Marillion and Sine Star Project

@ The Opera House, Bournemouth, 15-11-08





Standing in line outside the Opera House with a few hundred other punters, we were treated to a tuneless serenade on an old knackered guitar from one of the town's Special Brew Crew. It was complete incomprehensible gibberish punctuated with random swear words, fortunately the music and lyrics inside the fantastic Opera House was much, much better.



Southampton band Sine Star Project played a good set, full of strong songs, that reminded me a lot of Muse. Brown Bread and Post Human were a couple of standout tracks. I expect we'll be hearing a lot more from this band in the future.


For those that don't know Marillion have done away with the corporate faceless money men that used to take a percentage of the band's income for doing very little and as a result you cannot buy Marillion albums in the shops. All their albums are available to buy or download legally on their website, I'll tell you why this is interesting in a moment!


Back to the concert and what a great gig! Frontman Steve Hogarth is the ultimate showman. Cavorting around the stage, playing piano, guitar and maracas. He delivers his song lyrics with heartfelt feeling and really draws the audience in and makes them an integral part of the show.



Founder member Steve Rothery's guitar style dominates proceedings. Mark Kelly's intricate keyboards layer the sound and add depth to the compositions and with a tight rhythm section bass by Pete Trewavas and Ian Mosley on the drums; we are treated to a musical feast.



This Train is My Life, The Man from Planet Marzipan and the epic Neverland were my set highlights but a special mention has to go to concert closer Happiness Is The Road, as Steve Hogarth gets the crowd to sing the song title of the latest album over and over as the band put their instruments down and take their final bows and depart and the Opera House sings them on their way.




I promised some interesting information and it is that Marillion have been recording all their live shows on this tour and (barring technical problems) will make them available to download! Point your cursor towards www.marillion.com navigate to Happiness on the Road Live Series and download it, then sit back and relive this event again! Sweet!

Thanks again to the Opera House for a great evening.

Motorhead, Saxon & Danko Jones Southampton Guildhall 12-11-08

“We are Motorhead and we play rock n’ roll”, these are the immortal words that Motorhead frontman, founder and legend Lemmy, greets every audience with. They do play rock n’ roll…very, very loudly!

First band of the night though are Danko Jones, Classic rock riffs and the obligatory songs about sex, all shouted a 100mph, appeal to only a small selection of the audience.

In the 80’s, one of the biggest bands of the ‘New Wave of British Heavy Metal’ movement were Saxon. The set they play tonight is chock full of songs from that era and they still sound as fresh as they did 20 years ago (oops showing my age there). Motorcycle Man, Never Surrender and 747(Strangers in the Night) are dusted off and aired and sit comfortably alongside newer tracks Whichfinder General and Ashes to Ashes. We were even treated to two new songs, Live to Rock and Hellcat off the new album Into the Labyrinth.

I thought Saxon kicked ass and will definitely try and catch ‘em if they do a headlining tour.

On to the living legends that are Motorhead! I’ve seen them quite a few times over the years and they are still the only band around that casually stride out on stage and proceed to batter your eardrums into submission.
With powerful songs like Stay Clean, No Class, Killed By Death and the excellent Metropolis all designed to pound your inner ear to mush, they are the undisputed champions of pure noise.

They come out for the encore and we get a little respite with their bluesy skiffle song Whorehouse Blues, it’s Motorhead unplugged!
Just as you thought it was safe, they give us a double barrelled finish, in the form of classic tracks Ace of Spades and Overkill.

We leave the Guildhall with these bands literally ringing in our ears.

Same time next year? You bet!