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AUGUST
1982
12th,
London, Marquee Club
After having been in the studio and away from doing gigs for nearly three
weeks Marillion had eight warm up concerts scheduled before their two
biggest dates so far - their forthcoming festival appearances in Wakefield
and Reading. After four months absence "The Institution Waltz"
was again included in the set, this time in a completely rearranged version.
Added was an instrumental intro and and extra verse as well as lots of
breaks and tempo shifts, which totally changed the basic rhythm of the
track. Exit the waltz-beat and enter a sort of over-the-edge progressive
feel, where no basic structure was nearly to be anchored at - exit Marillion
and enter E.L.P. At least, as we know, the track never made it to a Marillion
LP! (This was the re-arrangement Fish could not remember, at one of my
interviews with him).
Mark Kelly on the
other hand remembered the faith of this and other tracks: "I do remember
it going through a few changes, but I think it was just because we were
never completely happy with it. See, Fish had this idea that he wanted
it to be a waltz because of the name and what the song was about, and
I think lyrically actually it wasn't that great. And because we were doing
this dum-dam-dam-dum-dam-dam-thing, it was like we all just said "No,
that's not really working". There were some other parts to it that
we put in and then we took them out again, I do remember what you were
talking about..." (Claus Nygaard, Private interview with Mark Kelly).
This evening at the
Marquee Club the set was opened in the traditional way with "He Knows
You Know" followed by "She Chameleon", then "The Institution
Waltz" revisited, "The Web", "Three Boats Down from
the Candy", "Chelsea Monday", "Garden Party"
and "Forgotten Sons" ended the main set and made way for the
encore section consisting of "Market Square Heroes" and "Margaret".
13th, London, Marquee
Club
For the second Marquee gig the set was rearranged and excluded were "Market
Square Heroes" and "Margaret" on the expense of "Grendel".
14th, Cambridge,
Rock Club
16th, Southend-On-Sea, Zero 6 Club
17th, Gloucester, Leisure Centre
19th, Sheffield, Limit Club
During these festival warm ups "Charting the Single" was
brought into the set for the first time since the Scottish tour three
and a half months earlier. With "Grendel" being in the set too,
as well as "Market Square Heroes" and "Margaret",
the Limit Club audience experienced one of the longest sets performed
on this short warm up tour, as it was material-testing-and-shaping time.
The exact set rolled along with "He Knows You Know", "She
Chameleon", "The Web", "Garden Party", "Grendel",
"The Institution Waltz", "Margaret", "Three Boats
Down from the Candy", "Charting the Single", "Forgotten
Sons" and "Market Square Heroes".
20th, Middlesbrough,
Cavern Club
26th, Liverpool, Warehouse
Bootleg: "Live in Liverpool" (CD).
This nights gig was dedicated to John Arnison who had just become the
bands manager during the summer, and had been the driving force in Marillion's
negotiations with various record companies during July and August. Fish:
"We came across a guy named John Arnison, who managed to manipulate
all the record companies to find out who was genuinely interested."
(Interview with Fish and Mark Kelly, Radio Forth, Scotland, 14-09-1982.)
The reason for their slight transport of joy was of course the fact that
the band had been informed prior to the show that EMI had finally decided
to put pen to paper and sign the band for a five albums period. John Arnison
about his work and visions: "I do enjoy working with Marillion because
I really enjoy their music. They've brought back musicianship at a time
when everybody else is busy programming computers and drum machines. I
want them to be as successful as possible, to carry on making albums that
people will listen to for years to come and to receive their fair share
of profits too." (Carol Clerk interview with Marillion. Melody Maker,
25-02-1984.)
Surprisingly this
set was opened with "Forgotten Sons" which had not been the
case since the Christmas gig in Milton Keynes in 1981. Even if it is a
hard-punching opener, it was regarded by the band to be more suitable
as encore material, and hence it has never again been placed so upfront
in the set. Following were "Garden Party", "She Chameleon",
"He Knows You Know", "The Web", "The Institution
Waltz", "Three Boats Down from the Candy" rounding off
the main set before the encores "Market Square Heroes" and "Margaret"
ended the entire show.
ENGLISH
FESTIVAL DATES
28th,
Wakefield
This was Marillion's first major festival-gig. Specially invited by the
headliners Jethro Tull they appeared on the same support-bill as Lindisfarne
and The Blues Band at this Nostel Priory festival. The set they played
that afternoon consisted of "He Knows You Know", "She Chameleon",
"The Web", "Three Boats Down from the Candy", "The
Institution Waltz", "Garden Party", "Market Square
Heroes", "Forgotten Sons" and "Margaret". Jethro
Tull needs no introduction, I guess, and Lindisfarne we know from Marillion's
support slot at their Friars-gig in Aylesbury the previous December, while
The Blues Band were on the road with their third studio album "Brand
Loyalty" - a relatively young band who had their debut album released
in 1980.
29th, Reading,
Thames-side Arena
Official Record: "Reading Rock Festival, vol. one" (2LP,
outtakes).
Bootleg: "In Search of Forever" (CD, outtakes).
This was to be a major open air-gig for Marillion in terms of publicity,
and in front of the 35,000 people who attended the second day at Reading,
Fish announced that the band had agreed on a record-deal with EMI. And
besides having two tracks included on the above mentioned officially released
double album, most of the set Marillion performed that afternoon was broadcast
on BBC's Radio One. A set that as far as running order goes was indeed
odd structured: "Garden Party", "He Knows You Know",
"Three Boats Down from the Candy", "Market Square Heroes",
"Forgotten Sons", "Margaret" and "She Chameleon".
The upfront positioning of "Garden Party" is obvious, but having
"She Chameleon" as the final encore was due to the fact that
the obvious success Marillion had that afternoon the stage management
called them on stage again after "Margaret" to deliver yet another
track. To much surprise and amusement to the band, as Fish explained to
Tom Russell on Radio Clyde right after the gig: "I was like blown
out by it, I didn't expect it. Our sound engineer and myself were talking
just before we went on, and he said, if we can get away without a couple
of bottles being thrown on us, it is going to be a good set, if we can
get a small, smart applause. When we heard the roar when our name was
introduced I thought "God, what's happening here?". We went
on the stage, and everybody was relaxed after doing the Tull festival,
so we went out and just clicked it. We did the set, then we did "Margaret"
which was our encore, the first one we got. We walked off the stage and
I thought "God that was really good, they were really in to it".
Next thing our manager comes running and says "Go on, you've got
another one". It had been authorized by the Reading staff that we
could go in and do another encore. So we were the first band at the weekend
that got two encores." (Tom Russell interview with Fish. Radio Clyde,
29-08-1982.)
Versions of "He
Knows You Know" (4:46) and "Three Boats Down from the Candy"
(4:40) are released on the double album set "Reading Rock Festival,
vol. one", released on Mean Records, 42-50 Steele Road, London NW10
7BP, England (try your luck - I own a copy!). This year's festival was
headlined by the German Michael Schenker Group visiting Britain with material
from their "Assault Attack"-album. Playing with Michael Schenker
were Chris Glen and Ted McKenna of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, who
would one day end up recording and performing with Fish, that being ten
years later. Chris Glen had been the bassist with Michael Schenker since
the recording of his debut album in 1980, while Ted McKenna had been on
the drum stool at the recording of the present "Assault Attack"-album
only. Marillion were followed by Jackie Lyndon Band, and then Bernie Marsden's
SOS who was later to reform as Bernie Marsden's Alaska and then recruit
a drummer, who we do not know yet but will get to know as Marillion sack
Mick Pointer and start recruiting drummer after drummer. A hint for you
to use when querying your mind over the next 20 pages will be that nearly
14 years from now Fish was to start gig with the same drummer in an outfit
named the SAS Band. Anyway, on the Reading bill was also Wilko Johnson,
out on a warm summer day to promote his latest album "Ice on the
Motorway" and the 1970'ies hero Dave Edmunds who had eight albums
in the knapsack the latest being "D.E.7".
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