Grendel - what’s the deal?

It originates from the Norse 'Beowulf' legend: this was adapted by John Gardner into a book called 'Grendel' which examined the legend from the monster's point of view.

Marillion were performing this song in their very earliest days, but due to its 17+ minute length, it was considered too long to be included on their first album, by which time they had dropped it from their live set anyway, excepting one last performance in 1983, when they used it to open their set at the Reading festival (and I was there! ).

It was originally only released as the 'b' side of the 12" single version of 'Market Square Heroes' (ah, the heady days of vinyl 12" singles).

And yes, the middle section is a direct rip off of 'Apolcalypse in 9/8' from 'Supper's Ready' (Stephen Rothery admits this......now).

Hope the above helps DP, no doubt, if I've got any of the details wrong, I shall now be shot down in flames

***ducks***

Edited by Jim Garten

I think you hit it on the spot Jim Garten.,except the Genesis ripoff part is more towards the end...minor detail though

Thanks Jim, this has been very helpful indeed!

[QUOTE=Jim Garten], excepting one last performance in 1983, when they used it to open their set at the Reading festival (and I was there! ).

QUOTE]

ME TOO!

Certif1ed wrote: When Marillion played live, back in the early 1980s, Grendel was the towering centerpiece of their live performance - the one everyone wanted them to play. It was released as the flip side to the 12" Vinyl single release of Market Square Heroes, with Three Boats Down from the Candy filling up the remaining space on the A side.

Grendel was indeed, a great spectacle live, mostly for the end section, where fish nearly always pulled a member of the audience up on stage and 'devoured' the poor soul. I only saw them play it live once which was good. However, I do remember the first time they DIDN'T play it (Xmas '83 at the Hammy Odeon) and boy, the audience were not very pleased at all.

Fish though was a star though and gave a little speech about there simply not being enough time to play the entire back catalogue. They did do 'Margaret' which was a song loosely based on a Highland song and was another highlight of the Marillion set back then. Fish appeared in the upper circle (much to the amusement of everyone up there) running along the isles and singing as he went.

Comical sod

Yep - the Stranglers headlined on the Friday - and were A-MAZING!!

Thin Lizzy headlined Sunday and rounded off a superb weekend with a stormin' set.

Highlights - more prog than you could shake a stick at (for a rock festival); The Enid walking off with most bombastic performance.

Lowlights - Steel Pulse getting bottled off by a bunch of xenophobic morons. I was really looking forward to chillin' to some reggae with my Sunday joint...

Oh, and then there was THAT "Black Sabbath" set. Spinal Crap, more like

I still have the T-Shirt, with every band listed, and the slogan "The Last EVER Reading Rock".

...until the next one

Dragon:

As Cert notes, there is a fabulous remastered set of Marillion's first eight albums: Script for a Jester's Tear, Fugazi, Misplaced Childhood, Clutching at Straws, Seasons End, Holidays in Eden, Brave, and Afraid of Sunlight.  Each has two CDs, the first of which is the "album" itself, with the second containing additional songs, plus alternative versions, demos, etc.  "Grendel" appears on Disc 2 of the first set.

The set is also neat because when you line up the sides of the jewel cases, it spells out "Marillion" (i.e., Script has an "M," Fugazi has an "A," Misplaced has an "R," Clutching has an "I," Seasons has a double "L," Holidays has an "I," Brave has an "O," Afraid has an "N").  Each one also has a thick booklet that contains all the lyrics, plus comments by the band members.

If you can find this set, you would do well to buy it.

Peace.

When SRV hit the stage, I thought they had cranked up the PA to play a hitherto unheard of mix of "Voodoo Chile" by Jimi Hendrix. About a third of the way through, I realised that someone was actually playing this on the stage, as people around me stood up in awe to pay respect to the genius of Stevie Ray.

I agree with you on Big Country - why???

They could have had Twelfth Night or IQ instead, and had a neo-prog full house

Hmm. Maybe we need a "Festivals Reunited" thread...

As you say Maani, the remasters are excellent. I think the double disc versions are now being deleted, and reverting to the single discs without bonus tracks. I picked up a new copy of the single disc remaster of "Script.." for £3 this week (Fopp has it for anyone in the UK who's interested!).

What I particulaly liked about the double discs was that the bonus tracks were on a separate disc, the original albums being just that.

I updated my review to include the bonus tracks (at last!), and 3 things hit me:

1) I didn't realise how close to the mark I was with my comment "The towering centerpiece...". Grendel was originally an 8-minute instrumental called "The Tower", which had its roots more in early Twelfth Night (Live at the Target - pre Geoff Mann era) than Genesis.

2) There's a lot of Camel's influence in Grendel - but with Marillion's uncanny ability to layer melodies and the aggression in the darker passages, this is easy to miss. Rothery's guitar style especially darts between a Steve Hackett flavour and a smoother Latimer-like style, but also shows much originality. I don't find any of the guitar solos to be quite long enough, as there is no bluff, just wonderful melody and soaring air-guitar worthy moments.

3) I too thought that Grendel was the end result of excessive enthusiasm by an immature band finding its feet - but Marillion had been gigging for practically 5 years solid by this time, and "The Tower" was a staple part of their set. I discovered on close re-listening, and setting the whole piece under my aural microscope that there is a lot more to this piece than initially meets the ear. It's taken me 22 years to realise this, as I bought the "Market Square Heroes" EP practically on the day of its release, and have often struggled with the recording of Grendel.

Today, I saw the light! The (remastered) recording is BRILLIANT and dead easy to overlook - and I'm saying that as a Marillion fan from 1982 who practically followed them around and loved it when they played Grendel live - I just never "got" the recorded version. Now I've got it, by George, and life is good!

The "deal" with Grendel is that it is a masterful piece of timeless prog which rewards the patient listener on revisits. Revisit it today!