I started writing this page purely to document our Marillion going experiences. I quickly found myself getting more involved in side project such as Kino and other related concerts such as Fish. I also found that my love of photography was revived and now feel I've missed a concert if I've not been able to photograph it. Some people cannot understand why I want to photograph the concert and assume I'm missing the concert. For me it is about knowing the work of the artist so that you can anticipate good moment (such as Steve throwing his head back and going to that place he goes to during a guitar solo, or H declaring that he is "perfectly sane" while displaying quite the opposite). You will find links to loads of my photographs of Marillion, Kino, and Fish ( look out for the flashing camera icons ).

You may notice that I'm not reviewing the concerts from a musical point of view. Firstly I would not presume to tell a group of people as experienced as Marillion how to play but I'll let you know if it's ever truly awful. Secondly, for me, the concert going experience is as much about the relationship between the audience and the artist as it is the actual content of the concert. In all the concerts I've been to so far I've been able to really let go because I know that almost everyone else is also letting go. I don't need to feel self conscious because (and I've seen this with my own eyes) it's the people standing still on the outskirts not those in the scrum in front of the stage that feel awkward. Let me put it another way, Marillion would have to try really hard to make me not like their music but all the audience need to do to put me off a show is to sit quietly and clap politely between songs. I hope that makes as much sense to you as it does to me.

Well it's certainly been an interesting year for Sue and myself. We suddenly had an almost religious reawakening to the music of Marillion and I'm fairly certain that most of our friends think we've gone mad. Well if this is madness then bring it on.

I think this probably all started because the band wanted the fans to stump up £30 to buy the new album Marbles. Not that you could actually listen to any of it because it was not ready by a long way. The incentive was to get your name in the credits and to get your hands on the album a little earlier than those that waited to see what the end result was. Well the result has been worth waiting for (even if the wait was longer than predicted). Our initial following of the band started in the early eighties when Sue's brother David was a big fan. His liking of the band rubbed off on Sue and then when Sue and I got together in Bangor it rubbed off onto me. This was then further reinforced by sharing a house with a Marillion fan and a Genesis fan.

We both lost touch with the band after University and before Fish left. Not that we didn't keep buying the albums, we had a fairly full catalogue, it's just that somehow seeing a band live adds something to the music you listen to when you are not at a concert.

We've been to comparatively few concerts this year. Well when I say few it really is against the background of the more dedicated long term fans who manage to turn up at virtually every concert. I really can see why this happens, I was seriously considering going to Dublin and then Belfast but a friend decided to get married that weekend. I suggested we go to Mexico for our 10th wedding anniversary which would have been nicely timed to coincide with the guys playing that city but Sue took the view that it was perhaps too loyal (I have to say that was September and at the time of writing (November) I think she has perhaps reassessed her loyalty and we would have been going).

This was our first concert with Marillion for over 15 years and apart from the strange location (inside some curved roofed football pitch or cowshed depending on who you talk to) it did not let us down. We were scratching our heads over the fact that everyone seemed more interested in talking to each other than listening to the band they had paid good money to see. I started to assume they had given away a load of free tickets just to boost the crowd and that these were the people making the noise. However this was not the case, it just appears to be a Dutch thing really.

However we left the concert delighted or even amazed at the length of the show. They performed a huge chunk of Marbles, went off stage briefly and reappeared to do another 90 minutes of the older stuff.

We took Mark along (a friend living in Herenveen) and I think he was expecting Fish material. As it turned out there was no such old material. In my opinion that is a good thing but clearly loads of the fans still turn up in the hope they will hear some of the old material.

After the show Sue and I were really impressed and I just wanted to listen to more Marillion. Stupidly we did not bring anything with us to play in the car, that was the last time we made that mistake.

Despite being as far from the stage as it was possible to get we enjoyed this concert as much as the others. I was sat on a piece of concrete window ledge so far up that the band looked tiny. It was great to see the guys after what seemed like an eternity.

For the second evening we took a few friends along, the confirmed rock addict Meirion and friends, who now live in New Zealand, Neil and Claire. Everyone said how much they enjoyed the show and we had far better seats. H let out a teaser about being dropped in for the next show, the next day in Germany.

I woke up early, I was pleading with Sue to go to the concert but she was doing a good act of not wanting to go. I resorted to playing some of our favorite tracks to get her in the spirit and by 10:00 she had relented. We booked a hotel, programmed the navigation system and set off for the three hour drive to Cologne.

The show was awesome. Before the show we had seen H showing his family round the show but decided to keep a little distance and give him the privacy I'm sure he craves on such occasions. H's entrance was just so OTT you had to see it to believe it. Firstly sky divers descended out of the sky, with the hint we'd received the previous night I was asking myself was it possible that H was strapped to one of these guys. Then a helicopter started to circle the event and it soon became clear that this was where H was. They delivered him to a waiting jeep which drove him to the back of the stage. All total unnecessary but totally fabulous to watch. They really must make a video of this even if it's only an extra on some other DVD.

Wow what a show. This was an acoustic set without Ian or Mark. Not only was the support act Azis and Dal of the H' Band but H himself took part during 'really like'. Sue and I got there early and managed to grab a place on the front row, if I have my way we will never stand anywhere else again. They promised to join us at the bar after the show and they kept their word. It just shows what a trust worthy crowd us Marillion fans really are. Well it was around 2am before we got away from the venue and to our delight we found that H was staying in the same hotel as us.

To add to the experience we met up with a number of Brits who could not be more friendly. I'm sure we will keep in touch and certainly see one another at future gigs.

Damn, damn, damn. Sue was taken ill during the support act and we wound up in Hospital without hearing any of Kino. We eventually got home by about 1:00am and then to add insult to injury we heard that H had turned up to give Pete a bit of support as part of the crowd. We are both kicking ourselves at having missed what was apparently a great show. Still Sue has made a good recovery from the mystery illness and has promised not to make a habit of this.

Huge thanks to the web holland and everyone who appeared on stage. It was a long but very entertaining evening . We got in around 4:30 after a bit of a delayed start and managed to secure a great place at the front just in front of Pete's usual spot. The event started with a short set from Aziz and Dal during which H' came on stage to perform Really Like. After that there was a film followed by questions to the band from the audience. We were told what to expect from the three nights at the convention in a bit more detail than we'd heard before. After that there was what seemed like a never ending lottery draw. Then John Mitchell and John Beck performed a few Kino numbers and some It Bites and were joined by Pete for the last few songs (we are now really gutted that we missed their first night because they really were excellent). Finally the highlight, Marillion (less Mark and Ian) came on to perform a really well received acoustic set. They were joined by Aziz and Dal for the second to last song and finally the two Johns came back on stage making the Tivoli stage seem incredibly packed.

After the show they came off stage and mingled with the crowd. We left at around midnight (about eight hours after arriving) and Pete was leaving at about the same time. The others were still going strong.

The show was the first time I've been able to try the new camera (Canon 300D with the EF-S 18-55 lens) in such concert conditions and I think it was worth the money. The flash that I bought went almost unused and certainly never during the show. However I did feel a little under equipped when compared to the guy from the web France who was parked next to me (apparently size does matter). The pictures are a little grainy and that's because to get the pictures in such low light I shoved the ISO rating right up.

My Brother-in-law and three close friends joined us for the weekend and I think it's fair to say that we all enjoyed the weekend although perhaps for those that were less familiar with the more recent Marillion work some of the shows were less enjoyable. As had been promised in the Tivoli, Friday was a almost pure Marbles set, Saturday was an up beat evening, and Sunday was more chilled out. Naturally I loved the Marbles set and true to their word they played ocean cloud, the Saturday show was great and if H is to be believed the room downstairs needed to be evacuated because they believed the ceiling was close to collapse, Sunday night was filled with the slower numbers and although this was not to everyone's tastes I found it a really nice way to wind down especially as they played what might be my favorite song 'A few words for the dead' ('or you could Love' brilliant!).

The other entertainment for Saturday was the swap the band section. This went down really well with everyone and some very talented people appeared on stage replacing Ian, Steve, H and at times the entire band. H's daughter Sofie, sang Angelina and H could not contain his pride. Two of H's friends also appeared performing 'waiting to happen' a father and daughter duo from the Armstrong family. I was later told that this duo was none other than the son and grand-daughter of one Neil Armstrong. The final swap the band spot included a mystery song sung by the lead singer of the Forgotten Sons the scottish cover band. The mystery song turned out to be Fugazi and the crowd went wild.

Sunday night included a final to the trivia competition in which the best team went head to head against the band. With a few last minute changes to the rules the challengers won but it was all done in the spirit of entertainment and we all had a great time watching H squirm during the 'what comes next' competition when he was excluded from answering and none of the rest of the band could demonstrate much knowledge of the lyrics.

One thing that struck everyone we have spoken to and that was the friendliness of everyone. In every situation people demonstrated a really good natured attitude towards everyone else. H had started the weekend with a little speech in which he likened those present to the band's family and it really did feel like a very large family party. Personally I can't wait for the next one but I appreciate that for people who have saved up hard to travel a long way it would be all too easy to make this less special by holding it too regularly.

A project I'd set myself was to create a kite carrying the marble logo. Lucy was kind enough to give me the go ahead to use the logo and gave me some resources that helped. I managed to get the guys to sign the kite. This was done in stages because I'd caught up with H, Pete, and Steve at the 20th anniversary bash in Utrecht and then at the signing I managed to get Ian and Mark to complete the set. The picture here shows the kite being flown from the beach with the top of the Butlins tent in the background. I now have another project and that is to make the kite stable because what this still picture does not tell you is that within about 15 seconds of take off the kite becomes unstable and spirals out of control to the ground.

On the photo front I took over 1000 pictures across the four days. Not all of these are good and many of them will never be allowed to see the light of day. However I'm quite pleased with some of the shots and in particular the new lens (A Sigma fixed 20mm f1.8) really helped me get some great shots of Steve. Sadly that lens is of little use if you are not parked right in front of your subject and I found that during the weekend I was resorting to using the 18-55mm and an old 100-300mm zoom. The drawback of this is it's small aperture so it was very difficult to get good shots from the distances I was at. However I met a couple of people who demonstrated their great nature and loaned me their excellent image stabilised 70-200mm zoom lenses. I tell you taking perfect shots with this lens from the back of the room is a real joy and I know what I want for my next Birthday.

Friday Evening
Signing
Saturday Evening
Sunday Evening

We went to see Pete and the rest of Kino supporting Spock's beard. It was a great show and the reception they got from the audience started to make me think that we might see a support act performing an encore but I suppose it's not the done thing. We started to watch the Spock's beard set but as we had been late for the weekend shows and the trip back we skipped out after the second track. I've taken a good few pictures of both Kino and Spock's Beard .

We flew two thousand miles just to take a look at you. Well actually it was more like three thousand but it was worth it. This was a slightly late Birthday present for me and an early one for Sue and I got my Birthday present of the 70-200mm lens too. We saw four shows by the guys two were short sets followed by signings and two were full shows.

Not the usual place to see Marillion, they had clearly gone to great lengths to clear a space to fit them in and that is what it looked like. The staff were really helpful and even helped by shifting a couple of racks of CD's so that I could get my shots over the balcony. Mr and Mrs Vaxman came along too and yet again upstaged my camera having purchased an even bigger and better lens.

Those of you who were there will probably realise I've got the above pictures out of sequence. They started with the show and then kicked everyone out so that we could form a queue for the signing session. When we had a nice chat with the band and had a couple of MOTR's signed for friends. The show was only about five songs but it was great to see the guys live again.

During this tour they were often seen wearing 'One' shirts which is the US equivalent of Make Poverty History. If you have not already done so then please visit one of the links below.

Supported by Jason Hart on keyboards in a really great venue. We took a friend along who had previously been a Marillion fan in the Fish era but had kind of lost touch with their later work. On the way to the concert she had said she hoped they played some of the old stuff like 'Sugar Mice' and we said that it would be mostly the newer stuff but if they did play anything old that 'Sugar Mice' was most likely. Well they didn't disappoint as you can see from the picture of H's set list.

After the show we hung around for a while and the guys joined us in the bar. We managed to get to speak to each of them which impressed our friend greatly and I think we might have a convert. I was curious how they were traveling up to Boston and kind of hoped we might be sharing a plane with them. However I think it was Steve that told me they were going by train.

At the end of the evening we saw the guys set off in a camper van which we found kind of funny when you compare it to some of the massive tour busses or limos that other artists might be seen climbing into.

One thing that really impressed me was not having to watch the show through a fog of cigarette smoke. As with all such venues in New York this was completely non smoking and it makes a huge difference to be able to go home not smelling of smoke and it makes a difference to the pictures too.

We arrived a little late and only managed to catch the last few minutes of Jason Hart who was supporting again. However I noticed that same camper van that I mentioned after the New York gig. Naturally I concluded that they had come up in the van and not the train. I was put straight by the owner of the van, Eric, who said he had tried to talk them into it and Pete was tempted but they had indeed taken the train. First impressions on entering the hall was that this was a really tiny venue as when you enter the stage is right in front of you with no more than 10 rows of chairs. Actually the venue was quite large because it is very wide and has a balcony that extends around the sides of the stage.

There were a number of people in the audience that I recognised from the night before. Something I noticed was just how obliging everyone was often asking me if I'd like to take a shot from their place. We both really enjoyed this show and I think in part it was because you were close to the band no matter how far away you were and also because it really was a great show.

This was quite a small gathering on the first floor of the store. They performed about five tracks and then there was a signing session. We had our MOTR PAL double DVD edition signed by the guys and had a good chat with them.

Although I took a few pictures they really did not turn out well. I'll put a few of them up but I'm not really happy with the results.

Oh the divided loyalties that are afflicting me now! I was not even sure if I should be placing this review on the Marillion page. However he played a vast amount of Marillion material and he was part of Marillion for such a long time so here it is.

That was a really great show, worth every cent. Well OK it was free but I really would have been prepapred to pay to get in. He started off playing two or three of his solo tracks including 'Big Wedge' and 'Credo' and then announcing the 20th anniversary of 'Misplaced Childhood' he played 'Pseudo Silk Kimono' and then later went on to play 'Kayleigh', 'Lavender', 'Heart of Lothian', 'Fugazi', 'Incommunicado', 'Market Square Heroes' and many more that we didn't remember to list but I'm sure someone will. I have to say in places I was missing Steve's guitar but otherwise it was really fantastic.

The crowd seemed to really love everything he did although the Marillion stuff was clearly a favorite. I'll certainly be trying to get hold of tickets for the upcoming tour. I'm now really curious to see what Marillion do next week at Bospop.

Although this is a two day festival we only went along for the Saturday along with some 10,000 other people. The acts for the day were V-male, Peter Frampton, Steve Lukather (of Toto), Uriah Heep, Marillion, Roger Hodgson (of Supertramp), and finally Joe Cocker. We arrived to see the end of Peter Frampton and managed to get a good place near the front. All the acts were really superb although we did leave early during Joe Cocker's set because it was getting late and we anticipated some large queues at the car park. A shame really because we could still hear him performing as we were driving off and it sounded like we missed a lot of his more familiar work.

To our shame we didn't arrive early enough to see the whole of Peter's set but what we did see we enjoyed and it seemed that the rest of the crowd were enjoying hearing him play too. He played 'Show me the way' and 'Baby, I love your way'. If you are now thinking 'Oh that Peter Frampton' then you are not alone, I had to refer to my walking encyclopedia. We managed to work our way through to quite near the front and stayed almost in the same place until the entire day was over.

Equally Steve Lukather was a real hit (and I'll hear no comments such as did his bass player take time out from recording DIY SOS). He didn't play anything that we recognised although clearly the rest of the crowd knew his work and were singing along. It was very easy to get caught up in his strongly guitar based rock.

Uriah Heep were on before Marillion. Naturally I'd heard of them but never heard anything by them despite their long career. I am now very tempted to go and check them out. I was extremely lucky to be in the right place to catch the pick that was thrown into the crowd. Normally I cannot catch to save my life and if I'm honest I just threw my hand out and was lucky that the pick hit me.

Marillion were also on top form with H performing his gymnastics during the Easter encore by climbing up the rigging. This time he chose only to stop slightly before the lighting rig. The rest of the set was awesome and you could see that H was loving playing to the crowd.

He made a passionate speach relating to the make poverty history campaign. Given that we were sharing the day with Live 8 this seemed very appropriate and well received.

I must mention the guy who got me the Marbles pick. He had asked one of the security guards to get him one of the picks and he obliged. I offered to trade him the Uriah Heep pick but he said he preffered the Marbles one. Then he spotted that they swept another one off the stage and obligingly dived over the barrier and fetched it for me and was back before the security new what was going on. I am forever in your debt. BTW if there is anyone out there with any of the other Marbles picks that might like a trade along the lines of some of my pictures then please get in touch (well I have to try).

Roger Hodgson formerly of Supertramp gave a superb performance selecting a wide range of their well known work and it went down extremely well with the crowd. It brought back so many good memories for me and obviously for so very many people in the crowd.

When you hear the crowd yell out for a particular song you don't expect it to be played. Well they shouted for School and he said they would have a go. Clearly it was lacking in some minor areas but it really did feel like they were doing it on request. Two guys on stage managed to reproduce the sounds of Supertramp so well it really amazed me.

When he asked to see all the unbrellas in the crowd during the song it's raining again it made for a spectacular site, I only wish I had a picture of it. Again I think we will be looking out for Roger touring.

Joe was the headline act and not scheduled to come on until 11:00 and when he did it was with around nine other musicians. Even so the vast stage seemed quite empty as most of the musicans were placed well at the back giving Joe plenty of room. Again the crowd seemed to be really taken by Joe and his growling voice.

As a reference to the Live 8 he played a version of U2's 'One'. We left at around midnight and at that time he was playing 'You can leave your hat on'. As we pulled away in the car we could hear 'With a little help from my friends'.

On the way in we happened to meet another Brit and he said he had been coming to the festival every year of the festivals 25 years. It really was a very well organised festival with everything taken care of (even the ground was covered to reduce the mud). Regardless of Marillion playing or not I think we are very likely to return to this festival next year.

It's November 5th and the latest twisting tales has just arrived (Volume 5 Issue 3) and Sue phoned me to tell me they have used some of my pictures in the write up for Bospop shown here on the right. I don't need to say how delighted I am, this is exactly why I keep taking the pictures.

For the headline picture with H surrounded by glitter I'd seen the glitter canons set up at the back but could not quite make out what they were. Luckily I was ready and able to get a few shots off when they were used.

The Academy is on the other side of the road to the medical school where Sue did her PhD although it was not there when Sue was at Manchester. We had lined this show up as a suprise for a friend whose Birthday it was. If his reaction at the door was anything to go by then it appears he was completely unaware where he was going until we arrived at the venue.

The show started with the two local lads Azis and Dal who will be familiar to regular Marillion fans. Sadly we were late and managed to come in halfway through their last track. Then Marillion took to the stage with H sporting a mortar board and whip for Accidental man.

Hearing Fantastic place was wonderful but for me the high point was Neverland although Xmas Marbles was a bit of fun with a special guest apperance by Santa (actually it turned out to be H not the real Santa, sorry kids).

I took loads of pictures and selected what I think are the highlights. Take a look at them by clicking on the following icon.

Finding L'Usine proved tricky once the signs ran out. Apologies to the guys following us thinking we knew where we were going and got a free tour of the more obscure streets of the town.

Once we had arrived the support act were performing their last song and I had to quickly get into the pit before Marillion took to the stage.

The picture to the right is of H's set list. Neither Sue nor I remember hearing seasons end but we are both sure they played three songs during the encore. I'll have to have a look around because I'm sure someone will have noted the actual set list.

I took my sister (Sally) along to hear them. She had gone under the illusion that Marillion were a sort of Heavy Metal band. She came away pleasantly surprised so I attempted to get hold of Marbles in the local record shop and found Marillion catalogued under Heavy Metal/Hard Rock.

The fireworks during Mad were kind of expected after the same thing happened at Manchester but the shower of confetti was a total surprise. As this was the eve of Steve's Birthday a group of the audience lit sparklers and Steve was obviously delighted by this.

I took a number of pictures and here is a filtered set of what we consider the best.

A superb evening was made all the better by having friends over from the UK. Judith and Ian had especially flown in from Liverpool that day. Meirion came along too so there was quite a little group of us. As usual I left them all to enjoy the show from behind the barrier.

They were supported by Gazpacho from Norway who are obviously keen supporters of Marillion and vice versa (I noticed Steve R had popped into the audience to appreciate a few tracks). Sorry there are so few pictures of them but the lighting was a little tricky, they are not actually a three piece band.

Naturally the show was great with a real party atmosphere. We had fireworks, confetti, and a visit from Santa with all his little helpers including two from Gazpacho on fiddle and flute.

After the show we popped into a local watering hole and found ourselves surrounded by like minded fans and ultimately several members of the band. The journey home seemed to take forever and we can't have arrived until around 4am. The Red Bull was doing it's job though but ultimately at around 5am I gave up uploading the pictures and went to bed. This might not have been too clever an idea as we have to see the band again tonight (Saturday) and we are off to see Porcupine Tree tomorrow. An added bonus was to find that when we arived home the Christmas CD was on the doormat.

As usual I took the camera along and had fun recording the event. The following link will take you to the pictures .

[this picture of H in the confetti made it into the web UK magazine spring 2006 page 25. However it nearly didn't happen. I kind of knew from France to expect something special and fully intended to get into position. But security had been told about the fireworks during 'The Damage' and cleared us all out of the way so we didn't get burnt. I pleaded to be let back in and managed to pursuade them in time to get this shot.]

This was easily the best of the four shows we have been to on this tour, and very possibly the best show we have ever been to. At least partly this was the venue but also the band were in top form. I don't have the official set list but I do know that H basically tore it up and made up his own.

They were supported by Gazpacho again but this time with a brief but powerful guest appearance by Steve Rothery. Just thinking about it gives me that shiver down the spine that you get when you listen to truly great music. It's rare that we are taken by a support act but in this case we went off and bought their Firebird album immediately.

Although there were no added extras in the form of confetti or smoke bombs the show really stood out as something special. Doors opened at 7:00, Gazpacho arrived on stage at around 8:00, Marillion at around 9:15 but it was not until just before midnight that the band returned to the stage for the final encore 'Erin Marbles' with H dressed as Santa and guest appearances from the fiddler and the flautist from Gazpacho and eventually the entire band. Between the start and end the audience seemed far more engaged than they were at 013, especially when H invited us to tell him what song he should play next.

After the show we managed to buy a copy of the new Gazpacho album, Firebird, on which Steve Rothery makes a guest appearance, and managed to get it signed by most of the band. I would have loved to have had Steve sign the album too but Marillion were nowhere to be found (even Lucy was looking a little panicked at one point when she thought she had lost them :-)).

Sadly that's it for us for this tour but what a great ending. The photos are here and have been whittled down to a more acceptable number.

Thanks to the tour manager for arranging my photo pass at the last minute so I was able to take a few pictures.

The guys were supported by a couple of Dutch guys from a band called 'For absent friends' (thanks to PH and Willem). This was an accoustic set so it was just the lead singer and the keyboard player. I was really impressed by the simplicity and clarity of their set.

Kino were on top form and performed not only a large part of Picture but also some 'It Bites', 'The Urbane', and 'Marillion'. I have to say that there version of Sugar Mice was great and judging by the number of people singing along very popular with the audience.

It's a great shame that the next Dutch gig is so far away otherwise I'd have seriously considered skipping the works Christmas dinner and going to that too.

A selection of the pictures are available here.

What a great evening this was. At time of writing the tour is not over so I won't spoil it for anyone one else that has a show to go to except to say that Steve was completely alone on stage with only the keyboard and a lamp for company. It was a great mix of music and chat that captivated the audience to such an extent that even the locals where unusually quiet :-).

The stage configuration along with the fact that the front row had small tables with candles and then around four rows of seats behind that made for a very intimate atmosphere.

As usual I had the camera with me and you can see a selection of the pictures here.

I would like to build up a link section to any one elses Marillion related picture site. If you would like your site listed or if you find a broken link then please use the Feedback form.