Bob Catley Discusses River Records

The following is an extract from an interview with Bob Catley, the lead vocalist of the rock band Magnum by RockUnited. For the full interview we have provided a link at the bottom of the page.

RockUnited - Tell us about "The River Sessions" live album recorded in Glasgow in '85, how did you decide releasing such an old live show on cd just now ?

Bob Catley - Jimmy Devlin runs a River Records up in Scotland. He said we've got the rights to this live recording he made some years ago and asked if we'd put it out. We said sure and got involved. We did the artwork for him and cut the album. Sometimes these things just come out anyway, you have no control. And they sound terrible, because they're really old. But as soon as we get our new record out, the old record labels we used to be in put this old shit out. Just make it sound good. We took control with this "River Sessions" and we made it sound better than it did twenty years ago. It's the first tour that Micky Barker on drums did for us, he just joined the band. Couple of the speeches are too fast and there's a couple of mistakes, but it's live and it's the guys first tour. But all in all it's a very good album, it's definitely worth getting. It's got some great artwork, Alan Barrow did it, same as our albums.

RockUnited - Do you think the Glasgow show is great song and soundwise ?

Bob - Yeah. It's a good selection of songs, the playing's fine, singing's good. We would've stopped it coming out, but we listened to it and thought it's pretty good, quite impressed really. The recording wasn't that great, so we've improved the sound of the record. But the rest is just live. It's about an hour and a half, recorded in Scotland in a place called The Mayfair in Glasgow, nineteen years ago actually. There was a big crowd, sold out, big club. I'm very pleased and proud to be part of that. And I'm glad it's on the market now. We just wanted it to sound good, not rubbish. It might put people off you know, they might now buy the new album. "If that's what you sound like I'm not gonna buy the new album". So you gotta sound good all the time, if it's old or new it doesn't matter. It all has to be of certain standard.

RockUnited - Too bad I never caught you live back then, was just getting into your music at the time. My mom has all your albums, so...

Source: http://www.rockunited.com/magnum2004.htm

Page Last Updated: 4 March, 2010

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