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BOB CATLEY - Spirit Of ManEuropean Import : FRCD269 STOCK STATUS: IN STOCK - ships in 1 day |
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| Over the last 25 years Bob
Catley has established a reputation as one of Britain's top vocalists
with his work in MAGNUM and more recently as a solo artist. In 1998,
Bob teamed up with TEN front man, and longstanding MAGNUM fan, Gary
Hughes who wrote all the songs on his first three solo albums: "The
Tower", "Legends" and "Middle Earth". These
albums received not only critical but commercial successes. This
reaction from the press summed up the exact aim of these releases
perfectly: "Gary has captured that special feel and vibe of
"On A Storyteller's Night" perfectly and wrapped it up
beautifully in renaissance/symphonic style instrumentation, with
big grandiose almost epic film score like production schemes".
Bob made his debut solo appearance at The GODS '98 in November,
performing a show stopping set featuring tracks form "The Tower"
as well as classic MAGNUM songs. Again, such was the response from
critics and fans alike that a full UK tour was booked and Bob's
solo career has gone from strength to strength from then on. Not
content with merely releasing solo albums, Bob has committed himself
fully to the role and has performed 70 shows as a solo artist, in
countries including the UK, Germany, Spain, Benelux and Italy. All this whilst continuing first as a member of HARD RAIN and more recently as the front man of the reformed MAGNUM line-up. After three albums together and so many other commitments on both sides it was decided that long time keyboard player, Paul Hodson, would write Bob's fourth solo album. The style of Paul`s writing complemented the master's voice and with an added edge of classic Dio-esque metal, "When Empires Burn" brought Bob's music to a metal oriented audience as well as pleasing the existing fan base. As Bob himself has stated: "This is my Heavy Metal album. I`ve always wanted to do something like this". Another change has happened with this new album as Bob is now singing on songs especially written for him by his longtime collaborator Vince O`Regan and another two british songwriters Dave Thompson and Paul Uttley. Once again the music is harder edged compared to the MAGNUM sound and closer to late 70's RAINBOW and DIO sound. Again the inclusion of Bob`s live backing band as the performers on the album gives the material more of a band feel. Vince O`Regan is also featured on all guitars along with Irvin Parratt on keyboards, Al Barrow on bass and Jamie Little on drums. |
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