PIGPEN'S BIRTHDAY

With only two solo studio albums preceeding, naturally this live-2CD contains Marillion songs quite a lot and that's nice principally. But they aren't well chosen: Punch & Judy, Assassing, Kayleigh, Lavender, Heart of Lothian, Sugar Mice - all single hits. 'Script' makes a good exception into the proggier side. Songs from Vigil and Int.Exile - emphasis on the first - are better chosen.

Now to my point. If there's someone out there who considers purchasing a Fish CD and thinks this (or any live album, he's released way too many of them) would give a nice package of some Marillion and early solo stuff - no, I really wouldn't recommend. I think Fish as a singer somehow loses his voice in a concert: it gets stuffy, airless. Not always (I don't remember hearing this problem in 'Thieving Magpie' for instance) but here undoubtedly so. To some extent it's true about the band's sound too. I borrowed this couple of years ago but found out there's nothing I wanted to waste my tapes on, as the songs work better on studio albums. Some Fish fans may think the opposite and say he has an intense stage appearance. But that stuffy vocal sound really irritates me.