As Tobias Sammet’s rock opera spectacular ‘Avantasia’ nears Australian shores, The Rockpit recently managed to interview a few of the star vocalists that will heading our way, to showcase their incredible talents in Sydney & Melbourne in mid-May. Magnum’s Bob Catley has become quite an old hat in the world of Avantasia, having appeared on seven of the eight albums from as far back as 2001. Catley, who has fronted British band Magnum since 1978, also has a deep appreciation for Sammet’s work, after seeing it transform from studio to stage and is excited to be in the cast once more, as they head to Australia for the first time. We managed to catch up with Bob as he relaxed in his hotel room in Switzerland, laid on his bed while watching snooker on the BBC Sport Channel, to discuss his long time involvement in the show as well as some great news for Magnum fans…
Sean: Hi Bob, thanks for chatting to us here at The Rockpit. Hope your keeping well. It’s taken a while but you’re finally getting to perform here in Australia, not with Magnum but with the talented cast of Avantasia. Tobias (Sammet) keeps producing these incredible ‘chapters’ to the Avantasia Rock opera each time… The new album ’Moonglow’ sounds fantastic.
Bob: Great to talk to you. I’m relaxing between shows watching the snooker on the BBC here in Switzerland. Yes, I think he’s great, is Toby. He’s just getting better and better. The songs are quite involved, lyrically especially. I really enjoy listening to them, especially the songs I have to learn to get my parts right [laughs]. I tend to concentrate more on what he’s given me to sing of him and then I’ll listen to the rest of the album after I’ve done my homework and got my lyrics in my head. They are all great albums with incredible diversity and so many different vocalists on there, it’s all very interesting – it’s certainly not like your normal album to listen to. You have to listen to it a few times to grasp who you’re actually listening to and reading the footnotes it gets quite complicated. The history behind the vocalists that Toby puts on there, me being one of them because Toby’s a bit of a Magnum fan so he’s very pleased to have me there singing for him all these years – I’ve done quite a few albums for him now and I love doing it. It’s a great… I don’t know if you’d call it a project, it’s just an entity that keeps coming back every three years to stun you again. Musically & lyrically it’s wonderful stuff.
Sean: I’ve not listened to all of them in depth but I did listen to a couple of the earlier ones many years ago but like you say it has become an entity. Once again the names that Toby has collected together, is incredible. You are involved on two tracks on ‘Moonglow’ this time, ‘Lavender’ & ‘Pipers at the Gates of Dawn’…
Bob: Yes, that’s correct. ‘Lavender’ is my main song which I’m doing on stage on the tour and ‘Piper at the Gates of Dawn’ is nearly all of us. It’s like a gang show and one big team effort that song. We kind of duck in and out of the song, being a character and giving our little performance in between everybody else’s. But we don’t do that one on the tour because you would have to have a bigger stage and everybody would be bumping into each other [laughs]
Sean: So how did you get involved in the whole Avantasia concept in the first place?
Bob: Well, in the early 2000’s Toby, who I didn’t know at the time… my manager Annie said there was a guy called Tobias Sammet, who had been in touch via email – she does my emails for me because useless [laughs]… she handles my communication with the outside world. She said he was wondering if I’d be interested in singing some songs for him and that he was a massive Magnum fan apparently and he had all the albums. So I said “OK, I’m going to sing some songs for a Magnum fan… OK cool” [laughs]. So, we met him and he came over to Wolverhampton Studios where we record our music and we got together and he played me some stuff and I said “Yes please that would be very nice.” At that time I was doing my solo album, which I don’t do anymore now and I sung a track called ‘The Story Ain’t Over’ amongst others and that one has stuck over the years as the song that has been on every single Avantasia tour… every one I’ve done anyway and that has been one of my main feature songs on stage, everybody knows that song and they associate that song with me. When there are times I haven’t been able to perform in certain countries then Tobias sings it on his own. But he’d rather sing it with me – we sing a great duet together and our voices really match, as people know if they have heard us before. So I probably first got involved around 2000 or 2001.
Sean: It’s a huge tour once again taking in so many countries & continents including the US, Europe, South America and then for the very first time we get to see it here in Australia. Sadly, you won’t be my side of the island [laughs]…
Bob: [laughs] Yes, it’s rather a big island isn’t it… slightly bigger than the one I live on [laughs]. Yes, it’s terrific that we are coming to Australia for the first time… it’s incredible really. It’s such a long way but it’s going to be well worth it once we’ve all recovered from the old jetlag [laughs] especially me being the ‘father’ on the tour. I’ll need a day to get over it – I even need a day to get over just coming from Germany to Switzerland on the bus [laughs] – it took forever on the motorway! But we travel round in a nice bubble so to speak… everything is laid on for you and you’re treated incredibly well and it’s all top class stuff. It’s the way to go really. If you’re going to be rock n’ roll then be up market rock n’ roll. There’s no expense spared on the hotels and the flights… it’s fantastic. It really is a dream come true. So, joking aside about the distance, I’m so looking forward to coming over there to sing for the people of Sydney & Melbourne as well… we actually have a Melbourne in England, which is a bit smaller than your Melbourne [laughs] but it’s ironic because my manager Annie live in Melbourne (UK) but she can’t make the trip this time but she would have loved to have come to the Australian namesake of her hometown. But I’ll take plenty of photos for her. I’m sure the weather will be lovely and hopefully we’ll get some time to do some sightseeing around the harbour in Sydney and stuff like that but I’m mainly be saving my energy for my appearance on stage so I won’t be knocking myself out – I’ll be saving myself for the gig.
Sean: So what’s the format of the show? How many songs do you each get to sing in the set?
Bob: I’m involved in five songs, so we all get four songs each then we have the encore situation where we all come back on as a group and start bumping into each other [laughs] we all come down the stairs trying not to slip – whoops-a-daisy [laughs]. There is a lot of dry ice on the stage for the last song so it’s very slippery on the top and quite hilarious. So I come on and do two songs then about an hour later come back on and do another two… it is a three hour show after all. Some of the songs are quite long… some are twelve minutes long because Toby likes to write epics on occasion. Jorn Lande & Ronnie Atkins do ‘Let the Storm Descend Upon You’ which is twelve minutes long and utterly brilliant then I come on a do a four and a half minute one [laughs] called ‘Lavender’ and then ‘The Story Ain’t Over’. I also do a song later on in the show from the ‘Ghostlights’ album called ‘Mystery of a Blood Red Rose’ with Tobias. It’s all good fun and I do love it – its pantomime, its carnival time and we all get to dress up and there is a theme… like a black & red… more a black & maroon dark red theme to the way we look. It’s all very uniform but without wearing the uniform. So it all comes across as a rock opera, a bit like Phantom of the Opera type thing with that kind of mood and the stage reflects that as well, which is based on the album cover. You just have to see it to believe it because it’s fantastic.
Sean: The Forum in Melbourne could almost have been built just for this show with its gorgeous décor & design. Have you ever visited Australia before now? I can’t remember seeing Magnum ever visiting and performing here.
Bob: No, never. No, we’d love to bring Magnum out there and we haven’t been to Japan either. We have had offers over the years but not substantial enough, with the best will & intentions, you just can’t do it on the cheap. It would be so expensive to come over to Australia and/or Japan so we are more of a European touring band. We haven’t even been to America for a long time either – we did support Ozzy Osbourne in the 80’s and we went all round which was just great. And we also managed to do some shows of our own. The only time we went back there after that was to record an album which was called ‘Goodnight L.A.’ in 1990. We haven’t toured outside of Europe because it just isn’t financially viable or realistic… we would go broke, believe me. Don’t get me wrong we would love to play shows all around the world but we have to be realistic and stick to what we can do and that is the UK & European circuit, which is our main territory – we have a German record label, SPV and they promote us big-time in Germany where we sell more records there than anywhere and we are so thankful for that. This is why I’m so looking forward to this trip, as well as Japan and we are doing five shows in America too. Tobias is set up to do all these wonderful shows and certainly more able to do it than Magnum are because Avantasia sells more records globally. Toby has been very good to me over the years and he even came over to the Birmingham Symphony Hall last year to sing with Magnum – we invited him over and he sang ‘Lost on the Road to Eternity’ with us and he loved doing that. He got a great reception and everybody knew who he was which was great – they all knew him from Edguy but mainly from Avantasia. We wanted to return the compliment because he always gets me to sing a duet with him on Avantasia so it was time to return the favour and get him to sing a duet with Magnum, a band he said he always had loved. I think we are joined at the hip these days me and Toby [laughs].
Sean: You mentioned Magnum and I can’t let you go without talking a little bit about a band that still hold such a wonderful place in British rock. Even now the band seem to be able to write & record some incredible material – I was listening to ‘Your Dreams Won’t Die’ today and for me, that is as good a track as anything you’ve done over the years.
Bob: Yes it’s a lovely song. That was off… oh hang on… ‘Sacred Blood “Divine” Lies’ from 2016… I get them all mixed up now that I’m one hundred and fifty years old… I can’t think sometimes…
Sean: It is a wonderful track…
Bob: I’m not really one hundred and fifty years old people! It was a joke [laughs]… It is such a great song and goes down terrifically on stage. It’s quite an emotional track, as you can imagine with a title like that. People say that if your name is mentioned on a daily basis, somewhere in the world, then you will always be alive from day to day and you will never die – you will always be in people’s hearts. Never let the world get you down and your dreams will never die if you believe in yourself and in what you are doing. When I sing this song to the audience and I’m looking at them looking me it can really upset me… it chokes me at times. Then we all start passing the handkerchiefs around [laughs]. But it’s really great to connect to people on an emotional level. Magnum is known for that and people like what we stand for and that is true feelings. Tony writes about real situations that can affect us all in our lives so that’s what’s kept us going for so many years – Magnum fans believe in the music and in the words that come out of my mouth, which are written by Tony. Me & Tony have a great relationship after all these years and long may that continue. I consider myself to be very lucky to be in this position of power that should never be abused & should always be trusted because people believe in you and love you & the music you perform for them. It’s a terrific feeling and I would never destroy that or let the fans down.
Sean: You say “long may that continue” and that certainly looks to be the case. A new album in the pipeline, I hear?
Bob: Yes there is. Tony is currently in the studio with the guys as we speak. I’ve done some vocals for everybody to be getting on with as a guide while I’m away. So I’m looking forward to getting back… to be honest I just look forward to everything, from going away with Avantasia to getting back home to Magnum and into the studio to finish off my vocals once everything else is completed – it’s just all wonderful. So that should be done by end of September start of October and will probably come out in the shops… in the shops? I mean on the internet [laughs] Are there any shops left?
Sean: Our Price records? [laughs]
Bob: Our Price Records there’s a blast from the past. HMV has been struggling with administration I see. But we digress. So, hopefully the album will be out January, which we find is a good time of the year to release and then we should be out on tour shortly after that. And here we go again… so I have a lot to look forward to and a lot of work to do and I thrive on it and long may it be. I’m just so very lucky to do all this stuff. I get to travel the world and talk to really nice people and that’s what makes me happy – I’m a very content person as you can tell.
Sean: You are indeed and its just so nice to talk to someone who still has that wonderful drive & desire but also normality & appreciation, even after so many years in the music industry. I have one final question before I let you get back to your snooker. If you could invite three people to join you for dinner from the music world, past or present, who would you choose?
Bob: Freddie Mercury, Ronnie James Dio and Buddy Holly – three of my heroes.
Sean: Three greats right there. Well, Bob I just want to say thank you so much for your time.
Bob: No thank you, it’s been so nice to talk to you and for your interest in it all.
Sean: All of us here at The Rockpit wish you and all the cast & crew a fantastic tour. Sydney & Melbourne are in for an absolute treat with this amazing line-up. And I hope you get some time for some sightseeing.
Bob: Yes, hopefully I will if I’m not sleeping [laughs]. Thank you all and see you all soon, Australia. Cheerio.
