Magnum/Neonfly

April 19, 2014 Off By Jon

The Brook, Southampton

When a band has been together for over 40 years and have produced 17 studio albums, it is hard to understand how they manage to keep things fresh and exciting.

Magnum do this with relative ease introducing their progressive style of melodic Rock to a whole new generation of fans year after year. Their latest release “Escape From The Shadow Garden” has once again thrown the band into the Rock Charts, despite relatively being in the twilight of their career. It is a fantastic return to form, equalling the quality of classic albums like “Wings Of Heaven” and “Vigilante”. Tonight is the first date of the UK tour and what better place to start than at The Brook in Southampton.

Neonfly 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10–11

Tonight’s support band are London based “Neonfly”, who arrive on stage full on youthful energy and hyped up enthusiasm. They are straight out of the starting blocks, bringing their anthemic twin guitar rock sound into the ears of the sold out Brook crowd. Front man Willy Norton is clearly a class act who has been to the “school of Rock” and got an honours degree! The audience are treated to some epic tunes such as “A Gift To Remember” and “Heart Of The Sun” which do exactly what they were written for in warming up the very appreciative Saturday night audience. The band struggle a little for much needed space on the small Brook stage laden with Magnum’s large amount of equipment. Give these guys a larger stage, a few airplayed singles and I am sure anything is possible looking at tonight’s top class performance.

Magnum 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10–11–12

At exactly 9:15pm the lights go down and the venue bar staff get a well earned rest as Magnum take to the stage, with the Southampton crowd giving them an amazingly warm welcome. Kicking off with the opening track from the new album “Live ‘Til You Die” the songs sounded great through the Brook’s sound system with Bob Catley’s vocals still after all this time more than up to the job. As each song was played the excited atmosphere of the place just builds and builds with virtually all of the crowd willfully singing to each number in unison.

Magnum are more of an institution than a band – it’s the army of fans who faithfully come along year after year to the shows and buy the albums, that are testament to what a great band they truly are. The classic songs such as “How Far Jerusalem”, “Les Morts Dansant”, “Kingdom Of Madness” and the epic sounding “Vigilante” are still sounding fresh & exciting and thrill the audience with each note played.

The band leave the stage briefly but the chants of “Magnum Magnum Magnum” from the impatient crowd soon get them to return with the new single “Too Many Clowns”, as well as the final number the classic keyboard led “Sacred Hour”. Tonight Magnum more than exceeded expectations and this is only the first night of the tour!

All the other UK cities that they are calling at are in for a treat!!

Set Lists
Magnum
Live Til You Die
Black skies
Freedom Day
Dance Of The Black Tattoo
Blood Red Laughter
Unwritten Sacrifice
How Far Jerusalem
Les Morts Dansant
Falling For The Big Plan
The Spirit
All My Bridges
All England’s Eyes
Vigilante
Kingdom Of Madness