The Magic Numbers

The Magic Numbers are a combination of two pairs of brothers and sisters, who famously appeared on Top of The Pops, but refused to play after an unflattering introduction! They opened their Sheffield University Foundry set with ‘The Mule’ one of a number of melancholy songs from their debut album that they decided to get out of the way early on. However it is in their infectiously enthusiastic ‘happy anthems’ that the Numbers excel. They really started to get the crowd up, dancing, singing, clapping and generally having too much fun with their hit single Forever Lost. Romeo’s tones were perfectly complimented by Angela’s harmonies.

The Numbers crowd, a diverse mix of young and old, graciously allowed me to assume a position near the front with just a few polite excuse-me’s. And I watched in comfort from a position so close to the band that I would have sustained a broken ankle (minimum) had say, the Foo Fighters been playing. In fact when a bottle of liquid was hurled over from the back of the crowd, I looked at the pleasantness of the crowd and considered that it was probably eau de toilette rather than wee.

They continued by playing their superb contribution to the Warchild album ‘Gone are The Days’ in which Angela switched her vocals for a strange mouth powered keyboard called a Melodica. My research shows that despite the uniqueness, versatility and desirability of a portable breath-powered piano synthesiser, at the time of writing only 3 such instruments were available to buy on ebay. The only one with a bid for was standing at just £3.73. Surely the popularity of these incredible instruments is due a renaissance, and I for one will be putting them on my watch list.

They followed into a happy rendition of Neil Young’s ‘Cow Girl in the Sands’ that they say had been added to the set after going well in rehearsals. Towards the end of the song, Romeo, jamming away in a blissed out state with some slick guitar playing, seemed to disappear into a world of his own and for a little while he was having too much fun to ever come back.

Romeo introduced the next single by encouraging the fans to buy enough records to get The Magic Numbers their first top ten single. ‘Love is Just a Game’ deserves the top ten, more than the top ten deserves it. But surely by now most of the people in Sheffield have already bought the album? In any case they’re probably at the top of the Top of the Pops blacklist!

Toward the end of their set The Numbers reeled off some fantastic crowd pleasers culminating in ‘Love Me Like You’ at which point the crowd became more animated than ever although, I still fancy a few polite excuse me’s would have got me to the front! When they left the stage to rapturous applause there was never any doubt that they would be coming back. After all, Romeo had thanked Sheffield for being the first place to really appreciate the band when they first went on tour.

In his half-American sounding accent Romeo announced that they were going to play Beyonce’s ‘Crazy in Love’ - and another product of their freestyle rehearsals was weaved seamlessly into their set.

Finally the crowd were invited to sing-a-long to ‘Wheels on Fire’. They tried, but to be honest they didn’t sound the best and Romeo, with his angelic voice looked down smugly from the stage and helped them out.

FUTURE GIGS