For one night only Rock City belongs to Magnum. At 9:30pm five men casually saunter on stage to a warm greeting from the crowd. Bob Catley (lead vocals) in an over sized white shirt, creating a nice contrast to the other four band members - wearing black. A small wind machine (just below the front of the stage in the centre) provided a simple, but effective, touch of atmosphere on the stage - as well as having its obvious use for Catley!
Magnum have recently taken on board Harry James from Thunder as their drummer, his personality shone less on stage than during a Thunder gig but his rhythm and timing made him stand out as an excellent choice. With no ado whatsoever, they begin an hour and a half set of their unbeatable rock anthems.
It was unfortunate that the sound wasn't quite up to scratch. When it was occasionally used, the slap bass was distractingly too loud. The support band had not escaped unscathed from poor sound checks either - their lead vocalist was painfully louder than the rest of the band. This didn't prevent me from enjoying their set, they were a five piece classic hard rock band with catchy upbeat tunes and buckets of energy.
I was personally very glad to note that only a moderate amount of indication for crowd participation came from Catley, I find some bands far too persistent in this area of their performance - if they're a good band they won't need to repeat such requests as the crowd will already be connecting with them.
During `The Blue And The Grey', Catley produced a tambourine which he didn't appear to be overly at ease playing in addition to holding his microphone. That aside, his overall performance was fantastic and his vocals were consistently strong and powerful. I never would have thought such things were possible back in 2002 when I saw him make a guest appearance presenting at The Gods Of AOR - alcohol had taken the better of him that day!
I digress. Magnum made a modest departure from the stage after twelve songs, after which, the audience erupted into what sounded like a crowd of football fans chanting away. It can't have been more than five minutes before Magnum were back on stage for a couple of encore songs.
After `The Spirit' Mark Stanway launched into a keyboard solo I found myself dribbling over. A few seconds later Tony Clarkin (guitar) joined in with him, although he drowned Stanway out and, in my opinion, the sounds clashed. I was grateful when Catley and James re-emerged on stage to close the night with `Sacred Hour'.
There seemed to have been a slightly smaller audience tonight compared to when they last played here on in December 2002, but Magnum have made another amazing night and I doubt I'm the only person eagerly awaiting their next return to Nottingham.
Set List:-
1. All England's Eyes
2. Wild Swan
3. Brand New Morning
4. Back Street Kid
5. Les Morts Dansant
6. The Last Goodbye
7. We All Run
8. How Far Jerusalem
9. The Blue And The Grey
10. Days Of No Trust
11. Vigilante
12. Kingdom Of Madness
Encores:-
1. The Spirit
2. Sacred Hour
Magnum at Rock City 27th September 2004
We have a favour to ask
LeftLion is Nottingham’s meeting point for information about what’s going on in our city, from the established organisations to the grassroots. We want to keep what we do free to all to access, but increasingly we are relying on revenue from our readers to continue. Can you spare a few quid each month to support us?
