Magnum/Trillium

The Brook, Southampton

West Midlands rockers Magnum are back at The Brook in Southampton as part of a tour to promote their 16th studio album “On The 13th Day”.

This prolific band reformed back in 2002 and have been on the road virtually every year since. The band feature the two original founding members from 1972 Bob Catley(Vocals) and Tony Clarkin(Guitar) with Mark Stanway(Keyboards), Al Barrow(Bass) along with drummer Harry James from rock band “Thunder”. Tonight both floors of The Brook is packed out with virtually all of the £20 tickets having been sold in advance.

Tonight’s support act Anglo American/European band “Trillium” were invited by Bob Catley to come on the road with Magnum after he worked with vocalist Amanda Somerville in the metal super group “Avantasia”. At 8:30pm Trillium arrived on stage with melancholic opening number “Machine Gun” and set about creating the right atmosphere for the night ahead, the four piece band perform some powerful well executed metal that totally compliments Amanda’s impressive vocal skills. They perform tracks from their 2011 album “Alloy” which gets some very positive responses from the audience, with songs like “Mistaken” and the vengeful song “Coward” showing just what the band are made of.

The last time the band were in the UK they were a five piece, sadly their keyboard player Simon “Simonovsky” Oberender tragically died just over a month ago. The band are obviously still hurting from their loss and play a moving tribute in his name in the form of the song “Path Of Least Resistance”. The stage was filled with so much equipment “Trillium” has very little space to move around, however they made the best of the space that they had and impressed all onlookers making I’m sure a few new fans in the process.

Trillium 1–2–3

The atmosphere is the place was one of high expectation as Magnum themselves had set the bar high when they played here back in April 2011, the band arrived to a heroes welcome with everyone loudly applauding their entrance. Opening with “All The Dreamers” from the latest album the mainly leather and denim clad crowd had their fists in the air in full appreciation of the bands colossal sound. The new material sat very well side by side with the classic tracks such as “How Far(Jerusalem)”, “Vigilante” and “Kingdom Of Madness” which have everybody in the place singing the words right at the band with lots of broad smiles of approval coming from the stage.

There was a slight hiccup half way through the set when a power failure stopped proceedings for about 20 minutes, the band unwillingly left the stage as the problem was sorted out, but apologetically returned with no loss of momentum. It is just amazing how a band such as this has keep going for over 40 years performing these songs to an army of loyal fans old and new. Bob Catley’s voice despite his years still delivers some excellent vocals while Tony Calrkin’s guitar work is as amazing as ever. Magnum are a band that is very hard to dislike in any shape or form, they are seem to be warm hearted genuine chaps who have some excellent songs in abundance. The encores soon arrive and the band go out on a high with two of their best known songs “Rockin Chair” and “Days Of No Trust” much to the delight of the audience. The band all come to the front of the stage to take their bows, Bob Catley thanks everyone wholeheartedly for their support and leaves the stage with a massive smile on his face……..”Bloody Marvellous”.

Magnum 1–2–3–4–5

Set List
Magnum
All The Dreamers
When We Were Younger
Blood Red Laughter
Wild Angels
Brand New Morning
How Far(Jerusalem)
The Flood
Les Morts Dansant
The Spirit
Dance Of The Black Tattoo
All My Bridges
All Englands Eyes
Vigilante
Kingdom Of Madness
See How They Fall
Rockin’ Chair
Days Of No Trust