: Matthew Taylor
: Magnum Every Album, Every Song
: Sonicbond Publishing
: 9781789524178
: 1
: CHF 8.30
:
: Musik
: English
: 160
: DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB

Having celebrated 50 years as a band in 2022, Magnum remain a musical enigma, much loved by legions of fans despite never fitting easily into the sub-genres favoured by rock music critics. Formed in the West Midlands of England around a nucleus of guitarist and songwriter Tony Clarkin and vocalist Bob Catley, the band dabbled with pomp rock and progressive sounds in the late 1970s before achieving success in the 1980s with records like Chase the Dragon, On a Storyteller's Night and their commercial highpoint, Wings of Heaven. They even had two top thirty singles in the UK, with 'Start Talking Love' and 'Rockin' Chair'. The changing musical landscape of the 1990s led to a split, but the band returned in 2001 and continued to release records of remarkable consistency until the sad passing of guitarist Tony Clarkin in early 2024.
This is the first book on the history and music of Magnum. It covers each of the band's twenty-three studio albums, as well as live recordings, compilations and the late 1990s Hard Rain project. Charting the ups and downs in commercial and artistic achievement, it is an essential guide to one of Britain's most underappreciated rock bands.


Matthew Taylor is a writer, historian and avid music fan. He is the author of several books and numerous articles on sport, leisure and popular culture, his work featuring in publications as varied as BBC History Magazine, Prospect and When Saturday Comes. He teaches at De Montfort University, UK, where he is Director of the Institute of History. His musical tastes range from classic and prog rock to alternative/ indie rock and electronica. He first heard Magnum's music during the mid-1980s and has followed the band ever since. He lives in Leicestershire, UK.
Chapter1

Kingdom Of Madness (1978)


Personnel:

Tony Clarkin: all guitars and backing vocals

Bob Catley: vocals

Richard Bailey: all keyboards, flute and backing vocals

Colin ‘Wally’ Lowe: bass guitar and backing vocals

Kex Gorin: drums

Additional musicians:

Dave Morgan: bass guitar on the Nest Demos and 1975 ‘Sweets For My Sweet’ single; lead vocals on ‘Sweets For My Sweet’ and (possibly) ‘Baby I Need’

Produced at De Lane Lea Studios, London, by Jake Commander

Engineers: Dick Plant, Barry Kidd and Dave Strickland

Release date: 2 August 1978 on Jet Records

Cover Design: Original US cover by Stewart Daniels; Original UK Iris cover by David Pilton Advertising Limited; re-released 1998 album cover by Rodney Matthews

Highest chart places: UK: 58, West Germany and Sweden: Did not chart

Running time: 39:41

The story of Magnum’s debut album really began around 1975, when Tony Clarkin and then-bassist Dave Morgan, became involved in construction work on a recording studio in Birmingham. In return for their labour, the band were given studio time to record demos that were passed on to Jet Records, possibly via the influence of Jeff Lynne, a friend of Clarkin’s, whose band, ELO, were signed to Jet. The label liked the demos, signed the band and booked them into the prestigious De Lane Lea Studios in London, where The Rolling Stones, The Who, Jimi Hendrix and Queen had all previously recorded. As Clarkin told theBirmingham Evening Mail at the time: ‘We sent Jet some tapes and they said: “Do an album”. It was as casual as that’.

However, the relationship with Jet seems to have been strained from the beginning. The band had to sleep in the foyer of the studio because the hotel the label had booked was so poor; when they were moved to a better hotel, it was clear that Jet had unsettled bills there, too.

The initial De Lane Lea sessions took place in 1976, but it was another two years before theKingdom Of Madness album was finally released.

The reasons for the delay are not entirely clear. A 1988Metal Hammer interview referred to a ‘series of insurmountable problems, inexplicable to this day and typical of Magnum’s association with the Jet label’. A more precise explanation, outlined in press reports at the time of the album’s release, is that the delay resulted from prolonged legal problems related to a management deal the band wanted to be freed from.

Whatever the reason, the long delay gave Clarkin the chance to write new material that reshaped the final album. The guitarist’s affection for British and American progressive rock bands such as Yes and Kansas may well have been an impetus for the development of more complex material, while tours supporting bands such as Judas