Looe Beach, Looe, Cornwall
Friday, 26th September 2025
Some music transcends the here and now, and takes you to another place entirely. The final song from headliners Marillion on the Friday at the new Kernowfornia Festival in Cornwall was the final section of Care, the almost hymnal like Angels on Earth. Mark Kelly on organ excelled and the whole band swelled gloriously in this almost sacred piece of music as Steve Hogarth proclaimed the mantra ‘The angels in this world are not in the walls of churches…‘ and then a line took me far away – for a few seconds I was no longer on a beach late at night in Cornwall surrounded by thousands of people. As ‘h’ sang:
To carry me home, To carry me home’
I was with my father on the last night of his life after a stroke, unable to speak, when he suddenly reached out and he wrapped his arms around me… one last time… and I was back there with him.
That’s the beauty and magic of music, and Marillion in particular. Moments like that make live music worth all the effort and work of the organizers and the commitment of fans in attending – they are in effect acts of faith.
Kernowfornia is a new 3 Day festival situated on beautiful Looe Beach on the southern coast of Cornwall created in an incredible act of faith by the Cornish band Haunt The Woods who decided to set up their own festival. Friday features an eclectic set of bands, but the main focus for this review is on progressive rock with Lesoir from the Netherlands, Pure Reason Revolution and Marillion, although other quality artists performed so well. Haunt the Woods have a special relationship with Marillion having supported them a few times, and when Jon Stafford of Haunt The Woods contacted Marillion to ask that they come to Cornwall apparently Marillion’s manager, Lucy Jordache, responded something like ‘Well, as it’s you, we’ll come’. It’s great to see a legendary rock band supporting a younger band in such an endeavour. It will also be interesting how some of the more progressive artists go down with a more mixed mainstream audience at this festival. However, the large number of Marillion and related T-shirts milling around on the beach tells us that the headliners will not be lacking in support.
Lesoir were scheduled to be on early in the glorious Cornish sunshine, but sadly technical problems plagued their set-up, and eventually they only had about 20 minutes left of their allotted time in which to perform. Sound problems still persisted for their first song but gradually things settled for their instrumental Aeon. Lesoir were just getting into their groove with a dramatic and dark Dystopia which they introduced as ‘very relevant these days’… and then had to finish. A long way to come for just about 20 minutes of their set – let’s hope they get another chance to impress some time as this is a quality live band.
Next up is the distinctly classy Pure Reason Revolution, who walk on in black and immediately bewitch the audience with the finely crafted vocal harmonies that opens Dead Butterfly – a brave way to open up in the sunshine before a festival crowd, most of whom would be unfamiliar with their material. However, the crowd are immediately nodding and swaying in rhythm as the band erupts and on the beach we are hit with waves… of sound. In a fascinating set of songs Pure Reason Revolution manage to span virtually every album from across their 20-year career.
The grief-laden Useless Animal from most recent album Coming Up To Consciousness oscillates with changing dynamics until a furious breathtaking finale with Ravi Kesavaram thunderously pounding his drums. The major highlight of their set, and of the whole day, is their mini-epic The Bright Ambassadors of Morning from their debut album The Dark Third in 2006. The title is based on a lyric from Pink Floyd’s Echoes, which is just one of the influences with this glorious mixture of prog, rock, trance and psychedelia, full of lush vocal harmonies, crunching riffs and spaced-out sounds – it’s an incredible piece which goes down well with the crowd. It still remains one of the best things Jon Courtney and his band have ever created.
Eupnea, Pure Reason Revolution’s remarkable 2020 comeback album, is represented by the majestically brooding and powerful sweep of Ghosts and Typhoons. The more techno-oriented sounds of 2010’s Black Mourning takes the set in a more dance-oriented direction, albeit swathed in powerful rhythms, and features the great vocals of keyboardist Annicke Shireen. Their impactful set is brought to a pulsating and driven ending with the thumping Deus Ex Machina which sees Pure Reason Revolution’s guitarist and vocalist Jon Courtney spitting out the forceful vocals about love… and the afternoon crowd loved this fabulous set.
Kernowfornia is quite a diverse festival with a range of music. Next up are the Cornish band Wille and the Bandits who entertain the crowd with a potent mixture of blues, folk, rock and acoustic music. Their largely instrumental epic Angel, dedicated to the mother of vocalist / guitarist Wille Edwards, really draws the crowd in with a powerful and fluid performance… that’s the beauty of festivals, discovering previously unfamiliar bands.
Haunt the Woods are the Cornish band which had the idea of establishing this new festival so it is fitting that they graced the stage with an excellent set. In a very gracious gesture at the beginning of their set they brought on the whole crew of the festival for a well-deserved round of applause. It was now late afternoon, and the atmosphere was definitely warming up. Haunt the Woods clearly had some home area fans and Marillion fans have rather a soft spot for this young band. They did not disappoint with a set largely drawn from their fine 2023 album Ubiquity with the brooding Gold standing out, alongside the gentle vocal majesty of Jon Stafford in Ubiquity. This was an assured and confident performance which bewitched the crowd, and concluded with a stirring version of one of their oldest songs called The Line. They certainly won over the crowd. The future of rock is in safe hands with such a talented but emotionally intuitive band… and definitely a band to be further explored.
I will be honest that with the prospect of a whole day on my feet I took a breather for The Magic Numbers and sat down with a pint reading a book in the sun on the beach with their brand of jangling indie rock / pop entertaining in the background. However, after a while it became apparent that I had perhaps underestimated them as they played increasingly more engaging and complex music… maybe I will pay them more attention next time, but one has to conserve energy on a long day!
Embrace were surprisingly good – powerful and engaging indie rock in same vein as Oasis. Their singer Danny Macnamara recollected going with his friend to the NEC in Birmingham to see Marillion years ago (in the early ‘h’ era and enjoying the gig…) and he pointed out their drummer was wearing an ancient Marillion ‘Script’ T-shirt, but pointed out that it was a ‘bit nipply’ (and indeed it was)! This was a clever move by Embrace as it endeared them to the largely Marillion audience in front of them. However, what probably won the crowd over more was the excellence and energy of their set. They launched into the first earworm song All You Good, Good People from their 1998 debut album The Good Will Out and almost instantly the crowd was swept along singing the chorus of a song many had forgotten they knew from younger days. It sounded fabulous and things heated up further when they rolled into another great track from that album, the incandescent One Big Family which really rocked. Other highlights included guitarist Richard McNamara singing the powerful Refugees, and Mickey Dale on flowing piano for the Coldplay written hit Gravity. Danny McNamara was a charismatic front man and fine singer, particularly on their finale Ashes, which drew rapturous applause from the whole crowd… another band to rediscover!
I have followed Marillion my whole adult life but seeing them in the Southwest or a Festival is a real rarity. My only previous experience of them in Cornwall was in a cave at Carnglaze Caverns on the Less is More acoustic Tour in 2009 – a wonderful place to see them. My only ever previous festival gig for Marillion was at the legendary Reading Festival gig in 1983 – the last time they played Grendel and triumphed over headliners Black Sabbath with Ian Gillan, which was an utter car crash of a gig (and probably inspired some of ‘Spinal Tap’!
Marillion finished the day off in great style playing in a one-off gig not related to any tour, album or weekend events, which made for an interesting setlist, which also had to cater for some non-Marillion fans in the 7000 crowd. The band seemed to be in a relaxed mood and appear to have enjoyed the break from the studio on a beautiful late summer’s day. It was dark and late by the time they reached the stage and they launched into the distinctly more accessible chimes of You’re Gone – the bass was in initially VERY heavy for that song but the balance soon settled. Whilst the crew and Mark Kelly wrestled with a technical problem on the keyboards ‘h’ regaled the crowd with his delight about ‘the Best Crab sandwich’s on God’s Earth’ he’d enjoyed earlier. Marillion were soon very much back on track with a Brave album medley with Wave, followed by Mad and The Great Escape – an interesting thing to present to a more mainstream crowd. The achingly beautiful Afraid of Sunlight followed – it is simply one of their best songs ever. ‘h’ was in ebullient mood and prematurely introduced a song to ‘women of a certain age… peri-menopausal’ (meaning Kayleigh) before the rest of the band corrected him and Steve Rothery started the gorgeous opening chords of Easter. The crowd became a choir for that song, demonstrating that for just one night Kernowfornia was yet another Marillion weekend… in Cornwall. Kayleigh and Lavender followed to the delight of all and was clearly more familiar to the non-Marillion fans in the crowd… and yet again Looe Beach was a Marillion choir. I took a picture of Rothery doing his solo in that song, and even though he’s probably played it a million times you could still see the joy and concentration he has when playing that solo.
Steve Hogarth donned a fluffy black coat for the next song and proceeded to flap and stalk around the stage like a bird for The Crow and the Nightingale, based on Leonard Cohen. Hogarth just said at the end ‘that was good… not any beat combo could knock that out!’ … and you couldn’t really argue with him, to be honest. The fluid melodious Beautiful was ironically dedicated to the ‘Inspiring President… and so intelligent!’ (and they didn’t mean Ian Mosley!)
‘h’ announced the next song with ‘no-one knows what this song is about… I don’t know what it’s about and I f…ing wrote it’!!! It didn’t matter because it rolled along joyously in a Crowded House sort of way, with some outstanding piano from Mark Kelly… and the crowd carried on chanting the melody after the song finished. The main set finished with the titanic King featuring a massive wall of keyboard sounds intro. They really knocked this one out of the park with Ian Mosley’s drums and Pete Trewavas’ bass resonating out across the beach and out over the bay.
The encore was inevitably the spectacular Neverland with ‘h’ gliding around the stage like a bird during Rothery’s echoing solos… at one point a spinning Hogarth fell over…. And carried on singing as he rolled across the stage without missing a word!
As mentioned at the beginning the final song was the moving finale of Care, which had the band spellbound the sheer magic of music and Marillion.
Special mention must go to a fan who stood next to me centre front called Chantal Rella, from France. She told me she plays her own music and that she is a surgeon. She plays her patients Marillion music before operations. She also told me this was her first EVER Marillion gig… and sometimes long-time fans forget that for some people in the crowd this may be the first time they have ever had the thrill of seeing one of your favourite bands for the first time ever. I asked her what she thought of the gig and in a break in between songs she pointed at Steve Rothery and said, ‘Steve has such a good touch – he is connected with… a force’ and then she pointed to the heavens… and on a magical night, she’s right, of course.
