Marillion
‘Marillion Weekends Convention XXI.’ (day two)
Saturday, 29 April 2023
Padua / Gran Teatro Geox / Italy
The second day of the 21st Marillion Weekend Convention at the end of this past April in Padua didn’t deviate much from the first, at least on the surface. The memories of that unforgettable evening with the band the night before were still firing and flickering across the brain’s cortex, which only added to the generally upbeat mood as the crowd slowly began gathering in front of the two-metre-high iron barrier at the venue entrance. Around six o’clock, Davide Marani was back to entertain the assembled on vocals and acoustic guitar — particularly impressive with his takes on some evergreen ’80s pop classics rearranged for acoustic, though he didn’t stick to any one era, reaching into the ’90s and of course into progressive rock as well. An entertaining and well-judged experience (from Duran Duran and Tears for Fears to Porcupine Tree, among others).
The purchasing power on display at the official merchandise table was, once again, remarkable. The crowd crushed around it in what could only be described as an obsessive siege — you’d have thought everything would vanish in minutes. And indeed, certain Marillion vinyl records were gone from the shelves not long after day one. Prices, though, were fair: double vinyls at €25.00, short-sleeve T-shirts at €25.00, hooded sweatshirts at €40.00. Decent enough given the post-COVID-injected misery and chaos of the collective West.
On to more interesting things. ‘An Audience with Marillion’ at eight in the evening — an hour of the band chatting with the audience, hosted by Lucy Jordache (who also handles all their PR and is part of the band’s inner management circle), with questions submitted to the band and individual members in advance by email. Quite a bit of pre-scripting, which strips away a touch of spontaneity, and it’s not exactly a cultural event you absolutely must experience in your lifetime — but still. The thing did occasionally border on the fanaticism of preschoolers, but what the hell. This is a Marillion Weekend Convention; that’s just normal here. Either way, the quintet made full use of their sense of black humour and deftly milked the glow of the stage spotlights for extra showmanship. Laughs and positivity were in no short supply: “Who arrives first to Marillion rehearsals?” Answer: “Mark Kelly.” “And who’s last?” Answer: “H” — though he wriggled out of it by saying “I’m late, but never late enough.” Trewavas, meanwhile, had an explanation ready in his sleeve: the band goes for lunch while waiting for Hogarth. The questions were pure Bravo magazine fodder — including, in that vein, how the lads handle the situation onstage when one of them urgently needs the toilet mid-concert. Hogarth claimed top honours in the black sarcasm stakes, deadpanning that ever since he turned sixty he’s been using special aids that keep him company onstage (he almost certainly meant nappies and the like). Dark British humour. Also entertaining was the moment when band members were challenged to identify Marillion album titles — in Italian. Mark Kelly won, guessing five of them. And so on…
The concert? Right, yes. The concert. The customary fifteen minutes past nine in the evening. This time the band opened with a dedication to their outstanding album »Brave« (1994). That record holds a special place in the band’s discography, built around the dark concept of a teenage girl who, in the bitter realisation of society’s fundamental betrayal, runs away from home and wanders lost, confronting the cruelty of street life until she breaks down and takes her own life. Four »Brave« tracks, bleeding seamlessly into one another (Bridge, Living With The Big Lie, and Runaway). The fourth piece was the title track — performed for the first time within this year’s Marillion Weekend Conventions right here in Padua. Before it began, ‘H’ appeared onstage with a bouquet of white flowers. Rather than scattering them among the women in the front rows, he theatrically — at moments almost brutally — shredded the blooms and strewed the petals across the stage. The intensity didn’t let up through Brave either. From the very opening, the band unleashed a staggering expressive force. With the giant screen projections, the playful and relentlessly shifting interplay of every conceivable stage lighting combination, and of course the Marillion magic that ‘H’s devastating vocal exposition only deepens, every emotion that had been stirred up became acutely intense all over again.
Much as the previous evening — when Marillion opened with a substantial chunk of the new album »An Hour Before It’s Dark« — the band again used a track from the superb »Marbles« (2004) to cut across the established atmosphere after roughly twenty minutes of »Brave« material. This time they chose Genie. Playful, cheeky, and fun, it transported the mood to exactly the opposite — the mischievous end of the spectrum. The band then went on to completely rewrite the setlist (relative to the convention’s first day) and genuinely surprised everyone by slotting in Older Than Me from »Happiness Is The Road« (2008) — a song they were playing in a live concert setting for only the third time in their career (the previous two had been at both of the Dutch 2023 conventions), something ‘H’ duly pointed out beforehand. Then came the section dedicated to the latest album »An Hour Before It’s Dark«. First up was The Crow and the Nightingale. ‘H’ had dressed for the occasion in something that — with a bit of imagination at least — briefly evoked a crow, and then Marillion launched into another demanding composition from the new album: a five-part piece called Sierra Leone. This stretch was clearly bookended by »Happiness Is The Road«, because Marillion pressed on the nostalgia levers once more, pulling out one of that album’s most powerful tracks — one they’d played very rarely since the 2008–2009 tour cycle. It was the phenomenal This Train Is My Life. A song that raises goosebumps. Instantly.
Then came the pure fun. Sugar Mice — a »Clutching At Straws« (1987) classic from the Fish era. As expected, the whole of Gran Teatro Geox sang along and bounced. Marillion lifted the entire floor out of their seats. The only »Somewhere Else« (2007) entry across the two-day convention rocked us again into the same kind of experience as This Train Is My Life. Marillion chose the title track — also the artistic pinnacle of that studio masterpiece. An intensity of mysticism, melancholy, and longing. Before this one, ‘H’ gave a long introduction that was also endlessly entertaining. He recounted the inspiration behind the song: he’d once had a strange dream in which he was sleeping in a golden bed in the middle of the permanent residence of his Marillion companion Mark Kelly. The piss-taking asides that accompanied Hogarth’s story about his strange dream — particularly from Trewavas and Kelly — were plentiful.
Then came the closing stretch of the main set, with ‘H’s favourite track from »Radiation« (1998): Three Minute Boy. It was in this very composition that Marillion once more put every last one of their artistic performance qualities on display — building from the initially gentle, innocent opening (read: ‘H’ solo at the piano), layering it up round by round with not just additional sonic textures but increasingly compact rhythmic structures. The crowd was held in the palm of the band’s hand by those famous ‘La-la-la-la’ and ‘Yeah-yeah-oooh’ hooks woven into the song. A remarkable blend of vivid motivic structures and relentless musicality, with intense contrasts between atmospheric leaps — into which Rothery’s ferocious soloing and his markedly distorted phrasing (especially in the grand finale) brought their own story. An excellent choice to wind up the main set.
And that main set wrapped up a touch earlier than the night before. Then came the first obligatory encore: the »F.E.A.R.« (2016) symphonic progressive rock epic The Leavers. That was a surprise — not in the sense that the band never plays it, quite the opposite, they toured it extensively between 2016 and 2018. But given the wealth of potential surprises Marillion can always toss out of their sleeve as a joke, and given that the audience surely expected at least one more ’80s treat — be it from the criminally overlooked »Fugazi« (1984) or at least from »Misplaced Childhood« (1985) or »Season’s End« (1989) — keeping this otherwise brilliant epic in the set did bring a mild disappointment to the more spoiled fans in the crowd. That feeling passed quickly, though. The band rounded off the first encore with Separated Out from »Anoraknophobia« (2001), a track defined by a scorching guitar riff. Separated Out was something Marillion had brought back into their live repertoire after several years away, doing so for the Marillion Weekends conventions the previous year. And so came that part of the concert that demands a complete switch-off: the audience surged to the stage, the floor rose to its feet, and ‘H’ in his theatrical style stoked the crowd. At this point Rothery and Trewavas even swapped positions — left to right and back. Marillion cheekily made use of the finale by sliding into the main motif of the Led Zeppelin classic Kashmir, then routinely flipping it back into one last Separated Out transition, from which they carved out the final chorus and drove into an extended outro. They’re never short of mischievous little tricks up their sleeve.
But the night wasn’t over yet. One more obligatory encore to go. After the first — which already amounted to twenty minutes of music — came another near-equal helping of Marillion. They opened it with the phenomenal title track of »This Strange Engine« (1997), which once again delivered everything we understand by Marillion artistry in the ‘H’ era. The complete package. All in one. From the supremely sophisticated to the blisteringly rock. An atmospheric bomb full of twists — including, among other things, Kelly’s keyboard passage in the first third of the piece. In the funky section Kelly imitated saxophones on the keys. And Rothery’s gorgeous guitar soloing occupies its own particular (esoteric) chapter in this serpentine composition. A progressive rock masterpiece you wish would never end. That was precisely the feeling at the concert. And with it, the unforgettable two-day Marillion experience in Padua drew to a close. The second concert night ran slightly longer than the first, bringing the whole thing to nearly two and a half hours.
From now on, these weekend conventions are planned on a two-year cycle — so the next one won’t come until 2025. This Marillion stop in Padua was also a welcome opportunity for all fans of the band based in that part of Europe that includes Slovenia, who had been forced to skip at least one date on last autumn’s tour. The dates on that tour were genuinely far-flung from our corner of the map (realistically reachable only by plane) — northern Europe and Great Britain. This time, those who’d been left out could enjoy a double portion of Marillion music.
Anyone who has even a passing fondness for Marillion committed a genuine sin if they missed those two Padua concerts. Two completely different setlists on top of everything else. The question is how many more opportunities like this will come along.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Edita Klemen & Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist:
1. Bridge
2. Living With the Big Lie
3. Runaway
4. Brave
5. Genie
6. Older Than Me
7. The Crow and the Nightingale
8. Sierra Leone:
I. Chance in a Million
II. The White Sand
III. The Diamond
IV. The Blue Warm Air
V. More Than Treasure
9. This Train Is My Life
10. Sugar Mice
11. Somewhere Else
12. Three Minute Boy
—encore I.—
13. The Leavers:
I. Wake Up in Music
II. The Remainers
III. Vapour Trails in the Sky
IV. The Jumble of Days
V. One Tonight
14. Separated Out
—encore II.—
15. This Strange Engine
