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Liner Notes:

1983 was an important year for the band Marillion. In January they made their first appearance on television. This was followed by the release of their first album Script for a Jester's Tear which reached number 7 on the British music charts. They were voted the best new rock band of 1982 by the English music magazine Sounds; and at this point in their career they had given over 200 performances to a growing number of enthusiastic fans.

They toured the United States twice and played at many rock festivals both on the European continent and in the U.K. Concerts were not only well attended but were also well reviewed. Though some saw the band as a poor clone of Genesis, fans saw Marillion as an important cornerstone of progressive rock at the time. The influential paper Melody Maker wrote: "Every song [from Marillion] is a mini-drama scripted in the florid language expected by its audience”. Another sign of their popularity was that their concerts at the Hammersmith Odeon were sold out two nights in a row that year. They used the opportunity to film videos for official release in addition to the new material that was soon to be released on their second album Fugazi. On October 1st, they traveled to Germany to give yet another performance on the continent.

But all was not well with band. They made the decision to fire their drummer Mick Pointer and since that time had tried a number of different musicians as replacements. This decision did not come easily. Mick was one of the founding members of the group. His decision to join the band Electric Gypsy in 1977 was the beginning of the formation of Silmarillion; the name they used before shortening it to just Marillion. When the ax did fall, he was initially replaced with former Camel drummer Andy Ward. During the months of May through August Marillion continued to tour with Andy providing the percussion. However Andy was eventually replaced with John Martyr who himself only lasted through September. At this point the band followed the recommendation of their producer Nick Tauber and auditioned an American named Jonathan Mover. At 21 years old he was still impressive enough to earn the job but fate was not with him. His only performance with Marillion is the October 1st concert recorded on this CD. After the performance he was replaced by Ian Mosley who has kept the position to this day.

The performance in Germany that night was well received. Fish alternated between speaking English and German both during the songs and while talking to the audience. The set consisted of most songs from the Script release as well as one particular song from their new album, the song 'Assassing'. Lead singer Fish explained in an interview the musical origins of this song, “with 'Assassing', I found the basic pattern on a tape of Islamic drum rhythms Peter Hammill gave me on the "Script" tour early '83”. But according to Guitarist Steve Rothery, “'Assassing' was really a lyric about Fish sacking the ex-members [drummers] of the band. In the song, he is the assassin who comes along and destroys people. It is quite a nasty lyric... Fish did have a lot of influence, but all the changes that were made in the band were made for the right reasons.”

The Band's “performance” that night did not seem to end with the fall of the curtain. Back at the hotel, Marillion were not exactly the best of guests. John Arnison, the band's manager was quoted as admitting, "My worst experience with Marillion was getting pinned to a wall in Germany [that night] by two police officers with guns, a fireman with an axe and a hotel manager demanding my passport because the group had let off fire extinguishers and completely devastated the whole of the floor. Things like this seem to keep happening." It was a night in Germany that many will never forget.

Notes From the Re-Master

The recording was originally broadcast so a good soundboard mix was available. The hiss level was quite high and needed to be reduced. Clicks and pops were frequent and were removed. Stereo balance and tonality were quite good and therefore were not altered. Set listings for this concert include 'charting the single' as the final song of the evening. This was obtained from a separate source along with the German Radio announcer introduction and concluding remarks. These were all spliced into the show. The total time was over 80 minutes so we at PRRP had to decide whether to have a 1 CD or 2 CD release. A 1 CD release was possible if we removed the Radio announcer but we chose to leave all relevant material in the show and produce a 2 CD show.

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