratic process, do you get a massive list and then just whittle it down?

SH: Yes, more or less. We all get a vote each, make a list, whatever wins gets chosen. We did decide for this particular tour that we would play what we all personally felt were our most important songs. Anyone who comes hoping to hear a couple of obscurities will probably be disappointed but anyone who’s hoping to hear the really big songs, they’ll be delighted because that is what they are going to get.

Progradar: So I can sort of live in hope that I am maybe going to hear one of my favourite three on the 14th November?

SH: You certainly can, for sure.

Progradar: Not being a musician, I find this quite fascinating, are there songs that you like off studio albums that you think wouldn’t work in the live experience?

SH: There’s certainly a couple, yes. The Fruit Of The Wild Rose has always been very tricky live because, I don’t know if you’re familiar with it, it kind of goes into a groove at the end that is set down by an acoustic guitar, playing a loop and then it kind of kicks off with a guitar solo overlapped and we just don’t have enough guitar players in the band to do both! I’m not a good enough acoustic guitar player to be able to lay that loop down while Steve solos, Pete probably is but then I’m not a good enough bass player to cover the bass duties!

So there are one or two that kind of came into the world as studio works and are a bit of a struggle. I mean, we have still done them but they’re trickier things to roll out.

Progradar: I don’t want to put you on the spot as there’s hundreds of songs you’ve written but, are there a couple of songs that you particularly enjoy playing live yourself?

SH: Yes, for sure, I really like to sing The Invisible Man, that’s one of my favourites to perform. What else would I look forward to doing? I enjoy playing Gaza, I enjoy playing A Few Words For The Dead, to be honest. Seasons End and Estonia, they’re both great to play.

Progradar: I remember Seasons End at York Barbican in 2018, my friend Iain Sloan came down from Scotland, he lives near Edinburgh and is a guitarist in an Americana band call The Wynntown Marshals. We were stood together, almost in tears, it was one of those moments you’ll remember forever.

You said you enjoy playing in Holland and that leads me on to my next question, are you intending doing Marillion Weekends again?

SH: Yes, we absolutely are, we had to keep kicking it down the road. The thing about Port Zelande is that we promote the entire thing ourselves and we’re about half a million quid in the whole before anyone turns up. If, god forbid, the Dutch government decided to lock the country down, it would cost us more money than we could stand to lose, to be honest. So we had to keep postponing it and we moved it to next spring and then we decided we couldn’t even risk that. We moved it again, I think it’s booked in for March 2023 now, it’ll happen but we’ve just got to get through this strange pandemic that seems to be a bit slow to leave.

Progradar: I’m 54 this year and none of us are as young as we used to be. You’ve been touring for donkey’s years, do you find it more tiring now or does just getting out on that stage just infuse you with energy?

SH: I can’t remember, it’s so long ago! I am two years older than the last time I did it so there is a part of me thinking I hope I’m up to this? I’d better get out on the bike and get myself sorted out a bit. I’m going to find out, it may come as a terrible shock!

Progradar: Do you keep fit before you go on a tour, do you do anything extra?

SH: I’ll do a little bit, I won’t do enough because I’m a lazy sod but I should really. I mean, I can’t just expect to remain fit, I’ve got to make the effort. I live in a three storey house so I’m up and down the stairs and get a few steps in but I’m going to have to do a bit more.

Progradar: I really appreciate your time Steve, it’s been brilliant talking to you, just one final question before we sign off. It’s a question I ask everyone who I interview, do you prefer writing and recording and album or do you prefer playing the material live?

SH: Playing the material live, night and day, for me. I hate writing, I hate most of recording, once you get beyond a certain point then it does start to become exciting but that takes such a long time. Whereas to play live is the point of it for me so, hands down, I prefer playing live.

Progradar: I’ll just tag a little bit on the end of that, when you’re on tour, can you hit the same level of enthusiasm at the last gig that you had at the first?

SH: Absolutely, no problem at all, I love it!

Progradar: That’s brilliant, I really appreciate your time and I am so looking forward to seeing you at Hull City Hall on November 14th!

SH: Thanks for your time and thanks for your support man!

Marillion ‘The Light At The End Of The Tunnel’ tour starts on 14th November at Hull City Hall.

Pre-order Marillion’s 20th album, ‘An Hour Before It’s Dark’ here:

marillion.com | Racket Records Store

Review – Mark Kelly’s Marathon – by John Wenlock-Smith

Well, this one nearly passed me by but, thankfully, thanks to recommendations from a friend, I was able to capture this one. Apparently Mark Kelly has been planning a solo album for nearly 30 years but it was the national lockdown that was the window in which he was finally able to realise his plans. I have to say that this album is simply magnificent, one that harks back to his main role in Marillion but also one that shows just how integral to how Marillion sound he truly is. This album is possibly the best of any that have been made outside of Marillion, yes it really is that good! In fact, it does nicely in lieu of any current group activity (although the band continue to work on the follow up to 2016’s ‘F.E.A.R’ album and have planned a tour for late 2021.)

The album has 10 tracks, two of which are 10 minutes plus (with one being over 20 minutes long) and the sound is remarkably like that of Marillion themselves but here Mark has surrounded himself with some amazing new talent, especially guitarist John Cordy (whom he was recommended by non-less than Steve Rothery), the always excellent Henry Rogers on drums and Mark’s son Conal Kelly on bass guitars and background, among others. Lyrics were written by barrister Guy Vickers who certainly rose to the challenge, capturing the mood and the themes of both Amelia and Twenty Fifty One superbly.

On Amelia the album opens like 99% of Prog albums do, with swirls of keyboards as the story of the controversy and mystery of bones discovered on Nikumaroro or Gardener island in 1940 unfolds. These had been originally discovered and appraised in 1941 by a Fijian anthropologist but this had been challenged by a University of Tennessee Professor who had stated that, after his own research, the bones were actually those of Amelia Earhart, the missing famed aviator who had gone missing on a round the world trek. The background to this song is in the notes contained in the booklet, and a fascinating read it is too and this shows that the music and subject matter is certainly informed and captivating. The playing on this song alone makes the album an essential purchase, it is simply brilliant and a real treat even with a magnificent guitar solo from John at the end, a fantastic opening track.

When I Fell is a delicate and emotional song about love and loss with some great textures to the song and sympathetic, ethereal keyboards from Mark . Along with some great basslines from Conal, this is a lovely and moving song. Add in some great organ sounds from Mark, it all sounds fabulous and concludes an excellent song.

This Time follows, a brief but certainly interesting track, with some great textures to it. The song is about separation and being apart from those you love and how the separation can make these times more meaningful. This is all ably supported by fabulous performances and music where everyone is really making this a worthwhile, short but exceedingly sweet piece of music.

Puppets is next and this features Mark’s Marillion colleague Steve Rothery on guitar. The song is somewhat philosophical and touches on concepts such as determinism, free will, libertarianism, cartesian dualism and other spiritual and philosophical concepts. That the band can tackle such weighty concepts is to be applauded in itself, this certainly is an album for thinkers along with those who love good music played sublimely, this album meeting those criteria head on, confidently and with real style and skill. The song asks some interesting questions about how we make choices and how free we are, as I say, this is music to make you think, never a bad thing in my opinion.

The last selection of pieces forms the long suite Twenty Fifty One, which details the difficult relationship that existed between Arthur C Clarke and Stanley Kubrick, especially in relation to the film and novel 2001: A Space Odyssey. The song is an interesting narrative to the questions of life outside of earth and are we alone in the universe? It details the story that Stanley’s film took much longer than Arthur’s novel writing and, as a result, that Arthur had to rely on Stanley funding him until the film was completed and he could finally publish his novel. The song continues to ask the question of, if we are not alone, do we really want alien interference and possibly destruction? We have previously historically been very mercenary in our expansions and in our dealings with other nations and tribes. It is an interesting question and one that we should consider seriously, this song is bold enough to ask the question.

This truly is a remarkable album, and the band are already planning a follow up, which holds great promise for us all. I also must comment on how glorious the artwork for this album is, it is very sympathetic to the subject matter and the accompanying live studio DVD is certainly a wonderful touch as it really brings the material to life. In all, this is an album that I would heartily recommend to any Marillion fan or indeed fan of intelligent and interesting music.

Released 27th November 2020

Order direct from the artist’s website:

https://marathonsounds.com/

Marillion – Release Video of Lockdown Version of Made Again

“We had the idea to do a ‘lockdown’ version of Made Again for you all.

Unbeknownst to us, our manager Lucy made a call (via social media) to ask fans to send in videos of themselves, in the hope of replicating the ‘Made Again Stage Invasion’ (at our Marillion Weekend in 2013) to surprise us!

Lucy and Tim Sidwell (from Toward Infinity), then came clean to us of their plan and added our ‘at home’ videos and recordings into the mix.

So here is a beautiful video of hope from around the world.

A better way of life? For sure.
We hope you all enjoy it.“

We will be making announcements about our Marillion Weekends that are due in 2021 at some point next week.

In the meantime, stay safe and healthy.

“Like a bright new morning, Like a bright new day, I woke up from a deep sleep,

I woke up from a bad dream, To a brand new morning,

To a brand new day, Like the whole world has been made again”

h, Ian, Mark, Pete and Steve
Made Again will be released as a Charity Single over the next few weeks.

Review – Marillion – Afraid Of Sunlight – Deluxe Edition Re-Release

Today sees Leo Trimming helping Progradar ‘catching up’ with the most recent deluxe edition re-release before the imminent deluxe edition of ‘Script for a Jester’s Tear’ in April!

Marillion’s great series of re-releases in Deluxe editions continues with ‘Afraid of Sunlight’, first released in 1995. This was the last album Marillion made for EMI, but what a way to bow out as it’s one of the highlights of their career. Indeed with the previous album , the magnificent and chilling ‘Brave’, the mid 90’s could be regarded as one of the greatest peaks in their whole career… and yet it was born in a difficult period for the band .

To put this album in context Marillion had been with EMI records since 1982 and had achieved considerable commercial success in the mid – late 80’s with Fish, including a string of hit singles and albums around the world. The transition to new singer Steve Hogarth was inevitably quite tricky. Their first Hogarth era album , ‘Season’s End’, had been high in quality, but it had not really resulted in quite the commercial success for which EMI was hoping. Follow up album ‘Holidays in Eden’ , perhaps under pressure from the label, had clearly been intended to sound a little more mainstream and ‘pop’. However, Marillion simply were not having the same sort of chart success that they had enjoyed in the 80’s, and the pressure was mounting. What did Marillion do then? Perhaps typically for this band they did what they felt was true to them and did exactly what they wanted to do, not what others wanted of them. They withdrew to a French chateau studio and spent many months creating one of the artistic highlights of their career in the long form fully segued concept album ‘Brave’… one can only imagine what EMI thought when hearing a concept album, which was late and over budget, focusing on a strange tale of abuse and suicide – ‘Lavender’ and ‘Kayleigh’ it ain’t!

By 1995 relations with EMI were very strained. In the excellent booklet packaging which houses this 4 CD & 1 Blu-Ray release, packed with great artwork and interesting pieces about the album, Hogarth reveals that their manager told them:

“EMI didn’t want another record after ‘Brave’, but he’d persuaded them to do one more if we could do it quickly and cheaply and that was ‘Sunlight’ and that’s why we even wrote, partly in jest, on the sleeve, this album was ‘knocked out’… I think it’s a great record, but after that we were gone.”

For an album that was apparently ‘knocked out’ in 3 months (which is remarkably brief in the context of their recording history) there is no sense when hearing it that it’s substandard or feels ‘rushed’. It seems at that point in their career whether an album took 18 months or 3 months Marillion could produce the goods. So what makes this an album revisiting or investing in 25 years later?

There will be two sorts of punters considering this album – those that have bought it previously and are interested in the musical ‘extras’, the remastered sound, and the packaging. There will be others who may be discovering Marillion belatedly, perhaps after the great success of their most recent 2016 album ‘F.E.A.R.’, who may know nothing about this album and wonder whether it’s worth buying?

The short answer is ‘YES’ – this album is simply one of the best albums the band have ever released. However, such punters may need a little more information to help decide whether to invest so we will try to go through the album for new listeners.

‘Gazpacho’ opens with sound clips of an MC introducing a World Heavyweight Boxing championship bout, and then a quote seemingly from John Lennon (but may actually be actor Bernard Hill who voiced Lennon for a documentary) ‘… I would find myself seeing hallucinatory images of my face changing and becoming cosmic and complete’. This immediately sets the scene for an album which touches on the destructive nature of stardom with references through the album to figures such as ‘Raging Bull’ Jake La Motta, Mike Tyson and O.J Simpson. This also reflects the struggles Hogarth was having in dealing with the trappings of being plunged right into the limelight as the front man with a successful Rock band – before being called to sing for Marillion he has shared he had seriously been contemplating giving up music and becoming a milkman – quite a contrast and change in his life.

The track ‘Gazpacho’ darkly refers to stains on a Versace scarf, which may have been blood stains or ‘were they really just Gazpacho’. In a period in which blood stains were central to the notorious OJ Simpson murder case the reference is clear. This is a song which rides along on a fat juicy bass line from Pete Trewavas and a rock solid beat from Ian Moseley. Rothery takes up a sprightly melody on guitar and Mark Kelly’s keyboards fill out a surging, almost joyful theme – a strange contrast to the dark subject matter. Halfway through the song a darker force takes hold as the volume recedes to a strumming guitar initially and more sinister tones reflects the fall and anguish of the main ‘hero’.

Hogarth’s voice here is in spectacular form, rising and rising with emotion, before the song returns briefly to the theme and feel of the opening section. The extended conclusion to the song becomes more impressionistic with chiming guitars, staccato drums and garbled phrasing from Hogarth. Backed by Kelly’s keys the song fades away behind the news footage of the famous televised ‘slow chase’ of O.J Simpson’s car on the freeway… and that’s just the first song! Don’t worry – we won’t go into such detail on all the songs, but it was worth focusing on the subtlety and imagination of a band contrasting musical and lyrical themes, gradually descending from the ‘glam’ of the opening section into much darker, denser themes reflecting the fall of the protagonist.

Cannibal Surf Babe is pure acid Beach Boys powered by a fantastic bass line (Trewavas appears to have been on fire on this album) and thumping drums (taken from the first take and never bettered, according to Moseley). Kelly’s playful, quirky keyboards spray psychedelic sounds all over the song, and you can hear exactly why the working title was ‘X Ray Jangly’ . The weirdness of The Beach Boys’ genius Brian Wilson permeates the bizarre lyrics (partly contributed by John Helmer who helped write the lyrics for the majority of the album) which Hogarth sings with maniacal glee:

‘I was born in nineteen sixty weird, I’m your nightmare surfer babe, Mr. Wilson where’s your sandbox and your beard…’

The piece trails away with a subtle synth line, which had been part of a song called ‘Icon’ that did not make the album), with a French woman dreamily saying the concluding lyrics of the song in French. This segues into Beautiful, the only single released from the album, reaching number 29 in the UK charts. The album booklet reveals that this song was their response to a request from EMI label boss for them to do their own spin on a song like ‘Cry me a River’ (!!) – whatever the inspiration, it’s a lush, rolling rock ballad with a band in perfect sync creating a suitably ‘Beautiful’ song with touching lyrics, and a gorgeous Hammond organ from Kelly in the conclusion.

‘Afraid of Sunrise’ literally shimmers in plaintively like some sort of mirage in an understated manner with Rothery’s acoustic guitar, subtle bass and very light drumming beneath a soft synth line. Hogarth sings with great delicacy but feeling over this lovely setting. It’s easy to hear why the working title for this song was ‘Joni Mitchell’. Surreal lyrics are open to interpretation but could refer to a journey and the feelings of a driver anticipating a downfall when the next day dawns. The ‘Day-Glo Jesus on the dash’ line led to a disagreement in the band about the original album artwork.

Carl Glover had prepared the startling ‘Day-Glo Jesus’ image, which Hogarth wanted as the cover, but this was vetoed by the rest of the band, fearing it may present them as a Christian rock band. Well, it seems the band have finally seen the wisdom of Hogarth’s judgement and this re-release features the ‘Day-Glo Jesus’ in glorious technicolour as the cover image, replacing the peculiar ‘Angel Boy’ image hurriedly used for the original cover. Another curiosity about this song is that in essence it has the same musical roots as Afraid of Sunlight. The band had created both versions, and were considering cutting one. They had even considered trying to merge them together, but in the end they made the wise decision to retain them both separately as they have undoubted quality in either manifestation.

Ill-fated British water speed hero of the 1960’s, Donald Campbell, inspired one of the highlights of the album, the evocative ‘Out of this World.’ This song is deceptively complex with three distinct phases touching on this tragedy from the emotional perspective of Campbell’s wife watching on as her speed obsessed husband killed himself pursuing his dream. Hogarth’s vague childhood memories of this famous accident are transformed from a straight narrative in to a piece revealing mixed emotions for the on looking wife. Reportedly Campbell and his wife were virtually estranged by the time of the accident such was the division caused by his obsession for speed.

The song seemingly slowly emerges from the deep with subtle guitar chimes and drums over a watery synth backing leading into Hogarth’s mournful vocals. The second phase of the piece comes after the lines ‘At such speeds, things fly’ as the song surfaces with a majestic airborne guitar solo from Rothery. ‘Out of this World’ settles its trajectory with plaintive lyrics filled with pain, Hogarth’s soulful vocals intoning ‘Only Love with Turn you Round’ repeatedly (inspired from a line in ‘Brave’ album song ‘Runaway’). This presages the third tragic phase with contemporary speech clips stating ‘Complete accident, I’m afraid…’ over a baleful synth wash acting as a stark canvas for Hogarth’s final pure elegiac vocals and there is a real sense of sinking into the depths.

It’s a remarkable and deceptively complex song showing Marillion’s ability to look at a subject from interesting and emotion filled angles – in the hands of lesser artists this would have been a straight narrative about a famous accident, but this piece transcends that story, imbued with pain and feeling. Somewhat amazingly it was hearing this song which inspired marine engineer Bill Smith to organize the project to raise the ‘Bluebird’ vessel from the depths of Coniston Water in 2001, and led to Hogarth singing the song at Donald Campbell’s funeral – peculiar what art can inspire sometimes.What can I say about ‘Afraid of Sunlight’? It’s undoubtedly one of the best songs the band have ever produced. It oozes with class and depth of feeling.

An eerie guitar line intros a haunting piano and a gentle drum pattern and soft bass… and then Steve Hogarth sings with such resonance and delicacy. It’s a truly heart breaking beginning. The meaning is obscure, but may be about the conflicted feelings of a couple unable to tell the truth to each other. They are together but in pain, perhaps lying in bed fearing what will happen in the morning – the possible implication that in the morning one of them drives away from the other… well, that’s one interpretation but great art can be interpreted in different and many different personal ways by the recipient.

The tempo and power rises magnificently with Trewavas’ bass line pulling it all together with the impactful, memorable chorus, before briefly receding again with a more reflective passage. The chorus returns and the song becomes darker and more bitter, Hogarth’s vocals reaching a great crescendo ‘It’s a matter of time’. Mark Kelly’s rising keyboards take on the melody fluidly, whilst underpinning it all along is Moseley’s rock solid rhythm.

Rothery unusually is not to the fore on this song largely but he then adds another emotional level with a subtle guitar line interweaving the emotional musical maelstrom… and then bereft the song falls to it’s knees with a coda that is drenched with feeling. Kelly’s delicate piano and synth perfectly framing Hogarth’s crystalline and ultimately falsetto vocal. I may not know exactly what it literally means but I can certainly feel so much hearing the highs and lows of this stunning song.

‘Beyond You’ is a song which showcases the significant impact producer Dave Meegan had on Marillion’s material as he recorded their sessions and jams, and helped the band build on those moments to form great songs. Meegan felt the song had a sort of Motown vibe so after the sonorous and restrained opening synth led section he suggested a Phil Spector type ‘Wall of Sound’ feel, which erupts in the refrain ‘If I was a child…’. Moseley’s echoing resonant drums swing and pizzicato keyboard strings take us right back to Detroit, before the song sinks back into Hogarth’s heartfelt tones.

The finale returns us to Spector territory featuring a fine slide guitar floating above the main melody before the whole thing fades away sadly. This is an intensely personal lyric for the singer reflecting turmoil in his own private life to the extent that he felt unable to sing it for years… it is also the song I struggled to get my head around for years with it’s juxtaposition between the clearly very emotional lyric and the almost jaunty refrains, until I realised the connection with Motown. We all know Motown artists were the masters at contrasting heartbreak with upbeat music so it fits.

This remarkable album concludes with the startling opening guitar and synth fanfare chords of the momentous ‘King’ before a melange of various voice clips about fallen heroes, particularly Elvis, Lennon and most notably Kurt Cobain who committed suicide in 1994. Marillion were the first band to play after his suicide on the Munich stage where Nirvana played their final show, which inspired the band to write this sonic and emotional powerhouse of a song. Rothery’s guitar sets up the melody supported by softly jangling percussion and understated keyboard, underpinned as ever with Trewavas finely judged bass.

Hogarth sensitively sings about the ruinous effects of fame: ‘To be cursed with your Dreams’. The song almost literally explodes with the whole band titanically pounding out the main rhythm and Kelly’s synth eerily writhes above the melee. After a brief respite the song descends in to a disturbing and dark spiral with a wildly discordant guitar from Rothery tortuously screaming out pain. The lynch pin keyboards of Kelly return gently under Hogarth’s fragile words leading into some weirdly distorted spidery guitar. The tension and power gradually rises as Hogarth bellows out the inner pain of the main protagonist. Kelly’s building keyboards leads a headlong crash for the whole band in a chaotic, deafening conclusion which sounds absolutely MASSIVE! Tragedy never sounded so powerful…

… hopefully that will help convince new listeners to ‘catch up’ with one of the finest rock albums of the 1990’s (and was named one of the ‘Recordings of the Year’ by ‘Q’ music magazine in 1995).

What about those that already have this album? Is it worth shelling out for it again?

Well, the short answer (again!) is YES!

The presentation of this album alone is worth getting it again, housed in an impressive book design with beautiful artwork images from graphic designer Carl Glover and fascinating insights in to the album and it’s creation in the accompanying various essays, including one from Bill Smith about his search for the ‘Bluebird’ inspired by ‘Out of this World.’

Musically, the package includes the original 1995 Dave Meegan mix. Michael Hunter has remixed this deluxe edition version, but in all honesty I am hard pressed to identify any startling differences from Meegan’s original mix. This is testament to Meegan’s original fine production work, acting as ‘Marillion’s George Martin’ in pulling it all together and making it sound wonderful. ‘Out of this World’ is probably the song in which there is the most notable changes to the original – Hunter’s mix brings out different elements – it’s a fine mix, but ‘different’ rather than ‘better’. For an album recorded with decent 1990’s musical technology there is not quite the same scope for sonic improvements heard more clearly in modern remasters and remixes of earlier vintage 1970’s albums by other artists. Nevertheless, Hunter has done a fine job on the latest version.

This re-release also features the complete performance from the ‘Afraid of Sunlight’ tour show at the Ahoy in the Netherlands in 1995. Some of these songs have previously been released on their swansong EMI album, the live double album ‘Made Again’ released in 1996, which mixed songs from a few tours. It is great to hear this whole concert which features fine renditions of 5 of the 8 ‘Afraid of Sunlight’ songs, particularly an enormous sounding ‘King’, as well as the ‘Icon’ intro in to ‘Beautiful’. It is also interesting to hear Hogarth pulling off excellent interpretations of 7 songs from the ‘Fish era’. However, my personal highlights are the ever resplendent ‘Easter’, and the suite of songs drawn from the ‘Brave’ album, especially Kelly’s stunning organ work on ‘Hard as Love’ with the whole band locked and loaded, thundering along magnificently – let’s face it, you cannot go wrong with Marillion live!

The Blu-ray with this package features beautifully produced surround sound 5.1 versions, which displays Hunter’s skill as a producer but underlies the imagination and skill of a band who can so perfectly combine delicate emotion with passages of great drama and power. If you have the technology the 5.1 version alone is also worth getting this edition.

Additionally this disc has bonus tracks originally available on the 1999 remaster. Whilst the main album is one of the band’s highlights it has to be said that these bonus tracks are somewhat lacking in quality, and include 2 earlier versions of ‘Beautiful’ with other titles. ‘Mirage’ has some interest and the acoustic demo of ‘Afraid of Sunlight’ is rather a gem, but on the whole these extra tracks are hardly essential. Similarly, the ‘Jams and Early Versions’ are curiosities which lay bare the creative processes as the band jams new ideas for Dave Meegan to capture. They are raw pieces and are interesting to hear, but it is doubtful that anyone apart from ‘Uber Fans’ will ever listen to these tracks more than a couple of times at most… but as we know Marillion are not short of ‘Uber Fans’!!

Conversely, what is of far more interest on the Blu-ray is the 45 minute documentary film which features all the band members with fascinating insights in to how the band felt at the time when recording this album. What is clear is the unshakeable faith Marillion had in themselves as artists, even if their label were losing faith in them. History has shown that Marillion were right to retain that faith as they survived some dark days in the later 90’s to virtually create the crowd funding model and thrive. More crucially they continued to make high class albums borne out of their innate self-confidence, musical imagination and artistic integrity. The mid-90’s period produced two of their finest ever albums… and this special set presents ‘Afraid of Sunlight’ perfectly.

TRACK LISTING:

CD One – Afraid of Sunlight (2019 Michael Hunter Re-Mix)

Gazpacho
Cannibal Surf Babe
Beautiful
Afraid of Sunrise
Out of this World
Afraid of Sunlight
Beyond You
King

CD Two – Afraid of Sunlight (Dave Meegan Original Mix 1995 Mix)

(Same Track Listing as CD One)

CD Three – Live at the Ahoy, Rotterdam (29^th September 1995) (Part 1)

Intro (Skater’s Waltz
Incommunicado
Hooks in You
Gazpacho
Icon
Beautiful
Hotel Hobbies
White Russian
Easter
Mad
The Opium Den
Hard as Love
The Hollow Man

CD Four – Live at the Ahoy, Rotterdam (29^th September 1995) (Part 2)

Kayleigh
Lavender
Afraid of Sunlight
Cannibal Surf Babe
Cover My Eyes
Slainte Mhath
King
Splintering Heart
No-One Can
The Great Escape
Uninvited Guest
Garden Party

Blu-Ray Disc

Afraid of Sunlight (2019 Michael Hunter Remix) – 5.1 Audio Version:

Same Track listing as CD

Afraid of Sunlight (Jams & Early Versions):

Ascending Synth Groove
Velvet Lawn
Building Guitar
Band of Gold
Gazpacho (Early Version)
Surfer Bass
Cannibal Surf (Early Version)
Beautiful (Early Version)
KD Lang
Out of this World (Early Version)
Afraid of Sunlight (Early Version)
Beyond You (Early Version)
Crunchy Guitar Idea
Deep Purple Vibe
Watery Guitar
King (Early Version)
Happy Accidents

Documentary Film – Afraid of Sunlight (Approv 45 Mins)

Promo Film – Beautiful

1999 Remaster Bonus Tracks

Icon
Live Forever
Second Chance
Beyond You (Demo)
Cannibal Surf Babe
Out of this World
Bass Frenzy
Mirages (Demo)
Afraid of Sunlight (Acoustic Demo)

MUSICIANS:

Steve Rothery – Guitars

Pete Trewavas – Bass

Steve Hogarth – Voice

Mark Kelly – Keyboardsm

Ian Moseley – Drums & Percussion

With:

Hannah Stobart – Backing Vocals on ‘Beautiful’

Wendy Paige & Barbara Lezmy – Backing Vocals on ‘Cannibal Surf Babe’

THANKS:

Progradar would like to thank Fraser Marshall of the website:

‘Marillion – Explanations of Song Elements’ for his permission to refer to his blog about some of the background to the songs.

Other information is available at:

http://marillionations.blogspot.com/

Marillion With Friends From The Orchestra – Live at The Royal Albert Hall – 18/11/19

“Marillion, that’s that band with that Fish bloke in, did that song called Kayleigh…?”

If you’re a fan of the very long career of UK progressive band Marillion then you’ll have heard that question many a time. They have made it fashionable to be unfashionable in an ever changing industry that rewards the latest thing, in fact they’ve made a successful career out of it.

So then, how is it that a band most people seem to think ceased to exist in the mid 80’s can sell out the holy grail of live venues for two nights? There’s two reasons really, first because of a fan base that revere and love them (almost obsessively, if last night was anything to go by) and, secondly, because they are a live experience that should be on your bucket list!

Having played the RAH two years ago with a six piece orchestra, Marillion have decided to reinvent some of their tracks that they feel fit especially well in that format and are releasing an album (Marillion With Friends From The Orchestra) at the end of this month.

So it made sense to go out on a UK tour to promote the album and play in venues that would give the format some stunning backdrops? Of course it did!

The evening started with a short support set of cleverly crafted singer songwriter material from the talented Harry Pane, whose short but enjoyable acoustic guitar and double bass material was warmly received by the building audience.

However it was the main event that everybody had come to see and as the six piece orchestra walked on to the stage, followed by the band, the anticipation of the audience could literally be felt.

Marillion launched into an intense version of Gaza with frontman Steve Hogarth prowling the stage like a tormented soul, his on stage persona and antics are always an integral part of the band’s superb live shows.

The light show and backdrop graphics added to the intensity of proceedings as the band played a set littered with their greatest songs, twenty minute plus tracks that flew by leaving the audience at times speechless and at others rapturous and raucous, the alcohol maybe giving vent to some 50 and 60 year old fan’s long years of admiration where normally they would be more reserved.

The orchestra fitted in seamlessly with the strings bringing a euphoric feel to the somber brilliance of Estonia and lifting my all time favourite Marillion track, Season’s End, to incredible new heights, Steve Rothery’s solo bringing a lump to my throat and I’m sure I had something in my eye…

A wonderfully theatrical version of The New Kings from the band’s latest album F.E.A.R had the audience hooked on every word, engrossed as Hogarth led us through the mire of the modern world and this was followed by a brilliantly spirited Man of a Thousand Faces that had the audience singing along.

This once in a lifetime experience was finished by a two piece encore starting with a rocking take on Seperated Out with an excerpt from Led Zep’s Kashmir that even had the orchestra rocking out.

Things finally came to a close with an emotive and tumultuous version of long time fan favourite This Strange Engine that ebbed and flowed superbly for over twenty minutes before bringing the house down with heartfelt applause and adulation.

Thirty years on from when Steve Hogarth joined the band, Marillion still do things there own way. They did crowd funding before it was fashionable and they put on a live experience like no other. On nights like these they are untouchable to their fans and long may it continue. Now, who’s that Fish bloke…?

18th November 2019

Set List

Gaza
Power
Beyond You
Seasons End
Estonia
A Collection
The New Kings Parts I – IV
Man Of A Thousand Faces
The Space
Encore 1 – Separated Out
Encore 2 – This Strange Engine

Live Review – Marillion at York Barbican 22nd April 2018 – by Progradar

“Play Seasons End, play Seasons End, please.play.Seasons.End…Fuck, they’re playing Seasons End!!”

And that, my friends, made what was already an incredible, emotive and stunning gig by one of my all time favourite bands the best gig I’ve ever been to. Yes, it was that bloody good!

Now I know I’m a lucky sod, I get to go to all sorts of live music events for free just because I write (hopefully, pretty well) about them but this was something different. I’d gone with one of my oldest friends (and a Marillion gig virgin) and we were meeting my great friend Iain Sloan of Wynntown Marshals and Abel Ganz fame (to name but two!), who had made the long journey down from North of the border, for a quiet beer or two before the show (see picture above).

York Barbican is a great venue, quite intimate while also having a very decent capacity and brilliant sound. This created a suitably intense atmosphere as the crowd built awaiting the support act Roxanne de Bastion. This talented singer/songwriter came on to a big round of applause from an already three quarters full venue.

Roxanne had broken her left ankle before the tour began but took it all in her stride as she sang her haunting and beguiling songs with more than a flavour of roots music to them. With stories garnered from personal experience she managed to keep the attention of the crowd and her voice and pared back, simple guitar and piano playing were pretty impressive. The only issue for me being that she did look slightly out place on her own in what is quite a big venue, not that this affected her performing in any way. As an appetite whetter before the main event, I was very impressed and this gifted musician is one I will be seeking out in the future.

A quick nip back to the bar to re-imbibe before the anticipated brilliance of Marillion…

A dynamic and powerful opening salvo of El Dorado got the crowd going immediately and you sensed that the band were on good form as an ebullient Steve Hogarth prowled around the stage, his animated delivery a real highlight. This was immediately followed by a seriously compelling version of Power that had electricity sparking around the venue, Steve Rothery’s superb guitar playing making the hairs on the back of my neck rise, you just knew tonight was going to be a mesmerising experience.

All of the band were playing with fluidity and an almost carefree attitude, perhaps it was because it was the last night of the tour but, for me, they were putting all of their heart and soul into every note and every word.

Captivating versions of Quartz and The Party followed as the band went through their repertoire of carefully chosen tracks from over 30 years of making emotionally charged music and the adoring audience lapped it all up. It was like being in the middle of a cult but a wonderfully civilised one. There were standing ovations at the end of every track, Marillion could do no wrong tonight…

And then they played bloody Seasons End…What a spine-tingling, jaw dropping eight minutes that was, one of my favourite all time songs played by one of my all time favourite bands and with a guitar solo that soared to the heavens and was so full of emotion that I was lost in reverie. After the rapturous applause had died down Marillion delivered a thunderous performance of Living In Fear, the second track from current album ‘F.E.A.R’, one that seems to have given the band a new lease of life and attracted quite a few new followers to these veterans of the progressive scene.

The setlist took a ninety degree turn next as a band full of the confidence of a succesfull tour traded banter with the appreciative audience, Steve Hogarth asking Mark Kelly if they could swap Out of This World for a fan suggested White Paper and, to the cheers of the audience, they did! There was a real warmth and humour evident throughout the evening, the band were relaxed and obviously enjoying themselves and that came through in the performance.

A stirring rendition of The Leavers followed by Wave and Mad ramped the atmosphere through the roof, here is a band at the height of their not inconsiderable musical powers, Pete Trewavas bouncing around the stage and engaging in some gentle banter with Hogarth while Ian Mosley was an animated demon behind the drum kit, as ‘h’ would say, a bloody impressive pub band indeed!!

The set was completed by a blistering Afraid of Sunlight and a truly emotive performance of perennial fan favourite The Great Escape that surely had more than just a few eyes moist. At the end of every track virtually the whole theatre were on their feet cheering and clapping, just lost in the wonderful moment.

You know when the band leave the stage that there is going to be an encore and what an encore it was, a poignant and evocative Easter which contained possibly Rothers’ most impassioned solo ever and then a reverently received version of Sugar Mice that left the audience emotionally charged.

At this point I left, hoping to avoid the crowds but the opening notes of Garden Party had me rushing back in to the side of the stage to experience what was a group of friends enjoying themselves and playing music that they truly love, it was just magnificent!!

This time the crowd really did go wild…

So, there you have it, Marillion live at York Barbican, music really has the power to move you and bring a lasting joy to your heart and soul and, on this night, I had my most special musical epiphany ever and it just doesn’t get any better than that.

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