I’m just a girl pretending

Made up The Magic Numbers are Romeo + Michelle (pair of siblings number 1) and Sean + Angela (pair of siblings number 2), to whose gig I went to see on Sunday night. It was a perfect end to my weekend.

The band is a word-of-mouth phenomenon ‘whose affable live shows have been compared to happy clappy religious experiences and whose music - an unfashionable blend of soft country pop with Fifties and Sixties inflections - is evidently more important to them than the intercession of style gurus and hairdressers’. Wow isn’t it true - dressed entirely in black with their flowy curly long hair (not to mention all the facial hair), the moment they appeared on stage, everyone was in their happy clappy mood.

They opened their gig with songs like ‘The Mule' and ‘Sound of Something’ – grand, with an echoing beat. I should have mentioned that was my first gig experience with Magic Numbers. I had been excited and strange enough, WORRIED, that they may not meet my high expectations. Well, by the third song, I relaxed and rolled my chin back off the floor – it was a wonderful start!

Main singer/songwriter Romeo Stodart takes lead vocals on most songs, his voice strung with romanticism. But Angela and Michelle were equally great singers throughout – the former with ‘Throwing My Heart Away’ and the latter with the beautiful breathy folksy ‘Why Did You Call?’.

Romeo then rocked and had everybody sing along with their arguably most famous song ‘Forever Lost’. Its tune light-hearted but its lyric is mesmerising with impossible catchy chorus. He mused: ‘ Don't let the sun be the one to change you baby, I wanna learn how to love, if I'm to know, cause I wanna go where the people go, cause I'm forever lost’. You’ve got to love the guy :) because..

..he loved me enough to fit ‘I see you you see me’ in half-way through the setlist!!!!! YESES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Words can’t describe how I felt! I screamed? I screeched? Then I shrieked? I don’t know if I can ever re-produce the noise I made that night, but you must know that very sound not only deafened the guy standing next to me but also deafened myself! You may have guessed by now it’s one of my most favourite songs EVER! No? Well, too bad. Must listen to it though.. It has this sort of dreamy spellbinding melting thing that creeps up on you with amazing stealth and never lets go of you again - the melancholy mood yields moments of quiet beauty. 

my TMN album with all 4 of their autographs ;) 

Although ‘A Start With No Ending’ plods slightly in the album, it was surprisingly one of my favourite songs of the night. Romeo really knows how to work the crowd and got everyone engaged – us divided into ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ singing their first two lines of the chorus: ‘I’m just a boy pretending’, and ‘I’m just a girl pretending’. Boy didn’t we all feel that giddy excitement of a new love!!! And what a great feeling it was!

While up-tempo tracks like ‘Why Did You Call?’ and ‘Sound Of Something’ sweep the listeners up in a warm palm and atypically tickle them into submission, ‘Once I Had’ and ‘Restless River’ with their almost-too-loud bass and almost-too-furious rhythm plunge us back into the planet core of emotions and feed us back up to the surface again. It’s a tight rope that they walked so brilliantly the whole of 2 hours. The gig was full of soft, warm, positive sounds; not to mention the spontaneous dancing/singing of the crew (hats off!), their heart-warming rendition of Springsteen’s ‘Dancing In The Dark’ (such a special treat to a Magic Numbers AND Springsteen fan like me!), and Romeo’s Metal Bands Song (a song made up entirely of metal bands’ names). 

Go see them if you ever get the chance, because their sounds surely will win over even the most hard-hearted amongst you.

We’re just a start with no ending..


H.N.