Kingdom of Madness: Classic Magnum Backstage at the Green Kinross Thursday 20th October 2022

I soon caught up though and enjoyed a pleasant 45-minute drive over The Forth to Kinross, despite the rain. It’s a lovely part of the world and the Backstage venue at The Green Hotel is a cracker. The walls in the main performance room and the bar are covered with outstanding memorabilia like signed guitars and posters, making it a great place to visit even before you get to hear any bands.

There was quite a bit of pre-show excitement in the hall with folks looking forward to hearing some vintage songs from Magnum’s hey-day that they maybe hadn’t heard live for a while. Pre-gig chat suggested that ‘Changes’ was the song atop many people’s wish-lists and that’s what they open the show with. A slim-looking Mark Stanway is there of course and a very impressive Mark Pascall takes good care of the vocals and is quickly to everyone’s satisfaction. I’ve seen him before with Departed and Cats in Space but he fits in particularly well here and handles the set with aplomb.

‘Just Like an Arrow’ makes a very welcome early appearance and is a joy to hear. With due respect to FM’s ‘Bad Luck’ and Dare’s ‘Abandon’ was there a better UK AOR single released in the 80s? There’s a cracking band on stage, including Micky Barker (“the best drummer Magnum ever had” according to the keyboard player), Brian Badham playing bass and adding some harmony vocals, and Mark Stanway’s wife Mo Birch on percussion and vocals. They rip through some much-loved favourites and deep cuts like ‘The Prize’ and ‘Wild Swan’ before the vivacious Mo steps up to deliver a stunning rendition of ‘Les Morts Dansant’. It takes a moment to digest the fact that the lady from Culture Club is singing this well-loved and iconic song but of course it works brilliantly and her presence adds another dimension to the show.

Alan Bell is on guitar duties and ding-dong he’s good. It’s his 50th birthday the next day and he does really well, including an early showcase on ‘Love’s a Stranger’. Mark S then introduces a song that he once played on TOTP and ‘Start Talking Love’ gets a couple of ladies of a certain age dancing in the aisles, though sadly they’re no Pan’s People. There was a well-refreshed and enthusiastic guy near the front shouting for ‘Only in America’ all night but, unfortunately for him, he chose exactly the wrong moment to go for a piss. He did get back into the hall in time to savour some of the band’s outstanding four-part vocal harmonies on the song though and he was fair away with himself by the end. ‘Midnight (You Won’t Be Sleeping)’ sets up a brilliant climax to the set as Mark’s familiar keyboard intro cues in Mo to take the lead vocal for ‘On a Storyteller’s Night’. The main set finishes with ‘Kingdom of Madness’ – well, of course it does, it’s a no-brainer.

The first encore is ‘The Lights Burned Out’ and oh-oh-oh baby, I f*cking love that song and Mo does it wonderfully well. Before starting the last number, Stanway reveals that his wife actually wrote its classic intro back in the day, which he then plays and ‘Sacred Hour’ is again a special moment for all those on and off the stage. 

Come the end of November, the WinterStorm Main Stage on the Friday night will be the perfect gig for them and I honestly think the good people of Troon will totally lose their shit when they hear how good Kingdom of Madness actually are and get to spend their own sacred hour with the cream of the Magnum back catalogue. Legends at WinterStorm are memorialised with their image on a curtain. They might as well start work on a Mark Stanway one now.