TONY CLARKIN, BOB CATLEY & RODNEY MATTHEWS, On The Thirteenth Day

In september 2012 komt Magnum, de Engelse dinosaurus van de melodieuze heavy rock met zijn achttiende studioalbum. Toevallig moest de beroemde illustrator Rodney Matthews een bezoekje brengen aan de M2 Studio in Wolverhampton, alwaar gitarist Tony Clarkin en zanger Bob Catley aan het werk zouden zijn aan het album On The Thirteenth Day. Het artwork voor dit album zal opnieuw door Matthews worden verzorgd en zoals gewoonlijk had Clarkin een ruwe schets gemaakt op basis waarvan Matthews een eerste ontwerp had getekend. In die periode was ik toevallig in de buurt en zodoende werd mij de gelegenheid geboden om hem te vergezellen en de heren wat vragen te stellen over de nieuwe plaat en de huidige stand van zaken rond Magnum.

Al sinds 1972 maken jullie samen muziek. Vieren jullie dat achtste lustrum nog op de een of andere wijze?

Bob: “Ja, dat zal wel ongeveer kloppen. We hebben de naam Magnum aangehouden, omdat het een goede naam is die ons veel heeft gebracht.”

Tony: “Nee, we doen verder geen speciale dingen. We werken gewoon aan ons volgende album en een tour volgend op de release.”

Waar komt de titel On The Thirteenth Day vandaan? Is het een conceptalbum?

Tony: “Die titel is ontleend aan een van de eerste songs die ik schreef voor dit album. Toen ik met de tekst bezig was, heette de song nog On The Twelfth Day maar toen ik op internet zag hoeveel liedjes en films zo zijn genoemd, heb ik de titel veranderd in On The Thirteenth Day. Deze titel heeft ook wat meer zeggingskracht vind ik en er gaat iets mystieks van uit. Het wordt geen conceptalbum hoewel in de songs wel sprake is van zaken die op de dertiende dag plaatsvinden.”

 

Ik vermoed dat jullie ook zestigers zijn gezien de achttien studioalbums, de vele livealbums en compilaties. Hebben jullie nog geen intentie om te stoppen?

Tony: “We beginnen nog maar nét! Nee, gekheid, ik vind het juist nu veel leuker zonder al die ellende met managers en platenmaatschappijen. Destijds was er enorm veel pressie, want er moest en zou een top-vijf hitsingle gemaakt worden. Nu zijn wij de baas en we hebben uitstekende afspraken kunnen maken met SPV, onze huidige platenmaatschappij. Met platenbaas Olly Hahn hebben we een prima verstandhouding. De financiële perikelen rond SPV zijn gelukkig volledig aan ons voorbij gegaan.”

Bob: “Veel leeftijdsgenoten zijn al gestopt of denken er hard over met pensioen te gaan, maar als je het mij vraagt dan zeg ik: met pensioen? Probeer je grappig te zijn of zo? Wat zou ik anders moeten doen? Nee, ik vermaak me uitstekend dus voorlopig houd ik het bij zingen in Magnum!”

Ik heb gelezen dat ene Mark managementtaken uitvoert en dat Harry James volledig terug is bij de band?

Tony: “Mark Stuart is de eigenaar is van deze studio en hij doet inderdaad wat werk voor ons op managementgebied. Mark Stanway is onze tourmanager en Harry James is inderdaad fulltime terug, want Thunder bestaat eigenlijk niet meer. Die band geeft jaarlijks nog maar enkele concerten.”

Speelt Al Barrow een rol bij de verzorging van het artwork?

Tony: “Klopt. Hij is goed thuis in de wereld van de ICT en hij heeft onze website ook opnieuw ingericht. Hij zorgt ervoor dat de boekjes worden samengesteld en Al heeft ook nu weer ideeën die prima aansluiten bij de cover van Rodney Matthews.”

In 2012 is het dertig jaar geleden dat Chase The Dragon uitkwam en twintig jaar geleden kwam Sleepwalking uit. Zijn er nog plannen om deze albums in het zonnetje te zetten?

Tony: “We hebben dat gedaan met On A Storytellers Night en met Wings Of Heaven. De fans waren erg enthousiast, maar eerlijk gezegd wil ik niet te veel nummers uit de oude doos spelen.”

Bob: “We concentreren ons tijdens een tournee altijd op het laatste album waarvan we vier tot vijf nummers spelen. Vervolgens wat nummers van de meest recente albums als het even kan met een iets ander arrangement, en uiteraard ontkomen we niet aan songs als Kingdom Of Madness, How Far Jerusalem en Les Morts Dansant. Die verdienen het ook om in de setlist te blijven.”

Hoe werkt de totstandkoming van een song bij jullie?

Tony: “We hebben nog nooit als band in een opnamestudio gezeten, maar de huidige technologie maakt het – in tegenstelling tot vroeger − mogelijk om een complete demo in je huiskamer op te nemen. Alle muziek en teksten komen van mij en aan ideeën heb ik nooit gebrek. Ik gebruik daarbij gitaar, keyboard, een drumcomputer en uiteraard de huidige software. Wat ik goed genoeg vind, laat ik aan Bob horen en samen werken we naar de demo op basis waarvan Al, Harry en Mark een nummer verder inkleuren. Om te voorkomen dat ik in herhaling val, is Bob mijn geweten. Vaak worden dan zaken als toonhoogte en tempo aangepast.”

Bob, op een nummer van het nieuwe album dat ik zojuist hoorde, scheur je er weer aardig op los. Hoe staat het met je solocarrière?

Bob: “Dank je! Ik heb wel een producer met een zweepje nodig om het beste uit mezelf te halen, maar het zit nog steeds in me! Sinds de reünie hebben we zes albums opgenomen en zijn we drukker dan ooit. Er gaat te veel tijd in Magnum zitten om daarnaast nog andere zaken te ondernemen. Alleen de samenwerking met het Avantasia-project van Tobias Sammet probeer ik erin te houden.”

Zijn er nog verrassingen te verwachten op On The Thirteenth Day?

Tony: “Ons laatste album The Visitation vond ik het beste album in lange tijd en persoonlijk denk ik dat dit album nog beter is. Zowel de teksten – en dan bedoel ik het poëtische aspect − als de muziek en de productie gaan weer een stapje verder en zo moet het ook. Je moet het gevoel hebben dat je vooruit gaat!”

Bij het toeren hebben jullie Nederland al een tijdje overgeslagen. Wat zijn jullie plannen voor de toekomst?

Bob: “Vroeger speelden we in Paradiso in Amsterdam. We doen nu enkele festivals in Duitsland, Zwitserland, Scandinavië, België, Frankrijk, uiteraard shows in eigen land en in Tsjechië, een nieuwe markt voor ons. We proberen verder Oost-Europa in te gaan, maar de VS en Japan zijn voor ons niet rendabel genoeg om daarheen te reizen. Na die tournee in de herfst gaan we weer gewoon verder met het werken aan ons negentiende album!”

Line up 2012: Tony Clarkin (gitaar), Bob Catley (zang), Mark Stanway (keyboards), Al Barrow (bas), Harry James (drums).

(ENGLISH)

Magnum in the present day is what we tend to call a ‘mastodon’ in contemporary melodic (heavy) art rock. They started their impressive career as the house band at Birmingham's famous Rum Runner nightclub, which was later the home of Duran Duran. The line-up at the beginning of the seventies, joining guitarist Tony Clarkin and singer Bob Catley consisted of drummer Kex Gorin and bassist Dave Morgan (ex-Uglys And Balls), who became later a member of ELO. The line-up remained the same until 1972 when Les Kitcheridge joined temporarily on guitar. Jeff Lynne (ELO) mentioned the band to Jet Records managing director Don Arden, but it took two more years to record the debut album Kingdom Of Madness.

Although Magnum supported Judas Priest in 1977, the first big opportunity came in 1978, when Magnum toured in the UK as support to David Coverdale's Whitesnake. Leo Lyons, bassist with Ten Years After, produced the follow-up album Magnum II. Tours with among others Blue Öyster Cult, Krokus and UFO followed and they toured with Def Leppard in March 1980. For the second leg in April, Mark Stanway took over keyboard duties. Magnum also appeared at the Reading Festival in 1980. April 1981 saw another support tour with Tygers Of Pan Tang. Jeff Glixman of Kansas fame produced Chase The Dragon (1982) which reached #17 in the UK, and included several songs that would be mainstays of the bands live set, notably Soldier Of The Line, Sacred Hour and The Spirit. This was the first Magnum release to feature the artwork of fantasy artist Rodney Matthews. The tour included a support slot with Krokus in February as well as a few US dates were played during the summer of 1982, supporting label mate Ozzy Osbourne. These would ultimately prove to be the only live gigs the band has ever played outside of the UK and Europe. They returned to the UK in July for their own headlining tour of the UK, but the big breakthrough didn’t come so far.

A funny story from that period (1982) is that the BBC wanted The Move to play live at a jubilee show and planned the entire thing without having the consent of the members, who had split years before. The only one who was prepared to do the show was Carl Wayne, who died in 2004, but the other members refused. As the show was already confirmed, the BBC needed a stand-in and contacted Magnum via Dave Morgan. The band agreed and backed Carl at the show with Bob doing the background vocals. As the show was broadcast on the radio, there are some quite good quality tapes around, so watch out for them. Parts of the show were even released on a BBC-LP called Heroes And Villains, which is really hard to get by now! On that occasion a Magnum radio session at the BBC was arranged and recorded but not published before the sampler Long Days Black Nights in 2002. In spite of the release of their final album for Jet Records The Eleventh Hour, artwork by Rodney Matthews, more trouble was to come. The album did rather well, but was considered to be weaker than Chase The Dragon. Tony Clarkin’s mother died and Tony subsequently got seriously ill, which hit him so hard, that he had to withdraw from the tour and it took him such a long time to recover that the entire rest of the tour had to be staged without him. The rest of the band hired Laurence Archer from Stampede and Grand Slam as a stand-in and he learned the songs as quickly as possible, but he kept his own style nevertheless. The result was quite interesting; Magnum on stage without their mastermind! At the end of the tour Tony had still not recovered and the future of the band was doubtful. Mark Stanway decided to leave the band to join Phil Lynott’s Grand Slam along with Laurence Archer. Then Kex Gorin left too, because he had no other chance as he had a family to feed and a mortgage to pay off. Having already played a tour with Trapeze he now joined Robin George in whose band Mark was meanwhile playing, too. Mark also recorded an album together with their former support band Stampede called Hurricane Town. Robin, Kex and Mark recorded an album called Dangerous Music together. Later Kex played in Roy Wood's band.

The end of Magnum seemed to have come and even Bob couldn't hold back his tears on stage, because those concerts were seemingly the last ones the band would play. As Bob seemed to be forced to look for a new job, he was offered Ronnie James Dio’s job in Rainbow, which he turned down. He asked Malcolm Dome for help to find him a new band and then applied for an audition in Black Sabbath to replace Ozzy Osbourne but that didn’t work out. So the early to mid-eighties were not the most pleasant years for the band, also having to deal with legal issues against their former record company Jet Records. Clarkin recovered from his illness just in time to write the music for the one and only release through FM Records: the highly successful On A Storytellers Night featuring the artwork of Rodney Matthews once more and produced by the renowned Kit Woolven. The album was re-released worldwide at a later stage through Polydor. Although Mark Stanway had left Magnum to join Grand Slam, he came back to the fold in 1986 when the band signed a record deal with Polydor. The successor to On A Storytellers Night was Vigilante (1986), co-produced by drummer Roger Taylor (Queen). The line-up at the time: Tony Clarkin, Bob Catley, Wally Lowe, Mickey Barker and Mark Stanway. In 1987 work started on the next album Wings Of Heaven, which would become Magnum’s commercially most successful album and the band toured amongst others with Marillion. Subsequently the band toured Europe in 1988.

After a live video, two compilation albums and a live album, the band tried to get to the USA and released Goodnight L.A. (1991), but the tour fell through. The contract with Polydor had ended and the successor to Goodnight L.A., entitled Sleepwalking was produced by Tony Clarkin himself and turned out to be a one-time release through the Music For Nations Company. The album saw the return of Rodney Matthews’ artwork. The band toured Europe and Russia, but again there were problems with the management and the band suffered from bad coordinated tour schedules with the release of the album Rock Art. Eventually this brought the band to the decision to call it a day. In 1995 The Last Dance Tour commenced and on December 17th Magnum seemingly played their last show, recorded as The Last Dance (Europe) and Stronghold (UK). Mark Stanway had other business interests, while Wally Lowe sold his guitar and pursued his main interest, namely cycling. Mickey Barker kept on drumming in several bands.

Tony and Bob decided to continue their collaboration which resulted in the two albums with Hard Rain with Al Barrow on the bass. The year 2001 marks the reunion of the band and Mark Stanway returned to play keyboards with Magnum. With several hiatuses Harry James is the main drummer for Magnum in the new millennium. Al Barrow is the new bass player for Magnum and is well experienced in IT. He refurbishes and updates the Magnum website to a fully professional level. The albums Breath Of Life, Brand New Morning, Princess Alice And The Broken Arrow and Into The Valley Of The Moonking were released between 2001 and 2009, the latter two celebrating the return of Rodney Matthews as featured artist for the artwork. The double live album Wings Of Heaven Live features two sets, one of those being the album Wings Of Heaven played live in its entirety. The last studio album, which features artwork from both Rodney Matthews and Al Barrow, is entitled The Visitation. The band will release the successor to The Visitation in September 2012. The album will be entitled On The Thirteenth Day. The interview took place in the M2 studio near Birmingham with Bob Catley, Tony Clarkin and Rodney Matthews, the latter present to discuss his preliminary sketch of the artwork for the forthcoming album.

The first gig Bob and Tony did together is now forty years ago. Are there any special celebrations?

Bob: “Yeah, that sounds about right. We’ve been working together for such a long time now and we’ve kept the name Magnum for all these years because it’s a good name and it worked out fine for me and Tony.”

Tony: “We haven’t thought about any special shows to celebrate yet. What we’re doing now is recording a new album and we certainly will go out on tour after the release of that album but that’s all for now.”

On The Thirteenth Day will be your twentieth studio album. Where does the title come from?

Tony: “The title comes from one of the first songs I wrote for the new album. Actually, when I started to write the lyrics, it was called On The Twelfth Day but when I started looking on the internet there were like a million songs and movies called that way, so I changed it to On The Thirteenth Day. Of course you have things like that horror film Friday The 13th, but in the end I said to myself: okay, I’m going to find something completely original anyway. The only other thing I could find was an Indian film that had got to do something with the thirteenth day. Thirteen has got that dominance and there’s something mystical about it, so that’s why I chose that title.”

There’s no concept behind it?

Tony: “Well, there is a concept within the song itself, though it’s not a conceptual album. In the song all kinds of things happen on the thirteenth day so it’s a sort of punch line.”

You both probably began your careers in the sixties so you are probably in your sixties as well, an age a lot of people begin to think about retirement. How do you feel about retirement?

Tony: “Oh no, we’re just getting started!”

Bob: “Well I guess a lot of people our age are considering retirement or have retired, so we’re surrounded by people who have already retired, but it doesn’t seem to work for us that way. It is like: retire? Are you joking? What am I to do if I’m not working? I wouldn’t know what else to do, so I think I’ll stick to singing, I‘m still enjoying myself too much you know.”

Tony: “Yeah, me too, more than ever. When I was younger I didn’t like it as much as I do now. There was too much hassle: all these managers and record companies telling you that you got to have a hit record and it’s got to be top five.”

Bob: “Yes, there was an awful lot of pressure.”

Tony: “These days we are our own entity so to speak. I write the songs I want to write, but I always run them through Bob, tell him what the song is about and make sure he’s comfortable with it. We make our own decisions, not the record company. The company we’re with now is SPV. The guy we liaise with is Olly Hahn, the manager of Steamhammer Records. He happens to be a big supporter of the band. I write the music and he does the business side of things. That’s exactly how we want it so I guess we’re lucky in that aspect.”

So the financial problems SPV ran into didn’t affect you guys?

Tony: “No, it hasn’t affected us. We resigned to them and they have been very honest with us. It looked like it was going to be a total disaster, but it didn’t turn out like a catastrophe at all! I can’t remember the details though, because I’m in my sixties, you know…”

Bob: “Well I’m not!”

Tony: “It was like the last Rock Company would bite the dust but it didn’t happen fortunately.”

I read something about Mark doing some management tasks and I understand Harry James is back fulltime, so no more Thunder for him?

Tony: “That’s Mark Stuart and not Mark Stanway! The latter, however, is usually acting as our tour manager. Thunder doesn’t really exist anymore. They get together about once a year or so and do a couple of shows, but that’s it.”

Is Al Barrow involved in the artwork of all the albums?

Tony: “Yeah, he sort of puts it all together, finds bits and pieces to make all the T-shirts for when we go on tour and all that. He’s done some good stuff to go with Rodney Matthews' artwork so I’m really looking forward how he will put together the artwork for the forthcoming album!”

I don’t think I’ve noticed on your website that you sell albums or DVD’s. Are there any restrictions because of the contract with SPV? Do you sell autographed albums on the road?

Tony: “Well, we do sell some of our stuff on the road and Olly Hahn knows about this, but not through the website, we just don’t do that.”

2012 also marks the 30th anniversary of Chase The Dragon and the 20th anniversary of Sleepwalking. Are you planning to highlight these albums in the upcoming tour?

Tony: “We have done things like that with On A Storytellers Night and of course Wings Of Heaven and it was a great success. People just loved it, but to be honest I don’t like looking back.”

Bob: “Once you’ve done a couple of that kind of shows you just don’t want to do them anymore. Although I love the old stuff and we do play older songs on stage but the focus is always on the new albums. That’s what keeps us going. Tony loves to write and I like to learn new lyrics: to keep going back all the time would be killing. I guess it’s about half and half: half old and half new. And really you can’t win anyway because there are people who only want to hear the old stuff and there are also fans who’d rather want to hear the newer songs.”

Are there any songs you play on each tour?

Bob: “Yeah sure, Kingdom of Madness, How Far Jerusalem and Les Morts Dansant. There are certain songs they just won’t let us drop, believe me. And they should be there because they deserve to be there. Furthermore we tend to play ‘older’ newer songs in a little different arrangement to keep things fresh and of course we try to push the new songs each time we tour.”

Are you considering playing the whole new album live or one time as a ‘launch’?

Bob and Tony: “No! That would be silly, it would be too much.”

Tony: “Although I’d like too, it would be too much to rehearse and learn; it isn’t like ‘just go and play’. It would take several weeks of rehearsals maybe for just that one gig. That doesn’t make sense does it?”

I guess it doesn’t. So you’ll stick to four or five songs from the new album. Where does the inspiration come from musically: aren't you afraid to repeat yourself? How do you avoid that?

Tony: “Inspiration is never a problem. I have like a million notes in my head and to avoid repeating myself is why I bring all my stuff here. Sometimes Bob says: I think you have done that… I write far more songs than that we actually use, so there’s so many melodies in my head, it’s a constant buzz. Sometimes I play something to Bob and he says: wow, that sounds great and we both wonder why we never used it before, but it also happens that I’m contemplating and listening to my own stuff for weeks and when I decide to play it to Bob he says: hey Tony, we’ve used this for instance on The Visitation album. That particular song got turned around so much that I’d forgotten! If it sounds too similar to something else according to Bob, I’ll go home and change it or just discard it.”

Do you use the guitar only for composing purposes or nowadays the computer too?  Does it always start with a guitar riff?

Tony: “Well, yeah, I’ll use my guitars, a drum machine, keyboard, a little bit of bass and the computer as well. Usually I just sit around and start with a fairly simple rhythm on the drum machine and then I’ll mess around with my guitar and often suddenly I find something I think sounding good and start from there. Often I’ll go back to these first notes probably the next day or so. One time I think it is rubbish; the next will be the beginning of a new song. It’s a matter of trial and error.”

Does it occur that you think it’s rubbish and Bob thinks otherwise?

Bob: “I’m not privileged to that part…”

Tony: “I’m not bringing in anything which I don’t think is worthwhile. I realise there could be stuff people might not like, but I don’t work on something I don’t particularly like myself, it’s a personal thing you know. Little things can change a song or influence me in a certain direction and what I present to Bob can be nothing more than a rough idea, even without lyrics or as little as what the song would have to be about.”

Bob: “Sometimes I put my voice down. Tony hears it and takes it from there.”

Tony: “Usually it’s a finished song but all computerized. Most important are the chord sequences. Of course everybody has to come in and do their parts, but most of the changes have been made through Bob.”

Bob: “Most of the time it’s: play that please, but if you can improve it, that’s fine. What Tony comes up with it’s like the guide and we can all work around it.”

Does everyone come in at the same time to record their parts or is it just one by one?

Tony: “In the studio here, it’s just me and Bob. We fool around and change tempos and keys hundreds of times.”

Bob: “Yes, that’s the first thing that happens: is it the right key for my voice? We keep on changing the tempo quite a bit, but when we’re done, that’s about how the song is going to be for the biggest part.”

Tony: “Then at first Al comes in and does the bass parts, then Harry for the drum parts and then Mark to do the keyboard parts.”

Those lovely instrumental interludes or intro’s, are they brain children of Mark?

Tony: “Uhm, no. I do those at home and got that all sorted out. However, sometimes Mark suggests using the piano instead or something like that, but it’s all done by me.”

You will embark on a tour later this year. Which countries are you planning to visit besides Germany and UK? Any countries you didn't go to the last five to ten years including the Netherlands? Are Germany and the UK commercially the most important countries for Magnum?

Tony: “Germany is certainly a good market for us and a new market we discovered in recent years is the Czech Republic. We’ve gone back there for a couple of times and we will probably go back again. In the Netherlands we used to play the Paradiso years ago, but it seems nobody in your country wants to book us so we’ll have to wait and see.”

Bob: “So far we haven’t been to other Eastern European countries but we’d love to play there too. We started to play at one venue in the Czech Republic and we will play in two on the forthcoming tour. It’s a ‘build-up thing’ you know so we’re hoping to play in countries like Slovenia or Poland at some point, we’ll see.”

How about Japan or the US?

Bob: “Well, we do sell records in Japan, but it’s not enough to justify a visit because it’s an expensive endeavour.”

Tony: “Maybe Rodney Matthews can put up a good word for us when he’s there because from the US we haven’t received a call yet. UK and Germany, obviously home of the SPV are important for us but also Scandinavia.”

You have been making music for over forty years now. What are the biggest changes in recording throughout all those years?

Tony: “The technology makes a huge difference. I can do anything at home nowadays, in the old days everything was done in the studio. I can reach a far higher level of precision in the songs and how I want them to sound compared to the earlier period. We never worked in the studio as a band not even in the early days.”

Bob: “We rehearsed for six weeks as a band when we went to America, but that was for a tour, not for recording an album.”

Tony: “We set up our own studio more than ten years ago and bought a couple of machines, a 48-track recording device, a desk and all that stuff: it’s worth nothing now. It’s all so archaic. Machines we bought for fifteen to twenty thousand quid nowadays cost no more than fifteen to two thousand quid. I sold the desk for about threepence! I mean technology moved on so quickly when Pro-Tools, Logic and things like that came on the market: all the effects you’d ever want, you’ve got in your program: like thousands and thousands of tones you have available you’d have to buy in the old days. Everything is now at your fingertips and you can even make a record in the house, but as Rodney can vouch for, I play very loud and you could never do that in your house!”

Rodney: “Yeah, he nearly ruined my hearing once. He was in another room risking his career playing a few notes on one of my projects. I had been going to the toilet or something and when I came back through the studio, his amps and speakers were in the room I was passing through and he suddenly decides to play something! What a blast! I couldn’t hear anything the rest of the day!”

That is what we call totally blown away! What influences has technology played for you as performing artists? Do you use in- ears?

Bob: “Yeah, sure, I wouldn’t know what to do without them, although I must admit I was rather slow in using them, being an old-school artist. I always complained about the monitors until someone suggested in-ears and I started fiddling around with them a bit. I tried one, I tried another and in the end I found the ideal ones and it’s just fantastic. It makes a huge difference.”

Tony: “Mark uses in-ears on stage, Al is talking about starting to use them but not for me. I think I have about four monitors around me and that’s the way I like it. It’s a bit of a problem for the engineers to position the monitors in such a way that I’m happy and they don’t disturb the balance in the sound for the first few rows.”

What's the role of selling CD's, merchandise and live performances today compared to the seventies? Is the internet a blessing or a threat?

Bob: “Obviously the sales of albums are less than before, but the legal downloading still brings in some money. I would say the internet is a bit of both.”

Tony: “Without merchandise we wouldn’t be able to tour, but a new record is like a promotional tool as well. It let people know you’re still there and that’s one of the reasons people decide to come and see us play. MP3’s are going up, CD’s are plummeting. Also SPV puts out 12-inch vinyls, which is great. They’re not massive sellers but like one each day and that’s terrific.”

Are you involved in all releases by Magnum?

Bob: “No we’re not. We don’t have control.”

Tony: “Yeah, they keep putting out albums and some of them aren’t even legal. It’s very irritating.”

Since the reunion, Magnum have released six full-length studio albums this year. The last few years even an album every year, so I’d say the band has been pretty busy this millennium. Does it mean that Bob’s solo career has been put on hold since 2008?

Bob: “Yes, there’s far too much going on with Magnum these last years and I certainly don’t want to put out and concentrate at something at the expense of this, it wouldn’t be right, so indeed it’s on the side at the moment.”

But in the meantime you have been involved with Tobias Sammet’s Avantasia? Can you comment on your collaborations with Clive Nolan, Rick Wakeman and Sammet?

Bob: “Avantasia is something that comes along every few years when I’m fortunate enough to do it if I’m available and that may happen in the future, I don’t know. Clive Nolan was a long time ago, I did the album Jabberwocky with him and Oliver Wakeman, I did Hounds Of The Baskervilles, but I don’t do these kinds of things anymore. I just kept Avantasia. Nolan and Wakeman were purely sessions, I gave them my voice but I wasn’t involved in the making of those albums at all.”

What about this nice chap standing here on my left hand side. Your collaboration with Rodney Matthews goes back to some thirty years ago? I believe Chase The Dragon was the first album he did the artwork for, didn’t he?

Bob & Tony: “Yes, indeed it was.”

Rodney: “If I remember correctly this is what happened. I read an article in the Music Press by a certain Tony Clarkin and I bought one of Magnum’s early albums. I liked his approach to music, the contents of the lyrics and the music itself as well, stuff like Changes for example. So I decided to write Tony through his record company − that must have been Jet Records − and I included some of my Michael Moorcock illustrations. When I was looking at Tony’s lyrics at the time there were one or two things that suggested he had read some of the Moorcock stories.”

Tony: “Yeah, I stole them…”

Rodney: “Well, it was not as blatant as the Tygers Of Pan Tang but anyway I was convinced Tony was a Moorcock fan, so I sent him some of my stuff. Then he contacted me and he said that he liked the illustrations and that he would have a word with Jet Records. That’s how I got to do the Chase The Dragon album which originally was to be entitled The Spirit. I did another thing for the inside spread of that album with the same city on a pinnacle of rock, eventually called Sanctuary. The object in Chase The Dragon was that The Spirit is something eternal. Originally the first one was the city in the desert, the city representing The Spirit. Then a sort time lapse and the city in the same place, but the earth around had changed drastically. The title The Spirit got changed into Chase The Dragon and Jet Records didn’t want the folded cover. That’s as far as my memory goes…”

Then the change of cover artist came with Vigilante. Why was that?

Tony: “I’d spoken to Rodney about the cover for Vigilante and he’d come up with some really good stuff. He sent me a pencil drawing, but the record company said: oh, we got this bloke, you have to see him. So here I was with this pencil drawing of Rodney’s and this guy sent me his artwork on something like a piece of toilet paper and it looked like he’d been doing that for years and the record company insisted on using this guy’s artwork. I was going crazy and I told them so and I asked them if they had no respect! Anyway I could tell them anything but they forced me into using that guy’s artwork in the end. Fortunately that was then! These days we choose our own artworks. I mean, Polydor certainly did good things for us but there were certain things that were not right in my opinion.”

About the new album: can we expect any unusual instruments, surprises or unexpected changes in style or do you stick to the frame you built your reputation on?

Tony: “I don’t know what that frame is, but I suspect people will say that, which is good. I think the songs are really good on this album. It feels like the last album The Visitation which to me was the best album in a long time from a recording, lyrical and musical point of view. Now this album maybe surpasses it because we’ve only got one finished song at this moment which sounds real good to me. I feel that it both lyrically − I mean poetically − and musically will be a step forward. You can always say you have a message, but you know, I’m a guitar player, you know what I mean: I am not going to change the world!”

Some bands tried to change their style or in fact did so like Marillion for instance. Others tried to do so but eventually returned to the style they got popular with, like Saga for instance. Didn’t you ever think about changing?

Tony: “I’ve gone through that phase! When Magnum seemed to have disbanded in the nineties I was going completely nuts and I tried other things with Hard Rain but it didn’t sound like Magnum and I wasn’t feeling too comfortable. Now we’ve got this solid entity with a very strong emotional bond. When we get it right, it’s a very powerful thing so all I want to do now is Magnum!”

I guess that’s the ultimate challenge in making music: feeling good about it, pushing it to perfection and makes you feel emotionally in higher spheres?

Tony: “Yeah! Exactly! You keep on looking for that perfect tone, sound and emotional message. I prophesize this will be the best Magnum album yet!”

How about composing music and writing lyrics for the new album. Is it always fresh ideas you use or do you use older scribbles too that for some reason were not used before?

Tony: “Lyrically I always begin with a clean slice, I never go back to old notes and musically it’s the same really. With the exception of that one song I was trying to get Bob to do… For this album I started writing about fifteen months ago now, just after the release of The Visitation. We did a tour but I already had some songs for this album. For The Visitation I had about sixty ideas, though not completed songs, but I was enjoying myself so much that the ideas kept on coming. For the upcoming album I’ve already got around fifty ideas and then I have to chop it all up and go like: this will work and this will take too much time to develop, dump that. And then bit by bit I end up with about twenty songs that I work on and then gradually I keep the best ones for an album, like a whole musical thing.”

Bob: “There will be eleven songs on this album. Originally we had twelve, but in the end Tony decided not to use one of them.”

The one song I’ve just heard in the studio seems to me just awesome. Your voice is sounding more powerful than on the last couple of albums. How do you do that?

“Well, thank you because it’s inside, you can do it. What you need is a producer who is a slave driver, who sits on your back and whip you around the buttocks a lot and then it’s amazing what you can sing!”

Tony: “Like I said earlier: we spend a lot of time finding the right key, which is really important. Sometimes people don’t realise how important the right key can be. If we find a key which is difficult for Bob to sing and I insist on him singing it in that key, then live we would drop it to make life a bit easier for him. In the studio you can take weeks to record a vocal, but live it must be right then and there! Another key may change the characteristics of the voice and when Bob’s singing on the edge, his voice sounds different.”

Will there be any special editions or just a jewel case?

Tony: “I’m not aware of any special edition yet, but I know for a fact that the first edition will not be a simple jewel case. It will be a fold out with some amazing artwork…”

Is this here your own recording studio?

Tony: “No, it isn’t. The M2 Mad Hat Studio is owned by Mark Stuart, but this is definitely the place where we always come to.”

Do you have any hobbies beside the music business?

Bob: “I got no time for hobbies! No seriously: I like steam railways, you know, both the models of the old steam engines as well as the big ones. I’m a semi-enthusiast. If I get a chance I might be off to the Severn Valley Railway next week and have my pictures taken there.”

Rodney: “I’d better send you a print of my original artwork on a steam engine then. The Heavy Metal Hero…”

Bob: “Yeah right, I love steam engines! I’ve had a few offers of Magnum fans who happen to be engine drivers to join them for a ride to, for example Yorkshire or Bournemouth. From where I live in Tamworth to Bournemouth on 125, me as an inspector with people on board and doing a 125 miles an hour! I do it all the time but I wouldn’t get my hands dirty throwing coal into the fire.”

Tony: “Hobbies? No, nothing really. Just writing songs! Boring? Perhaps, but I like it. It doesn’t feel like working to me.”

How about future plans? Are you going to play any festivals in the summer?

Bob: “Yes, we got a few, like Rock Hard in Germany and probably one in Switzerland in early August with Toto. The new album is due for release in September, so we’ll go on tour in the fall and afterwards we’re going to start working on the next album!”

Discographies/Discography:

Kingdom Of Madness (1978)

Magnum II (1979)

Chase The Dragon (1982)

Vintage Magnum (compilation of non-album tracks, 1982)

The Eleventh Hour (1983)

On A Storyteller's Night (1985)

Vigilante (1986)

Wings Of Heaven (1988)

Goodnight L.A. (1990)

Sleepwalking (1992)

Keep The Nite Light Burning (1993)

Rock Art (1994)

Breath Of Life (2002)

Brand New Morning (2004)

Princess Alice And The Broken Arrow (2007)

Into The Valley Of The Moonking (2009)

The Visitation (2011)

Evolution (remixed, re-recorded and new songs, 2011)

On The Thirteenth Day (2012)

Live Albums:

Marauder (1980)

Invasion Live (1989)

The Spirit (1991)

The Last Dance / Stronghold (1996)

Days Of Wonder (2000)

The River Sessions (2005)

Wings Of Heaven Live (2008)

*The Gathering (boxset, 5 cd's, compilation)

*The Gathering is een album met onuitgebracht livemateriaal met artwork van Rodney Matthews. De afbeelding is de eerste opdracht die hij uitvoerde voor schrijver dezes.

*The Gathering is a compilation of unreleased material with artwork by Rodney Matthews. The cover is from a commission from yours truly.