28. Making A Live Escape

The mentionend new live album was released on 8.5.2015 in Germany and in the following days all over Europe. It could be bought on CD, as a LP/CD combination or as download. Entiteled “Escape From The Shadow Garden Live 2014” it mirrored the setlist of the last tour: “Live ‘til you Die”, “Black Skies”, “Freedom Day”, “Dance Of The Black Tattoo”, “Blood Red Laughter”, “Unwritten Sacrifice”, How Far Jerusalem”, “Les Morts Dansant”, “Falling For The Big Plan”, “All England’s Eyes”, “Vigilante”, “Kingdom Of Madness”.

   Missing from the original set were “Too Many Clowns”, “The Spirit”, “Sacred Hour” and “On Christmas Day”, which had been added during the winter tour. Including them would have meant a double album as there was not enough space on one CD. For a live album it was quite successful, charting at Nr. 82 in Germany, 91 in England and even at Nr 5 in the Rock/Metal charts.
   Fans and critics hailed the album for its crisp production and song selection. The band had been recorded at what they are best: performing live in front of an audience of music connoisseurs. The album could be mail-ordered as a signed edition with a poster, a t-shirt or both, which many fans made use of.
   The album was supported with some live performances in 2015. MAGNUM were scheduled for five performances in England, Sweden, Germany and Switzerland. While the first three gigs went ahead as planned, the band were in for an unpleasant surprise at the Rock Of Ages-Festival in southern Germany. When the musicians arrived at the festival it turned out that all their gear wasn’t there! Air Berlin hadn’t transported the instruments in the same machine without informing anyone, so they couldn’t perform. This was announced in late afternoon, so band and fans were deeply disappointed, as many of them had travelled a long way to see MAGNUM. Al reported that most of the gear had finally arrived late at night but two guitars and two basses were still missing. After some time the band got almost everything back, but that did not make up for the lost gig.

   The set list at the Vasby concert was: “Live 'til You Die“/ „Black Skies“/ “Freedom Day“/ “Dance of the Black Tattoo“/ “Blood Red Laughter“/ “Unwritten Sacrifice“/ “How Far Jerusalem“/ “Les Morts Dansant“/ “Falling for the Big Plan“/ “All England's Eyes”/ “Vigilante“/ “Kingdom of Madness“ and “Sacred Hour“ as an encore. In Skogsröjet “How Far Jerusalem” was replaced by “Les Morts Dansant” and the encore had to be dropped. So it was the slightly abbreviated setlist of the previous tour.