Artist: MAGNUM
Album: WINGS OF HEAVEN - LIVE 2008 (2CD)

Year: 2008
Media type: CD

Founded in the mid-Seventies, Magnum brought out their debut, Kingdom of Madness, featuring diverse prog-rock of the melodic variety, in 1978. Magnum II, out one year later, sounded even more symphonic, and their first live album, Marauder, arrived at the stores twelve months later. Chase The Dragon (1982) and The Eleventh Hour (1983) documented the musicians’ unmistakable development, but the big breakthrough took a long time in coming. It arrived, deservedly, in 1985 with On A Storyteller’s Night, Vigilante (1986) (produced by Queen drummer Roger Taylor) and Wings Of Heaven, which made no. 2 of the British album charts and spawned three top 30 single hits. Celebrated tours and invitations to most important open-air festivals of the Eighties followed, the Reading Festival, the Monsters Of Rock in Castle Donington among them, as well as several shows at the Wembley Arena and annual appearances at the legendary Hammersmith Odeon.

In the early Nineties, the musicians flew to Los Angeles, where they recorded their Goodnight L.A. album, composer Clarkin being supported by Russ Ballard and Jim Vallance. The band’s record company released The Spirit, featuring rare or previously unreleased tracks from another studio session, towards the end of their mutual contract, followed by Sleepwalking, another new, regular studio album soon afterwards. The first chapter of Magnum’s success story ended in 1994 with Rock Art and a major farewell tour, during which the final live album The Last Dance (out in May 1996) was recorded.

Clarkin went on to work as a producer and songwriter for other artists, released two albums with Bob Catley, recorded by their intermezzo project Hard Rain in 1997 and 1999 (Hard Rain & When The Good Times Come), and generally recharged his musical batteries. Then, almost precisely eight years after Rock Art, glorious times returned for Magnum. Their 2001 album Breath Of Life oozed present and past all at once and was followed by a number of celebrated shows. “It was very inspiring for me to write and produce material for Magnum again,” Clarkin explains. “Compared to the Hard Rain tracks, Magnum compositions are more powerful, deeper and more passionate.”

With their 2004 album, Brand New Morning, and a major European tour in late summer of that year, Magnum went even further at an ambitioned artistic level, documenting that this band, like a good wine, gets better with every year. Looking at it this way, Princess Alice & The Broken Arrow(released in 2007) comes as no surprise but is the logical result of a mature and well thought-through creational process.

TRACKLIST CD 1:

01. When We Were Younger
02. Back Street Kid
03. Out Of The Shadows
04. Like Brothers We Stand
05. How Far Jerusalem
06. Dragons Are Real
07. All Englands Eyes
08. Vigilante
09. Kingdom of Madness

TRACKLIST CD 2

01. Intro
02. Days of No Trust
03. Wild Swan
04. Start Talking Love
05. One Step Away
06. Must Have Been Love
07. Different Worlds
08. Pray For The Day
09. Don't Wake The Lion
10. Sacred Hour

Recorded on the "Wings Of Heaven Live"-UK Tour November 10th - November 18th, 2007

LINE-UP:

Tony Clarkin - Guitar and Vocals
Bob Catley - Vocals
Mark Stanway - Keyboards
Al Barrow - Bass Guitar and Vocals
Jimmy Copley - Drums