BOB CATLEY Explains Why He Changed His Mind About Carrying On With MAGNUM Following TONY CLARKIN's Death

In a new interview with Dales Rock Interviews, MAGNUM vocalist Bob Catley spoke about his decision to carry on with the band, two and a half years after the passing of Tony Clarkin, the guitarist, songwriter and the driving force behind the U.K. prog/pomp/AOR rock act. When asked how he managed to come back from the death of his longtime bandmate, Bob said: "Don't know. Good question. I was encouraged to keep it going. It wasn't in my heart, really. It was gone. I had a big empty space inside me for some time, for most of that year. But it's changed slowly, talking to people. I do something called AVANTASIA, with Tobias Sammet's AVANTASIA. I do world tours with that. I see the world with that, and it's brilliant. And I had that already booked to do. It was in the summer of the same year. I went, 'All right, okay, that'll keep me off the streets. That'll give me something. That'll cheer me up.' I needed cheering up. I needed to do something. 'Cause I was so desperate to have him back. Like, 'Where's Tony?' For 50 years we worked together, and so can you imagine how I felt, how anybody would feel. But getting back on the stage, Tobias Sammet put me back on the stage. He said, 'Come on. We'll get you back on the stage. That's where you belong, Bob. Come on. You're a good singer. You're a great singer. I'm your biggest fan, Bob.' [Laughs] He's a massive MAGNUM fan, Tobi. He's a lovely man. We're good friends… And I'm there on the stage in front of all these people. I did 10 massive festivals all around Europe in that summer of that year. And the reaction when I was singing Tobi's songs, knowing that the people knew who I was, Bob Catley from MAGNUM, and what had happened. And they were all for me, with me. It came at me, and I went, 'I should be sharing this with MAGNUM, doing this.' AVANTASIA, but MAGNUM as well. It wasn't complete. Something was missing — the MAGNUM crowd. There's a lot of MAGNUM fans in the AVANTASIA crowd, but the MAGNUM crowd is totally focused on the whole hour and a half. So I thought, 'I need to do that.' People go, 'Yeah, I think you made the right decision, Bob.' So I got there, and I'm really glad I made it."

Referencing the fact that Brendon Riley, Clarkin's former guitar tech, served as MAGNUM's lead guitarist for the band's 2025 and 2026 dates so far, Bob said: "We got together and we ran through some stuff, and I'm going, 'Oh, that's what I wanna hear. That's what I wanna hear. Give me this.' 'Cause I wasn't quite certain, but the unknown. I've always worked with Tony, and, like, 'Can I do this? Do I wanna do this?' But [Brendon] answered my prayers."

Brendon said that his addition to MAGNUM was made easier by the fact that he wasn't an entirely new face to the band's fans. "I think so, yeah," he said. "And I suppose, 'cause I already knew the songs anyway — I knew a lot of the set, sort of knew where things would come in and go out and everything — and I think it just sort of helped to make life easier for everybody else, so that it was someone who wasn't a stranger. And for me, the background I came from as a tech, it wasn't a name that would take the shine away from the ultimate purpose of what we were doing it for, which was to honor Tony and his music. And, yeah, everything just seemed to fall into place very smoothly, really, or at least as far as I'm concerned, anyway. I can't speak for anybody else."

Regarding what it was like to perform without Clarkin by his side, Catley said: "It was a bit surreal at first. But we're there now. It's gotta be done. So it's great stepping on that stage. It is great. And Tony's with us anyway. He ain't gone anywhere. He's here. It's the music. He's here… And that's what it's like when we go on that stage every night. Tony's there, and they all know it. It's all there. Nothing's changed in that respect. So it was a new situation to get used to, let's say. And we're very lucky to be able to do it. And we wanna do it and keep it going for as long as we want it, and as long as the fanbase wants it."

Bob also confirmed that there are tentative plans to work on a MAGNUM album containing previously unreleased songs that were written by Tony.

"It's not a new studio album. How could that be?" Bob clarified. "[It's songs] from the archives. They will be looked at in the studio, yes. But it's gonna take time. Probably more next year than anything, or maybe not that soon, I don't know. It's just a project at the moment, an idea. But it might not come to fulfillment until much later on. Then there's a lot of stuff to choose from, to listen to, and then choose stuff.

"This was Tony's daughter's idea, Dionne Clarkin," Bob explained. "She's come up with this idea, and she wants the fans to listen to, understand, have an insight into how he worked, but then moved on, leaving a song unfinished. But he'd move on. It wasn't working out at the time. And he did that. A lot of songwriters do that, producers do that. Like, 'Oh, it's not working,' and move on to something that was working. And so there's a lot of that went on. So there are a lot of different versions of what people know and love now. Some have never been heard by anybody, where it's just, 'Wow, I didn't know that existed.' And I'd go, 'Oh, yeah, I remember that one. It's definitely me singing.' So I was on it. So, it's gonna be great. And other songs that did make album tracks or B sides, in uncompleted demo form of the finished product. So it's a collector's item. And she's doing it all for the right reasons. And it should be shared. And I think it'll go down very well. I think that will be very much wanted, whenever that is completed. Don't hold me to that. I don't know. We're just talking about the moment. It takes time to do it, of course… Yeah, it'll all unfold as we go through."

Catley added: "Dionne's running this [album project]. I'm just her advisor and sidekick. And we're doing it as a team. But if you need to know any more, you have to ask her. I'm just a singer."

Clarkin died in January 2024 at the age of 77. The news of his death came just weeks after it was announced that he had been diagnosed with a rare and incurable spinal condition. As a result of his diagnosis, MAGNUM canceled its previously announced spring 2024 tour.

Formed in Birmingham over 50 years ago by Catley and Clarkin, MAGNUM has cemented itself as one of the U.K.'s finest hard rock exports, a largely American-dominated genre.

With its unique melodic skill and tasteful instrumentation, the group has released 23 studio albums over the years, with its most recent, "Here Comes The Rain", arriving in January 2024.

Image and video credit: Swedishstokie