Originally published by The Birmingham Mail. December 2007.

With their fifteenth studio album not due till next year, Marillion might have felt they took a big gamble by touring so close to Christmas, they need not have worried.

By playing a set list that had something for everybody, from 1989 up to the present day, the band left a near-capacity crowd content and full of pre-Christmas cheer. A truly eclectic evening was kicked off by Bridge and Living With The Big Lie form their 1994 critically acclaimed album Brave.

Steve Hogarth, Pete Trewaves, Mark Kelly, Ian Mosley and Steve Rothery teased the crowd playfully before going into Real Tears For Sale, a song off the forthcoming album, before ending the first set with Somewhere Else and Season’s End.

It opened with a brilliant rendition of Hooks In You and the ever beautiful Genie from 2005’s Marbles. They continued in much the same form with This Town and the sublime Cannibal Surf Babe.

With Huge applause ringing out Marillion returned to the stage for the encores Neverland and Let It Snow.

Ian D. Hall