If the essence of prog rock is having the nerve to voyage into the unknown, then Marillion are battle-scarred veterans. After initial success in the 1980s – when their spidery, questing songcraft struck a popular chord – the English prog stewards survived the departure of original singer Fish in 1988 by rolling the dice on Steve Hogarth, who claimed to have never heard a Marillion album.
Then, after a turbulent time in the 1990s, the band consciously uncoupled from the standard music business model in 2000, embracing crowdfunding long before Kickstarter became cool. They have never looked back: next week they will play two nights at the Royal Albert Hall, their second visit in two years. But after cultivating such a fiercely loyal fanbase, is there a risk that a Marillion show in 2019 might resemble an AGM?
Not with Hogarth out front. For two hours, the swooping, self-dramatising singer strives to elevate every song into an epic – not difficult in the case of broiling opener Gaza, which rumbles and churns for 20 minutes – while also providing some appealingly frazzled between-song repartee and nipping off stage to change into a series of dystopian sci-fi jackets.
As well as his long-standing bandmates – bassist Pete Trewavas, guitarist Steve Rothery, keyboardist Mark Kelly and drummer Ian Mosley – Hogarth is backed by a string quartet, French horn and flute, adding chamber-music poise to the limpid sway of Estonia and the deceptively chiming serial-killer snapshot A Collection. A new album of old Marillion tracks rerecorded with this compact ensemble is imminent and may offer a slightly more accessible entry point to their gorse-dense discography.
The New Kings, a 2016 four-song suite roasting Russian oligarchs, is greeted enthusiastically, but is so blunt that it feels more slog than prog. Far more transportive is a magnificent version of the sweetly sorrowful Fantastic Place, a 15-year-old song that sounds timeless. Unfashionable they may remain, but Marillion are also pleasingly unvanquishable.
• At Sage, Gateshead, on 13 November. Then touring the UK until 19 November.
