VELVET THUNDER

On 12 September 2015, Steve Hogarth .. ‘H’ to the Marillion fraternity .. played a unique and very intimate show in Rome with Italian prog band RanestRane, as part of his ‘H Natural’ tour, billed as an ‘evening of music and conversation,’ where he performed a number of songs from his solo career, as well as from Marillion’s back catalogue plus a few left field inclusions, including Kate Bush’s Man With The Child In His Eyes, which was released as Friends Romans. In February 2024, Hogarth again returned to Rome to perform with the same ensemble and, for this show, they were joined by the Flowing Chords choir, whose gliding voices helped H with his reimagining of tunes by his usual band, and also from his solo career. As he says, ‘this was an attempt to revisit the chemistry we had when we played in 2015. In England we have a saying, ‘when in Rome, find a great band and gig with them.’’

Hogarth is, of course, the face, voice and lyricist of Marillion, whom he’s helped turn into one of the most iconic names in prog, but he’s also an artist in his own right, having collaborated with several different musicians – which allows him to give full range and expression to his ability to blend rock with classical and ambient sensitivities, which he demonstrates here to full effect.

It’s unusual for H to be seen alone onstage and performing solo sitting behind a piano, but this is what occurs for the first part of tonight’s show, and he opens with a heartfelt version of Marillion’s Thank You Whoever You Are, from their Something Else album, a song he wrote about his young son and all the people who wished him well. He follows this with two more Marillion pieces, a passionate and intense version of Afraid Of Sunlight and the gorgeous White Paper, from FEAR.

Few would claim H is a great singer, but his voice can convey a deep array of feelings and emotions, which comes across in H’s majestic version of Leonard Cohen’s song of longing and regret, Famous Blue Overcoat, played on keys as opposed to acoustic guitar, which has real passion injected into it and is delivered hauntingly with sensitivity. There’s a future for H as a solo act should he ever leave Marillion. He continues with a couple more Marillion songs, Cover My Eyes (Pain & Heaven) and Three Minute Boy, into which he slips in a couple of verses from All You Need Is Love, after which RanestRane join H onstage helping him to perform Sounds Which Can Be Made (sorry!!) and Deep Water, from his 1997 Ice Cream Genius solo album.

After the interval, both the band and the choir are now onstage, and they perform Nothing To Declare from the same solo album, plus Acid Rain, a track from his pre-Marillion band The Europeans, as well as Marillion’s Crow & the Nightingale. The choir enhances the music exceptionally well, with the result being a gorgeous melange of sound. The show closes with the audience singing along with Go! before they return to perform two encores, Marillion’s Man Of A Thousand Faces, from This Strange Engine, and a poignant rendition of Easter, from Season’s End.

If, as H says, this was an attempt to recreate the chemistry from years back, I can’t believe they didn’t succeed. The music was expertly reimagined, beautifully and sensitively performed and using a choir added extra lustre to the mix, with H out front and being his usual self-deprecatory, laconic self. Overall, this was a triumphant evening in every sense.