Magnum Trivia Quiz

Answer: Tony Clarkin

Although Bob Catley was the lead singer, he did not write the songs. The songs were written by lead guitarist Tony Clarkin.

Clarkin and Catley formed Magnum in 1972. Together, they put out 22 studio albums with Magnum, plus two studio albums with a band called Hard Rain that they formed in the late 1990s during a time that Magnum was defunct. The first album came out in 1978. They almost always put out an album every two years from that year until 2024. Sometimes they put out an album two years in a row. There were a few three-year breaks between albums, but never anything longer than that.

Answer: Kingdom of Madness

The title song from this album starts off with a soft acoustic guitar intro. Then the flute comes in and plays with the acoustic guitar for a while. It's quite beautiful. Then those two instruments stop for a while and the electric guitars come in. The rest of the song is a hard rock song, except for a soft breakdown 2/3 of the way through the song. The song starts off quite beautiful then becomes a lot of fun.

Magnum played this song at most shows from the time it came out through 2022. At the end of the chorus, Catley would often hold his microphone to the audience and let them sing "You got me on the run."

Answer: Richard Bailey

The flute was a significant part of Magnum's first two albums. After Bailey departed, there wasn't much flute on Magnum's albums. Additionally, while "Kingdom of Madness" remained a regular part of Magnum's shows, the flute introduction to that song was dropped when Bailey left. Later live versions of that song just start with the electric part.

Answer: Sacred Hour

"Sacred Hour" has a complex introduction. It starts off with some slow piano. Then the tempo picks up and the violins kick in, and the piano and violins play a lovely melody for about a minute. Then, that ends, and we return to Mark Stanway playing some slow piano by himself for a little while. A little over 90 seconds into the song, Bob Catley sings the first verse in a low register. He sings the second verse in a higher register, and the rest of the band provides some harmonies to help him finish that verse. The rhythm section, which doesn't do much within the first 2 and a half minutes of the song, finally starts playing consistently throughout the first chorus. Then, they stop playing for a while.

The next verse is mostly just piano and high-register vocals, with the rest of the band joining Bob in the harmonies for the second half of the verse once again. After that verse, the rhythm section starts playing constantly again and continues to do so for the rest of the song. After the second chorus, there's a keyboard solo. Then, the first verse is repeated, this time with the entire band playing and singing. After that, they do the chorus one more time. After that, the band plays a little bit of an outro. The song concludes with them all singing together "In this one sacred hour."

From 1980-2022, Magnum ended more shows with this song than with any other song.

A Norwegian metal band called Dimmu Borgir used this song's intro for a song on their "Stromblast" album.

Answer: On a Storyteller's Night

"On a Storyteller's Night" came out in 1985. It was certified Gold in the UK and charted at number 24 on the UK Album's chart.

My favorite song is the title song. It starts off quiet but ominous. There's a little bit of keyboard and some ambient noises to start off the song. Catley's vocals begin about 30 seconds into the song. He sings the verses in a quiet, low register. As the song gets closer to the chorus, Catley increases the volume of his voice. He sings "Though we all lose track of time, disappears like faded time" quite loudly, and the the rest of the band starts playing as we get to the chorus.

The chorus to this song has a line that's iconic among Magnum fans: "Keep your night light burning." It gets quiet again for the second verse, but from the second chorus to the end, the song remains loud. It has a simple but memorable guitar solo. The chorus is repeated several times at the end. I love the dynamic changes in this one and I love hearing them all sing "Keep your night light burning."

Another noteworthy song is called "Les Mort Dansant" which is French for "The Dancing Dead." It's about a soldier being hanged, and then shot. While hanging from the tree, his body sways back and forth, which looks like he's dancing, hence the phrase "The Dancing Dead." Patty Smith covered this song, although she renamed it "Call to Heaven."

Another song that remained a staple of their live shows over the years is "How Far Jerusalem." The original studio version is about six minutes long. When they do it live, it has an extended guitar solo, so the song usually goes over ten minutes in live shows.

Another song that was played at most of their live shows from its release through 2022 is "All England's Eyes."

Answer: Vigilante

"Vigilante" was Magnum's first attempt at a commercial-sounding album for the time. It was produced by Queen drummer Roger Taylor and it was produced so that the keyboards would sound louder than the guitars, a common thing for rock albums released in the 1980s. The album charted at number 24 on the UK album charts. The title song was played at almost every Magnum show from the time of its release.

Answer: Wings of Heaven

"Wings of Heaven" charted at number five on the UK album charts and is the first Magnum album ever to be certified "Silver" in the UK. This album has three pop songs similar to what they did on "Vigilante," such as the UK top 40 hits "Days of No Trust," "Start Talking Love" and "It Must Have Been Love." The rest of the album is in the progressive rock style of their earlier albums.

Tony Clarkin had something to say about all the songs in the "Wings of Heaven" tour program. "Days of No Trust" is a song that claims that everybody sees horrible stuff going on and no one does anything about it. He said that he even took a shot at his own band. According to him, Magnum used to drive around in a Cadillac for fun and so people would notice them, so the line "The headlines are courted by stretch limousines" is about them.

"Wild Swan" is the song with the lyrics from which the album gets its title. Clarkin said he saw a TV show where birds were still alive and flying through the sky while they had arrows (from crossbows) going through their bodies. The song warns the birds to stay in the river and follow it wherever it goes. It tells the birds not to fly, or they might get shot. It's very interesting, musically and lyrically. It starts off as a relatively simple rock song. About two and a half minutes in, the song takes a different direction. The music becomes quieter. Bob Catley repeats what he sang earlier in the song, but he sings louder and with more emotion than before. The final four minutes of the song remain like that.

"Start Talking Love" has a chorus very similar to Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up." Ironically, the two songs came out in the same year. Clarkin said that it took him 20 seconds to write the chorus.

According to Clarkin, "One Step Away" is about a man resisting a temptress.

"It Must Have Been Love" is about a woman who gets many boyfriends but they all let her down. Clarkin said that many rock musicians brag about all the women they've been with and it's usually lies, so he wrote this song from the point of view of those women. He said: "The song also suggests that women seem to be a lot stronger than men in everyday situations. They are the ones who hold families together and are the backbone, while men seem to be dreamers all the time... or at least that's my experience. We are less practical as a gender."

"Different Worlds" is about the difference between the lives of rich people and the lives of poor people. Clarkin said that Magnum stayed at an amazing hotel in France, and he'd walk out and he'd see people exchanging a ton of money for jewelry. Then he walked a little further and he saw an unclean street with homeless people everywhere. It shocked him to see the two extremes of life back to back, so he wrote this song.

According to Clarkin, "Pray For the Day" was inspired by two things. One thing a time that the band visited the Berlin Wall and saw blood marks on the wall everywhere, which was where people were shot for trying to escape. The other thing was a child being hanged. The good thing about this song is that "The Day" came just two years after the song came out.

My favorite Magnum song, and one of my all-time favorite songs ever by anyone, is "Don't Wake the Lion (Too Old to Die Young)." It's an anti-war song. According to Clarkin "The Lion" is the anger within you, so the first part of the title just means don't let anger get the best of you. According to Clarkin, the part in parentheses was inspired by when he heard people saying that we should all party and do drugs and die young. He wrote the song when he was 40, so he was too old for that.

Answer: Good Night L.A.

"Good Night L.A." was Magnum's attempt to become famous in the United States. Tony Clarkin co-wrote some songs with successful hit-writers Russ Ballard and Jim Vallance. There was just one major problem that they didn't expect: the album was not released in the United States. This tragic mistake by their record label may have doomed any chance of Magnum receiving the recognition they deserved in the U.S.

However, the album charted in the top ten on the UK Album Chart. "Rockin' Chair" marks a major departure from Magnum's normal progressive rock style. That song sounds a lot like a Def Leppard song. It came out in 1990 but it's an 80s style rock anthem. Had it been released in the U.S., it likely would have been a hit there. At least it was a hit in the UK. On the other hand, the song "Shoot" would have been VERY controversial in the U.S.

My personal favorite is "Only A Memory," one of several anti-war songs that Magnum released.

Answer: Jim Lea, the bass player of Slade

Like Magnum, Slade are a band that's very famous in the UK but almost unheard of in the U.S. So, I like this combo. The song starts off quiet, with the violin putting you in the mood for a ballad. Then the drums and guitars kick in and the violin gets more intense and you get a better idea of what you're in for. The dynamic changes all throughout this song are what make it so good.

This is the closing track on the 2007 album "Princess Alice and the Broken Arrow." According to Bob Catley, the album is a concept album about a fictional girl named Alice who tries to get her children back from an evil fox. According to him, despite it being the last song on the album, "You'll Never Sleep" was the first song written for it.

Answer: Tony Clarkin

The final album that he worked on was called "Here Comes the Rain." That came out in January 12, 2024, five days after his death. Following his death, the tour was cancelled and Bob Catley announced that Magnum would not continue. He changed his mind in 2025 and brought in Brendon Riley to replace Clarkin.