MARBLES ON THE ROAD

MARILLION is a band I want to see play live some day. They do not come around that often to venues that are a reasonable distance away from where I live so I will continue to wait for that day to arrive. In the meantime, I have the next the best thing to being there, the "Marbles On The Road" DVD. I mean this in a literal sense-if a band produces a DVD properly it does give you a front row seat to an event.

I think "Marbles..." won a lot of old MARILLION fans back from the fallout of "Anoraknophobia". I think it was a good album but a definite departure from what their fans were accustomed to hearing. I have heard references to the "Easter: era before when discussions arise regarding "Marbles". I pre-ordered the special two disc set right from the band's site prior to its release and consider it a good decision and a worthy purchase. It is a great album.

If you have the album and have not seen the band perform it live, wait until you watch this DVD. This is fantastic entertainment. After all these years, MARILLION sounds like a band in their prime. Lead vocalist Steve Hogarth is a real actor on stage, portraying his parts in each song, making it believable with facial expressions and body language. What can you say about the rest of the band except they are all outstanding musicians that click when they perform in the studio or on stage? For the great bands with longevity, it does not seem to matter as they always shine in either setting. Steve Rothery is an incredible guitar player, Ian Mosley a superb drummer, Peter Trewavas a one of a kind bass player, and Mark Kelly is that special factor on keyboards that helps to push their music to the realms of progressive rock and beyond.

During the production of this event an astounding 15 different cameras took their place around the stage for filming, and the sound is in both stereo and 5.1 surround sound. The special features include videos of the standout tracks "Don't Hurt Yourself" and "You're Gone." This was indeed a special and magical experience for this MARILLION fan. I credit this band for putting me head over heals in love with progressive rock, I never looked back after covering the EMI remasters in the summer of 2000.

The only misgiving is that I feel there could have been more bonus features and interviews with the band members. Perhaps that will be available on the next DVD that comes out. There is a special extended version 2 DVD set offered on the band's website if you want to have your cake and eat it too. This was good enough for me and I truly enjoyed finally getting to see one of my favorite bands perform live.

© Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck-http://www.muzikreviews.com

May 18, 2005

For those who love Marillion Marbles should have this DVD. This DVD came to me at the same time with Pain of Salvation Be Live DVD. So, which one should I play first? You bet! PoS Be Live won the competition for my DVD player. In fact, PoS won the market share also as I played it much more than Marillion Marbles on The Road. Honestly, there was another DVD as well that came at the same time: Spock's Beard Don't Try This at Home (3 discs). Back to Marbles, this was the performance of the band filmed over a sell-out weekend at London's Astoria. As the cover says it: "This concert DVD documents Marillion's live presentation of the critically acclaimed album 'Marbles'. Using 15 different cameras, and presented in both stereo and 5.1 surround sound, this film gets closer to the Marillion live experience than any previous video recordings.". Is it? Let's have a look in some more details .

The Performance

Well, the live was recorded during the last two nights of the UK Marbles tour at the Astoria theatre in London, on July 10 and 11, 2004. It is presented as if one gig and follows playlist of the tour. It begins wonderfully with The Invisible Man, the album opener. Wow! It's a great performance. I love how Hogarth sings deeply with his heart and voices out the lyrics in very clear and powerful vocals. I also like the performance and style of Steve Rothery that takes his stand quietly close to power amps for his guitar. He looks like David Gilmour as he has gained weight a lot (yeah .. a lot man! Especially if you compare with his performance in Recital of The Script DVD). Even his play is similar with Gilmour in some way. Pete Trewavas is the only member that plays with body movement. Ian Moseley with his variations of drum set is another good looking part of the DVD. The first part is terrific! Flawless and very attractive. It continues with a slow pop song Marbles I .

You're Gone is played with enthusiasm by the band and gained a big applaud by the audience (which most of them are old guys .. like me!). There come a short conversation initiated by Hogarth and introducing the story of a nurse that brings to the next performance of Angelina. It continues with a floating, ambient music as with Invisible Man. To this point, I observe that the Marbles songs are better performed live in this set than the original album. Invisible Man is a good example. Also on transition pieces like Marble 1,2 and so on - it is much better here than the original one. Basically, I do not like these pieces on studio album but I can respect more in live set.

The exception is probably on Don't Hurt Yourself which I love the studio version than this live set. Reason being that on studio version I can enjoy the best sound quality because the mixing of sounds was terrific. The Damage is better in live set here. On Neverland I can see clearly how good the band was in composing the music. The performance here is really very good - and I can observe in details the work of Steve Rothery and powerful drumming of Ian. It sounds that the music is much more enriching here.

Having done the marbles part, the band continues with their previous albums like from Brave: Bridge and Living With the Big Lie and other albums with following tracks: The Party, Between You and Me, Uninvited Guest , Cover My Eyes. Well, I have to admit that the last two tracks are the songs that I hated much that they have been made by the band that I loved since its inception in early 80s. It's so boring songs and why the band use as closing? I don't know .

Steve Hogarth is I think a good communicator as in between tracks he speaks (communicates) well with the audience in relax way. For example when he introduced the upcoming single Don't Heart Yourself which was going to be released the day after the show. He asked the people "For God sake, please buy the single .. And it sounds like this ." (continued with his acoustic guitar intro for the single).

There is one thing worthy to take note in this DVD. It's about when Hogarth took the singing of Marbles falsely and he asked the band members to hang on the music. He then restarted again. Two differing views for me about this event. First, I respect the band's (Hogarth's) candidness that as a big group they also could make a mistake. Second, another side of the coin I asked myself: how can it happen? With their reputation as excellent musicians they could make false entry about their own song - on stage??? Come on guys . I have never seen such thing like this.

Summary

It's a rewarding experience enjoying this DVD especially if you appreciate the band's last album Marbles. The only thing that I personally feel enjoying this DVD set is that when it reaches approx half an hour of the show I get bored because they have the same style over and over. The songs are mostly mellow. I'm probably biased as I compare this with PoS Be Live DVD which is totally excellent DVD. But, that's life man . The music produced by prog musicians are competing one to another. That what happens to me. I have a selection of bunch of DVDs to watch and I have the full power to choose the ones that I love most. Overall, it's a good DVD. Keep on proggin' .!

Progressively yours,

GW

Whenever I hear of Racket releasing another gem by Marillion, I'm whipping out the credit card and hopping on their website. So, when it was announced that a DVD of a Marillion show on Marbles tour was going to become available, then it was a no-brainer. Compound that with the fact that Racket was going to make available a 2 disc version with a ton of bonus footage, then paying extra for that took very little contemplation and I'd deal with the ramifications (meaning the wife balancing the check book) later.

The performance itself is breathtaking. Marillion doing what they do best in front of a very enthusiastic crowd. The band (sans H) come on-stage for the opener of "The Invisible Man", and H follows all dapper in a suit and specs. I love the opening track of Marbles for starters; but, seeing it performed live makes me appreciate it even more. Just cracks me up when I see reviews accusing H not singing with emotion anymore because that's the only way the guy knows how to perform. The DVD does a great job of showing those in the crowd singing the material word for word (with all age ranges, as well). Highlights from disc 1 are "You're Gone" (which is just a stunner of a song), and "Fantastic Place" (Simply an awe-inspiring performance to which H looks emotionally spent afterwards). Regarding "Neverland", I have always heard people say how much they appreciate the song even more as a result of seeing it performed live....and now I see why. The song ends when a heavenly layer of keyboards and a scorching solo by Rothers, with H doing his best Peter Pan impersonation.

Disc 1 also has the rest of the show, which is specatular. It begins with (what I feel) is the best performance of "Bridge/Living With The Big Lie" from the Brave album that I've ever heard. Much like the studio album and the various live performances I've listened and seen, H just pours out every ounce of energy he has. Raw, intense, passionate! I consistently get goosebumps when he shouts, "The Cold Wars gone, but those bastards will find us another, and another, and another, and another! So, get used to it!" But that energy doesn't stop there. "The Party" from Holidays In Eden was a nice addition, and special to see Rothers pull off that solo. That song is pure intensity!

I watched disc 2 last night and I almost prefer the set list to disc 1. It just about has all of my favorites ("Quartz", "Afraid Of Sunlight", "The Great Escape", and "Easter"). Disc 2 also has footage of Marillion playing some Marbles material (some didn't even have titles at the time of the performance) which is nice to see how they've changed...which isn't too much.

I think I have just about every DVD from Racket (except for Script and the newest DVD Colours), but it's probably my favorite. It captures the band in their true element...performing live. And Marillion are one of the best! Also great to see a band not be so full of themselves to take out a flub or two (i.e. H having a tough time finding the right key for "Marbles IV"). The deluxe edition is so worth the money, too. The only drawback is it's tough to view for a person whose never seen them live in person. A truly special, special band and I'm thankful to have them in my life.

Marillion - Marbles On The Road

This is a fine DVD from MARILLION's live performance of their 2004 studio album MARBLES. Besides tracks from MARBLES we are also treated by tracks from their 1994 concept album BRAVE and some from their 1995 studio album AFRAID OF SUNLIGHT.

I completely like the track list from the double DVD version, but why did MARILLION also decide to issue a pour derative from it on a single disc version? I think this is complete miss hit from them! You almost have to buy their albums/ DVD's on www.marillion.com because if you don't you will actually miss out on some great music!

First I found myself with only half of the album as I purchased MARBLES ON THE ROAD in the local music store as I wasn't aware there was also a double DVD version in circulation. They also did the same thing with the their studio album of MARBLES. If you were not aware there also was a double DVD version of it, you actually miss half of the show! If you only got the pour single disc format you will actually miss out on some highlights of the show like tracks "Afraid of Sunlight", "The Great Escape", "King" and "Easter". Those tracks are maybe even better than some tracks on "disc one" and a must have!

Well, so far about my frustration with the record companies. I could recommend anyone to buy MARBLES ON THE ROAD as it truly is an excellent addition to any prog music collection (just make sure it is the double disc version!)

4,5 stars for the double disc version 3,5 for the "el cheapo" version

This is a very nice, classy DVD that I enjoyed a lot more than I expected. Marbles is a pretty good album, and certainly the band's best in ten years, but I wondered how the whole thing would translate live. In fact, I enjoyed these live renditions more than the studio ones. The band plays with fire and passion, particularly Steve Rothery, who throws in a lot of nifty Gilmourisms on lead guitar. The Marbles interludes fit in well and seem more like real songs than just filler atmospheres than they did on the CD. The production values are very high, and the show is very well shot with lots of camera angles and expensive looking swoops over the crowd, which is a typically infatuated Marillion audience, belting out the words and gazing adoring at H, their hero. This is the first time I've seen Hogarth at work live, and he takes some getting used to. He is in fine voice, but his hyper-dramatic expressions and gestures are a little distracting at first. Nevertheless, he is certainly a dynamic performer who holds your attention and does not come across as insincere. I also really enjoyed the intense encore performance of "Living With the Big Lie" from Brave. Marillion enthusiasts will already have this DVD, but if you enjoyed Marbles at all, this reasonably priced DVD is a good pickup. Caveat: The version I acquired does not have the second disk, which is a shame, because I'd have loved to get that version of "The Great Escape".

I was a Fish-era fan in the 80s and saw the band live a couple times but around the time Fish left I was listening to different things. This is really my first experience with Marillion 2.0 and I found it enjoyable although not earth shaking. Certainly it was good enough to make me want to explore their studio stuff down the road.

The band is definitely mellower here than the fairly raucous shows I witnessed back in the Fish days. It's just a much different style and I would suggest that old school Fish fans just approach this as if approaching an entirely different group. You'll find some quality songs, decent emotional vocals, and some really amazing and beautiful guitar solos. "Angelina" was a highlight for me about a person who is there at 4am for the lost souls of the world.

I don't have a lot more to say about the songs as I'm not familiar with the studio work of 2.0 so I'll keep this short and sweet. A good show I would recommend to any fan of neo-prog or prog fans who enjoy concert DVDs. Somewhere over 3 stars but not quite 4 for me.

My third Marillion video concert experience. And this time, for me, I must say that my enthusiasm varied through the show. As Gatot noted, there are parts where it seems like the music is repeating itself. It's not something that I notice when playing an album, as I get into the mood that Marillion establishes through many of their darker & mellower albums. But watching them live, again, as Gatot mentions, the half hour point is where I started losing some interest. I found Rothery's regular use of the E Bow, and the volume pedal repetitve, and told myself I had to go back and re-listen to some albums to see if this is really all the fellow does on the group's music. Once it hit the one hour mark, though, the show picks up again, and gets me back into it. And from there on, especially starting with Neverland, they hit their stride once more, and I am glad to have rented it and finally watched it after all these months. The encores are the icing on the cake, featuring some of my favourites such as that golden oldie - Uninvited Guest.

So a good show from a great album, but useful as an example of the different expectations that a fan may have of each experience. Oh, and nice bit with the musical cricket bat. Good to see some humour injected into what is a serious groups since Hogarth's arrival. A 3.5, rounded down to 3 for the short long bits, and not up to the Script & Stoke Row DVDs, unless you are an unconditional fan of the album.