The Magic Numbers @Monto Water Rats, Feb 2009

Hi Guys

On behalf of Abby and I, we just wanted to say thank you for your wonderful words and for coming down on Friday! We had an amazing night and hope you all did too! We are looking at putting on future gigs so it would be cool to see you all back again.

If you would like to stay in touch you can add us as a friend on myspace.

www.myspace.com/music_versus_mines

Thank you again for your support. Kellie :)

5 out of 5 on every level!

My first time at Monto and I will defo be going back! Really great venue with a good bar and a great stage area that is reall intimate and sounds spot on.

First up was Danny and the Champions of the World. Danny plus NINE musical mates (sometimes it can be many more!) squeezed on to the stage. In fact to begin with I think there was only 6/7 on stage, as a few moments into their first track the brass guys came from the back of the venue playing through the crowd and joined the rest on stage.

Danny and the Champs were fantastic, their genre is prob folk, but they were so much more than that. They were excellent on every level and had us singing along by slipping in bits from 'My Girl' and 'Tracks of my Tears' and later on paid tribute to The Boss - which was a very topical nod to gigs coming up.

Bit of a break with Raffle and charity auction (read more at http://www.gigjunkie.net/blog/).

The Magic Numbers came on and the room had packed out for them. I have been lucky enough to have seen them a few times, but never in this intimate way - I could have reached out to tug Romeos beard!

Romeo, Michele and Angela kicked things of acoustically with 'Tonight', then 'Long Legs' which got some of us singing, then a new track 'Anyhow I Love You' good for a first listen. 'Undecided' was one of my highlights - Angela has an incredible voice and you find yourself falling in love with her (Angela, if you are reading this, call me!). Around this point Sean joined on drums and 'Hurt so Good' and 'Restless River' were a couple of new ones again v good. I See You, You See Me another obvious notable and the crowd got behind it with some singing.

'Papa was a Rodeo' was a great cover that they wanted us to hear, and to be honest after that the set list went out the window and they just went for it, doing requests, rocking hard and getting involved with the crowd. At one point a girl in the crowd harmonised with Romeo and it was just brilliant!

Ended with 'Love Me Like You' we all jumped around and sung like crazy people! I just love that song!

Then they sort of encored - never made it off stage but they were joined by the organisers and some of the champs for a final sing along and send off.

Just fantastic!

Again, just to say thank you to everyone who came along on the night. We had a fantastic time organizing it, and an amazing night with great bands and a great crowd.

We raised nearly £3000 on the night, and are off to Cambodia next week with the charity 'Mines Advisory Group' to help out with their work helping out in the aftermath of war.

I'm so glad that everyone enjoyed it, we hope to put on more in the future, so get in touch with us!!

www.myspace.com/music_versus_mines

Abby x

Danny & the Champions of the World never fail to make me feel good… damn good. They are a perfect example of UK alt-country at its very best. The rhythmic strumming of Danny’s guitar interwoven with overwhelmingly positive lyrics and the occasional Sigur Ros style instrumental build-up are a cause for smiles all round as Danny and the boys showed us how country music should sound in this time of iPhone applications and hover-bikes… ok maybe not the hover-bikes but you get the idea.

My previous encounters of ‘The Magic Number’ had been merely brief and / or unplanned coincidental stumbings across the band at various festivals, the last of which was at Glastonbury earlier this year. That said, the group excelled far beyond my wildest imagination with this show. With a set crammed with gentle ballads, soft harmonies and plenty of soulful traditional and country rock and roll tracks. All the favourites were played, ‘Forever Lost’, ‘Love Me Like You’, ‘I See You, You See Me’ from the debut album and ‘ Take a Chance’ and ‘This Is a Song’ from their second album ‘ Those the Brokes’ to name just a few of my favourites.

We even managed to catch up with Romeo and spoke with him about the GigJunkie site. The atmosphere was far too noisy to get a comprehendible interview but Romeo took our card and promised to check out the site. Keep your eyes open people as perhaps Romeo will be gracing the GigJunkie realm shortly.

Not really sure there is much more I can add to that review.

Apart from say that, words can't describe how luck the 200 odd people in Monto Water Rats were to be involved in such an awesome evening.

Until next time, bring on The Magic Numbers!