Magnum / Rebecca Downes - Rock City, Nottingham (UK) - 05 March 2018

t had been a few years since I had seen Magnum live and things have changed quite a bit since then. Keyboardist Mark Stanway has departed along with drummer Harry James, who has returned to his daytime job with Thunder. Such things could destabilise a band that has now been around for some considerable time, but if the latest release 'Lost On The Road To Eternity' is anything to go by, we shouldn't have anything to worry about.




Before that could be confirmed, we had support from a young lady called Rebecca Downes (who isn't related to Geoff in case you were wondering). Her music was Blues Rock, which I can take or leave depending on how it's done. She sang mainly her own material and she has been blessed with a very powerful voice with which to project this. Right from the start, she had the support of the crowd, which hadn't filled the venue by any means, but I was interested to see that the more it filled up, the more applause she received. There were a lot of people who were impressed by her tonight, something that was cemented by her final song, a slow blues version of the Beatles' 'With A Little Help From My Friends' which she did superbly with her very tight and capable band. Downes is definitely one to catch if you like the Blues.




Magnum came on stage just after nine to a now much-swelled audience and kicked off with 'When We Were Younger'. Let's not beat around the bush here, Magnum are not a young band anymore and there is always the fear that, as bands get older, their performance/voice/ability to stand for a length of time could all be affected. I am happy to say that there was no sign of that whatsoever. One thing about Bob Catley is that whenever I have seen him, he has always been able to take the audience on whatever journey he is on with him; tonight was no exception. In typical Magnum fashion, Tony Clarkin stayed firmly to the right of the stage while Catley went everywhere. As the set progressed, I started to wonder when the classics would make an appearance as, up until the eighth song, we hadn't heard one, with all the material at that point being from the later years.

Then we got 'How Far Jerusalem' and 'Les Morts Dansant' which made me think that it was to be a night of two halves. However, they then brought us back up to date with 'Show Me Your Hands' and 'Twelve Men Wise And Just', but after that, it was right back to the good old days with 'All England's Eyes', 'Vigilante' and 'Don't Wake The Lion (Too Old To Die Young)' which saw the end of the main set. The band left the stage briefly, but they then returned with 'The Spirit' and an all-time favourite of mine in 'When The World Comes Down' before they left for good just before eleven.




If Magnum had done a less pleasing set tonight, nobody would have minded as their execution of the songs removed any fear that they would struggle with the challenge. Catley threw his arms in all directions, Clarkin confidently oversaw things, the new boys fit in perfectly and the audience sang along throughout. What more do you need?




Set-list: 'When We Were Younger', 'Sacred Blood "Divine" Lies', 'Lost On The Road To Eternity', 'Crazy Old Mothers', 'Without Love', 'Your Dreams Won't Die', 'Peaches And Cream', 'How Far Jerusalem', 'Les Morts Dansant', 'Show Me Your Hands', 'Twelve Men Wise And Just', 'All England's Eyes', 'Vigilante', 'Don't Wake The Lion (Too Old To Die Young)'.
Encore: 'The Spirit', 'When The World Comes Down'.

Review and photos Andy Braildford