Princess Alice and the Broken Arrow - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Singles

Like Brothers We Stand Digital (2008)

"Like Brothers We Stand" [Radio Edit] — 3:31
"Your Lies" [LP Version] — 4:32

Cover Sleeve

The cover art was designed by Rodney Matthews

Rodney Matthews

Rodney Matthews is a fantasy artist and illustrator.In 1978, he published Yendor: The Journey of a Junior Adventurer, a hard-back picture book featuring his distinctive paintings of "The Wild Country", a fantasy world seen through the eyes of young Yendor, named after his son...

.

"Tony had got this idea of Princess Alice in his head; the name came from the Princess Alice orphanage in Birmingham... although the Alice on the cover, our Princess Alice if you like, is a fictitious character. And it just seemed right to ask Rodney if he would be interested in doing a painting for the front cover instead of using computer graphics which we have used a lot in the recent past. Tony wanted the sly fox in the artwork and Princess Alice breaking the arrow over her head and this was something that had to be done by an artist... so the only man for the job was Rodney Matthews. We went down to his house in Wales and Tony sat down with him and went through his ideas for the cover and Rodney came back to us with this wonderful pencil drawing which knocked us over; it was brilliant in black and white so we knew it would look amazing in colour. Of course with Rodney he was a known quantity for us from Storyteller’s Night
On A Storyteller's Night
On a Storyteller's Night is the fifth studio album by British melodic rock band Magnum, released in 1985 on FM Records. The album is widely considered as Magnum's breakthrough album. This album features one of the Tony Clarkin's most thoughtful songs, "Les Morts Dansant" — a simple song in that...

and those other great covers and so he was the obvious choice. It reminds me a lot of Storyteller's Night
On A Storyteller's Night
On a Storyteller's Night is the fifth studio album by British melodic rock band Magnum, released in 1985 on FM Records. The album is widely considered as Magnum's breakthrough album. This album features one of the Tony Clarkin's most thoughtful songs, "Les Morts Dansant" — a simple song in that...

and it shouts Magnum at you; I don’t think anybody else would have a cover like that really." — Bob Catley

Bob Catley

For the Australian politician, see Bob Catley Robert Adrian 'Bob' Catley is a British musician, perhaps best known as the lead singer of the rock band Magnum. He is also an accomplished solo artist.- Early years :...

, 2007

"The little story there is that Princess Alice is doing a deal with the fox; breaking an arrow over her head is her making peace with the fox which is part of the lyrics in "Like Brothers We Stand". And this song is to do with the Native American Indians making peace with the White Man so that they ended up being shoved into reservations instead of having all of that country to themselves. "The Flood" from Sleepwalking
Sleepwalking (Magnum album)
Sleepwalking is the ninth studio album by British melodic rock band Magnum, released in 1992.Following the decision to leave Polydor, Sleepwalking was recorded within six months, and is the first self-produced album by Magnum since The Eleventh Hour. Tony Clarkin was much happier acting as...

was basically the same subject matter. And then the kids in the background stuck in the cages are all looking sorry for themselves and the Princess is trying to get the kids back as part of her deal. And she also kicked off a song called "You’ll Never Sleep" which closes the album that was also part of the very loose Princess Alice concept." — Bob Catley

Bob Catley

, 2007

"Princess Alice is a fictional character. Her name came from an orphanage in Birmingham, called the Princess Alice Orphanage. It was in Harbourne, in Birmingham, many years ago; it’s not there anymore. Tony was researching this before we started putting anything down for the album. He wanted to get his facts right, for personal reasons. And the name, Princess Alice kept going around his head, and it helped him put ideas for a song called "You'll Never Sleep", which is the last track on the album. So that kicked off the whole writing process, really. And the fox... Tony always wanted to get the evil sly fox into the artwork somewhere, and now he’s got his chance. There’s a little story on the front basically, how she is breaking an arrow over her head, which is a peace symbol, obviously. She’s trying to do a deal with the fox, to get the little children back, that he has kidnapped and put them in cages in the back; you can see them and they’re very forlorn and sad." — Bob Catley

Bob Catley

, 2007

"Rodney came to the studio and let himself be inspired by us and the album title. He started with some small sketches, eventually producing this beautiful painting." — Bob Catley

Bob Catley

, 2007

Personnel

Tony Clarkin — Guitar
Bob Catley — Vocals
Al Barrow — Bass
Mark Stanway — Keyboards
Jimmy Copley — Drums

Additional Musicians

Jim Lea
Jim Lea
Jim Lea , is an English musician, most notable for playing bass guitar, keyboards, violin, guitar, and singing backing vocals in Slade.-Career:...

— Violin (on "You'll Never Sleep")

Production

Produced and written by Tony Clarkin.
Mixed by Tony Clarkin & Mark V. Stuart.
Recorded at M2, Mad Hat Studio by Mark V. Stuart.
Assisted by Sheena Sear.
Mastered by Ian Cooper @ Metropolis, London.
Cover artwork by Rodney Matthews
Rodney Matthews
Rodney Matthews is a fantasy artist and illustrator.In 1978, he published Yendor: The Journey of a Junior Adventurer, a hard-back picture book featuring his distinctive paintings of "The Wild Country", a fantasy world seen through the eyes of young Yendor, named after his son...

.
Other artwork by Al Barrow
Al Barrow
Al Barrow is the bassist of the British band Magnum.Barrow joined Magnum in 2001 after he was a member of Hard Rain, a group formed by Magnum members, Bob Catley and Tony Clarkin, while activities around Magnum was set on pause. Officially the band was split, but made a comeback in 2001 with their...

, Generic Designs.
Publishing — Colin Newman @ Maxwood Music Ltd.

Princess Alice and the Broken Arrow tour

May 4 — OSNABRUCKE — Lagerhalle
May 5 — BERLIN — Columbia Club
May 7 — AUGSBURG — Spectrum
May 8 — PRATTELN — Z7
May 10 — ASHAFFENBURG — Colos-saal
May 11 — HANNOVER — Capitol
May 12 — BOCHUM — Zeche
May 13 — KOLN — Kantine
May 14 — VOSSELAAR — Biebob
May 15 — PARIS — Le Trabendo
May 17 — GLASGOW — Garage
May 18 — NEWCASTLE — Carling Academy
May 19 — NOTTINGHAM — Rock City
May 20 — BRISTOL — The Academy
May 22 — NORWICH — The Waterfront
May 23 — MANCHESTER — The Academy 2
May 24 — WOLVERHAMPTON — Wulfrun Hall
May 25 — LEEDS — Rio's
May 26 — LONDON — Mean Fiddler

External links

www.magnumonline.co.uk — Official Magnum site
Record Covers — at rodneymatthews.com

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.