Album of the Day

Marillion: MarillionRochester. This two-disc set documents Marillion's performance in Rochester, New York in September 1997. It's not the best live disc I own - the production is sort of rough and there are some technical hiccups here and there. But more than just another album, this is an artifact of one of the strangest and coolest movements in the history of the modern music biz.

In 1997, as we fans eagerly awaited the release of This Strange Engine, keyboardist Mark Kelly posted on the band's mailing list about touring plans. He wrote that an American leg to the tour looked doubtful because of the staggering cost of getting the band over here and the, um, "humble" size of the crowds drawn to the shows. Disappointed, many American fans started to wonder out loud about ticket prices - the prices being charged for mainstream big-name artists were huge compared to what many paid to see Marillion in the US a few years before. Would you pay $50 to see Marillion in the states? That's about what some tickets cost at the time. It was discovered that the band had very little to do with setting prices and, indeed, saw very little profit from ticket sales. What to do, then.

Someone had an inspiration. What if we US fans, who were willing to pay top dollar to see the band, contributed to a common fund to help pay for the band to come to the states? With that, the Tour Fund was born. Contributions were solicited, in $50 amounts, at first. The response was overwhelming. Some gave much more than $50. Some gave in the names of friends. Some folks from well outside the borders of the US contributed, just to help out. In the end, almost $60,000 was raised and the band toured the states. MarillionRochester was a thank you from the band to the contributors, a momento of a unique musical achievement.