Bob Catley

Robert Adrian Catley (born 11 September 1947), best known as Bob Catley, is an English singer.

He is the lead singer of the hard rock band Magnum and is also active as a solo artist.

Born in Aldershot on 11 September 1947, Catley's family moved to the Tile Cross area of Birmingham when he was young.

He went on to attend the nearby Central Grammar School for Boys (Birmingham) and left to start an apprenticeship at the GPO before deciding on a musical career shortly after meeting similarly minded individuals at college.

Whilst at college he joined several bands, such as The Smokestacks (Jeff Clark-guitar, Ron Savage-guitar, Derek Danks- bass & Brian Worrell- drums Life and Clearwater).

His first professional band was when he joined local outfit The Capitol Systems.

The initial line-up was Bob Catley (vocals) Paul Sargent (guitar) Paul Whitehouse (bass), Dave Bailey (keyboards) and Bob Moore (drums).

Shortly afterward they changed their name to Paradox, inspired by a science-fiction novel.

A one-off deal was arranged with Mercury after Paradox had come to the attention of Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt.

The tracks were "Ever Since I Can Remember", backed with "Goodbye Mary".

In addition they recorded "Mary Colinto" and "Somebody Save Me".

All of these songs were written by Dave Morgan.

Paradox played festivals in the Netherlands and Italy before splitting up upon their return to the UK in 1970.

Formed in 1972, Magnum have undergone several changes in personnel over the years, however the core of vocalist Bob Catley and guitarist/songwriter Tony Clarkin remained throughout.

Magnum began as the house band at Birmingham's famous Rum Runner night club (later the home of Duran Duran).

Also, at this time, Catley was becoming increasingly focused on his solo career, and he quit Hard Rain, marking the end of a working relationship with Clarkin that dated back to 1972.

After a quiet period Clarkin announced the end of Hard Rain.

They began to develop their own style by playing Clarkin's songs at a residency at The Railway Inn, in Birmingham's Curzon Street, in 1976.

Joining Clarkin and Catley were drummer Kex Gorin and bassist Dave Morgan (later a member of ELO).

Their most notable success during these early years was the Jeff Glixman produced Chase The Dragon (1982) which reached No. 17 in the UK, and included several songs that would be mainstays of the band's live set, notably "Soldier of the Line", "Sacred Hour" and "The Spirit".

Their breakthrough album came in 1985 with On a Storyteller's Night which featured the single "Just Like an Arrow".

This success continued in the following years with the Roger Taylor produced Vigilante in 1986, the top 5 album Wings of Heaven in 1988, and the Keith Olsen produced Goodnight L.A. reaching No. 9 in the UK album charts in 1990.

The album entered the UK Album Charts at #70, the first time Magnum have charted in the UK since 1994.

It also reached No. 4 on the BBC Rock Album Charts and No. 60 in Germany, the band's biggest market outside of the UK along with Scandinavia.

Despite a busy touring and recording schedule with Hard Rain, Bob Catley found time to embark on a solo career.

In the summer of 1995 Tony Clarkin announced the band were to split following a farewell tour of the UK and Europe.

After Magnum split, a spin-off group featuring Catley and Clarkin was formed called Hard Rain, and they released the albums Hard Rain and When The Good Times Come.

It was around this time that Catley launched a solo career using various songwriters, including Gary Hughes of the band Ten.

However, Hard Rain found gigs and booking hard to come by, and there were discussions about renaming the band as Magnum.

He was first approached by Gary Hughes (frontman of Rock band Ten) in 1998 to write a solo album.

He teamed up with Hughes who wrote all the songs on The Tower (as well as producing and playing bass and keyboards).

The Tower was written with Magnum in mind.

The Tower was released in 1998.

Catley made his debut solo appearance at The Gods '98, performing a show stopping set featuring tracks from The Tower as well as classic Magnum songs.

Such was the response to the show that Now & Then decided to release an "official bootleg" of the set.

Live at the Gods which was released in January 1999 and features the full set list performed on the day.

Tony Clarkin and Catley re-launched Magnum with the album Breath of Life in 2002 on SPV.

They were again joined by Stanway, with former Hard Rain bassist Al Barrow and former-Thunder drummer Harry James.

This was subsequently followed by Brand New Morning in 2004.

Magnum completed work on a new studio album, Princess Alice and the Broken Arrow released on 26 March 2007, that also marked the return of cover artwork by Rodney Matthews.