I’ve
said it before, and no doubt I’ll say it again, but it really is an amazing
time to be a Magnum fan. In a period of just under two years (the time that Jet
Records used to keep their albums sitting on the shelf before release!) we’ve
had two brilliant full studio albums (last year’s The Visitation and the
brand new On the 13th Day, for those who haven’t been paying attention) plus the Evolution best-of, not to mention the treats on 13th
Day’s bonus disc...and, of course, plenty of touring.
On
that front, it had been close to a full year since I last saw them live (in
Carlisle, which you can read about HERE) and the thought of seeing them only
once this year didn’t sit well with me, hence I made the trek over
to Bristol last weekend for the first night of the UK leg of the 13th Day tour.
This
made it the fourth different city in which I’ve seen them now, but it doesn’t
matter where you go, a crowd at a Magnum gig is guaranteed to be special and
the locals certainly didn’t disappoint. Despite, as frontman Bob Catley put it,
‘a bit of competition up the road’ (i.e. Motorhead playing at Colston Hall),
the Assembly was packed with fans who’d all brought their best singing voices
with them. For a band that never quite made it to the really big time they’ve
maintained an impressive niche in the market over the years and the loyalty and
devotion of the fans is something to behold. Some veteran bands struggle to
muster more than polite applause for new material, but Magnum fans treat new
songs like old favourites – and old favourites with something approaching religious
fervour! The energy that flows from and to the stage is difficult to convey in
mere words (so you’ll just have to find out for yourself some time, ‘cause I
can’t be arsed trying, okay?)
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| Magnum: L-R: Tony Clarkin, Mark Stanway, Bob Catley, Harry James, Al Barrow |
We’d
been promised a bit of a shake-up of the set list, and the resulting set really
only had two flaws. One: there weren’t enough old songs, and two: there weren’t
enough new songs (admittedly these flaws could quite easily be distilled into
one). But that’s the price you pay for being smack-bang in the middle of a
second golden age that’s continually throwing up new songs every bit as classic
as those they built their reputation on in the first place and there’s only
room for so many songs in a night. As there’s (thankfully) no sign of them
slowing down, this is only going to be exacerbated by each new album release.
But there are certainly worse problems for a band to have. The only real
solution is to introduce three hour setlists...
In
terms of what was played they got it
about as right as it’s possible to get, playing four of the best from the new
album (All the Dreamers, Blood Red
Laughter, Dance of the Black Tattoo and See
How They Fall) one song each from the previous four albums and a nice mix
of the older material. Les Mort Dansant and When We Were Younger are my favourite
songs from the pre-split and post-reformation eras, respectively, and both
survived the setlist shake-up, as did perennial favourites How Far Jerusalem, Vigilante and the obligatory Kingdom of Madness. But we were also treated to eight songs I’d
never witnessed live before – the four new ones (obviously!) plus long-rested
oldies The Spirit, Rockin’ Chair and Days of No Trust (the latter two providing a suitably ecstatic end
to the evening during the encores). But the biggest surprise of the night – for
me at least – was The Flood, another
personal favourite, and one I never thought I’d ever see live. That they played
this and Les Mort Dansant back to
back suggests they were trying to pummel my emotions the way Marillion do – if this
was their intention they certainly succeeded! Personally I’d have probably rested Brand New Morning in favour of another 13th
Day track or two, but this is a minor quibble. I had assiduously
avoided spoilers (if you’ve been trying to do the same you should probably have
stopped reading a little while ago...whoops) for maximum enjoyment – and when I
see them again in London on Thursday I’ll know exactly what’s coming, which
will be just as enjoyable in its own way.
I’ve
never been disappointed in the past, but I think this was the very best I’ve
seen them to date. Bob had seemingly been reigning in his tendencies to evoke
greater emotion in the songs through the art of semaphore last year, but he was
at his full-on arm-waving best and sounding as fantastic as ever (although he
does seem to have shrunk – again! – in the past 12 months or so...). Equally
the rest of the band seemed to have found an extra burst of energy, from the
baby of the band (bassist Al Barrow) bouncing around like a kid in a sweet
shop, to the Thundering (oh dear) dynamics of Harry James on drums. Tony
Clarkin – the genius guitarist/songwriter without whom Magnum could not exist –
also appears to be enjoying himself on stage now more than ever, as does keyboardist
Mark StanWAYYYYYYYYY (well, that’s how Bob pronounces it!).
As
for the competition down the road – well, with both camps emerging together around
11pm the Motorhead fans looked like they’d had a decent night, but I can say
with a fair amount of certainty that we Magnum fans got the better deal. A bloke
I met afterwards in Bristol’s finest (ahem) late-night pizzeria summed things
up for me by gazing longingly at my programme* and admitting he’d gone to the
wrong gig. I take this as definitive
proof that if you have a chance to see Magnum live and you don’t take it you will regret it, so let this be a warning
to you!. (10/10)
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*Programmes are not usually
something I go for, but it is very nice indeed, even if it is missing most of
the paragraph about Chase the Dragon!
