But I'm getting ahead of myself here.

We here at Silhobbit knew that this was going to be such a great day that, despite living a mere 10 miles away in Hemel Hempstead, I still went to Swindon to pick some friends up who I didn't want to miss the occasion.

We got to the town early enough to bump into Croydon Mick, and his wife Sharon, while he was still sober at The Harrow. They were sat outside chatting to a Wild Willy Barrett look-a-like with a fake Rolex that always said 12:30. We stayed there for a while until my kids got barred for being kids. Hmmm, maybe Aylesbury isn't as progressive as it so proudly makes out.

Still it was about time we went to where the real action was, which was the Kings Head. After drowning a bottle or two of lifesaving lager there, and mingling with the increasingly excited Fish and Marillion fans it was time to wander down into the Market Square itself. We positioned ourselves by the infamous Clock Tower for a couple of acts, soaking up the sun, as well as some much needed refreshment, then it was down to the front for the last couple of warm up acts.

There was trouble down the front though, as we were subjected to an intense pea-shooter attack from a couple of local 8 year olds, egged on by their obviously classy mother. I turned and glared at them, but they wouldn't stop. Luckily for us, Linda, formerly known as Mrs Hothersall, put on her Headteachers cloak and put the kids, and their charming mother, firmly in their place. Which was at the back of the class.

Baggy trousers, eh?

So, back to the music. The first act we saw was a girl playing a keyboard called Lisa Theunissen. She was interesting. Then she finished and she was followed by a geezer with a guitar, Michael Beurk I think he said his name was. Used to be a news reader or something. Bloody impressive on the guitar, in an Aldi Meola way.

But it was the sound of no-one listening. Or rather, no-one watching as he was on the second stage, and all eyes were straight ahead, where crew and staff were setting the stage up for the main act. The biggest cheer at this point was for the old bloke who crept out on stage to take a few holiday snaps of the crowd.

Meanwhile, we spotted local celebrity Steve Rothery hanging around near the back of the stage.

The crowd were growing restless while the local DJ's up on stage did their own Smashy'n'Nicey impressions. The crowd was also growing larger as Norwegian Nutcase Andreas and his clan forced their way to their rightful position, down at the front. Also spotted at this time was my Dutch friend Janka, over from Holland especially for the gig, as were loads of people.

Finally, the two local DJ's up on stage got bored of hearing their own voices and got off, and left room for Fish and his band (Frank Usher, Foss Paterson, Chris Johnson, Steve Vantsis and Gavin Griffiths) to appear to rapturous applause, and with a hearty "Good Evening Aylesbury Market Square" they launched into Slainte Mhath, the first of a few tunes from the Clutching at Straws album.

Fish's voice was in fine form and he introduced the first new song, Circle Line, from his forthcoming 13th Star album, which reliable sources such as the unbiased Andreas told me could be... sorry.. IS the best album EVER! I ain't gonna argue with him, I can tell you, and after hearing this track, and the later played Manchmal (German for "sometimes") I may even be agreeing with him.

The set, which was specially shortened for the 7:30 curfew, continued with So Fellini, before we were treated to the Hotel Hobbies / Warm Wet Circles / That Time of the Night trilogy.

I managed to video a snippet of this, which you can see on YouTube here

Then came Manchmal off the new album, 13th Star which was followed by Vigil, during which Fish did his crowd walkabout. It was great to see him meandering through the massed throng of eager Johnny Punters, looking for the Voice in the Crowd

Oh, I wish I could remember the stories he told, there were some about the old Duke of Buckingham statue being moved, the fireplace in his old house in Abbots Road and many many more. At one point he nipped into one of the local pubs and came out with a pint of Guinness, and then Yatta got him a stinking lager!

Some wag in the crowd tried to start a "Grendel" chant, to which Fish replied "Twat". then when his drunken mates chimed in, he asked what a group of twats were called. "Twat Twat" was his answer, though I would have said, well I won't say...

White Russians was played next, a song that I had first heard nearly 21 years ago, just over the street in Friars, or the Aylesbury Civic Centre as we have to call it. Ah, the Christmas '86 gig. What a night that was. Wish I could remember it, but we'd been for a few pints in the White Swan beforehand getting Morrised. I do remember my mate Carl getting a new watch for Christmas, which he showed off all night by punching the air, something he never usually did. The song is as powerful now as it was then, and Fish puts as much emotion into it as he always has. And it's the same with all of his songs, you can see they still really mean something to him, they ain't just crowd pleasers!

After that came the "love song dedicated to nobody" Cliché and the set close, and rabble rouser Incommunicado. Ah it all takes me back to the old days, the Marquee, Hammy O, Wembley Arena, young boys, t-shirts for goalposts, you know?

We cried for more. We yelled for more. We whistled, We shouted. We stamped our feet. And that was painful on the cobbles.

We all knew that that wouldn't be it. Some of us knew what was coming, others had heard whispers...

Fish wandered back on stage to a loud cheer, and regailed us with the story of his first days in Aylesbury with Diz Minnitt, the dodgy girlfriends, the anti-NF marches and his old sparring companion Brick, who was there, somewhere! "Hello Brick" we all cried. "Hi" he probably said, but I couldn't hear. Maybe it was the old bloke from the pub earlier, you know, the one with the fake Rolex I told you about. More likely it wasn't though, although it would have made a better story. So anyway, Fish went on to say how much he wanted to play the following song, here, in the Market Square, as it had been written about old Brick.

He then went on to introduce some more of his old friends...

"Steve Rothery, guitars"

"Mark Kelly, keyboards"

"Ian Mosley, drums"

"Pete Trewavas, bass guitar"

Each of them got a standing ovation, though as we were already standing, they didn't notice. But they got a bloody loud cheer as well... If you don't believe me, check out my YouTube video of it here.

I was going to video the whole of Market Square Heroes, but fortunately I decided to go mental instead! Along with the rest of the crowd!! Oh what a night, oh what an encore, oh where's my voice gone, oh my, why am I jumping up and down like a 19 year old. Oh God, why is a 19 year old jumping up and down like a 40 year old? Ed, you're mad, totally mad.

It was great to see them up there enjoying themselves... Mark looked like a bleedin' Cheshire Cat, and Steve looked like he'd nicked the last Jaffa Cake. Pete was so taken by the occasion that he forgot to sing some of the backing vocals, and had to be reminded by the, quite frankly, appallingly bad, off key and out of tune crowd!

I hardly need to tell you just how well received this song and reunion was. I pity the fools who weren't there...

I pity you, Matt Ellis...

I pity you, Gay Gordon...

I pity you, Lara Frodo...

I pity you, Steve Hogarth...

And then, it was done... Fish finished by pointing to the guys and saying "They are Marillion" and then "I am the Fish". We finished by "singing" Giz a Bun for three hours or so, before hitting the Kings Head, via a milk shake stand. We hung around long enough to chat again to Mick (get yourselves down to The Peel in Kingston where you'll find him, and buy him a drink, he's a diamond geezer!) and to say "hi" again to Janke, before heading off.

Even then, we bumped into the big man hisself on the way to the car park, chatting to drummer Gav. We said our farewells and went to the car, only to find that "they" had locked the car park up. But even then, paying the £15 release fee was fine. Well, I didn't pay it myself, but you know what I mean...

Now, if only that could all happen again!

Set list

Slainte Mhath
Circle Line
So Fellini
Hotel Hobbies
Warm Wet Circles
That Time Of The Night
Manchmal
Vigil
White Russians
Cliché
Incommunicado

Market Square Heroes

Those YouTube links again:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jv905vzaQc

www.youtube.com/watch?v=72YKddajyc4