H Natural Live in Dublin

Well what can I say, I went to see Steve Hogarth on Saturday, a gig he readily admitted he had done no rehearsal for, not that it showed that much, his playing was superb, his singing was incrediblly emotional as he performed stripped down versions of MARILLION classics plus a few surprises. Steve intimated that this was just going to be an adhoc evening of music and chat, ample time being given to the audience to ask him any question they liked, Steve was very generous with this, some of his replies being 10 minutes or more. If a song came up in conversation he just played it, even songs not by him or Marillion, he was readily able to play, VERY impressive, he also played many requests in his set, basically a fans dream come true and all in one the smallest venue's there is, the stage being only 6 people wide. I got the chance to ask him why is Prog considered a four letter word? and why he's claimed on numerous occasions that Marillion are not Prog and yet they headlined the Prog stage at High Voltage? His answer was that the band are coming around to the idea that if they look and sound like a Prog band, I guess they must be, no matter how much they protest the fact. He went on to say he hated pigeonholing of music and that bands who consider themselves part of a genre or niche are going to just going to compromise their music to please the fans as opposed to being true to their songwriting abilities. The musical Highlights of the evening were House, Real Tears for Sale and a very emotional rendition of Somewhere Else. He finished with the wonderful Three Minute Boy, The Waterboys "Whole of the Moon" and a great version of Kate Bush's "Cloudbusting", Just Superb! So if you ever get the chance go see him solo, its a really special evening, not to be missed.