I’m very lucky to have met the band several times due to the generosity of Tony’s daughter Dionne whom I’ve been lucky to become friends with.

The power of Tony’s lyrics and Bob’s voice melt every situation good or bad. Like wine, they have matured with age – each album giving more and more. I cant imagine my life without their music to turn to when I need it.

Here you have a true fan who will always be a fan. I can’t wait for this tour and to see them doing what they do the greatest.

Clare Boyle

Favourite tracks:
1.  Lost On The Road To Eternity
2.  Lonely Night
3.  The Last Dance
4.  Wild Swan
5.  Black Tattoo

Jes Woodland

Favourite tracks:
Back To Earth
The Spirit
Les Mort Dansant
Black Skies
Lost On The Road To Eternity

Favourite tracks:
Need A Lot Of Love
Just Like An Arrow
Start Talking Love
Days Of No Trust
It Must Have Been Love

I’ve had the pleasure to meet them many times over the years and made many great friends – “chompies“. One show which was magical to me was the Town Hall (Birmingham) Christmas 1992 gig – it snowed and it was my birthday – who could wish for more?

Tracey Dean

Favourite tracks:
1. Foolish Heart
2. Midnight (You Won’t Be Sleeping)
3. Vigilante
4. Just Like An Arrow
5. Welcome All You Young And Precious Souls

One of his favourite bands were Magnum and one evening we were introduced to the recently released Sleepwalking album.

I loved the sound and the singer’s voice instantly, but what happened next was the real start of my long-term love affair/obsession with the band.

Clearly delighted at hearing lots of positive feedback from us students (me included), Stuart announced at the end of a lecture a few weeks later that he had bought half a dozen tickets to see Magnum at the Cambridge Junction that Christmas.

I immediately claimed one of them and looked forward to the gig, even though I don’t think we listened to the album again between then and the show. When the day of the concert arrived, I awoke to a mixture of excitement and pain.

My throat felt like I’d swallowed razorblades and a visit to the local doctor confirmed my worst fears, I’d come down with tonsillitis. I was determined I wouldn’t miss the show, however, and told my parents that I felt much better than I actually did and they allowed me to go.

I have hazy, pain killer-numbed memories of the show, but can still vividly remember the band emerging through the smoke-filled stage and launching into The Flood. To say it blew me away would be a huge understatement and thoughts of that evening (only my second ever gig) still fills me with warmth and fuzzy nostalgia.

That Christmas, I was mostly confined to bed, but Sleepwalking (a Christmas present and my first ever Compact Disc) and a copy of The Wings of Heaven video that I borrowed from Stuart got me through it.

There was also a TV screening of The Tube Christmas Special, which featured the band performing Vigilante on the Portmeirion-based set of The Prisoner, which felt like a serendipitous sign.

The band’s music became a firm fixture on my CD player during the rest of my time at college and my college buddy, Dan, also succumbed to their charms and joined the Magnum army.

It’s fair to say that the band (and Stuart) instigated the full-blown music obsession that followed, and I’ve since seen the band more times than I can remember and own every album on CD and vinyl (except for Rock Art, which is the only Magnum album never to be pressed on vinyl).

I also had the pleasure of marketing a number of the band’s CD reissues in the mid-00s when I worked at Sanctuary Records and wrote the sleevenotes for the reissue of Tony and Bob’s debut Hard Rain album, which gave me the opportunity to meet Bob and to speak with Tony over the phone.

Christmas now always makes me think of the Sleepwalking album and The Flood remains my favourite Magnum song. When I saw the band perform the track live again in 2012 (almost 20-years after that first encounter), I almost wept with joy.

If I could have it my way, I’d demand a new studio album every year, such is the quality of the songs that have been written since they re-grouped in 2002, but one every other year isn’t too bad, I suppose.

Congratulations to Tony and Bob on the 50th anniversary of the band and long may they continue to entertain us.

Gavin Hilzbrich

From then I searched back into the previous albums and cheered them through their commercial success in the late 80s/early 90s. I lost touch with Magnum when I went to university around the time of Sleepwalking as my music tastes broadened and the band’s brand of melodic rock seemed to become increasingly incompatible with the grunge and Britpop-obsessed 90s.

But I never lost my connection with a band that had meant so much to me at a time when I was discovering music. Their return to form in the last decade and a half has been a joy to witness and some of my favourite Magnum tracks come from albums like The Visitation, Escape From The Shadow Garden and Lost On The Road To Eternity.

Matt Taylor

Favourite Tracks:
1. When the World Comes Down
2. Don’t Wake the Lion
3. Wild Swan
4. The Prize
5. Wisdom’s Had Its Day