The Magic Numbers: Shepherds Bush Empire, London 19 Oct 2005

Shepherds Bush is a jewel of a place – a vast and wide stretch of busy road flanked by endless kebab shops and fried chicken vendors. Precisely the sort of place that would make you want to be transported by the happy-go-lucky music of bands like the Magic Numbers, and exactly the sort of take-aways that could lead to the physique of the members of bands like the Magic Numbers. But wait! They are famously sensitive over jibes about their weight aren’t they? This is immediately apparent on arrival inside the Empire where we are greeted by a backdrop showing a silhouette of the four of them designed - it is fair to say - to an extraordinarily flattering brief. I won’t harp on about it any further though as the afore-mentioned happy-go-luckiness takes over. A cheery hello from Romeo Stodart and straight into the bitter-sweet ‘The Mule’, the goofy and fun ‘Long Legs’ and the stylish ‘Don’t Give Up The Fight’.

The crowd go wild, and then wilder still at the first really great moment as ‘Forever Lost’ is given the stadium rock treatment – the fans hand-clapping as if it was Queen’s ‘Radio Ga-Ga’. After a brief thought that they look like the Kings of Leon in fancy dress, they continue to race through most of the album, showing an uncanny live knack – when songs start to lag, they are expert at introducing a new tempo to lift things. This is maybe why the two or three new songs they play are such a disappointment, relying as they do on a campfire sing-a-long appeal. Again the crowd lap it up, but the Numbers are preaching to the fanatically converted. I mean, for crying out loud, the lyric of one is “sing a song for me my baby”, which is only slightly less cringeing than discovering Rod, Jane and Freddy have the tent next door to you at the Big Chill.

Once the new stuff is out of the way they go back to the album tracks, which they play very straight – no improvising for these guys tonight, which is a shame. Then they encore with a cover of Beyonce’s ‘Crazy in Love’, which led us into the following diatribe from my companion and fellow Eyeballkid scribe, Robin:

“If Travis threw themselves off a cliff, would you?” is the question that the Magic Numbers want to be asking themselves. I mean when those Scottish dandies covered Britney’s ‘One More Time’ it was mildly amusing in a kind of bootleg, collector’s item sort of a way. But sadly it started a craze of covering pop/r’n’b songs in an oh-so-clever and wry manner. Bastards. If you are going to cover something, cover something you really, really like so that at least the audience can think to themselves “Yeah, I love that song too. This band can read me like a book. We are in tune. This is great. I fucking love these guys etc, etc”. Like the White Stripes covering Dylan. It’s all about showing your respect for those that came before you.

Anyway next is ‘Mornings Eleven’ and ‘Wheels on Fire’, with the support acts on stage too to add a Spree-like wall of sound with Romeo as a cartoon-ish, Dougal-like (the dog, not the priest) figure. So, a gig that started well, sagged in the middle, and finished in a blaze of glory, which makes the Magic Numbers live experience strangely like having sex on a broken bed.*

words: Roger Hadwen
rant: Robin Harris
punchline: Brian Grant

*in no way are we suggesting that the sturdiness of any of the band member would be capable of breaking a bed

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