CHRISTMAS IN THE CHAPEL

Recorded in Islington's Union Chapel in December 2002, this Marillion concert has been released both as a DVD and as an audio download of the full concert. The album was recorded after over a year of the band performing the Anoraknophobia material live, and the tunes from that album somewhat come into their own here, feeling a bit more like a natural part of the band's repertoire than they did on the studio album. Other songs are selected from throughout H's tenure in the band - no Fish-era songs this time, though the first five Hogarth-era albums are strong enough that anything from there is a treat.

Interestingly, the marillion.com and Radiation albums are more or less entirely absent from the setlist, which feels like a tacit admission on some level that those releases were rudimentary early sketches of the Anoraknophobia style. That said, set next to superior songs from earlier in the band's career, the Anoraknophobia material doesn't quite hold up either. It's about as good a set as you could expect from this period of the band's career, but with Marbles just around the corner ready to upstage the Anoraknophobia material entirely it feels inessential.