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-mes. 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 Youngs 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 theyre 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 mes 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 Beyonces 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 didnt sound the best and Romeo, with his angelic voice looked down smugly from the stage and helped them out.
FUTURE GIGS
- date performer venue price
-
Thu 5 Dec 2024
The Magic Numbers
Portsmouth
The Wedgewood Rooms
[PO4 0JW] £25.00
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Fri 6 Dec 2024
The Magic Numbers
Liverpool
East Village Arts Club
[L1 4BH] £25.00
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Sun 8 Dec 2024
The Magic Numbers
Leeds
Brudenell Social Club
[LS6 1NY] £26.00
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Mon 9 Dec 2024
The Magic Numbers
Leeds
Brudenell Social Club
[LS6 1NY] £26.00
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Wed 11 Dec 2024
The Magic Numbers
York
The Citadel
[YO31 7EA] £25.00
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Fri 17 Jan 2025
The Magic Numbers
Birmingham
Ceol Castle
[B12 9AT] £25.00
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Sat 18 Jan 2025
The Magic Numbers
Manchester
Band on the Wall
[M4 5JZ] £26.00
SOLD OUT -
Sat 25 Jan 2025
The Magic Numbers
Sheffield
Fusion & Foundry (Sheffield University)
[S10 2HW] £25.00
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Sun 26 Jan 2025
The Magic Numbers
Gateshead
The Sage
[NE8 2JR] £25.00
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Wed 29 Jan 2025
The Magic Numbers
Bristol
Thekla
[BS1 4RB] £25.00
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Thu 30 Jan 2025
The Magic Numbers
Bedford
Esquires
[MK40 2QG] £25.00
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Fri 31 Jan 2025
The Magic Numbers
Brighton
Concorde 2
[BN2 1EN] £25.00
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