THE THIEVING MAGPIE - LA GAZZA LADRA

The sounds of the crowd are gradually interrupted buy a pumped-in version of Rossini's Overture to La Gazza Ladra. The crowd begins to clap to the music as it continues in it's mission. The power of the overture continues to reveal itself building up to a cresendo and finale. As the overture ends, Mark Kelly's keyboard releases a familiar song that errupts into the full band playing Slàinte Mhath. This is one of my all-time favorite recorded intros to a concert.

While I won't go into detail about individual songs, this album is a MUST HAVE for one simple reason. It is the last official live release of Fish singing with Marillion, and in my opinion, Fish was at his theatric peak. The plus of the band sounding great, along with a great production doesn't hurt either. The additional treat is the inclusion of an entire Marillion studio release being played live. Misplaced Childhood takes up it's own disc.

This is an album that marks history in Neo-Prog. Even if you are not a big fan of Marillion, having this release is mandatory for your Prog collection.