RECITAL OF THE SCRIPT

On the forum I revealed some personal things about Marillion to another member and those things were not exactly positive to say the least. But the thing that impressed me most about the band, I stated, was the live performances in their early days. Because somewhere back in my mind I knew I had a video of Marillion hidden somewhere in my house. I used to play it a lot in the eighties. Lately after a big search through a pile of old videos I found it. I must admit I got enthusiastic again all over sudden and had to see it mainly to find out if I could get into that same old groove again and enjoy it like I used to.

The result is an experience with mixed feelings. On one hand I have to say it was great to see it once again and it brought back quite some memories. On the other hand it all looked pretty outdated as well and that spoiled some of the fun. It was a real eighties thing I feel right now and I just do the review for old times sake you could say. If I see the going into raptures review by Gatot I must say it worked in a different way on me no doubt but another significant aspect could be that he is reviewing the DVD of 81 minutes and all I have is a genuine old video of some 50 minutes. And probably Gatot is a much bigger fan as well so that explains. And a third thing that prevents me from going out of my roof (as we say in Holland) over this vid is the absence of The Web, the only song on A Script .. that is not on the video. And The Web happens to be my favourite song of the album. There is good compensation thanks to an impeccable performance of Forgotten Sons preceded by an impressive lecture of Fish about the war in Northern Ireland. In the live execution of the song Fish changes clothes (military jacket and helmet) and uses his microphone as a gun in the instrumental part of the song firing his gun on the drumbeats by Mick Pointer in the direction of the audience both reaching the absolute trance state. This is by far the most impressive song of the video and the lecture by Fish proved that he was a great stage personality in those days.

In the end the rating is not as hard as I feared it would be. Initially I had doubts between a 4 and 5 star rating but after the discovered flaws it is not so hard anymore. This is a clear 4 star effort for me but then realize that I'm talking about the short video and not about the extended DVD. Still a monument in prog history, this is where I fully agree with Gatot.