Life, the universe and Everything
Christian Vander is one of the most important musicians and composers of the 20th and 21st centuries, but I’m guessing that only a small minority of you reading this will be aware of this. Remember how you felt like an outsider at school because you were one of only maybe 10 kids who were into Yes? Well Magma fans were in an even smaller sub-set than that, but God were and are they fanatical.
If there’s one thing that people know about Magma it’s that 80s snooker ace Steve Davis promoted a London show by them. For Davis, an unashamed prog and jazz rock fan, Magma were like a visitation from beyond.
“It was at London’s Chalk Farm Roundhouse, where I’d gone to watch the support act, Isotope. I was 17. I had planned to go home before Magma came on but I hung around and had the most musically life-changing experience of my life. I came out in shock; they blew me away. If I had a time machine and could go back to relive one day of my life, it would be that one,”.
