The much-anticipated Marillion Weekend has arrived!
Kerri and I took Via1 to Montreal on Thursday. Uneventful ride, which is always a good thing. Dinner at Maharaja Buffet and then on to the fan meet-up at Brutopia – it was packed, as usual. Saw h, Pete and Lucy, and Kerri met other fans (but didn’t take any photos).
Friday: Brunch at Cora’s with Phil Simon, then off to Brutopia again for Kings and Scripted – both were great. I was surprised how many people sang along with the Fish-era tracks… and that I remembered so many lyrics given how long ago that was! 🙂
Beer and a burger at St Andre bar, then off to L’Olympia for the first night: Casey McPherson then Marillion performing Anoraknophobia. Wait! Pete tweeted that Casey is stuck at the border, so Eric Blackwood (of Edison’s Children) is stepping in! Eric even played three new tracks which will be on the next album.
Marillion opened with Montreal, of course … except that didn’t go to plan – the monitor desk just blew up! So much for their plan to open with an encore, i.e. play Montreal, go off stage, then play the whole of Anoraknophobia 🙂
Anyway, the technical problem is resolved and they come back on. After Anoraknophobia, it’s This Strange Engine (one of my favs) and Gaza.
While we were deciding whether to hang around to say hi to the band or have an early (midnight-ish) night, Pete came out so we had a quick chat and I snapped a photo of him and Kerri.
Saturday morning started at L’Olympia again, although it was just the meeting point for a group of about 20 of us to head to a sugar shack, where we ate a lot! We didn’t do much in the afternoon (apart from come down from a sugar high!) before heading to Grillades Da Silva, a little Portuguese place which was better than I expected.
Lo-Fi Resistance put on a good performance, especially considering it was only their second live gig. I decided to head closer to the stage before Marillion came on; I think I got some decent shots. After playing the whole of Marbles came Out Of This World (another favourite of mine), King, and Sounds That Can’t Be Made. I managed to get Pete’s set list, so when I spotted Pete come out the stage door I grabbed my pen and asked him to sign it 🙂
I spent some of Sunday morning reviewing my photos from the previous nights; there are a few I think deserve editing (at home) and sharing. We walked down to the Old Port and into the Old Town (past the F1 store, which was closed); lunched at Crêperie Chez Suzette then wandered back to the hotel briefly before heading to L’Olympia once more for the afternoon session: Questions and Answers, and Swap The Band. The people who stood in for each band member each did a great job. It was funny to watch Pete, Mark and Ian hover as someone else played their part (and their instruments). {update: see links in comments for video}
We heard that a lot of the fans head to the sports bar just down the street, so we went there for a drink. The service was terrible and they only had factory beer, so we decamped to St Andre again – definitely the better choice.
The final night at L’Olympia; David Barrett Trio opened and played a largely (entirely?) instrumental set. I got chatting with a guy who turned out to be related to Mark Kelly, and he’s an Agile coach (like me) – small world!
And then came the Marillion “surprise” set (rather than knowing in advance which album they’d play) – “the singles”:
- Market Square Heroes
- Garden Party
- Kayleigh
- Lavender
- Heart of Lothian
- Warm Wet Circles
- Sugar Mice
- Incommunicado
- Hooks In You
- Uninvited Guest
- No-One Can
- Dry Land
- Sympathy
- The Great Escape
- Lap Of Luxury
- Beautiful
- These Chains
- See It Like A Baby
- Thank You, Whoever You Are
- Whatever Is Wrong With You
- Power
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Easter - Man Of 1000 Faces
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Montreal - Three Minute Boy
The end of Sunday night’s show is always bitter-sweet because it’s been a fantastic weekend but it’s over. Well, the Marillion Weekend is over but I’ll spend a few evenings reviewing my photos, then editing and sharing them, as well as finding our new friends on Facebook 🙂
[All my photos are on Flickr] — I’ll update this post with some photos once I’ve processed them.
Fan videos from Swap The Band: