Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Marillion
Label: EMI Records
Release date: 22.06.2009
Running time: 97:27
Rating: 5/5
»Recital of the Script« is a double live album from prog rock legends Marillion. It first came out way back in 1983 on VHS and only made it to DVD in 2006. The 2009 double-CD version captures the final night of the 1983 tour, on which Marillion were presenting their cult debut »Script For a Jester’s Tear« (1983). That last show with original drummer and founding member Mick Pointer (who later founded Arena) in the lineup went down on April 18, 1983, in London, in the middle of the legendary Hammersmith Odeon. Besides Pointer, whose days in Marillion were numbered once the tour wrapped up, the band that put out that debut was made up of Scottish frontman and joker Fish, guitar maestro and founding member Steve Rothery, nimble bassist and backing vocalist Pete Trewavas, and keyboard trickster Mark Kelly.
The set list on »Recital of the Script« was made up of all the songs from »Script For a Jester’s Tear« plus the tracks from the EP »Market Square Heroes« (1982). Marillion didn’t have much material to draw on back then, so apart from »She Chameleon«, which they were already playing before it officially came out on the album »Fugazi« (1984), and the Scottish anthem »Margaret«, they played everything they had ‘in stock’.
Fish and the lads were in great spirits on the closing night of the tour, which means they squeezed out every last drop. Anyone who knows the man and his work, the cult Scottish highlander, won’t be surprised that his vocal takes on the Marillion standards glowed with incredible passion and poetic fervor even at this undeniably important show. One of the best stage motivators and entertainers in the history of prog rock stages an unforgettable piece of theater from the very first second of the heart-wrenching epic »Script For a Jester’s Tear«, which stays very faithful to the studio original. He gets a huge helping hand from Rothery’s sprawling and often strikingly subtle guitar variations, Kelly’s melodic layers of synths, Trewavas’s lively bass lines, and Pointer’s solid drum fills, even though he and Fish never really got along, which eventually led to the drummer’s relatively needless dismissal.
Even more convincing is the superb version of the merciless social satire »Garden Party«, which pokes fun at the British aristocracy, with the crowd getting especially involved in singing individual lines. The Londoners belt out the controversial word »fucking« with particular glee, the very word that caused Marillion a bunch of needless trouble when the single and video for »Garden Party« came out. »Three Boats Down From The Candy«, a relatively obscure but still fun creation that originally came out on the EP »Market Square Heroes«, is kicked off with Fish’s ‘salty’ telling of a story from his childhood. The Scottish highlander, in his trademark thick accent, talks about his childhood and later teenage trips to the beach, where, while hunting for crabs, he discovered that they love crawling into women’s swimsuits. You could say that was yet another stage habit he picked up from Peter Gabriel (ex-Genesis), along with the face painting and costumes, which are otherwise very much Celtic in spirit.
»The Web«, a 12-minute epic masterpiece and one of the heaviest pieces in the band’s history, can be called the high point of the first disc of »Recital of the Script«, which goes especially for Rothery’s unforgettable, mouthwatering solo in the middle section. Once again Fish takes two minutes in the intro to tell a short story about his gardening adventures, in which he wittily throws in a nod to Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin) along the way. Not everyone in the crowd was in the mood for Fish’s jokes, and somebody yells out »schwein« (German for pig). Instead of properly cracking this kind of oaf’s ribs, Fish just laughs it off and carries on with the story. Marillion also didn’t forget to deliver a confident performance of »Charting the Single«, the B-side of the single »He Knows You Know« and the least interesting piece from their early days. The evergreen »Chelsea Monday« also gets played in the best possible light and makes for a triumphant finish to the first half of the show, i.e. the first disc.
The second disc opens with the previously mentioned »He Knows You Know«, a melodramatic warning about the consequences of drug use, which Fish wrestled with right up until he left the band. There’s no shortage of cheeky wisecracking here either, as the charismatic singer reminds the crowd that this was their first single and that all his friends, and his mum too, expected it to take them to the top of the UK charts and onto the popular music show ‘Top of the Pops’, which of course didn’t happen. Fish’s passionate vocal performance once again deserves a flat-out ten out of ten, since this is one of those songs where he describes himself. With a magnificent version of the pacifist 14-minute classic »Forgotten Sons«, they draw the crowd’s attention to the Northern Ireland conflict and the bloody streets of Belfast, with Fish specifically reminding everyone in the hall that this isn’t a political song. He doesn’t forget to mention that Mark Kelly is Irish by birth (born in Dublin), which means individual band members have relatives in the ‘conflict zone’. Who could play the part of a religious fanatic better than a charismatic stage entertainer? The performance of the unforgettable anthem »Market Square Heroes«, with which Marillion announced the triumphant march of the new wave of prog rock in 1982, was always the emotional peak of a concert in the Fish era, and this time is no different.
But the best comes right at the end, with the 19-minute super epic »Grendel«, the most ambitious, if not the most original (many accuse it of being too similar to the Genesis super epic »Supper’s Ready«) creation of the Fish era. It tells the well-known medieval epic about the Scandinavian swamp monster Grendel, only this time the perspectives are somewhat flipped. Beowulf is pushed aside and the story is told from the monster’s point of view, who sees the Danish Vikings as bloodthirsty conquerors and oppressors of a traditional way of life.
»Recital of the Script«, one of their best live documents, has long been part of every Fish-era Marillion fan’s collection, while all those prog rock fans who aren’t exactly die-hard collectors of live releases simply have to get this album. The production is excellent and not too ‘polished’, so it doesn’t come off as overly studio-like and sterile; instead the live spirit stays present throughout. There are very few live Marillion recordings with Mick Pointer in the lineup, so any live recording of the band from 1981 (the year Fish joined), 1982 (the year Pete Trewavas joined) and 1983 is more than welcome.
Lineup
Fish – vocals
Steve Rothery – guitar
Pete Trewavas – bass guitar and backing vocals
Mark Kelly – keyboards
Mick Pointer – drums
Production
Marillion
Track list
CD1:
1. Script for a Jester’s Tear
2. Garden Party
3. Three Boats Down from the Candy
4. The Web
5. Charting the Single
6. Chelsea Monday
CD2:
1. He Knows You Know
2. Forgotten Sons
3. Market Square Heroes
4. Grendel
