Magnum

Magnum, 2005; Göteborg, Sweden. Courtesy David Nyrén.

 Magnum are another band that are elusive in the US that I'm adding to my collection. The recent death of lead songwriter and guitarist Tony Clarkin as well as several titles being on Boris's list for the past few years has brought them to my attention. I wrote about the Marillion bootleg using the cover for Magnums 1983 album The Eleventh Hour! earlier. Now it will take time and a fortune to get their CDs for both of us (I managed two for him so far). Amazon of all places don't have everything to buy at a doable price or to stream. One third-party seller had three CDs and I just ordered one, and my bi-weekly gift card from Bing saves me hundreds every year. Finding the band in person is extremely rare, and I've had less trouble with other artists who couldn't Payola their way into the chart here. If I ask at the shops, people might confuse them with Magnum PI (mom loved Tom Selleck!) or even Yngwie Malmsteens Magnum Force (we've done them already). The real Magnum have occasionally been available locally with recent releases, but it looks like another wild goose chase, and I may need to rent a storage unit if I ever move house again. Will also have to throw in spinoff Hard Rain and solo Bob Catley. Even Jadis took less than a year to find. Magnum may be the biggest challenge yet, even though other people we like still have albums I can't afford or find to this day. This is have to be done in bits.

Also, several albums are out of print and need to be remastered, so that will have to be sorted at a later time. I managed to get almost half the studio releases in the latest package for my own collection, but this will take months to just get the rest of those before I even begin to consider live albums, compilations, vinyl and side projects.