Marillion did a (fairly short) UK tour just after the new album came out and we went to the show in London on 16th Sept. We did a bit of museuming beforehand (which I’ll write up another time), then met Ady & Pete at Kentish Town to find dinner before the show. Paul was supposed to join us too, but his trains were all screwed up so he had to give it a miss 🙁 Ended up eating in Nandos, which I haven’t done in probably a decade … and it would’ve been that Nandos last time too, before a Marillion gig!
Unusually I had a camera with me, a few years ago most concerts tried to stop you taking photos but things have moved on a bit. Didn’t take the big camera, obviously, if nothing else it’s awfully hard to take photos at arms length above my head with that one. And despite taking quite a lot of photos (coz only a few would come out) I didn’t watch the whole show through the viewfinder either 😉 All the pics are on flickr, so click through for a larger version.
The support band for the evening were DeeExpus – Mark Kelly (keyboards in Marillion) plays on the album, but didn’t come out and play on stage with them. We do actually have the album, but I haven’t listened to it much so I didn’t know the songs. They sounded good at the time, but haven’t really stuck in my head at all.
And then on to the main act! They started with a little fake-out of the intro to Splintering Heart, followed by explosions and then into Gaza – the opening track off the new album (which is called “Sounds That Can’t Be Made”). A bit of a politically charged song, as it’s about the humanitarian side of the situation in Gaza, and it made for a powerful start to the show.
I think I’ve said before I’m bad at remembering setlists. As well as four songs off the new album, this one had some old classics like This Town and Great Escape, some of the newer classics like Neverland and You’re Gone. Oh and a rendition of A Few Words for the Dead where h waved a gun around, with a flower in it for the bit where the lyrics kick in with “or you could love”.
The (last) encore was Sugar Mice which is a favourite of mine (starting with a slightly ropey crowd sing-along), and in a nice touch the final song – Estonia – was dedicated to Neil Armstrong. The show was recorded, and they’d organised it so that you could buy the CD after the show, which was kinda neat 🙂
