Magenta is a wonderful continuation of keyboard wizard- Rob Reed's first band: Cyan, which he formed in 1984. Robert, never shy about stating his musical influences, combined original compositions with inspiration from bands such as- Genesis, Mike Oldfield and It Bites. The group split up after a few gigs and one demo tape. In 1991 Rob re-recorded the Cyan tracks in his own studio and two years later he, added three more tracks and released the album under the Dutch Prog Rock SI Music label. Entitled- `For King & Country,' the Cyan album was essentially a Rob Reed disk as all instruments and vocals were recorded by him.
Rob met Nigel Voyle during the second Cyan recording- `Pictures From The Other Side.' Voyle took over the lead vocals on the project. he also met future Magenta singer- Christina Maria Booth Murphy, (who is credited as simply- Christina; her voice is beautiful and IMHO is a cross between Renaissance's Annie Haslam and Stevie Nicks), who provided backing vocals.
During a Cyan lull, Reed produced and played keyboards on the a new band called- Fyreworks, which raised a few eyebrows including music label- F2 Music... and after SI Music folded, Cyan signed with F2 Music.
Soon after, they released their third Cyan album entitled `The Creeping Vine,' which sold well and again featured Christina on backing vocals again.
Not to appear just a progger, Rob also created many side-projects that included different musical genres- the most noteworthy was the band- TRIPPA (including Christina on vocals), which combined a contemporary Eurhythmics sound with edgy industrial pop and orchestral arrangements. The band's single was voted ‘Record of the Week’ on Virgin Radio and he group also received some television exposure.
During this time, Rob decided that Christina had the perfect voice to sing lead vocals on a future Progressive Rock project- hence the origin of Magenta. Rob’s aim for this group was to get together like-minded, talented musicians who would bring to this band the enthusiasm and belief that Magenta could be a force to be reckoned with on the progressive rock scene. The band started out as just Rob, (as he composes all the material and gets in people to embellish some of the parts he has written) but he soon brought in Christina and old and new talented friends to turn his ambition into a band.
Magenta was never intended to be a touring group in Rob's mind, but in early 2002, Rob while producing an album with a band called Erasmus, met bassist Matthew Cohen, and in July 2002 he asked Matt if he wanted to gig and play bass in his new Prog project. With the addition of Chris Fry (guitarist with a local band called “Eskimo), Martin Rosser ((guitars/vocals),- a long-time friend of Rob's or years and he had a band called the Othello Syndrome), and Christina (lead vocals), Magenta now fit Robert Reed's vision.
The debut album- `Revolutions' (released March 1st, 2001), is very 70's retro in flavor, nodding influences of prog giants- Yes and Genesis. Reed provided the keyboards, bass guitars, acoustic and some electric guitars, as well as male vocals. Christina was now the lead singer and Cyan collaborator- Tim Robinson was behind the drumkit (additional percussion was done by Tim Short). Ex-Cyan collaborators- Chris Fry and Andy Edwards provided guitars in addition to Martin Shellard. Even Rob's brother contributed concepts and lyrics to the project (he also provided the lyrics to their next album). In July 2003, drummer Rhys Jones left and was replaced by Allan Mason-Jones who used to play with Matthew Cohen in a band called- Unbroken Spirit. He is now the permanent drummer in Magenta.
2003 was a busy year for the band highlighted by a memorable performance at Baja Prog in Mexico as well as Progeny Festival which was held at the Astoria in London in November that same year.
In 2004, Magenta went back in the studio to record their second album- another concept album featuring each song as one of the seven deadly sins. The album appropriately named- `Seven' - also included the services of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra to provide strings which contrasted nicely with the electronics. Compared to `Revolutions'- `Seven' feels much more cohesive and whole, perhaps to the shorter songs or to the strong use of melody (which contrasted to most prog bands tendency of showing off technical skills). The album has received excellent reviews and the band have gained many new fans (including myself). To promote the `Seven' album and live gigs, an EP release (entitled-`Broken'), was released June 1, 2004, which is much poppier than anything on their second album and showcases the band's flexibility. Christina provided the lyrics for the song- Broken (and will do the same for the next single).
Reviews for their live shows have been very positive and have shown that the band's confidence as well as live showmanship has improved considerably. This is a band to look out for and is one of the few pure prog bands to feature beautiful female vocals. And as the group starts to shift from strictly supporting to headlining gigs, they will continue to capture a larger fan base they justly deserve.
Future band dates: on October 31st 2004 at the progSfest the band will share the featured evening performance with The Ray Wilson Band.
On April 4th, 2005 Magenta played ROSfest 2005 festival at the Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville, PA, USA. to support a new live album- Another Time... Another Place... (double live cd). A DVD was released in 2005.
During the summer of 2005 Matthew Cohen (bass) has decided to resign from the band. Says Matthew: "My decision to leave Magenta was not an easy one and was thought about very hard. I have had a wonderful 3 years with some of the best musicians on the scene."
005 and a series of live shows followed.
Magenta's third studio album, Home, was officially released on the first of June 2006. The album is a concept piece and tells the story of a woman who emigrates from Liverpool, England in the early 1970s to "find herself" in the USA. The CD is 68 minutes long and includes contributions from a variety of guests including Magenta regulars Martin Shellard on guitar alongside Troy Donockley (Iona, Mostly Autumn) on Uilleann Pipes and whistles. Once again, the album was written and produced by Rob Reed, with lyrics by Steve Reed. Musically, Home represents a further development for the band, combining the Magenta sound established on Revolutions, Seven and the two singles Broken and I'm Alive. The new album was released in two separate versions, the single disc Home and the double disc version featuring the New York Suite. The second disc contains four longer pieces of music which could not fit onto the single disc version. Home was later re-released as a double album, with the four tracks from the New York Suite inserted into the relevant position in the "story".
Magenta: The Singles was released in summer 2007. The album features re-recorded versions of various singles and album tracks. Rob Reed explains, "The first reason for doing the album was to get definitive versions of the songs recorded. We’d been playing some of the songs live for 3 years and we now had Dan on bass, and he’d brought his own character to the songs as they’d developed. Also, the original versions had been recorded quite quickly and we wanted to get high quality versions of the songs down, as we’d done with "Speechless". It was great to take a bit more time with them and record them properly. Also a lot of Prog fans don’t like buying singles, they’d much rather have the album format, and at 79 minutes we certainly have an album's worth of material. We can delete the singles now."
In addition, another DVD Live At The Point was recorded on 23 November at The Point in Cardiff.
On 30 November 2007 it was announced that drummer Allan Mason-Jones had left the live version of the band. He was replaced in the live band by Keiran Bailey. On 11 December 2007 it was announced that rhythm guitarist Martin Rosser had also left the band to work with Dan Fry and Allan Mason-Jones on their new C-Sides project.
Their fourth album, entitled "Metamorphosis", was released to registered fans on 23 March 2008, with an accompanying DVD featuring footage of the recording process and a full 5.1 version of the album. (The official release date for these items was 21 April.) Prior to its release, Reed said it was "unlike what Magenta fans have heard up until now." The album contains just four tracks, two of which are longer than 20 minutes. The album has a much darker edge than previous Magenta albums.
In November 2009, Magenta performed an acoustic concert at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios near Bath. The concert was notable for featuring a wind section, and the one-off return of Martin Rosser on rhythm guitar – Colin Edwards having recently departed the band. The concert Live At Real World was released as a double CD and DVD in September 2010.
On 4 March 2010, it was announced on the Magenta homepage that bassist Dan Fry had left the live band, to pursue his MLE project. This caused two shows in the Netherlands set for May to be cancelled, and the band went on an extended hiatus while other projects were being worked on, such as Christina Booth's and Chris Fry's solo albums.
Magenta returned to the live scene at the Summer's End Festival in October 2011, with Dan Nelson and Steve Roberts (from Godsticks) on bass and drums respectively.
Magenta's fifth album, Chameleon, was released in November 2011. It features several shorter tracks but mostly with a hard edge, similar to the previous album Metamorphosis. At this time, Magenta's full members were confirmed to be Rob Reed, Christina Booth and Chris Fry, with other musicians brought in for studio recordings and live gigs. Kieran Bailey recorded drums on the album but no longer plays with the live version of the band.
In April 2015, Rob Reed and Christina Booth collaborated with Big Big Train’s David Longdon and Nick D’Virgilio, Steven Wilson band’s Nick Beggs and Steve Hackett (ex Genesis) on a new version of Hackett’s 1979 instrumental track "Spectral Mornings", with new lyrics written by David Longdon, in support of the Parkinson’s Society UK.
Also, Robert Redd has paid homage to ahe legendary Mike OLDFIELD , releasing 3 "Sanctuary" albums as well as a live album. In the studui albums, he plays each and every instrument with obvious glee and mastery, fueled by the Tubular Bell inspiration.
Magenta current line-up:
Christina Booth: lead vocals.
Rob Reed: keyboards, backing vocals.
Chris Fry: lead electric guitars, backing vocals.
Magenta Discography
Studio
Revolutions (1 March 2001)
Seven (1 March 2004)
Home (1 June 2006)
New York Suite (1 June 2006)
The Singles (21 May 2007)
Metamorphosis (21 April 2008)
Seven : The Instrumentals : exclusive download release (3 January 2010)
Rarities Vol 1 : exclusive download release (5 January 2010)
Home : re-released & remixed 2-CD set combining the songs from Home and New York Suite in the originally intended order (20 March 2010)
Chameleon (10 November 2011)
Chameleon : The Instrumentals : exclusive download release (6 December 2011)
The Twenty Seven Club (2 September 2013)
We Are Legend (April 2017)
Live
Another Time, Another Place...Live (1 November 2004)
Live at the Point (27 October 2008)
The Gathering – Exclusive download release (January 2010)
Live at Real World (19 September 2010) – Acoustic concert with a string quartet
Live: On Our Way to Who Knows Where (2012)
Chaos from the stage (2016)
EPs
Broken (1 June 2004)
I'm Alive (1 November 2004)
Wonderous Stories (15 November 2009) : cover of the Yes song plus instrumental and acoustic mixes
The Lizard King (August 2013) : single edit, acoustic mix and extended version of "The Lizard King" from the album The Twenty Seven Club
DVDs
The Gathering (24 October 2005)
The Metamorphosis Collection (21 April 2008)
Live at the Point (27 October 2008)
Chaos from the stage (12 November 2016)
Live at Real World
Collaborations
Spectral Mornings 2015 (27 April 2015) – charity single in aid of Parkinson's Society UK. Christina Booth and Rob Reed of Magenta, with Nick Beggs, Nick D’Virgilio, Steve Hackett, and Dave Longdon.
