“And on vocals… Steve Hogarth.”
OK, so you probably had to be at the Q&A before the set to understand the significance of this, but nonetheless, that’s how tonight begins—and ends.
And it feels apt, too, given that H is front and centre of all of this.
Because if Marillion straddle two eras, then it’s too easily forgotten sometimes that he’s been in the band for over 35 years.
Which is why hearing him do older material like “Slàinte Mhath” tonight is quite something. He makes it—and the other songs from the early days—his own.
After yesterday focused on an era—celebrating, as it did, the “Marbles” album—tonight has more of a grab-bag approach. For example, there are a couple from H’s first album, the quite magnificent “The Uninvited Guest” and “Easter,” thrown in early. But when they go right back and do “Script for a Jester’s Tear,” it’s probably fair to say that if last night was about “Marbles,” then tonight is when Leicester lost theirs.
An absolute masterclass, which proves that the best songs never date—a sentence that holds true for the next 20 minutes or so, too.
Everyone has their personal stories about why they are here, but “Kayleigh” and “Lavender” take me back to the Co-op my gran worked in, which had singles in a box for 50p. Grandad gave me a pound, and those are the two the nine-and-a-half-year-old me purchased.
Never having seen the band do either, it was nostalgic, yes—but it also underlined starkly the difference in their material, and the sheer skill. No one writes a better solo than the other Steve in the band.
They follow these with “Bitter Suite” and “Heart of Lothian,” and it’s a special little cameo.
“Afraid of Sunlight” is exquisitely done too, before the second little celebration of an album—with a trio from “Brave” to finish: “Wave,” “Mad,” and “The Great Escape.”
The first encore is a run-through of the whole of “The New Kings,” which, in typical style, builds in such wonderful fashion, while the second bow takes in some newer material.
First, Hogarth gets to put his furry coat on to fly about for “The Crow and the Nightingale,” before the fourth part of “Care”—”Angels on Earth”—gives it something of a euphoric feel.
If the band doesn’t exactly have any party anthems to finish the weekend with, then the glitter cannons go off for “The Leavers V. One Tonight,” which closes these two days.
And really, at the risk of repeating myself, there’s no band like this one. Not many bands engender such unwavering devotion from their audience.
In the Q&A tonight, the band had been asked to come up with one word for the fans. Drummer Ian Mosley had simply said, “Why?”
The answer is because it’s always like this. That’s why.
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