MAGNUM

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I bought a copy of "Classic Rock" magazine, and among the things feature was a review of a new album by MAGNUM. I can vaguely remember this band in the early '80's, IIRC they had a couple of albums w/rodney matthews covers, which looked vaguely prog-rock-ish, but my (possibly faulty) memory says the music was actually what used to be called "AOR", "Adult Oriented Rock" - melody-orientated heavy rock w/big-sounding keyboard washes. Possibly vaguely folky as well? The guitarist had a beard, and looked a little like one of zz top, whilst the singer had long blond hair. They both appear to still be in the band, I dunno about other members. Anyway, I was vaguely fascinated by the fact that the band formed in 1975 (!!) and they're still going, presumably selling enough rekkids to make a living, yet at the same time, almost totally invisble, like I presume "Classic Rock" is prob. the only magazine who would give them any props whatsoever, or who would even review their records at all. Who buys their records, and how do they find out about them? This whole ultra-obscurity thing makes me kind of curious about them. I get this sound in my head, which is kind of like Asia's "Soul Survivor", all pomped-up keyboards, and histrionic vocals, mixed w/kind of bucolic zeppelinish acoustic guitars and folk-derived melodies. In my brain, this sounds pretty good, actually. Possibly in reality, it would be terrible, probably it's nothing like what they really sound like. Are there any Magnum fans out there who want to represent? S/D maybe?

I did a search for "Magnum", but the only hit that wasn't "magnum opus" or "magnum pi" was one of DJ Martian's lists.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 08:30 (twenty-one years ago)

As I recall, they WERE terrible in reality (from their late 80s, whitesnake-like single, although I couldn't even name one of them now).

This really dumb girl I used to know at university told me she'd won one of Magnum's guitars in a local radio phone-in and had had the rare privilege of meeting them in person at the ceremonial handover of said instrument.

Here ends the sum of my knowledge of Magnum.

― M Carty (mj_c), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 09:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I get this sound in my head, which is kind of like Asia's "Soul Survivor", all pomped-up keyboards, and histrionic vocals, mixed w/kind of bucolic zeppelinish acoustic guitars and folk-derived melodies.

That's just about how I remember them, Pash. My best pal as an undergrad in the mid-late '80s was a big Magnum fan (it was a physics course, what can you do?), or at least moving out of his Magnum phase by the time I knew him. I recall being them being fairly awful but not as bad as the Manowar record he played me. Mind you, that was funny.

There are Magnum sound clips on AMG, if yr interested.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 10:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I had a couple of their albums during the mid-80s during my uncritically-loving-anything-vaguely-prog years. As I remember, they had some pretty tunes and the songs were free of extended instrumental breaks. I think I'd prob'ly still quite like them, but then the phrase AOR does not make me automatically reach for my revolver.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 18:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Magnum were what you'd call Pomp Rock, i.e. kinda prog but with nods to soft rock / AOR. Other Pomp Rock bands include Asia, Kansas, Styx and the execrable Starcastle, plus lesser known mid-70's joys like Angel, Starz and Pavlov's Dog. So, once more : POMP ROCK.

Magnum seem to still be amazingly popular - a friend of mine who works in HMV was saying that the last Bob Catley (Magnum singer) album was flying off the shelves, and they regularly sell out 1000-plus capacity venues. I played some of it again recently and it was pretty bad, with occasional flashes of passable mediocrity.

Here's my Pomp Rock top 5 :

1. Pavlov's Dog - Pampered Menial
2. Kansas - Leftoverture
3. Angel - Angel
4. Styx - Pieces Of Eight
5. Boston - Boston

― udu wudu (udu wudu), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 18:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Weren't Starcastle that band whose album was basically a clone of Yes, to the point where you could play bits of it to a Yes fan, and say ut was an unreleased demo from just before "Going for the One", and they'd believe you?

That Pavlov's Dog album is awesome, as in fact, is that Kansas album (see also "Song for America")

I looked at Magnum's website, and they had a demo song playing, but it was a little bit ordinary, I thought. Sorry, Magnum :(

they seemed pleased that their albums regularly reach just outside the top 100, and occasionally nearly hit the top 70. Some people would mock that, but for an obscure band, that's a fucking fantastic result. You could live OK off that, assuming yr rekkid company didn't fuck you over, and spend all your time fucking about w/instruments and studio gear, and writing music. That would be great!

Those two guys have the most beautiful names, though. Tony Clarkin and Bob Catley.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 18:43 (twenty-one years ago)

i dunno anything about magnum, but the mention of kansas reminded me of their latest promo pic:

http://www.dailyvault.com/kansas_promo.jpg

― frankE (frankE), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 18:51 (twenty-one years ago)

wait. "aor" means adult-oriented rock? i thought it was album-oriented rock.

― peter smith (plsmith), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 18:51 (twenty-one years ago)

They weren't obscure in the late 80s. They had several hits and actually played arenas due to a couple of fairly big selling albums.

― Rock Bastard, Tuesday, 10 August 2004 18:52 (twenty-one years ago)

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