Album of the Day

MarillionRochester, by Marillion (1998): In 1997, after the release of This Strange Engine, Marillion made plans to tour in support of the album. On the Freaks mailing list, keyboardist Mark Kelly broke some bad news to we American fans: touring in the US was a money-losing proposition and the band's new economic reality (cut loose from EMI) just wouldn't allow the band to come over. That started a discussion amongst the list members about why ticket prices were so low on the last tour and that we would gladly pay more. Since the band sees little of the ticket sales anyway, an idea was hatched: what if the band's fans raised money to give directly to the band to support a North American tour? With that, the Tour Fund was born and, $40,000 later, the band toured the US, Canada, and Mexico in the first tour funded largely by a band's worldwide fan base (the largest contributor was from Europe). This album was the "thank you" from the band to those of us who contributed to the Tour Fund. Recorded in Rochester, NY (hence the title) the day after I saw then in Pittsburgh. It's not the best live album I've got, but it's certainly unique.