Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
What a night it was, one that perhaps might never have happened, one that was threatened by the Beast from the East a few weeks earlier and caused issues amongst those who were cornered by the worst snow to hit Birmingham for a generation; even the nearby statue, the so called Floozie in the Jacuzzi would have shed a thousand frozen tears to see the pity of a cancelled gig in the spiritual home of one the country’s leading Rock bands.
What a night it was…a rearranged gig, caught live, recorded with elegance, sumptuous and stirring, Magnum: Live At The Symphony Hall not only does justice to the five piece and the special guests on the night but it encapsulates a direct perception of the appeal of the group, the special place they hold in the hearts of those that made sure the Birmingham gig on the 2018 tour was not only memorable but arguably beyond anything they had done before.
In it is in the live experience that one of Magnum’s older songs truly hits home. Les Morts Dansant is a firm favourite amongst the band’s fans, its epic feel and stirring imagery marks it out as particularly unique, a hard-hitting look at a point in the war when a man’s honour is tested during World War One, when the disgrace of a nation over a hundred years on is still, in some eyes, willing to see such actions taken as cowardice and only worthy of being lined up to be shot. Even in death, there is beauty and Magnum know how to commemorate such events with due diligence and respect.
Listening to the song on the 1985 classic album, On A Storyteller’s Night, is one thing but in the live arena, in the rawness of emotions and swell of a thousand plus people thinking of their forbearers who saw action on French soil, to those who fell at home in the Birmingham Blitz of 1940, the song resonates, epic yes, but on one night in April at the Birmingham Symphony Hall it became something more, it rightly should be considered as equal to the poetry of Brooke, Sassoon and Graves, of Blunden and Gurney. This passionate display heightened by Tony Clarkin’s absolute pursuit of lyrical prose has never wavered, and in this instance exemplifies and frames the awareness of what the recording means.
Across songs such as the opener, When We Were Younger, Lost On The Road To Eternity, Crazy Old Mothers, How Far Jerusalem, All England’s Eyes, Vigilante and Don’t Wake The Lion, Tony Clarkin, Bob Catley, the effervescent Al Barrow, Rick Benton and Lee Morris, alongside special guests Tobias Sammet, Rebecca Downes and Lee Small, took the Birmingham audience on a tour de force of musical excellence, so far so that as this recording proves, it easily lives in the pantheon of the live domain of albums such as Live After Death, Paris by Supertramp, The Who Live In Hull and Chicago’s Live at the Carnegie Hall.
What a night it was, a beautiful storm and sentiment combined, Magnum undoubtedly at the fiercest best, and a stone’s throw from where it all started all those years ago.
Ian D. Hall