Inspired performance
Hey ‘Classic Rock’ folks, ‘Pointy Bob’ and ‘Beardy Tony’ are back! Magnum’s ‘Wings of heaven Live’ is released 20 years after the original studio album back in 1988 around the time of torn bleached jeans and tousled layered hair, and that’s just the blokes.
‘Wings of Heaven’ was undoubtedly the pinnacle of their career. The album reached No.2 in the charts, and you had to shift some copies to make No.2 I can tell you. It also spawned three Top 30 singles, which was no mean feat. Not long after this it all seemed over. The following ‘Keith Olsen’ produced Goodnight LA was not received as it should have and the band seemed to peeter away, Tony Clarkin to form Hard rain, and Pointy Bob to go solo replicating the Magnum sound for many a year after
It was great news when they reformed as Tony and Bob deserve to be together. Last years cd, ‘Princess Alice and The Broken Arrow’ was a return to the magnum of old. It is these two albums which form the majority of the set along with some earlier slices of classic melodic rock songs.
The cd is in two halves, the first cd a collection of the old and the new. Old in the form of ‘Vigilante’, ‘How Far Jerusalem’, ‘All England’s Eyes’, ‘Kingdom Of Madness’ and a clutch of the new songs in support of ‘Princess Alice...’.
The second cd sees Magnum perform their opus in its entirety, with encore ‘Sacred Hour’ as a final layer of polish on this already polished set of songs. With the first half of the gig, you’re never going to please everyone, as these are other classics that could have been aired. But Magnum are a professional now as they were in the 80’s. Bob’s vocals sound as they always did, and Clarkin’s guitar work sounds even better than 20 yrs ago. The great thing about live albums is that you get a feel for how heavy some of this so called melodic/prog rock actually is. Top this off with the tight as a gnats chuff rhythm section of Al Barrow and Jimmy Copley and you have a formula for success. I actually forgot how good Mark Stanway was and still is, a very underrated ivory tinkler!
The highlight is obviously the set after which the cd is named, their best ever album, played in its entirety with not a duff track on offer. It was one of the best melodic rock albums of its day, and the songs still stand the test of time some 20 yrs on. The only request from me is why haven’t you done this sooner. There begs a question for the future....think of playing On A Storytellers Night in its glory on the next tour.
Essential if you’re a Magnum fan, essential if you’re not!