By Jim Rowland
It all started with the release of ‘With Friends From The Orchestra’ in 2019, when Marillion teamed up with ‘In Praise of Folly’, a string quartet accompanied by French horn and flute, to record an album full of re-arranged Marillion treasures. That same year, Marillion took these special versions on tour, and ‘With Friends At St David’s’ documents that tour with this show filmed and recorded in Cardiff, the band’s first show in that city for a considerable amount of time.
Clocking in at more than two hours, the set largely mirrors the track listing of the studio ‘With Friends’ album, with some pretty special additions, notably the epic ‘Gaza’ and the up tempo ‘Zeperated Out’. It’s also a set that spans the entire Hogarth era of Marillion, from ‘Season’s End’ at the very start, to ‘F.E.A.R.’s ‘The New Kings’ alongside numerous treats from the intervening years. In fact, with that two-plus hour running time being made up of only 11 tracks, it’s fair to say ‘Gaza’ isn’t the only epic included here, with ‘The New Kings’, ‘This Strange Engine’ and the folk-tinged ‘Ocean Cloud’, a highlight for me, all approaching the 20-minute mark.
The performance shows the band in fine form, as is Steve Hogarth in both the vocal and between-song banter departments. The orchestration, which gives these tracks a whole new perspective and flavour, is tasteful. Quite often these rock band/orchestral collaborations can be a little overbearing when it comes to the orchestral contribution, but here it’s just right, with the right amount of subtlety.
‘With Friends At St David’s’ is released on as CD Digipak, limited three LP gatefold coloured vinyl (transparent violet – nice!), DVD and Blu-ray. The DVD adds bonus footage of a promo film for ‘Estonia’ and a live in Paris version of ‘Man Of 1000 Faces’, whilst the Blu-ray has even more exclusive bonus footage of ‘You’re Gone’, ‘Power’ and ‘A Collection’ live from Kensington, plus a ‘Making Friends’ documentary, which may just make this format the one to go for. Considering the amount of material you get on these various formats, Marillion fans are not being short-changed, that’s for sure, and this is a very welcome release to sweeten the wait for their new studio album currently in the works.
- ‘With Friends At St David’s’ is released next Friday (28 May). You can get your copy HERE.
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