LADY NINA

The virtues of Marillion as a classic English prog-rock band are well-known, and they indeed deliver the goods here, even when within the restricted duration of the single format.

What can I say? Terrific job from Ian Mosley, delivering as solid & flexible drumming as ever. Great taste and power on the guitar and the keyboards. Fiery decision to inject pulse & vibration on the bass. And the most dramatic impression, as usual, comes from THAT voice.

On the A side, "Lady Nina" depicts a story of impossible love, between pathos and tenderness.

On the flip, we find an edit taken from their third full-length studio album, "Misplaced Childhood", which evolves from a quiet start into a full-blown climax by the vocalist and the band.

If you are into singles, this is a must.

"Lady Nina" is an US-only single release by UK progressive rock act Marillion. The single was released through Capitol Records in April 1986. "Lady Nina" had already appeared as the B-side track to the successful "Kayleigh" single from May 1985, but this US-only single, featuring "Heart of Lothian" on the B-side, was released to promote the "Brief Encounter" EP, which was released in June 1986 to coincide with Marillion´s US and Canada tours (supporting Rush on their tour for "Power Windows" (1985)). A music video was also shot for "Lady Nina", to further promote the US/Canada tour.

Both "Lady Nina" and "Heart of Lothian" are featured on this single in the edited versions, which had respectively appeared on the 7" single version on the May 1985 "Kayleigh" single and on the November 1985 "Heart Of Lothian" single. A bit of a shame really, as both tracks are much longer and more intriguing in their original unedited versions. All in all this release isn´t the most interesting single that Marillion put out. Both because the material are already available on previous single releases, but also because of the single edit versions of the tracks (which are both otherwise good quality songs). A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.