Cargo Records

When Empires Burn

Initially, Bob teamed up with Ten front man, and longstanding Magnum fan, Gary Hughes who wrote all the songs on three albums, "The Tower", "Legends" and "Middle Earth". These albums proved not only critical but commercial successes.

This reaction from the press summed up the exact aim of these releases perfectly: "Gary has captured that special feel and vibe of "On A Storyteller's Night" perfectly and wrapped it up beautifully in renaissance/symphonic style instrumentation, with big grandiose almost epic film score like production schemes". Bob made his debut solo appearance at The Gods '98 in November, performing a show stopping set featuring tracks form "The Tower" as well as classic Magnum songs. Again, such was the response from critics and fans alike that a full UK tour was booked and Bob's solo career has gone from strength to strength from then on. Not content with merely releasing solo albums, Bob has committed himself fully to the role and has performed 70 shows as a solo artist, in countries including the UK, Germany, Spain, Benelux and Italy. All this whilst continuing first as a member of Hard Rain and now as the front man of the reformed Magnum line-up. After three albums together and so many other commitments on both sides it was decided that long time keyboard player, Paul Hodson, would write the fourth solo album. A more perfect union could not have been formed. The style of Paul`s writing superbly compliments the master's voice and with an added edge of classic Dio-esque metal, "When Empires Burn" is set to take Bob`s solo career to a new audience as well as pleasing the existing fan base. As Bob himself has stated: "This is my Heavy Metal album. I`ve always wanted to do something like this". Another change this time around is the inclusion of Bob`s live backing band as the performers on the album. Not only has Paul Hodson written, produced and performed all the keyboards, Vince O`Regan has supplied the crunch on guitars, Al Barrow the bouncing bass lines and Jamie Little the rock solid drum patterns. The end result is to give the material more of a band feel, something that Bob was determined to achieve this time round. The UK will see the material performed live throughout May/June as Bob Catley embarks on his most ambitious tour to date, whilst the rest of Europe can expect an announcement of a September tour in the coming weeks.