The Magic Numbers,are an English indie rock band,who wouldn't look our of place In the sixties a proper sixties outfit you know long hair flares beards well that's just the guys.They consist of two pairs of brothers and sisters and where formed in 2002.Romeo Stoddart(Lead singer Guitar)Michelle Stoddart(Bass and Vocals)Sean Gannon(Drums)and Angela Gannon(Vocals Percussion Melodica Glockenspiel)
The Stodarts are the children of a Scottish father and a Portuguese mother and were born in Trinidad in the Caribbean, where their mother was an opera singer and had her own TV show. When the family fled an Islamic coup attempt there in 1990, they were raised in New York. In the mid-1990s, when Romeo was 16 and Michelle was 10, they moved to London.
The Gannons are of Irish descent but lived in Hanwell, London where they became friends with their neighbours the Stodarts. Prior to forming The Magic Numbers, Romeo and Sean spent time trying to form a band together under various guises, and previously performed under the name 'Guess'.
In late 2002 The Magic Numbers formed in their present guise, and they began touring the London circuit, gradually developing their sound and building a small cult following, not least amongst some already established artists including The Chemical Brothers, Travis, and Ed Harcourt, with the latter later influential in their signing to record label Heavenly Recordings.
The eponymous debut album was recorded in late 2004 and early 2005 at Metropolis Studios in London, and released on 13 June 2005. The album was produced and recorded by American Craig Silvey. Prior to release only "Forever Lost" was promoted as a commercial single and this was followed up by later releases "Love Me Like You", "Love's a Game" and "I See You, You See Me".
The band where due to perform on Top of the Pops in August 2005,but walked off after guest presenter Richard Bacon introduced them with the statement :"What do you get when you put two brothers and two sisters in a band? A big fat melting pot."
The band took immediate offence believing it was a reference to their weight. A statement issued by The Magic Numbers said: "We would like to apologise to anyone who was disappointed by our non-appearance on TOTP on Sunday. (Believe us we were disappointed too.)"Due to derogatory, unfunny remarks made during the guest presenters introduction to our performance, we felt we had to make a stand and leave. It was an important day for us and should have been special. We didn't take this decision lightly, but we stand by it."Two days later, drummer Sean Gannon is able to be philosophical, saying: "It's been fine. Things happen and you just glaze over them and you get on with whatever you do, and that's the most important thing."Lead singer Romeo Stodart is less sanguine about events. He said: "It wasn't at all stressful, it was kind of a gut feeling in that we felt insulted and we just reacted."We're not too sensitive about the way we look, we're able to take a joke, but it's just not on within an introduction and we felt we had to just say that."We were invited on the show, we made time to appear on that programme, be it Top Of The Pops or anything else, so it's like you can hardly insult someone and then expect them to perform like a monkey, which is the way I deemed it, and I just wanted to make a stand and say no."
personally I think Bacon was out of order to say what he said and the numbers where right to walk off and refuse to play.
The album The Magic numbers reached number 7 in the official album charts and was also shortlisted for the Mercury Music prize in 2005.
The follow up album "Those the Brokes",was released in the autumn of 2006 championed by the song "Take a Chance",which I must point out is not a cover of Abba.The album was partly recorded in New York at Allaire Studios in Spring 2006, a venue which has also been used in the past by David Bowie, The Strokes and Ryan Adams, and was recorded and engineered by Richard Wilkinson.
