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Interview

Deutsche VersionInterview mit Bob Catley (26.01.2006)

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Magnum are a legend. Twelve full length albums, some Live-CDs, two DVDs and countless compilations illuminate a band that in the more than thirty years of existence has written hard rock history. Their singer Bob Catley is also very active as a solo artist and will release his fifth solo album Spirit Of Man on the end of January. The man with the unique charismatic voice spoke to us about that and other matters.

HH: Hi Bob! How do you feel? It's been a very long tour so far.

Bob: Hello everybody - Bob here. Well, we're halfway through. We got 14 shows, we've just done seven, so today is number eight, and it's going great. It doesn't feel long, you know, it's good and I wish it was longer. It's good to be back in Germany. We started off in Sweden, now we do five in Germany, we do one in Switzerland soon after tomorrow, which is Nuremberg, then we go back to the UK and do four shows there. That's 14 shows altogether.

HH: But you were in Germany before with the Storyteller's tour, I saw you in the Kantine in Augsburg.

Bob: That's right. That was in April. That was the 20th anniversary of Storyteller's Night tour.

HH: It's a long time, but it seems to me like only yesterday when I saw you there.

Bob: Yes, it's been six months. It was going to be years. But since then the promoters said "You must do this again, please, one more time, it was so good, let me do it one more time". So we're here again to do the same show, hahaha!

HH: You didn't want to come back to South Germany?

Bob: Yes, we did. But it was supposed to be just one year off and next time we come back, it's the next album and a new tour. But everybody said "No, you must come back one more time, just before Christmas", so that's why we're here again. It's the same show. We've put two more songs in the show, to make it a little, little bit different, but it's really the same show, the same as last time. The one that was filmed for the DVD Living The Dream.

HH: How is it for you to go on stage day after day? Now it is the eighth time in a row and you were on the road in April and you've been doing this a long time. How does it feel for you to be on stage?

Bob: Well, it's something you do. It's a big part of your life to be performing on stage in front of great people, a great audience - that's not the same. It's what you do - that's it.

HH: You mean as a job?

Bob: Yeah, I look on it as my job. It's not a job, though, it's far too enjoyable to be called a job, you know, it's wonderful. It's a little bit tiring sometimes, you know? And you need to shower and to wake up, "Here we go again!", it's the same routine every day on tour. It's a lot of traveling. We sleep on the bus. On days off, we have a hotel, that's nice. But the distances are too long to have hotels every night, so we have a nice bus with beds on the bus and it's okay, it's good. TVs and music and beer and everything, you know. It's good food and it's no hardship, it's very nice. And what else we gonna do? That's what musicians in a band do. They record albums, which is great, and then you have to go out and promote that album. The latest album now is Brand New Morning which came out last year, so we're still doing songs from that, plus the Storyteller's Night 20th anniversary thing, now we got the DVD out, so we're really promoting three products on this tour. It's a lot to do and you can't do it sitting at home, going "I wish I was on the stage now, oh, should be soundchecking now, and then we're gonna be on the stage"... it's all very civilised, it's very nice. We're all a bit more grown up now and we like our comforts, you know? And it's a business like any business. You have to love performing on stage, otherwise don't bother. And take the tiredness and take the travelling and take the "Where are we?" and the bad weather and just take all that, you know? It's what we do, it's wonderful.

HH: Will you be coming on tour with your solo album?

Bob: Yes, that is the plan. My solo album Spirit Of Man comes out at the end of January on Frontiers Records, God bless them! - and they've been very nice to me to have me on their label and we get on great and they're doing a lot for me now, promotion, a lot of stuff, a lot of interviews, all the radio stuff, and I will be promoting the album on tour during next year - in between recording a new Magnum album. So I just do both. Then Magnum will be doing maybe some festivals next year, I'll be doing a couple myself, depending on what time of year it is, I'm about to do some shows in Germany and Scandinavia, I think I can do something with a band called M.ill.ion from Sweden, to do some shows with them, leading up to the summer, maybe some shows through Gotthard management, their manager Frank is trying to get me some shows in Germany, either the full band or just some acoustic stuff, maybe, opening up for people like Gotthard or Edguy or other people, yes? So we'll see. But it would be good. But there is always the Magnum wheel to keep turning as well, you see. I'll do them both, when I can.

HH: Now let's talk about your solo album. Who has written the new album?

Bob: Okay. I have three songwriters this time. I use different people every time. It's down to who is available, who wants to, who's got some songs for me, do I want to sing them, are they any good? This time it's two guys, they work in their own band called Lost Weekend from England, and they came up with some very good songs for me, their names are Dave Thompson, who is the guitar player, and Paul Uttley, who is the singer in the band. And we got together, then I was looking for people, and these guys said "Yeah, ok, we'll do it, over here, okay, let's do it" and they played me this stuff and I chose certain songs to record. Some songs I didn't quite like, other ones hit me in the face, and I went "Oh yeah, I can see me singing that", you know? That's two of them. The other guy is my guitar player with my solo band, and his name's Vince O'Regan. He's my little mate and he plays guitar and he writes pretty good songs as well, which I didn't quite know until now. And he played me lots of songs and again I went "Yeah, maybe, don't know, okay..." So I ended up with three songs from Vince on the album and nine from the other two guys and put them together. I think it is a very good balance of music, very good stuff, I really enjoyed recording them and I'm very proud of the album and I hope everybody likes it. It's my fifth Bob Catley album and it's got something on there for everybody, you know, a bit of heavy metal, a bit of ballads, a little bit of Magnum, but not the same. More riffing, more guitar, heavy metal guitar solos, you know, more over the top. It's a slightliy different crowd, but mostly I would say it's Magnum fans that come to see me, which is great, you know.

HH: Now that Magnum is back on the scene with two albums and working on a third, why does the world need another Bob Catley solo album?

Bob: Because I said so. *laughs* And Frontiers said so. I have to have a record label to go "Yes, we want to put this out, this is good." I know what you mean, though. All this is going so good with Magnum, so why bother? 'Cause I like doing it, when there's time to do it. And I don't put a solo album out for maybe two or three years. So it's time to do another one. Maybe I won't do another after three years, I don't know. Maybe I'll do never another one again. But I hope so. Let's see how this one goes. If Frontiers want me to do another one then I will be there and we will talk and they will say "We have this songwriter for you, this producer for you..." I so enjoy them both. Oh, let me do them both! People love it, it's good.

HH: Yeah, yeah, it's ok! Did you ever have any ambitions of writing songs yourself?

Bob: No.

HH: Why not?

Bob: I never tried. I don't play guitar, I just sing. I'm a singer. And I'm very proud of what I do. Let me just sing. I couldn't compete with songwriters, I mean I've worked all my life with Tony Clarkin, with Magnum... what's the point?

HH: How about writing lyrics, then?

Bob: No. No, I get together with Tony when he's writing the songs, we start to record them, and he's putting in words and he's maybe searching for a word or two... so than I can say "Maybe this lyric or that lyric"... that's it, a little input. Normally Tony'll come up with all the words himself. He doesn't need me to write the words. I'm not a songwriter. But I'm the singer and that's what we do together, we've worked very long together. He writes them, plays guitar, everybody comes in, puts the bass down, the keyboards, the drums, and I sing them. I do all the vocals on the album. Three sing on stage, but I do all the vocals on the album. That's the way we like it, that's the way it sounds good. So I'm happy just doing that. I'm frontman of the band, everybody clapping and jeering, that's my gig. That's enough.

HH: Your new album obviously is not a concept album. Will you tell us what the lyrics are about?

Bob: All kinds of stuff. The first song, "Heart Of Stone", it's the breakup of a relationship of a man and a woman... or could be a man and a man, I don't know, or a woman and a woman. And it's, you know, "Get out of here, go away, I don't want you any more, you treat me like shit", but it's a rock'n'roll song, it starts off the album, very good. Then it goes into "Moment Of Truth". The lyrics can be viewed in many ways, very ambiguous things, you know? I leave it down to the listener.

HH: What he reads out of it for himself.

Bob: Yes. I can say a lot of things, the songwriters could say a lot of things. It's down to someones' ears and what you hear from the song. So that's where I leave it. "Spirit Of Man", the title track, is very catchy, very rousing, all stick together and then the enemy's coming and "Let's all stick together and we're all proud people and fight for your country and stick up for your rights" and all that's Spirit Of Man. What's in the heart.

HH: That's another topic now, but this "Stand up for yourself" stuff reminds me of the terrorists in London and Blair making bills and laws to spy on the people, in effect. What do you think of that, all these anti-terror laws?

Bob: I mean, because of what happened, people are very scared now, I'd say the government are doing the right thing. Not everybody agrees with it, but something has to be done. We're at war with the terrorists now, and not just England, but everywhere.

HH: Do you think all the cameras and all the laws will help against them?

Bob: I think so. I hope so. Something has to be done. You can't just sit back and go "Oh, it's an invasion of privacy and human rights and..." That is correct in one way, but something has to be done to control this and try to avoid this happening ever again.

HH: You really think that this are the right measures to take? Saving all the data about the people, who telephones with whom and...

Bob: ...yes, I knows, it's getting a stench of Big Brother now and 1984. It's been happening a long time. Yes, it's bad, but it's happened. And I don't like it. I don't want cameras on me and people listening to telephone conversations, but something... I don't know, there must be a reason for this. Otherwise I'm living in a police state in England and I didn't vote for that.

HH: So you are voting.

Bob: I am against this, yes. But I try to understand why it's happening. I don't like it. Nobody likes it. "Hey, this is a private conversation, piss off!" And all the cameras looking at you. But there has to be reasons for that. Maybe some we don't understand. I don't like it. But I can't argue, I voted for that government, so I can't complain. Maybe I won't vote for them again. A lot of people are dead against it in the UK and other countries. It's not for me to say, I'm not a politician. I'm a singer in a band, you know.

HH: I was just nosy.

Bob: It's okay. I don't like it. Everybody I know doesn't like it. It's an invasion of privacy, as I see it. There must be a reason.

HH: Okay. Now let's go back to the music.

Bob: Sure! Oh, please, yeah.

HH: Let's talk about your family. Your mother always has supported you, she made fan mail, I think...

Bob: Yeah, her name's Ollie Catley. She started off the information service. She's been very supportive, the whole family's very supportive of me.

HH: Did she or other parts of your family ever try to dissuade you from becoming a musician?

Bob: When I first started, many years ago, when I was 18, I left school and I didn't know what to do. Maybe going to get a job at the BBC... I was always fond of music and recording stuff, playing with tape recorders and microphones and singing into them. I wanted to be in the music business somehow, maybe not in a band. So I had got a job at the GPO telecommunications departement, you know, telephones and stuff. All the wires and things, it was interesting. Then I went to technical college on day release to learn the technical side of it. I was very young. And then I met a bunch of guys who were in a kind of band, you know, and they were looking for a singer, we got to talking and I said "Yeah, I' can sing" - liar! So I got in the band and that's how it started, really. And we started doing gigs, seven nights a week, and I was earning more money doing that - and having a great time - than this boring job I got. So I said "I'm off, see ya!" That's the last time I've had a job, that was when I was 18, a very long time ago. And that's it, really. I just carried on singing with different bands through the Sixties, then 1972 I started working with Tony.

HH: And your family never said "That's not a good way, just go back to the telecommunication"?

Bob: No, no way. I wouldn't have done it anyway. I was having such a good time and it was what I wanted to do. And I was learning to sing all the time. How does he do that, you know, that's what you've got to do. I don't think anybody's born a great singer, you have to work on it. So it took me a long time.

HH: Do you have any idols, people you say "That's a good singer, I want to sing like him"?

Bob: Yeah. I always wanted to be Mick Jagger from the Rolling Stones, when I was young.

HH: But you're much prettier than Mick Jagger.

Bob: Well I don't know. He was my hero, then. Then I wanted to sing like Elvis Presley and then I wanted to sing like David Coverdale and Ronnie James Dio and Steve Perry from Journey and Sam Cook and Frank Sinatra and Luciano Pavarotti and... for me brilliant singers, brilliant anything. From Rock, Pop, anything. I just took little bits, I was very influenced, not now, but then. I kept working in bands and listening to people singing and I kind of gathered them and turned them all into me. It became my own style.

HH: And now surely there are a lot of young singers who say "I want to sing like Bob Catley", I think you have a great style.

Bob: Great! Thank you.

HH: Everywhere one hears you, at once: "This is Bob Catley!"

Bob: But I wasn't born with that. I had to work on it. But I think I got it now.

HH: You've been a part of the music scene for more than 30 years, that's quite a long time. How has the scene changed in this time?

Bob: I think it's gotten a lot harder. Harder for bands to promote themselves, younger bands. I mean, the big record deals aren't there anymore. Unless you are Madonna. It's all big, big, big or nothing. Something like Magnum, something in between, it's very hard, it used to be a lot easier. There's so much competition there. And I feel for young bands, some are great, but they don't get the breaks any more. It's very hard now to get money from a label to make a video and get it on MTV and stuff. So that's changed. The internet's changed everything. In the old days you used to go into the Abbey Road Studios and costing the absolute megabucks and be there for six months. Now a band's going to somebody's bedroom and like "Here we go! Sounds good!" do an album. Anybody who wants can put it down himself. But I think it's great to still wanting to be in a band and I would encourage anybody to... yes, go for it. But don't expect to be payed for it straightaway, that will come later, when you sell some records. So I guess it's not that different, really. But a lot of bands sell their albums on the internet now, they don't bother with record labels or record stores. There's a lot of record stores closing now because people are buying it from the internet which I don't think is a good thing. It's great for them. But where am I gonna look through the racks of records? All the record shops are disappearing. Everybody gets it of amazon.uk or amazon.com and Napster and all that. Just to save a little money, which annoys me 'cause being this side of the fence.It's great if you just like, you know, you get cheap music for next to nothing, you can have these iPods with millions of songs on them which never used to have in the old days. You'd just buy a record and put the needle on and watch it go around and used to look at the artwork on a 12" album and that's all gone now, it's just a million tracks now. Which is brilliant for people, but... I like the old way.

HH: So you don't own an iPod.

Bob: No way! I don't own a computer, either.

HH: So you are a vinyl fan?

Bob: Yeah, I wish that all came back, it was great. The CDs now, you need a magnifyning glass to see what the artwork is about. The old albums, with picture sleeves and brilliant stuff, that's all gone now, I long for that.

HH: So how have you changed over the last 30 years?

Bob: I grew older *laughs*. And wiser. And richer. I hope. I think. I'm still the same, I think. I'm still 18 in the head. In my heart. In my head, I'm stupid. I'm an old guy now, I don't care, I don't give a shit. I still get up on stage and jump up and down and I don't care, whenever, you know? I don't think many guys my age could do that night after night after night, you know? It's still in me and I'm still a kid. And I get excited "Oh, we go on tour, uuh, what's the bus gonna be like, uuh, it's some beer in the fridge, fantastic, get to the beer!" It still excites me. I haven't grown up yet and I never will. *laughs*

HH: I don't plan to either. How is it for you to be on tour with the other guys, are there frictions between you, because you spend a lot of time together on tour, do tempers rub?

Bob: No. You can't get away from each other on the road. You see them on the bus or in the dressing room or soundchecking or eating dinner in the restroom, you're always together. Always together on the road, day after day after day. And it's fine. We like each other. We wouldn't be otherwise. I don't know if it is like that for every band. We don't have fights or arguments, maybe a little disagreement now and again. Little things, nothing more.

HH: One hears other bands fight all the time because they can't stand each other in close space.

Bob: We couldn't do that. I should not be that way.

HH: Now for something completely different: Do you know Edguys cover of "The Spirit"?

Bob: I got it. Tobi sent me and Annie, my manager, a couple of copies. Great, it's really good, a really good rocky version. I love it. Well, I like Edguy anyway, they can't do any wrong for me.

HH: How was it to be the Tree of Knowledge on Avantasia?

Bob: *laughs* Great. He calles me the Tree. Says "My best wishes to the Tree." I call him shitface. *laughs* "You are the shitface, I am the Tree." We get on fine. Yeah, I enjoyed that album very much, yes, I was very proud to do this album with Tobi and I look forward to working with him again in the future. Maybe soon.

HH: Are there any projects in the offing?

Bob: Not at the moment, no. When there's time for that. I got enough to do at the moment.

HH: With Magnum and your solo album...

Bob: Yes, it will be out at the end of January. I have to cut you off now, I have two others waiting and then soundchecking... I'm sorry.

HH: It's okay. Thank you for the nice conversation!

Kara

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