THE THIEVING MAGPIE - LA GAZZA LADRA

If you want to pick up Marillion's The Thieving Magpie, I heartily recommend the CD version over the vinyl, because it is only the CD version which presents a complete live rendition of Misplaced Childhood on its second disc. This performance is by far the most attractive feature of the album, since it is a continuous performance, whereas the first disc consists of scraps from here and there - a song or two from the Fugazi tour here, a clutch of songs from the Clutching At Straws tour there. This means that the first disc is perhaps the most muddled live Marillion release of the Fish era; Recital of the Script, Live at Loreley, Curtain Call and Early Stages all offer complete shows, and Real to Reel is structured so that side A comes from one show and side B comes from another (and both shows are from the same tour) so it at least has some conceptual cohesiveness.

Still, The Thieving Magpie remains the only viable option for getting a complete live version of Misplaced Childhood (performed by Marillion, at any rate) unless you want to go to the effort and expense of tracking down a copy of the now quite rare Curtain Call boxed set. Three stars for disc 1 and four and a half for disc 2 yields a fair score of four stars.