Marillion – With Friends at St. David’s

Releasedate: May 28th, 2021
Label: earMUSIC

Marillion is a band that introduced the neo-prog genre to popularity back in the early 80s with a series of records that were fronted by the singer Fish. In this time they had their most popular songs like ‘Kayleigh’ and ‘Lavender’ from the record ‘Misplaced Childhood’ from 1985, which is the era that I mostly followed. In 1988 Fish left and a new singer joined the band just a year later: Steve Hogarth. This live record takes songs exclusively from the Steve Hogarth era 1989-present.

Their last record is titled ‘Fuck everyone and run’ (F.E.A.R.) from 2016. This new release is actually a recording from a concert that took place in Cardiff in 2019 with an orchestra, which was previously released on video.

The concert starts with ‘Gaza’, a song of their record ‘Sounds that can’t be made’, released in 2012. By the title you can already realise what the subject of this song is, even though it takes the perspective of a boy growing up in Gaza which already introduces a bias of sorts, one universal truth that it delivers is ‘Nothing’s ever simple, that’s for sure. There are grieving mothers on both sides of the wire’ This is one of this concert’s 4 long pieces, clocking in at around 19 minutes, it’s a powerful and political way to start it off.

‘Beyond you’ is from their 1995 record “Afraid of sunlight” and it’s a slower track that has a mellow beginning which escalates and builds up its musical theme, while maintaining its simplicity. I do have to add that the orchestra offers a noticeable extra layer which enhances this already great track.

‘Seasons end’ takes us back to the very beginning of Steve’s start with the band. It was the first record he did with Marillion in 1989 as he explains within the intro of the track, he was deemed as an “impurity in the diamond”. By the sound of the precise laughter, it’s understood that it’s no secret that Fish’s era greatly shadowed the new Marillion, even though the new Marillion has been around for 30 years. This track seems to be the foundation for a sonic theme that Marillion likes to revisit within their style, this is in regard to starting off mellow and slowly building up the track.

90’s

Next follows ‘Estonia’ which is prefaced by the story on how it came to be written, the intro was a very good story on how he met the only UK survivor of the ‘Estonia’ shipwreck which happened in 1994 and took 852 lives, only survived by 137. For the past 9 years I have lived in Estonia and so this song hits close to home as this tragedy struck the country quite hard and within my time here I have heard many stories about it from locals who were either directly affected by the incident or not at all, regardless of the type of connection it affected the country as a whole. The fact that Marillion paid their respect gives it special attention from my end. ‘Estonia’ is from their record ‘This strange engine’, released in 1997.

‘The Hollow man’ from the 1995 record ‘Brave’ takes the set back to the band’s progressive roots, even though it’s one of the softer numbers chosen to fit this set, and for its short duration that it does.

More recent material

‘The new kings’ is from their latest record. As Steve explains, it’s the rant song and that’s where the title of the record comes from. I was prepared for a harder song, but it’s quite interesting how he sings in the album title ‘Fuck everyone and run’ very tenderly. The track talks about capitalism from the perspective of the new kings who are at the top of the world overseeing the other walks of life within their misery. It also serves as a good platform to listen to Steve Rothery’s famous guitar tone, known for being crystal clear yet powerful due to its sense of melody. It’s reminiscent to the early Fish era at least in terms of guitar work. One of the strongest songs in the whole set list.

‘The sky above the rain’ takes us back to 2012 but this time they dwell in another human emotion which is quite common to contemporary popular music. This time they go into the “falling out of love” subject, which contrasts quite well with the previous political topics. It’s a beautiful and emotional song, it’s actually the perfect emotional Marillion song, the orchestra elevates it even more, yet still, quite repetitive within this set.

‘Zeparated out’ is a play on words of sorts, it’s misspelled to suggest the word ‘zeppelin’ alluding to ‘Led Zeppelin’ which they pay homage to within this song by using a section of ‘Kashmir’. It is the most upbeat and different song within the whole set, it’s refreshing and brings a new sense of rhythm to this set. The original title is ‘Separated out’ and it’s from their 2001 record ‘Anoraknophobia’ which is a known album for their attempt to divert from the prog rock sound. The irony is that within this record the song stands out the most so it seems to be progressing towards a new territory that I would like to hear more of.

‘Ocean cloud’ takes us to 2004 for the first time during the set to revisit the record ‘Marbles’ which was dedicated to Don Allum, an English oarsman, the first person to row across the Atlantic ocean in both directions, that’s crazy! Regardless of the interesting story and character, this song is also equally powerful sonically speaking, great classic guitar tones by Steve Rothery and changes in tempo/rhythm that suggests this is a proper prog rock band, the nearly 19 minutes that this track takes also helps prove that point.

With ‘Fantastic place’ we stay in the ‘Marbles’ era, but with a slower tune that follows the same aforementioned formula that characterises Marillion so well. That being said, it’s a great mellow track that – as expected – builds up. The orchestra arrangements are not at the forefront in general within the set, but within this song you can hear it counterpoint on certain guitar melodies, the ending where both the guitar and orchestral arrangement are finishing off the same melody is superb.

The concert ends with the title track from their record ‘This strange engine’ which is a refreshing finale that includes keyboard and guitar solos, heck even a sax solo (Nod to Pink floyd) that reminds me that I am listening to an 80s prog rock band. ‘This strange engine’ has many twists that keep you motivated to keep listening through its 17 minutes, it’s definitely one of their epics and deserves this spot in the setlist.

Conclusion

Within the multiple playthroughs I constantly thought that Steve’s voice is perfect throughout the whole setlist, there is no moment where his voice diverts to a tired space, quite impressive to say the least. Additionally, the band and orchestra sounded perfectly gelled. All in all, if you are one of those fans that, like me, never transitioned from the Fish era which Marillion is well known for, then give this record a listen. If you want to listen to classics from Misplaced Childhood and Fugazi, you might be disappointed. 

As a somewhat new listener of the Steve Hogarth period which spans over 30 years of this band’s career I have to say that this is a very strong selection of songs. Its sense of melody, however, is different from Fish’s but it does grow on you, and within its mellow nature there is power to be discovered.

 

Line up:

• Steve Hogarth – lead vocals, keyboards, guitar, percussion
• Steve Rothery – guitars
• Mark Kelley – keyboards, backing vocals
• Pete Trewavas – bass, guitar, backing vocals
• Ian Mosley – drums

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