Hard Rain (band)

Infobox musical artist
Name = Hard Rain

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Origin = Birmingham, England
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Genre = Rock Melodic Rock Progressive rock
Occupation =
Years_active = 1996 — 2000
Label = Sophomore GmbH (1997) Eagle (1998 — 2000)
Associated_acts = Magnum Bob Catley
URL = [http://www.magnumonline.co.uk/ www.magnumonline.co.uk]
Current_members =
Past_members = Tony Clarkin Bob Catley Sue McCloskey Paul Hodson Al Barrow Rob Barrow
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Hard Rain are a British Melodic Rock band from Birmingham, England. Formed in 1996, following the demise of Magnum. The core of the band are vocalist Bob Catley and guitarist/songwriter Tony Clarkin.

After Magnum split, a spin off group featuring Catley and Clarkin was formed called Hard Rain, with a contemporary and alternative style. They released the albums "Hard Rain" in 1997 and "When The Good Times Come" in 1999. At this time, Catley was becoming increasingly focused on his solo career, and he quit Hard Rain in 1999, 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.

Biography

Hard Rain (1996 — 1998)

After Magnum split up, Tony invites Bob Catley to help him finish off a few demos. The demo secured a record deal with German label Sophomore GmbH, so they made the decision to form a new band, rather than re-form Magnum. The entire self-titled album, "Hard Rain" (released in May 1997) was recorded at Mad Hat studios in Walsall, between February and December 1996 by Tony Clarkin and Bob Catley with programmed drums, apart from the backing vocals.

A band is assembled including Sue McCloskey on backing vocals, who has participated in the recording of the album. Sue McCloskey had sung with Silver Convention under the name Zenda Jacks. Paul Hodson and Al Barrow join the band on keyboards and bass, and original Magnum drummer Kex Gorin auditions for the band but the rehearsals do not work out. Al Barrow recommends his brother's services to the band, so Rob Barrow completes the touring line-up.

The band released a single in the much-favoured country of Germany "Stop Me From Loving You". After a successful UK tour, the band begins work for a second album and sign with a new record company Eagle Records. The previous record company, Semaphore GmbH, went bust. Their debut album was subsequently reissued in Receiver Records as "Perpetual Commotion".

When The Good Times Come (1999 — 2000)

The band returned to Mad Hat studios to begin work on a follow up album. When The Good Times Come (released in April 1999) features the touring band, rather than Tony using a drum machine and programming. The album is very diverse and explores styles such as Funk, Jazz and Blues. A promotional tour in the UK starts in April.

In September 1999, after very long and careful considerations, long time front man of Magnum and Hard Rain and long time musical partner for Tony Clarkin, Bob Catley decides to leave the band due to musical differences, and pursue his solo career.

Bob sums up his decision to leave: "I told Tony my feelings and he said 'That's fine with me, and I don't want you to sing these songs and I don't want you in the band any more, if you aren't giving it your 100% effort'. So I said 'Okay, I think I had better leave then'. That was it really. But we were both very grown up about it. It happened really quickly over 3 days amid lots of frantic phone calls. It was a really hard decision but I feel so relieved now that I can concentrate on Gary Hughes songs because I feel they ARE me. I still do lots of Magnum songs on stage because the crowd loves them."Fact|date=July 2007 — Bob Catley, September, 1999

Tony Clarkin is contined to write and record new ideas with the presumption that Sue McCloskey will take over Bob's position.

"Sue and I are co-writing these new songs; it's the first time in my career that I've has a regular song writing partner, and were coming up with some very commercial stuff. But where we go from here is anybody's guess."Fact|date=July 2007 — Tony Clarkin, September, 1999

On January 29th 2000, Tony Clarkin performed a charity show with Sue McCloskey at the Stumble Inn in Cannock. All proceeds and profits go to Mencap. This is the first professional appearance since Bob Catley departed from Hard Rain. News surfaces in December 2000 that Tony Clarkin & Bob Catley will reform Magnum for an album and tour, set for September 2001.

Clarkin comments: "The break since the middle of the Nineties was definitely necessary for me. Since the end of the Seventies, in fact since we embarked on the preparations for our debut recording "Kingdom Of Madness", not a single month had gone by in which I didn't work for Magnum, composed for the group, or at least thought of them permanently. For almost twenty years, all my thoughts had revolved around the band. I needed a break to clear my head and to be able to devote myself to the band again with renewed energy." [ [http://www.workhardpr.com/Archive/Magnum/magnum.html Magnum ] ] — Tony Clarkin, 2002

During his sabbatical, Clarkin worked as a producer and wrote songs for other artists.

Band Members

*Tony Clarkin — Guitar (1996 — 2000)
*Bob Catley — Vocals (1996 — 1999)
*Sue McCloskey — Vocals (1996 — 2000)
*Paul Hodson — Keyboards (1997 — 2000)
*Al Barrow — Bass (1997 — 2000)
*Rob Barrow — Drums (1997 — 2000)

Discography

*"Hard Rain" (1997)
*"When The Good Times Come" (1999)

References

External links

* [http://www.magnumonline.co.uk www.magnumonline.co.uk] - Official Magnum Site
* [http://www.bobcatley.com www.bobcatley.com] - Official Bob Catley Site
* [http://lyricwiki.org/Hard_Rain lyricwiki.org/Hard_Rain] — lyrics from lyricwiki.org