As Steve Hogarth notes during Marillion’s set: “That guitarist from Cutting Crew. He’s a bit rubbish, isn’t he?”
Gareth Moulton had earlier played a stunning guitar solo—unusual in itself, given the basic acoustic nature of the show, with no bass and the drums played on a box by the keyboard player when needed.
Main man Nick Van Eede watches like the rest of us before it segues exceptionally neatly into “(I Just) Died in Your Arms,” their final song—and, if we’re being honest, the one everyone in here knows.
What this 50-minute set proved, though, was that they had others—and plenty of them.
Whether it’s “Good as New” or “One for the Mockingbird,” these are clever, thoughtful, and superbly played.
Their other big ’80s hit, “I’ve Been in Love Before,” sounds fresh in this format, but there’s some new material too.
“2040 Lullaby” is dedicated by Van Eede to his great-niece, and the folk edges of “Difficult Times” express the powerlessness he feels in 2025.
They’ve evidently always had a maturity to their work, as “Berlin in Winter” underlines—written after being in Germany just after the wall came down in ’89, it remains poignant.
Cutting Crew have a long association with the headliners, stretching back to the late eighties and touring on Hogarth’s first run with the band. And when Van Eede describes tonight as a “dream come true,” you suspect he sincerely means it.
So what can you say about the headliners themselves that hasn’t already been said?
They are the best at what they do. But the thing is, no one here needs telling that. In front of their own people on these weekenders, they are unstoppable.
They are supremely original. That’s kind of a given—try and find a band that sounds like them or has this breadth of material.
And we know they do it on their own terms. They sit outside the mainstream, haven’t had a hit for 40 years, and yet—try and find an empty space here.
As the fella who comes out to tell us not to use our phones points out: “The boys’ll be here in a minute to play some four-minute pop songs.”
When that happens and they arrive, it’s with a sensationally theatrical “The Invisible Man.” And given that it then moves into “Genie,” that might give a clue that tonight we’re celebrating the “Marbles” record—now 21 years old.
A wonderful collection of elaborate songs, it lends itself to this type of show—where even more than usual, they are preaching to the converted. But in typical style, they neither do it in complete order, nor completely.
Whatever the case, the class shines through like a searchlight in the mist on pieces like “The Only Unforgivable Thing” and, in particular, “Don’t Hurt Yourself,” where the showmanship that comes naturally to Hogarth adds so much to the performance.
The multi-part title track is similarly striking, while one of the few non-“Marbles” inclusions, “Cannibal Surf Babe,” provides an odd and funky palate cleanser.
“You’re Gone” ends up being a real highlight, before a stunning “King” brings us to the encore.
And there are two of them.
The first kicks off with one of those “four-minute pop songs,” and they don’t get better than “Sugar Mice.” It’s both a crowd singalong and features the finest guitar solo ever played, as Steve Rothery shines (though he never seems that comfortable with the attention).
They follow it with “Man of a Thousand Faces,” as Hogarth returns to centre stage.
The second encore switches the focus back to “Marbles,” with the fourth part of the title track, followed by its epic closer, “Neverland,” rounding things out.
A magnificent night—and that’s kind of a given. Whether Marillion have ever played a bad show is open to question. What isn’t, though, is this: playing like this, to their own fans and not caring less about anything or anyone else—no one can touch them.
