LIVE AT THE WALLS

In retrospect, Marillion's decision to put out Less Is More - a studio album of acoustic reworkings of old tracks - wasn't so unprecedented after all. Over a decade before, the band put on an acoustic set at The Walls restaurant at around the time they were putting the finishing touches to Radiation. With Mark Kelly restricted to piano and organ and Steve Rothery having to make do without his usual Gilmouresque guitar solos, adapting the material on here might have been a challenge, but fortunately for their past few albums Marillion had been dabbling with a bit of 60s influence which they decide to bring to the fore here.

The renditions of Marillion standards presented here are sometimes close to their original versions, as is the case with Beautiful, whilst at other points they radically transformed, as happens to Alone Again In the Lap of Luxury and Hooks In You. But either way, the versions presented here occupy this interesting sonic space reminiscent of a modern updating of 60s psychedelia, folk rock and sophisti-pop - somewhere at the crossroads where the Byrds, the Beatles, Buffalo Springfield and Serge Gainsbourg meet. It's an intriguingly different sound for Marillion and ensures the at this live set showcases their music in a refreshing new light.

This is one of the earliest Marillion live albums to include no Fish-era tracks, taking its track listing entirely from the first six Hogarth-era albums and sprinkling on a few cover versions. As such, it's rather different from the Live From Cadogan Hall two-CD acoustic set, since that concert took place in a less intimate venue and had a much deeper bench of songs to choose from. But the seeds of that magical live set, and the associated Less Is More album, were sown here.