With friends from the orchestra

Alert:

If you do not have any interest in Marillion related stuff 

you can skip this blog and save yourself both time and annoyance.

Everybody who knows me (a little) knows that I am a fan of a rockgroup with a difficult name. Some of them even remember their biggest 'do you remember' hit they had (in 1985) named Kayleigh. Yes I am talking about Marillion. Marillion seems to be with me whole my life. Music and lyrics are one. The music is there in good times, in bad times and in so,so times. Not everything is good or even acceptable but they are exceptional good on more than average. And what is nice, the music grows on you and get better in time. The songs that bore me on the album seem to get a new dimension when performed live. Marillion is a band that excells on stage. If you want to see synergy in person, go to a live performance of Marillion.

Anyway, this is not what I want to blog about. I want to talk about the new exciting tour Marillion  announced. Marillion With Friends From The Orchestra Live 2019 "as a celebration of their 'new singer' joining the band for 30th years (and 14 albums)! What is exciting about this I can hear you think? Well since Marillion is part of my life I expect every concert in this tour is 'tumbling down the years' where every song has its own memories. Secondly I expect them to play 'special songs'; songs that are important to the band or to the fans. Thirdly 'friends' will assist them on stage. An ensemble that the fans already know. Fourthly they will play in very special venues. Fifthly, the band seems to be in top condition. For me personally all these aspects make this very special. And yes, I have high expectations of this tour. Me and my wife go to the Royal Albert Hall concert (if the bloody Brexit allows us to - latest news is that the parlement voted BoJo away) and I will take my adult daughters to their first Marillion concert for the first time (Utrecht - Vredenburg). They grow up with Marillion and I hope they will not be disappointed (at least).

So what is this blog about? In this blog I will try to predict what songs Marillion will play during this tour. My daughters asked for a playlist of songs Marillion will probably play so they can get in the mood already. A good topic for a blog. Let's go.

First of all I expect the concert to consist of three parts; the concert with a break somewhere in the middle and the encores. So we need opening and closing songs before and after the break and a closing song of the concert. The last one is easy, this has to be The leavers - One tonight from the FEAR album. So that brings us to the openers. Obvious opener for the evening is King of Sunset Town. A long intro which build up the excitement followed by a great opening. It is also the first song I saw live in Ahoy Rotterdam. There was a black screen before the stage that disappeared after the intro. For the second opener after the break I think it will be Splintering Heart. Also a great opening song with an intro that builds up to a climax. That brings us to the next prediction. I choose for the closing songs now. What are greatest closing songs? King, Neverland, the Space and This Strange Engine to mention a few. Assuming we will travel in time and the band starts with Seasons End and ends with FEAR (or the other way around) then marillion.com is halfwhere. So it would be logical to choose from this album, I choose Interior Lulu. Simply because I love it and it is very suitable to play with friends. The second closing song is then something from FEAR. This is a hard one. Personally I really like El Dorado and White Paper. There is a way to play both, I choose El Dorado as closing song and White Paper as start of encore #1. And then I almost forgot the closing song of encore #1 which has to be King, great lyrics and a fastastic ending.

Now it gets hard to predict. I just follow the 'tumbling up the years' credo a pick the songs from the albums. So we have Seasons End, I vote for the Space, great song and proven to be excellent with friends (but a bit hard for H to sing every night). Then Holidays in Eden. What to say about this album. As many albums of Marillion this albums grows on you. I didn't like the album at first but now, I really love multiple songs of it. That is what the band does to the songs; once you hear them live it is like adding a complete new dimension. This town / The rakes progress and 100 nights wins (because of the length, the solos and the beauty but it is also very obvious choice). We continue to the masterpiece Brave. An album that took really long for me to appreciate. In fact I hated the album at first and sweared that if the next album would be this bad I would never listen to the band again. How wrong can you be? What an album, magnus opus is the right term. How to choose from this? When in trouble go back to your heart. OK. I have very personal associations with three songs. My daughter Laura associate with Runaway (she knows why) and my daughter Maureen associate with Brave (she doesn't know why but I think she is a very brave girl). The third song is in fact Falling from the Moon (The Great Escape) which I associate with the death of my father (he got a fatal heart attack and literally fell down). So they all have to be on the playlist. Brave is the ultimate song to play with friends, what an atmosphere you'll get. Tears in my eyes already. And so is Runaway. I will put The Great Escape / Falling from the Moon in the encore #1. Really hard this. I have to keep track of the total playing time too. Let's continue. Another masterpiece follows, Afraid of Sunlight. How to choose from this? Since King is alreay a closing song I choose the title track here, it really fits into the atmophere and strings will be something extra here.We continue with This Strange Engine. The title track is too long (maybe as an bonus encore) I would opt for Estonia for the same reasons as I have choosen Afraid of Sunlight. Fits well with strings and also we are in a bit 'soft' midsection of the concert. Another very personal reason is that we played this song on the funeral of my mother 2 years ago. It's time for more up tempo now. So lets go to Radiation. Another album that took some time to get used to. And what a difference does this album make when played live. These Chains is almost never played live (would be nice) so I hope for Cathedral Wall or A few words for the Dead. Hard to choose. I choose for the latter. So what do we have so far? What a list. 

King of Sunset Town
the Space
This town / The rakes progress and 100 nights
Runaway
Brave
Afraid of Sunlight
Estonia
A few words for the Dead
Interior Lulu
(break)

After the break we'll cover the period from Anoraknophobia until FEAR. Well then the opening song we first selected (Splintering Heart) doesn't fit here. We will strike it and choose something from Anoraknophobia. I hope it will not be Quartz (I only like the acoustic version) and further I expect they will start with up tempo and choose Between you and me (with the big balloons please ;-). That clears the way for the next masterpiece, Marbles. How to choose from this? I really would like to hear Genie and Angelina so let's put these ones on the list and not the obvious Neverland and Invisable Man. However, Invisible man would be a perfect opener. They used it before with a video of H at the start. It hurts but there is simply no time for more material from Marbles. Next album is easy, title track Somewhere Else has to be on this list. From Happiness is the road I choose 2 songs that I like the most and that fit perfectly with the strings This train is my life and Wrapped up in time. This could very well be in the acoustic part of the set. We'll see. Since we already covered Less is More we can continue with Sounds that can't be made. Hmm. Personally I am not so fond of this album but the band seems to like Power. So let's put this one on the list and go to their latest masterpiece FEAR. After the break we do not have many songs yet so there is time for a rather big one (maybe two). On an evening like this when we are celebrating 30 years of H in the band, The Leavers is the perfect song. But this is a song to end the concert with. So lets do it differently, we put in El Dorado and place The Leavers in encore #2. Lets see what we'll hear after the break:

(after the break)
Splintering Heart
Between you and me
Invisible man
Genie
Somewhere Else
This train is my life
Wrapped up in time
Power
The Leavers
El Dorado

Normally the band has 2 encores which were already filled during the process.

(encore #1)
Falling from the Moon (The Great Escape)
White Paper
King

(encore #2)
The leavers - One tonight
The Leavers
(fireworks, confetti, party, tears all over the place)

When looking at the time only. Before the break we have a little more then 1 hours of music. Same counts for after the break. Then both encores, both 20 minutes. So 2 hours and 40 minutes of fantastic music.

I am very much aware that this list is more a less a dream setlist. In practise we are bound to the laws of gravitation, time and the limitations of his masters voice. You cannot sing all of this night after night.

But .. one can dream....

The spotify playlist of the setlist I predicted above

Or ... if you like easy listening I made a special list (of which some songs may appear in the actual list Marillion will play)