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'Hammersmith Odeon, London, England, April 18th 1983'
Total Time: 81:30
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Bonus Material: 'Live At The Marquee, London, England,
1982'
Total Time: 11:04
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The
Review |
It's hard to imagine any fan of the early Marillion-
one of the first and most popular of the Neo-prog bands of
the early 80's- not having this. This disc captures a youthful
and exuberant Marillion live at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1983,
long before the hits, long before the bitter split with vocalist
and early focal point FISH, long before Steve Hogarth or the
concept of fans buying a CD before it's even written. Here,
the band are on top of the game and feeds the audience well
with a show consisting of all of the material from their first
album, Script For A Jester's Tear(1983), as well as the early
anthem 'Market Square Heroes' as well as their 18 minute epic
'Grendel'.***
This is early stuff, shot at a time when the world was
ripe for conquering. Fish is in full face warpaint, and the
band attacks with the fist-in-face audacity of a heavy metal
combo. The audience and overall aura of this early unit certainly
is closer to NWOBHM bans of that same era than to the ponderous
indulgeance of the progressive rock they were championing.
This was prog with balls. The focal point is indeed Fish,
whose towering presence casts long shadows over the whole
band even to this day. He 'acts' the songs, rather than merely
sings them, and, like Peter Gabriel before him(who he was
constantly compared to then), relies on a few stage props
and visual melodramatics to ram it home. This would include
ripping the leaves off of a plant on stage, pulling a boy
from the audience and mock-assaulting him, and coming out
in full military fatigues firing his mike stand musket into
the crowd to the rhythm. All this to the delight of the audience.
When Fish pulls a kid from the audience during the lengthy
'Grendel' and pretends to slap him around, the kid's expression
is priceless- as in 'Is this guy INSANE? What if he does hit
me!'. But that element of danger certainly enhanced the mood
of the show. The music? Energetic, atmospheric, anthemic,
and rocked. The one unsung but vital heroe of Marillion for
me is Pete Trewavas, who holds the spirit of Marillion close
with him and supplies a sort of visual and musical link from
all of the band's eras when all others have discarded the
past. Most of the material from this era, as well as most
of the Fish-era songs in general(including Kayleigh and the
like), have been disowned by the band these days. So it's
great to see it here when it was fresh. This DVD is of historical
value.***
Other highlights include THE WEB, which the band hasn't
performed since, The afore-mentioned GRENDEL, and the anthemic
MARKET SQUARE HEROES which is extended into a lengthy jam
and has the audience going nuts. Also of note is that this
was the last live gig which featured original drummer MICK
POINTER, who would disappear afterwards for many years before
finally returning with ARENA with Pendragon's Clive Nolan,
one of the most sucessful Neo bands of the late 90's and now.
He would be replaced eventually by Ian Mosley, who still mans
the drum kit with Marillion today.***
Bonus features include extra versions of an even earler
'He Knows You Know' and 'Market Square Heroes' shot live at
the Marquee in 1982, as well as a Fish interview from that
era. The only disappointment could be that the Fish interview
is rather brief and that there is no current interviews with
Fish, Pointer, and the remaining current members giving insights
and accounts of that show and era. Other than that, this is
vintage Marillion well worth checking out.***
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