Had a great time at the FAC Christmas party. Played a couple of songs with Mr H and Sandie Shaw, together with my good friend Robin - always good fun. On the way back to the tube I ended up playing Black Bird in a Kebab shop for a rather spaced out Aussie chap - very surreal indeed!

A second Defence Of The Realm Gig is being held on Friday 10th Dec, yes this Friday, at The Peel in Kingston. Sorry it is such short notice, I just didn't get it together to let anyone know while I was on tour. It is sold out but don't worry, I'm sure we'll do another one at some time. Have a good weekend.

Pete.

If you didn't catch this album the first time around 'Happiness Is The Road' is our current featured Album on marillion.com. Released in 2008, this album is available in Deluxe, CD, Download & Vinyl versions.

For a limited time over Christmas the CD is available for the special promotional price of £5.99 or £4.99 for the download.

Go to www.marillion.com/music/albums/hitr for sound clips and other related info from the 'Happiness' project.

" For me HITR is not so much an album but more like 3 years in the life of Marillion. We started the first tentative steps with songs like Real Tears, A State Of Mind, Threw Me Out back in 2005. I say tentative because it was our first time working with Mike Hunter in the producer's chair. You can almost see the confidence of our relationship grow over time so that the last few songs to be written and recorded were much more adventurous; songs like Essence, HITR, Asylum Satellite and The Man From The Planet Marzipan.

It's such a varied album in its range of styles and approaches that it can be difficult to listen to all at once. We divided the songs into two groups that work together lyrically as well as musically and these make up the two discs. Personally, which disc I prefer depends on my mood.

If you are like most people these days and listen to your music from iTunes/iPod then this is the perfect album to grab 5 or 6 songs and string them together in an playlist of your choice. If I had to choose a favourite song from HITR it would have to be Asylum Satellite, although Essence would come in at a close second."

Mark

In Other News:

The Blu-ray special edition of 'Live From Cadogan Hall' has finally arrived at the Racket Club! 

Thanks to all those who have Pre-ordered, you can be sure that we will be packing like mad to get these out to you before Christmas.

If you still haven't ordered you can find all the information you need at 

www.marillion.com/shop/dvd/cadogan.htm

Also in, the 'M-Tube' DVD sampler, the perfect way to sample full tracks from most of the latest Marillion DVD releases. Its only £5.99 so it's a great way to try before you buy!

For info on all our latest releases go to the 'Racket Records' shop home page at 

www.marillion.com/shop