Two days after the amazing event in Linköping, it was time to go see Steve “h” Hogarth in Stockholm. I was still riding the wave of energy from the previous gig and I was ready for another evening of stories, laughter and good music. I also wanted to get a seat as close to the stage as possible, so again, I got to the venue before the doors opened and took my seat in the queue, and yes, there were a lot of people in front of me already, but I still managed to find a seat in the second row, behind fans who had been sitting in front of me in Linköping as well. The venue in Stockholm was more lively, colourful and very cozy, with rows of chairs but also sofas and armchairs in the back, as well as a bar in the same room. I knew from before the event that I want to buy some merchandise and go to the autograph/meet & greet session after the concert.

Steve showed up on stage a bit after 7 pm, with the laptop under his arm and a wide smile on his face, scanning the whole audience in a glimpse, and he was greeted by a full house of around 100 people who were cheering and smiling back excitedly. And the show started. Not that much chit-chat in this one, and not as much laughter, just some giggles every now and then. The first song was The Evening Shadows, and right after we got Fantastic Place, which I got stuck with on repeat quite a lot after the Berlin weekend in June, so of course I was thrilled to hear the raw version of the song. And after two more tunes we got to the questions part of the evening. I already mentioned in my post about the Linköping gig that, when purchasing a ticket, you could request 10 songs and ask a question. With a bit of luck, you’d get some of the requested melodies played live (according to Mr h, he didn’t take the time to read through the spreadsheet that collected all the requests), and get an answer to your question (which were in the spreadsheet that he took the time to read through). And though I was out of ideas for questions for the first evening, I snuck one in the purchase form, together with my 10 requests for the Stockholm concert. So after discussing owning a pet skunk, but ending up getting a skunk fur coat, or talking about questions he wouldn’t like to be asked, came an answer to the following question: What is your dearest Marillion/music memory? My question. I froze and melted in the same time! So this is how we got into memories of playing Estonia at the Royal Albert Hall (2019, With Friends From the Orchestra), and how amazing that moment was for him, as well as the story on how Neverland was written (it might have involved some creativity incentives at the pub). And we got this with a live demonstration on how the process went like, from Mark Kelly’s creation of the chords around which the song was built, to how Steve Rothery ends up writing amazing guitar riffs accidentally, to coming up with other melody bits and pieces that turned into the beautiful Neverland, which he played and teased us with throughout the whole story.

The gig continued with covers from Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Pink Floyd and many Marillion songs, as well as with a short moment of taking requests directly from the audience. I got to listen to another song from my list of requests (made the same list for both gigs), and that was White Paper, from the 2016 album FEAR. Of course we all sang to the chorus of Easter and the crowd was delighted to listen to a medley of Ocean Cloud and Estonia. People asked me why I wanted to see the same artist twice in a row, and I had to explain every time that the setlists are different from one evening to another. Yes, some songs were played in both places, but who wouldn’t want to hear Seasons End twice? I could never get enough of this! I just sat there for two and a half hours listening… and writing down the name of each song, only to be able to put this post together as setlist.fm doesn’t always get updated, for example, I have no idea what was played in Gävle, where I really wish I went as well.

It was a very nice feeling to attend this event and the previous one. It is such a different take on the music and it is quite hard to put in words what you experience. You get very emotional and happy. It is also nice to exchange glances with other members of the audience, to see that people travel from other countries for this, to hear them comment that you are surprisingly young to be at such a gig. And the awesome part was waiting in the queue to get an autograph, a photo and to say thank you in person. And just smiling and keeping that smile on your face and the feeling with you for as long as possible, even if a few minutes later you just run for the bus in the pouring rain and step in all puddles on the way.