The Magic Numbers are back – with a new album. Tim Hughes finds out more about a band who still conquer hearts and minds

Their distinctive image, rich harmonies and catchy summery tunes made the Magic Numbers one of the country’s hottest bands.

The group of siblings were as quirky and irresistible as their brand of mellow guitar pop – their 2005 debut album selling more than 700,000 copies, reaching number seven in the charts and being nominated for the Mercury Prize. Their follow-up, Those The Brokes, was also a success, charting at number 11.

But for a few years now, things have gone quiet for brother and sister double act Romeo and Michelle Stodart and Sean and Angela Gannon.

That is all set to change with the release of fourth album Alias.

“I was really conscious of pushing the band’s sound and doing something new for us. Otherwise we wouldn’t have made this album,” says Romeo – who wrote and produced most of it.

“I wanted to make sure I had something to say. It was very important to get it right.”

The album, which took three years to write and has been produced without the need for a label, finds 36-year-old Romeo at a personal crossroads, following the birth of his son – also called Romeo (it’s a family tradition, he says).

“It’s been a real life-changer in the most positive way,” he says. “He’s made my life so much more meaningful, really. I was lost before.”

Largely written before baby Romeo’s birth, the album deals with the break-up of a long-term relationship and what he calls the “darkness” that followed.

“I’ve been dealing with my own stuff for ages,” he says. “There’s this sort of inner turmoil, as it were. I don’t want this in any way to come across like I think I’m the only person experiencing this, or the only person that’s trying to figure out what their life means,” he adds.

“What I have noticed, in writing the album and now talking about it to friends and in interviews, is that getting all this out has been a very good thing. You just let out what’s inside when you’re writing, but afterwards you can reflect on it all. I think that’s reflected in the album’s title, too.”

Born in Trinidad, where their mother was an opera singer and had her own TV show, Romeo and Michele left the Caribbean island shortly before a coup in 1990. They moved to New York, before arriving in London – and making friends with brother and sister Sean and Angela Gannon and bonding over a shared love of music.

By 2002, they’d become The Magic Numbers and started gigging.

“I’d wanted it for so long, when things actually happened with the band it was amazing,” says Romeo looking back on the time it all fell into place.

“But then there was this huge void that grew and grew. We’re all searching for something, I know I was. We’re all looking for this idea of contentment, and I’ve come to realise those moments are fleeting, it can’t be that every day feels amazing.”

Succeeding in selling out the 2,000-capacity Forum in London’s Kentish Town in 2005, after the release of first single, Forever Lost, the band went on to win over crowds at gigs and festivals – including our own Truck. They were also the first band to play the revamped O2 Academy Oxford, after its conversion from the old Zodiac. More famously, they will be remembered for walking off Top Of The Pops when presenter Richard Bacon was rude about their appearance while introducing them.

The release of Alias find Romeo and the band in good spirits.

“Coming to terms with myself is a really difficult thing, and so often I’ll do something that totally contradicts that idea, but I’m getting there,” he says. “This record is about me working through all of that.

“It’s been important to step away from everything that goes with being in a band. For all of us, we have to live outside the band. It also means we can put life experience into our music. We’ve all been doing other things too, other projects, family, lots of stuff.

“It’s good now stepping back, there’s a rejuvenated spirit.”

CHECK IT OUT
The Magic Numbers play the O2 Academy Oxford on Sunday. Support from Ren Harvieu and special guests.
Tickets £15 plus fee.

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