Legendary British hard rock band Magnum have announced a major European tour for March and April 2020, including headline shows in Cardiff, Sheffield and Southampton. The tour comes alongside the announcement of their new studio album, scheduled for release in early 2020.
The band, formed in Birmingham in 1972, had huge success in their early years including the 1982 album Chasing the Dragon, which spawned the live favourites Soldier of The Line, Sacred Hour and The Spirit.
The band split in 1995, before reforming with founding members and chief songwriters, guitarist Tony Clarkin and vocalist Bob Catley. They have since gone onto release seven studio albums, including 2014’s Escape from the Shadow Garden which reached number 2 in the UK Rock and Metal Chart.
Magnum have built a massive following in Europe, having had enormous commercial success in Germany and Sweden, and regularly play sold out shows across the continent. Original Magnum guitarist Tony Clarkin is a man who seems to never stop working, responsible for writing and producing all the material released by the band from the very first demo to the final mix. “As soon as an album is finished, I start to collect new ideas,” he explains. “That’s how I’ve worked since the early seventies; for me that’s the ideal method”.
On their forthcoming new album, Clarkin and the band’s other original member, Bob Catley, prove again just how perfectly this established system works. The line-up, consisting of Clarkin, Catley, keyboardist Rick Benton, drummer Lee Morris and their latest addition, bassist Dennis Ward, have recorded eleven new songs, all of which feature the traditional strengths of the British act while continuing to live up to the band’s ambition to explore a more rock-oriented direction.
The accompanying tour is set to be an unadulterated display of the band’s new musical vision, alongside performing some of the most notable songs from their history. “Thanks to our current record company, we enjoy full artistic freedom,” Clarkin enthuses. “SPV understand how important this is to us. We’ve not always been in such a fortunate position. During the eighties, the label we were with at the time wanted us to sound as pop-oriented as possible because they hoped for better album sales. I used to hate that, despite the success we had.”
MARCH
Sun 22 CARDIFF Tramshed
Tue 24 SHEFFIELD Leadmill
APRIL
Fri 03 SOUTHAMPTON Engine Rooms
Tickets available from: www.seetickets.com
