Rockers' history a storyteller's dream

The memories will be glowing when classy rockers Magnum play Wolverhampton's Wulfrun Hall on Thursday.

"Here's where it really started for us, at Club Lafayette," says singer Bob Catley.

A full 35 years on, his beaming smile is graphic testimony to the encouragement they won in regular appearances at the Thornley Street rock venue, though as guitarist and songwriter Tony Clarkin recollects, they didn't have it all their own way.

"The only problem with the Lafayette was that you'd finish playing, then the disco would come on and it was 10 times louder than the band. We had a 2,000 watt PA and the disco was about 10,000; it was brilliant. . . the band were scared of the disco," he grins.

Those Lafayette gigs were a welcome boost to a group who until then had had nothing but discouragement.

They were sacked as house band at Birmingham's Rum Runner club for daring to prefer Tony's songs to whatever was in the Top 20 at the time - even though musician punters in the club, including Black Sabbath, were so impressed that they often jammed with the band.

The addition of the lead guitarist to a line-up of Bob, drummer Kex Gorin, who died last December, and bassist Bob Doyle, was the catalyst the band had been seeking, and when they lost their six nights a week booking it was Tony who said: "Look, this is a great opportunity, let's make the most of it."

Lots of talented musicians can tell the same story of what happened next: a series of knock-backs bad enough to finish most bands, no matter how enthusiastic.

The difference with Bob and Tony is that they battled through it, often at huge financial risk to themselves, racked up an impressive number of hit albums and even a few singles, and are still touring and recording today - as much in love with music as they ever were.

An early break, says Tony, was when "a bloke from London, Henry Sellars, hired us to back Del Shannon on tour, which I loved, and also Eddie Holman, who sang Hey There Lonely Girl.

"Those gigs were only a fortnight's work at a time, but they let us pay a few bills occasionally, then we got a deal with Jet Records, Don Arden's label, and we recorded Kingdom of Madness in 1976, but it didn't come out for two years, and that was a controversial time for us because we were waiting and nothing was happening.

"Some bands' careers only last two years and we were shelved for that long, but we didn't give up, we just carried on doing gigs.

"We were offered deals by other companies, that sort of stuff, and Don rang me up one day threatening to break the legs of someone who wanted to manage us. I didn't get a word in, not one word; he was screaming non-stop and then he slammed the phone down.

"We felt like we were in limbo. All we could do was go out and play, mainly around the Midlands. We were offered a big record deal from EMI, doubling anything Don offered, but we stayed with Don because we had to really, and one day I got a call to say the album was released."

Suddenly their fortunes changd. "I can remember going to Germany for the first time and all these people coming up to us with albums to sign, and we didn't even know it had been released over there, but it gave us an audience to start with," says Tony.

"We couldn't tell you how many records we sold with Jet, but it did actually start something for us, because it did the groundwork without us knowing about it."

Support roles on big tours also came along, with groups like Whitesnake, Def Leppard and Blue Oyster Cult (the group were delighted to find this band even tinier than themselves, not to mention that they did arena gigs including Bingley Hall and four nights at Hammersmith).

Boosted by keyboard player Mark Stanway - who is still "the new boy," having joined in 1980 - their reputation grew steadily.

Says Bob: "We started building our fan base through support gigs, until we were headliners ourselves, after the success of Chase The Dragon, in 1982. We also toured America, supporting Ozzy Osbourne, and had a great time."

Chase The Dragon was the third of four studio albums made for Jet, along with a live album, but their contract was not renewed. "We hadn't got a record deal, so we went into UB40's studio and made our own album (On A Storyteller's Night) and paid for it ourselves, and Paul Birch did a record deal for us in England.

Someone gave a copy to a German guy at Polydor, Michael Golla, and said: 'You really should sign this band.' He heard the record and called us up right away and said he wanted to sign us. It was like a dream come true for us, because we had just come out of the Jet deal and we were on a real downer, and after he saw us play at Donington, he signed us up and that record became really successful, Top 20 in this country and all over Europe.

"He really pulled out all the stops for us, and did a great job (they cut Vigilante and Wings of Heaven at this time) but when he left Polydor it all imploded and we were inherited by Polydor UK who had no idea of what to do with Magnum."

Tony bore the brunt of it, and was forced to write with other people, "though there was a period of telling them they were idiots, because they were trying to take the heart out of Magnum. Bob backed me up, but I didn't get any other support," he says.

Eventually he said he wanted to quit the label, "so they said well you owe us £250,000 or something; we had to come up with a pile of dough just to walk away."

Magnum actually split up in 1995, but Bob and Tony didn't. They took on a new project, Hard Rain, which lasted until 2001 when they re-formed Magnum.

Says Bob: "It was a great idea but people didn't pick up on it. We had a good line-up, Tony wrote great songs for it, and we did two UK tours but that was it."

Says Bob: "We tried not to sound like Magnum, but it was still my voice and Tony's songs, so there were bound to be comparisons."

With a grin Tony adds: "The trouble with Hard Rain was that it wasn't Magnum. . . we were our own worst enemies!"

They are now with German label SVP, and have released three albums and a DVD, Living The Dream, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of A Storyteller's Night in 2005.

Magnum play at Wulfren Hall, Wolverhampton on Thursday, May 6, as part of their Wings of Heaven 20th anniversary tour - tickets are £18. Further information at www.wolvescivic.co.uk and www.magnumonline.co.uk

By John Ogden