Album Review: Steve Hogarth - SQPR
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
Marillion frontman, Steve Hogarth – known colloquially as simply, H – returned to Rome’s Sala Sinopoli on 3rd February 2024 for this special, intimate solo show. Largely featuring H at a piano, reimagining both his own and Marillion material, along with a few covers thrown in for good measure, the show also features Roman Progressive rock quartet, RanestRane – Italian for “strange frogs” apparently – and the Flowing Chords choir.
Taking his seat behind the keyboard, H comments that it’s been a while since an Englishman was faced with so many Romans, which generates a laugh from the Italian audience. The show begins with a barely perceived opening, just the leisurely tickle of keys and H’s utterances that coalesce into a mostly spoken-word version of Thank You Whoever You Are, a lesser visited tune from Marillion’s Somewhere Else record of 2007. Only at the end does H unleash that emotionally coloured and considerably ranged vocal.
Band constant – and one of Marillion’s finest tracks ever- Afraid of Sunlight arrives in a stripped-down version, much to the crowd’s delight, it’s delivered in a stark and sparse way that accentuates the resigned nature of the song. FEAR’s White Paper is given the same treatment, allowing the spaces in the music to breath and maybe offer themselves in an altered aspect.
In keeping with the melancholic, introspective nature of the show’s opening numbers, H wheels out a cover of Leonard Cohen’s Famous Blue Raincoat which, if you didn’t know any better, would fit perfectly with the three previous Marillion songs.
Back in 1991, Marillion’s Holidays In Eden – the first with significant H input – was introduced through the promo single Cover My Eyes (Pain and Heaven), which showed the band were adopting a more upbeat and commercial sound. Here, introduced by H asking if anyone had any requests - it retains the jangling guitar feel, even in its acoustic clothes, those high notes of the chorus sounding like they have taken their toll on Steve’s voice, just a little. Three Minute Boy was originally to show Oasis they didn’t have a monopoly on being inspired by The Beatles, and here segues in the Liverpudlian’s All You Need Is Love at the mention of the band within the lyrics, returning only after a full run through and clap-a-long section.
H’s first solo album, Ice Cream Genius from 1997 is something of an undiscovered gem and gets the first of its two visits with the epic sounding The Deep Water. It’s the first engagement of the evening for RanestRane, who bring all manner of additional sounds to the stage; listening to some of these haunting refrains – and with the benefit of hindsight, some signposts were being set up for the future direction of Marillion in the following years. Beautiful in its simplicity, The Deep Water is a definite highlight of this show.
The band stick around for the first of the next batch of Marillion tunes: Sounds That Can’t Be Made comes pretty close to the source version, even down to that wholly distinctive Marillion sound; Waiting to Happen, stays faithful to the simple, intersecting lines of the Holidays’ original, and the tragic tale of Estonia – inspired by the ferry disaster which claimed almost a thousand lives in 1994 - rings with nautical motifs and the melancholy of coming to terms with loss. It’s a powerful song on The Strange Engine and, according to Jon Collins’ book, Marillion/Separated Out: The Complete History 1979 – 2002 (Helter Skelter Publishing, London 2003), is the song H wants played at his funeral (page 142); in this setting it’s a full-on tear-jerker.
The Flowing Chords add their around thirty-five strong voices to the most recent song on SPQR, An Hour Before It’s Dark’s The Crow and the Nightingale, giving the whole thing a major uplift. The second track from Ice Cream Genius, Nothing to Declare benefits similarly from the choir’s participation, particularly as the alternative opening bars morph into the lush chorus.
H’s show comes to its climax through Acid Rain, a song from his time with The Europeans; taken from their Recurring Dreams record, there is very much a solo material vibe going on here and, maybe it’s the time of the year – but I can’t help but pick up fragments of Christmas music just beneath the surface. Go! closes the main part of the show, a stripped back, but still effective, version of one of Marillion’s overlooked jewels, from one of their most egregiously forgotten records.
All parties return to the stage for the two-song encore of Man of a Thousand Faces, a journey through western civilisation’s history performed in one of its most historic settings. The extended outro is pulled beyond what is reasonable without once sounding as though it’s outstaying its welcome, such is the combination of the band, the choir and H himself. One last tune and it’s the oldest Marillion song on the setlist tonight: Seasons End’s Easter from 1989, which allowed the band to give a very different look at the Ulster Troubles than the one they gave in Forgotten Sons. Still haunting and still able to send shivers down the spine, Easter closes out this evening in perfect fashion.
Away from his day job, H’s solo performances always seem more intimate and emotional gatherings, his reimagining of Marillion’s material always interesting and infused with a strong emotional core. SPQR will be released in two formats: a triple vinyl gatefold and a double CD and single Blu-Ray version which will include the video of the evening along with the audio.
