Magnum - Holmirth Picturedrome - 23/11/2012

[Rockingbear]

MAGNUM

Holmforth Picturedome - Friday 23rd November 2012


Support this evening came by way of melodic metallers Trillium. I have to confess that I was totally unfamiliar with their material. Fortunately, they had a great sound which made their 45-minute set highly enjoyable. The majority of their set was taken from last year’s “Alloy” album including “Machine Gun” , “Mistaken”, “Utter Denscension” and “Coward”. The only song I did recognise was the non-Trillion one, that lead singer Amanda Sommerville recorded last year with ex-Helloween singer Michael Kiske, “Set A Fire”. Amanda has a fine voice and effortlessy reaches all the notes; she told us how Trillion got the gid supporting Magnum as she and Bob Catley had become friends when recording for the Avantasia project. She apologised for not getting Bob’s accent but perfercly mimicked his stage persona much to the amusement of the crowd.

I am ashamed to say that it is well over twenty years since I last saw Magnum. Back in the eighties they were a favourite band of mine and I saw them on a quite regular basis.
There were two main reasons that I decided to venture across the Pennines this evening. Firstly the location, the Holmfirth Picturedrome: one of my favourite concert venues offering brilliant views and excellent sound. Secondly, Magnum’s brilliant new album, “On The 13th Day”.

The intro-tape came to a sudden stop half way through and Bob Catley’s microphone was not switched on for the opening few lines of set-opener “All The Dreamers”; both of which were treated with great amusement from the approximate five hundred strong crowd in attendance.

Tonight’s set was split evenly between the new Millennium material and songs from the pre-hiatus.

The sound was excellent as expected with a thumping rhythm section provided by Harry James (drums) and Al Barrow (bass). Bob Catley, looking very ancient these days, still possesses an amazing voice and still throws shapes throughout the whole evening; Bob has a wonderful rapport with his audience.

Magnum now have an extensive back-catalogue of material making the choice of songs for the set-list an almost impossible task. Eleven albums were represented at tonight’s show with only two having more than one track played.

“When We Were Younger” was one of seven opening album tracks (this one from “Princess Alice & The Broken Arrow”) which was followed by the single from the latest album “Blood Red Laughter”. “Wild Angels” and “Brand New Morning” went down well with the devoted fans, however, “How Far Jerusalem” rose the atmosphere to fever-pitch. For me, this was the first spine-tingling moment of the evening. The song, opening track from, arguably, Magnum’s finest hour, “On A Storyteller’s Night” featured an extended Tony Clarkin solo. The crowd went wild during the chorus and the volume of the applause was noticeably louder at the conclusion of the song. The band were clearly appreciative of the reception.

Following such a classic was always going to be a virtual impossible task as was proven the case with “The Flood” from 1992’s “Sleepwalking”. The latter however, did include another tasty Tony Clarkin solo. Tony actual looks younger these days than he did in the eighties when he sported a ZZ Top-style beard and hat!

Mark Stanway, looking like a first-cousin of Rick Wakeman, played the intro to the terrific ballad “Les Morts Dansant” which featured the crowd, once again, in full voice. Despite the latter, there was no laziness on the behalf of Bob Catley, who sang every word of every song.

Bob and Tony then played a stupendous version of “The Spirit” from one of my favourite Magnum albums, 1982’s “Chase The Dragon”. This was one of many set highlights and was finished with the whole band in full flow.

“Dance Of The Black Tattoo” is probably the heaviest track that Magnum have ever written and features a colossal Tony Clarkin riff. I really like this song and it must have pleased the Metal fans in attendance; I know my wife was not that impressed with it when it came on the car stereo a couple of weeks ago!

“All My Bridges” was the sole representation from 2009’s “Into The Valley Of The Moonking”.

The next three songs really brought the main set to a fitting climax: the mass sing-a-long during “All England’s Eyes”; the awesome “Vigilante” that features two remarkable choruses; and the riff-tastic “Kingdom Of Madness” from the 1978 debut.

First encore was future classic “See How They Fall” from the recent album that preceded “Rockin’ Chair” from 1990’s “Goodnight L.A.”. Final song of the evening was the classic “Days Of No Trust”. Magnum received an amazing reception as Bob Catley introduced the band members.

It was great to see Magnum still on fire after so many years. As mentioned earlier it was a far from easy task picking the songs for a ninety-minute set and it would be impossible to please every one. I, personally, would have liked to have seen the inclusion of “Just Like An Arrow”, “Don’t Wake The Lion” and my favourite ever Magnum track “Soldier Of The Line”. That said it was still a superb evening’s entertainment from one of Britain’s most enduring melodic rock bands.