THE THIEVING MAGPIE - LA GAZZA LADRA

First I bought the double vinyl, then, when I saw the CD in a shop it made me very upset: On my edition there was just half of Misplaced Childhood while the CD had the whole plus some other "extra" songs. It was probably a way to push people in buying CDs and leave the vinyl.

The good of this double CD is that it's a quite complete anthology of the Fish period. With the addition of Grendel or Three Boat Down From The Candy it would have covered also the very beginnings, but there's Script and Freaks anyway.

It's opened, as the Marillion's gigs in that period, by an excerpt from Rossini's "La Gazza Ladra". A Thieving Magpie is painted on almost all the cover sleeves of the first band's albums and it's a sort of symbol, together with the Arlequin mask character, so the album's title is very appropriate as it's a sort of "So long and thanks for all the Fish".

It's good how the Rossini's suite final fades into Slaithe Mhath, and this is exactly how their gigs were.

Marillion have always been a good live band, their live executions are not too different from the studio versions, and when they are different is just because they add something. The only song that effectively sounds better on studio is Sugarmice on which Fish adds some useless singing at the end.

It's a must for Marillion fans, specially those of the first years and a good addition for those who are not familiar with them or the neo-prog in general. After listening to this album you'll have heard enough to decide if you like the band or not.