Bob Catley, Wolverhampton 2014. Photograph by Judith Hall
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
There are homecomings and then there are days when the bunting has been prepared for weeks, the ticker tape pouring off machines and road sweepers gladly earning overtime as they have brushes at the ready and every condition met to be remembered as a cog in a big machine of musical outpouring. With the sun pouring down on the Staffordshire City, its football team, Wolverhampton Wanderers having made it a very successful season and confirming Championship status for the following season, all that was left was for Magnum to come home to the Wulfrun Hall and give a splendid performance.
In the last decade Magnum have shown with such energy and vitality that they will be deliberately assessed as being one of the great rock acts, not just of the 20th Century but also striding forwards well into the start of the 21st Century. Watching a gig of theirs now is like being able to find Marty McFly, kicking him out of his Delorian and believing that you have set the clock to 1985 only to find Bob Catley smiling at you, lean forward and whisper down your ear and say, you know 2014 is actually just as good and just as wild.
That decade has seen them produce album after album which has been consistently good, excellent in fact and way beyond what you could expect any Rock band to generate. It takes huge effort to be that unswerving in your dependability but with songs such as Black Skies, the superb Live Till You Die and the relentless Blood Red Laughter all making their presence known, the stage was set for a sweaty and compelling night of music.
Perhaps one of the finest rock songs written in the 20th Century should be considered as Les Mort Dansant, a track that has always had such incredible power and resonates across time, its imagery capturing a moment of insanity that wrongly and shamefully befell many during World War One.
When fully immersed into a Magnum crowd, the communal aspect sometimes gets lost when hearing the song, the striking pictures that filter through the mind of a young man being shot for the supposed keeping of order makes it a solitary feeling of contempt for the past. However watching the song being performed from a distance, still hearing an audience join in on the chorus and being able to watch Bob Catley’s facial expression at the same time changes the song completely. It is still magnificent, arguably in the top five songs ever written by Tony Clarkin, but the way it is employed by all, the steady clap beating in time echoes the march out into the courtyard and the rhythmic beat of a heart understanding its about to be shot. The song always so commanding and utterly heart breaking seemed to take on a greater thought this year of all years.
The evening was rounded off in traditional Magnum style. Al Barrow and Harry James, both of whom have done so much to enthuse new blood and burning hunger to Magnum over the last decade playing above and beyond the call of duty, the ever impressive keyboard player Mark Stanway hammering out notes as if on a one man mission to raise the roof of the Wulfrun Hall and both the legendary Tony Clarkin and Bob Catley knowing with just one more song they could generate as much fever and desire for devastation as the fans who had graced the stands at Molineux only a couple of hours before.
With tracks such as Falling For the Big Plan, the fan favourite All England’s Eyes, the overwhelming Vigilante and the bouncy Kingdom of Madness all making an appearance, for the audience who turned up in their multitude, this was a night to savour. A stunning example of what can be achieved by five men at the very top of their game for the best part of a decade and with a pedigree perhaps untouched by many others into the previous decades.
Ian D. Hall