Music interview '“ Marillion: '˜Playing the Royal Albert Hall was quite an experience'

Marillion are playing in the Barbican Centre in York on Sunday. The YEP caught up with singer Steve Hogarth to find out how things were going.
Marillion play in York this weekend.Marillion play in York this weekend.
Marillion play in York this weekend.

“We have had a great year so far, pretty swimmingly, to be honest.

“We were touring a lot last year, and the album we released in the September the year before [FEAR] was very well received by the fans and critics alike.

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“That was sort of reflected in the ticket sales a little bit, and of course we sold out the Royal Albert Hall in four minutes, which was a lot faster than any of us thought, and to be honest, we had the most amazing gig there, it was just incredible.

“We did film it, and there’s a movie that has just come out of the night which was just amazing.”

The band recently released the concert recording All In One Night.

“It looks really beautiful,” says Hogarth. “I mean, it’s very rare to be honest, that I listen to or look at anything we have done and get excited by it, but I’m really proud of this one. We pushed the boat out, and spent a lot of money on the production, and we made a lot of movies to accompany the songs (on stage). The whole thing was quite an experience!

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“We had a phenomenal string quartet that usually work with the Belgian Opera, we have got the ‘Young Musician Of The Year’ with us playing the flute, and a brilliant French horn player called Sam Morris, so we have got a little classical section, a sextet, accompanying us on the second half of the show. We had to rearrange some of the songs to suit that.

“It was a real gas to be there, to be in that place; I’ve never played the Royal Albert Hall before and have been nagging the band for years to plan to do it.”

As for future plans, Hogarth says: “Currently we are on a UK tour and Ireland during April. In May, we have studio stuff on because we are trying to get in, jam around a bit, and start work on the next album, and in June and July we are in Holland and France for some festivals, Japan in September, and Germany in November.

“Come next spring we are having our biannual Marillion Convention where we play weekend shows in Holland, Poland, England, Canada and Portugal, so that’s five weekends around the world that we are preparing for as well, so we are pretty busy.”

Marillion play at York Barbican on April 22. www.marillion.com