B'SIDES THEMSELVES

The first Marillion compilation was a reunion of their singles B sides released through the 80´s, just after Fish had left the band. Of course, the main reason to buy this LP at the time is because, most of all, it included the whole Market Square Heroes EP, which was never released in my country. The epic Grendel being a kind of "holy grail" among fans for years. And indeed I see it as a link between the Marillion sound and their influences (Genesis, of course, because of the obvious Apocalypse in 9/8 part of Supper´s Ready homage at the end of the track, but there is more). It was nice to have this 17 minute masterpiece on an album at last. For most fans the inclusion of the complete song was worth the price of the LP alone, together with the re-recordings of the title track and Three Boats Down The Candy. Those new versions are not much different form the original ones as far as I could hear.

It´s easy to understand why most of the tracks here never made the albums: either they were not up to the their standards, which is the case of the majority of them, or did not fit on the concept of the album at the time. Not surprisingly the latter ones are the best: the aforementioned Grendel, the beautiful Cinderella Search (one of their best songs ever, this mini epic unfortunately was edited on my LP and the last part was merciless butchered out. It seems they fixed it when the CD edition was released) and Tux On, a different but great rocking tune. Of the remaining stuff, Freaks, Charting The Single and Lady Nina, are not fantastic, but are saved by the bands tasteful arrangements, Fishs poetry and the general great performance of the band even at those less then spectacular moments. In fact, only Margaret (a live jam track based on a traditional scottish song) is out of place here: it would have been terrific on a live album, as a closing track, but listening to it on a compilation CD is odd, specially because at 12 minutes it is just too long and listening to it you can not help the feeling of arriving at the end of a great show having missed the best moments.

Overall this is a very good CD that closes the golden era of the band, the Fish years. It was great to have all their b sides and early EP on one album, even if at the time it was a seen as a small reward for the bad news of Fish leaving, along with the La Gazza Ladra live album.

Rating: something between 3,5 and 4 stars.