News Archive 20th August 2006 - This Year We're Off To Sunny Spain, Eviva España! Explaining the gap between legs of the UK tour later this year, it seems the band will be taking on the Spanish touring festival "Wintercase", hitting four venues across the mainland in four consecutive nights, including a chance to relive the sensational night back in March at the Barcelona Razz. Details, as usual, on the live page. Support comes from Goodbooks and Peter, Bjorn & John. 18th August 2006 - UK Tour To Close Another Sensational Year A mailshot today confirmed that the Numbers will be hitting the road in the UK in November and December. Starting in Liverpool and spanning most of England in November, they close a ten-day tour at Hammersmith Apollo. The tour then resumes with some outstanding UK dates before heading for a couple of shows in Scotland. Gig listing appears on the live page of this site. 14th August 2006 - Won't Find Us Taking Chances... Or Will You? Onstage at the Eden gig on Saturday, Romeo confirmed to the crowd that the new crowdpleasing favourite "Take A Chance" will be the band's next single, and the first off the forthcoming followup album (still to be named). This would apparently confirm the subsequent release of the album, although dates for either are still unclear. 12th August 2006 - Numbers Play Eden's "Biggest Ever" Show Even before wowing the crowd with a scintillating performance, the omens were good - the night's compere announced that the show was the biggest ever to be held at Eden with most number of tickets sold for a single day event. Local press estimate that the crowd topped 6,000. 1st August 2006 - Second Classic Album Almost In The Can After playing two shows in two nights in the north of England last weekend, the band told fans that the second album - dubbed by many as the "Second Classic" - was almost complete and pencilled in for a release later this year. And you know what that means folks... more gigs! Stay tuned for more news. 15th July 2006 - Numbers To Play Unprecedented Second 'Street Gig' UK network provider T-Mobile has announced that it will host The Magic Numbers for the second time in its Street Gigs series. The show will take place at an old Bingo Hall in Manchester City Centre, and likely some parts of the event will be screened on the Channel 4 TV show 'Transmission' a week or so later. 2nd July 2006 - Immediate Changes For Dublin Show The support act for the festival warmup show at Wheelan's in Dublin on Friday has been changed - replacing Paolo Nutini are young Irish band The Immediate. 28th June 2006 - Numbers' Wiki Hits The Web I've taken the liberty of finally extending the Numbers' presence on Wikipedia, which was previously limited to a pretty shabby two or three paragraphs. The profile now includes a background, stories of the first and second albums and gigging histories. The page is open to anyone to update and edit, so take a look at Wikipedia and help to extend the Numbers' web presence. 18th June 2006 - One-Off Dublin Pre-Festival Club Show Announced To precede the festival double-header of Oxegen in Ireland and T In The Park in Scotland, the Numbers will play a one-off show at a relatively small bar in downtown Dublin the night before the Oxegen performance, supported by upcoming Scotish crooner Paolo Nutini. 12th June 2006 - The Beard To Remain 'Live Only' Romeo has confessed via the band's messageboard that it's unlikely that the traditional set-closer The Beard will ever been recorded. Citing the strangeness of performing the song without an audience, the band are likely to at least keep some things sacred (link here) 6th June 2006 - Flaming Lips Tour Support Confirmed In spite of the cancelled dates supporting Devendra Banhart, the Numbers have been confirmed as support act for a third of the Flaming Lips' tour of the North East United States, along with Sonic Youth, in the last week of August and the first week of September. 31st May 2006 - Devandra Banhart Support Slot Axed Devendra Banhart has cancelled his scheduled US tour next month, on which the Numbers were due to support. Replacement dates may follow, but Banhart's official site suggest that these will not accomodate the Numbers, who will presumably utilise the time to continue recording their second album. Both are still booked to play at the Bonnaroo festival in three weeks' time. 10th May 2006 - Headlining By Popular Demand The Numbers' festival trail will receive a massive boost in late July as they have been named to headline the inaugural Across The Tracks festival in Leeds, which takes place across two days on a disused wharf aside Leeds train station. Also named to appear are British Sea Power, Jose Gonzales, The Young Knives and Stephen Fretwell. Tickets for the full weekend are £55 and single day tickets are £30. 16th April 2006 - No More Entry To The Forbidden Garden Tickets for The Magic Numbers' Eden Session in Cornwall later this year have sold out at an amazing rate. In addition, Jose Gonzales and Absentee have now been confirmed as support acts for the day-long event. 11th March 2006 - Summer Festival Plans Take Shape The first international festival that has confirmed a summer appearance for The Magic Numbers is the Tennessee Music & Arts weekender Bonnaroo, which takes place across the weekend of 16th-18th June - details haven't yet been confirmed publicly as to which date and stage the Numbers will play, but tickets are only available for the full weekend. Whether this represents a longer period of activity in the US around this time is, as yet, undetermined, although it's known that they'll be back in the UK just three weeks later for the T In The Park and Oxegen shows. 6th March 2006 - Take A Chance On The New Songs With seven new tracks being promoted during their European Tour, the future certainly looks bright for the Numbers' second album - we've managed to discover the working titles to two more of the tracks; 'Take A Chance' and 'Don't Wanna Tell Her'. These are set to be recorded during the coming months in preparation for a planned album release at the end of 2006. 3rd March 2006 - New Material Hits Live Shows Across Continent During the progression of the seven-date European Tour the band have begun to break out some more new tracks at their live shows. Three were on display in the UK (You Never Had It, Boy and Slow Down) and two more on the continent, neither of which appear to have titles yet. As the band gear up for the recording of their second album in the coming months there are likely to be more broken into during the impending US tour. 1st March 2006 - Eden Tickets Go On Sale Tickets for the Eden show go on sale from this evening. £30 a pop, but no awful booking fees - guaranteed! You can only purchase through edenbookings.com - get it in the diary now! 27th February 2006 - Flicking The V's The V Festival organisers have named The Magic Numbers as one of the first confirmed artists to appear at its event this year on the penultimate weekend of August. They have confirmed an appeared at Chelmsford on Saturday 24th February 2006 - Eden Show Begins To Take Shape The Magic Numbers have confirmed that upcoming young artist Jose Gonzales will be supporting their show at the Eden Project in August this year. Gonzales' record Heartbeats has been met with worldwide acclaim and will provide extremely strong support for the event. 23rd February 2006 - Oxegen Tickets On Sale Friday Tickets for the Oxygen festival go on sale tomorrow (see the live page for a link) and the Numbers have been confirmed to appear on Saturday 8th July. Also appearing are Sigur Ros and Red Hot Chilli Peppers. 22nd February 2006 - Good Evening Europe, We Are The Magic Numbers! Despite the end of another mini-UK tour last night, that isn't the end of the Numbers' european exploits as this weekend they head out into the Low Countries to begin their seven-date European tour which runs during the next fortnight, ending with two nights in Spain. Support on the tour will include upcoming London band Horsebox, as well as David Kitt, on whose album the Magic Numbers are also due to appear later this year. 20th February 2006 - Festival News Leaks In Edinburgh Bringing you the least-well kept secret north of the Border, The Magic Numbers have confirmed that they will play at this year's T In The Park festival in Scotland, at the same weekend as the Oxegen festival. Organisers have since confirmed their billing on the main stage on the Sunday of the weekend. Tickets sold out last week, however. 19th February 2006 - I See A Top Twenty Single The single I See You, You See Me hit the top twenty in the UK chart today... just! It entered the chart at number 20 on the day of the Numbers' gig in Wolverhampton, which isn't a mean achievement given the severe lack of radio play it was afforded in recent weeks, with notable ignorance from Radio1. 16th February 2006 - Numbers To Headline Own Show At Eden The Eden Project in Cornwall plays host to occasional mini-festivals each summer, and on Saturday 12th August the Magic Numbers will be headlining their own show - more details at www.edenbookings.com, with the £30 tickets going on sale from 1st March. 15th February 2006 - No Joy At Lacklustre Brits The Numbers walked away with nothing but smiles on their faces from this evenings Brit Awards, having been pipped to the Best British Breakthrough Act award by NME darlings Arctic Monkeys. James Blunt, Arctic Monkeys and Kaiser Cheifs all took a clutch of awards each, demonstrating the fragility of the process. 11th February - The Notoriously 'Difficult' Second Album? With the upcoming shows around the country being the only remaining UK headline dates currently planned, it's understood that the band are due to hit the studio again during the spring to begin to commit some of the new material to record, with a possible release date of a second album for October or November 2006 6th February 2006 - Repeat Appearance At Oxegen Planned The Numbers are due to appear on the bill for the Oxegen festival in Ireland again this summer, along with The Who, The Strokes, Primal Scream, Franz Ferdinand, Richard Ashcroft amongst others. More details as and when... 1st February 2006 - All Back To... Islington Academy! Details reach us that the Numbers will be playing a live show at the Islington Academy on Saturday 18th February, only a month after the last showcase. This time the event is for Xfm:Live, presumably to be recorded for future airplay. Tickets aren't on sale, the understanding is that they'll mostly, if not all, be won as prizes by Xfm listeners. 29th January 2006 - More Details On 'I See You' Release The fourth commercial release from the debut album, I See You, You See Me - is out in two weeks and it's been confirmed that extra's on the CD and two 7" vinyl singles will include a live version of the lead track, a cover of Forever Lost by the pupil's of Timsbury plus two TMN covers - 'Crazy In Love' and 'There Is A Light'. 26th January 2006 - US Tour Details Emerging Although details are sketchy at present, two gigs in the US have been announced in Charlottesville and Chicago in between two huge festival shows at SXSW and Coachella. This will likely mean activity stateside for almost all of March and April this year. More gig details as and when they're announced - keep an eye on the live page of this site! 23rd January 2006 - Another Awards Nomination, Almost As (In)Credible... Hot on the heels of the Brit Award nomination, the NME Awards shortlist was announced today, with the Numbers being placed on the shortlist for the Best New Band category. You can vote at nme.com between now and 23rd February, but you have to register on their site first. 20th January 2006 - As Hot As Some Hot Cakes That Are Quite Hot They might be on the other side of the world, but that doesn't mean that Numbers live tickets aren't selling - the last of the tickets for the Blackpool Empress Ballroom show have now gone, which means that all four UK shows in February are now completely sold out with a total audience of around 15,000 expected across the week. 13th January 2006 - Numbers Crowned 'New Kings' In Islington The Carling 'New Kings' event took place at the Islington Academy with a TMN set recorded for future screening on Channel 4. Hard-Fi had dropped out of the event since being announced and were replaced by Ka-no. The performance will be shown during February this year, and the Numbers now move on to their antipodean dates playing at the Big Day Out festivals. 10th January 2006 - Numbers Shunned By Brits Nominations As widely expected, the Magic Numbers were largely overlooked as the nominations for the 2006 Brit Awards were announced today at the launch show they performed at. They were nominated for the Best British Breakthrough Act award, and the ceremony takes place on Wednesday 15th February, the night before they open their short UK tour at Brixton Academy. 23rd December 2005 - Collaborating The Numbers Way The word on the grapevine is that the Numbers will feature on at least two other artists' albums during 2006, even if their own followup doesn't hit the shelves before the year is up. Romeo has lent his vocals to a Concretes track called "Your Call" which has received some airplay on Radio1's Blue Room show, and the band have also contributed to Ed Harcourt's new material, including backing vocals on a song called "Revolution In My Heart". Dates for any releases at this point unknown. 15th December 2005 - Numbers To Play Brits Launch Gig The nominations for the 2006 Brit Awards are announced on 10th January, and a number of acts - including the Numbers - are playing at the launch show on the day. The awards themselves are on 15th February. Expect to hear plenty of references to over-rated types like Kaiser Chiefs, Hard-Fi and the boy Blunt. 12th December 2005 - Showcase Arranged In Islington As one act of a three-part showcase arranged by Carling, the Numbers are to play a show at the Islington Academy on 12th January which will be broadcast on Channel 4 at a later date. Other acts set to appear are Hard-Fi and Graham Coxon. Tickets can't be bought, they're only available to competition winners - see the TMN official site or carling.com for more details. 7th December 2005 - Brixton Show Details Finally Confirmed After waiting over a month for NME to time their news release right, details of a fourth UK headline show for the Numbers in February have been confirmed, as they are to play the 5,000-capacity Brixton Academy. They will be supported for the show by The Concretes, who also assist on the remainder of the tour, as well as Morning Runner and Shout Out Louds. Tickets on sale now. 3rd December 2005 - Numbers Seek Youth Inspiration From rudimentary beginnings (a message on the official forum), one South-Western UK school has developed a mini Numbers cult, and have gone as far as to record their own version of Forever Lost - the expectation is that this will feature as a B-side on the next single, probably due to hit the shops in mid-February. 1st December 2005 - Just Another Day In The Office? Last night the Numbers played to probably their largest ever TV audience, appearing live on the 'Late Night with Conan O'Brien' show. The played 'Love Me Like You', the song that's currently attracting most US radio play. 28th November 2005 - New York Gets Numbered! After two storming support slots closing Bright Eyes' Autumn tour in neighbouring New Jersey, the Numbers played two sold out shows in New York including one at the famous Bowery Ballroom. They play further up the US East Coast and in Canada next week before returning home for a short, but well-deserved, winter break. 23rd November 2005 - Fourth Single - Preliminary Details Strong rumour suggests that the fourth commerically available single from the eponymous debut album is to be the popular ballad "I See You, You See Me", which narrowly beat off competition from Mornings Eleven for a full release. 18th November 2005 - Viva Espana! After cancelled shows from September 2005, gigs in Zurich, Milan and Barcelona, these dates have been resceduled for March 2006, as well as another show in Madrid to round off the forthcoming European tour. Full details, plus ticket merchants, can be found on the live page of this site. 14th November 2005 - Having It vs Not Having It The first leg of the US tour has seen exposure of a few new songs including one largely popular live number which was named by a crowd member at a show in Seattle. It's called "You Never Had It" - draft lyrics appear on the lyrics page of the site. 10th November 2005 - Springing Back Into Europe! Never ones to shy away from ambitious strings of tour dates piled back-to-back, only the weekend after the completion of a short UK tour, the Numbers are due to hit Europe again in Spring 2006, running from the Low Countries down to Milan in early March. See the 'live' page for more info, as always. 7th November 2005 - Old Friends To Take To The Stage Again Support acts for the three (so far!) UK dates in February have been revealed. They will be Scandinavian band The Concretes who featured higher on a New Years Eve bill at the Empire last year, and Simon Breed, who opened the Numbers' now legendary Bush Hall show from 4th February this year. 1st November 2005 - Getting Kicks On Routes 66, 108, 42, 83... After appearing at the Vegoose Festival in Las Vegas at the weekend, the band hit the road for the first date of their month-long tour of the States and Canada, beginning tonight in West Hollywood for a headline show and split in the middle by twelve dates supporting Bright Eyes. 30th October 2005 - But For 23 Other Songs, We'd Be Number One! Such is the complexity of the British singles market these days that Love's A Game charted only at #24 today, failing to meet the high standard set by the previous two singles. On a brighter note, though, the album remains firm at #13 in the UK top forty. 25th October 2005 - Wave Goodbye And Say Hello As a curtain draws upon the Numbers' biggest UK tour with the climactic date in Manchester on Monday, another is confirmed for the third week in February next year, shortly after the band return from their Austrilasian adventure for the Big Day Out festival. New dates include Edinburgh and Blackpool - see the live page for more details. 18th October 2005 - Coming To A Screen Near You! The Numbers will be putting in some televisual appearances in the next week, starting with both CD:UK and Popworld on Saturday, where they'll be performing and interviewing. Then next Friday they'll be appearing on Jonathan Ross's chatshow, performing an album track (i.e. not one of the singles so far released!). 14th October 2005 - A Big Day Out... Or Six The Magic Numbers have been confirmed to appear at next year's Big Day Out festival in Australia and New Zealand during January and February. This may be associated with a trip to Japan early in the new year, although details are as yet unknown. BDO dates are listed on the 'live' page of this site. 11th October 2005 - Tangled Webb Woven To Produce Single From the two London dates and onwards, there will be an exclusive 7" single on sale, limited to 1,000 copies. It features a track-swap involving the Webb Brothers, who cover Try, whilst the Magic Numbers cover a Webb Brothers song on the other side, "Cold Fingers", which appeared on their album Beyond The Biosphere from 1999. 5th October 2005 - Love's A Game B-Sides Details The forthcoming single release of Love's A Game will feature two new songs, an upbeat number called Keep It In The Pocket and one led vocally by Michele, named Last Night I Fell. 3rd October 2005 - Siblings For Dream Brother Today sees the release of another compilation to feature a Magic Numbers contribution. This time, "Dream Brother", a series of Tim Buckley and Jeff Buckley cover tracks includes efforts from Sufjan Stevens, Kathryn Williams and Stephen Fretwell, and on some limited editions, a bonus track from Absentee. The Magic Numbers cover "Sing A Song For You". 19th September 2005 - A Day In The Life The latest Warchild album, "A Day In The Life" has just been recorded (in a day, funnily enough), and the Magic Numbers have contributed a new track "Gone Are The Days". It will be available as a digital download from today, and in the shops on CD from next Monday, 26th September. 16th September 2005 - Love's A Game To Be Next Single The much heralded Love's A Game will be the next single the band will release commercially, hitting stores nationwide from 24th October to coincide with the end of the forthcoming tour. The challenge will be in beating Love Me Like You's chart position of 12. 15th September 2005 - Amongst Friends For Tour For the forthcoming fifteen-date tour of the UK, the band will be joined by close friends Absentee (11th-18th), and the first band to put the Magic Numbers on their own support slot back in 2004 - the Webb Brothers (4th-8th and 15th-23rd). Additional support will come from Ireland's David Kitt (9th-13th), Misty's Big Adventure (4th-9th) and The Loose Salute (19th-23rd). 6th September 2005 - Pipped To Mercury Prize At the Grosvenor Park Hotel tonight, Antony & The Johnson's claimed the Mercury Music Prize 2005, pipping the Numbers to the coveted award and claiming £20,000 in the process. 20/1 outsider Antony was tipped by the Numbers when the nominations were announced, so maybe it's less a shock than the press will suggest. 28th August 2005 - At Sixes And Sevens! With little over a week remaining until the Award night itself, the Numbers have slowly crept up in the bookies' estimation, with the best odds available at around 6/1 or 7/1. This makes them fourth favourites, behind Kaiser Cheifs, MIA and Bloc Party, whilst Coldplay languish at 16/1, having fallen heavily out of favour. 20th August 2005 - Huge US Support Slot Detailed The Numbers will be spending nearly a month in the US in November after the conclusion of their European Tour, doing promotional work followed by a full support slot for Bright Eyes encompassing 12 shows in 13 nights to take in Washington, Philadelphia and New York amongst others. Full details appear on the live dates page of this site. 16th August 2005 - Love Me Like You Charts The second commercial single, Love Me Like You, charted at #12 in the UK this week, and along with it promoted the album back up the chart to number 8, boosted by the LMLY promo and the Mercury nomination. 14th August 2005 - Going... Going... Gone! Every UK headline show has now sold out, for both the late-August and the October tours. With a host of continental and transatlantic activity on the horizon, opportunities to see the band in the UK again this year are coming at a premium. The only shows with tickets remaining are the TDK Cross Central festival on August 27th and Bestival on September 9th. 13th August 2005 - Capitol Confirm US Release The EMI-associated label Capitol Records, who host a broad range of UK artists including Coldplay, will be releasing the debut album in the United States on 4th October. To top that, each show at Coldplay's huge US tour will be preceded in part by a large-screen display of the Forever Lost video as a promo piece. 29th July 2005 - Get 'em While They're Hot At the time of writing, only four outstanding UK shows are yet to sell out, with tickets still available only for the Glasgow, Oxford, Norwich and Reading dates of the October tour. The remainder have fully sold out, including two nights at Shepherds Bush Empire. 26th July 2005 - Hitting The Street Last night the Numbers helped launch T-Mobile's 'Street Gig' concept with the first of a series of shows put on for free to respondants to the mobile network's text to its customers, held in the car park of Truman Brewery behind the 93 Feet East venue near Liverpool Street in London. Review here. 23rd July 2005 - Coming To A Radio Near You TMN will play in Jo Whiley's Live Lounge on her show between 10-1 on Wednesday 3rd August and Jonathan Ross' show between the same times on Saturday 6th August, promoting the single released the following Monday. 19th July 2005 - Album Gets Mercury Stamp Of Approval As anticipated, The Magic Numbers' debut album has been named as one of the Nationwide Mercury Albums of the Year 2005, and will go forward for the Music Prize on 6th September doing battle with Coldplay, Kaiser Chiefs, Maximo Park and Antony & The Johnson's amongst others. 8th July 2005 - LMLY Release Date Correction Heavenly's latest mailshot confirms that the second commercial single, Love Me Like You, will actually be released on August 8th, just four weeks from now. This is a two week revision from what we understood the date to be. A small gig at Cecil Sharp House in Camden has been arranged for the preceding Friday night, with a likely capacity of around 300-500. 4th July 2005 - Mercury Nomination In The Offing? Many pundits tipped the album for a Mercury Nomination, and even a shot at the prize, well before it was released. We get to find out whether it's made the shortlist in two weeks time, as the announcement of the Mercury Albums Of The Year is made on Tuesday 19th July 2005. 3rd July 2005 - Possible 'Love Me Like You' Release Date? We understand that, subject to final confirmation, the second single from the album will be released on Monday 22nd August, coinciding with the V Festival shows and the three headline dates in Liverpool, Edinburgh and Northampton later that week. 30th June 2005 - Second London Date Added! Following the rapid sell-out of the massive Shepherd's Bush show on 18th October, a second date has now been added and was put on sale a few days ago - incredibly standing tickets have already sold for this too, with only seats left unless you want to try your luck on eBay. 27th June 2005 - Top Ten Place Retained After the initial burst of sales, the album dropped to number 10 in the charts in its second week of release, leapfrogged by the slighlty more commercial-based artists Basement Jaxx, Mariah Carey and Jem. Yuk! 24th June 2005 - Going Continental On top of yesterday's U2 news come details of a 10-date European headline tour that will take in Northern, Central and Western areas of the continent during September, starting in Norway on the 12th and running through to Spain on the 29th. More details to be advised, but all dates are listed on the live pages. 23rd June 2005 - Keeping Good Company! Just about to embark on a support slot for Brian Wilson, the Numbers have announced that they will also provide the warm-up act for U2 in Kattowice, Poland and Vienna, Austria in early July. Like you do. 21th June 2005 - New Single Is Jo's Pet Jo Whiley's record of the week (or "Pet Sound") is to be Love Me Like You, the band's next single which is still a good two months away from full release. It's already been played a bit by Zane Lowe on his U-turns, and is sure to be well received across the usual radio and telly stations. 20th June 2005 - Seventh Heaven For Album The album made it's chart debut today and came in at number seven, dropping one place from the midweek high of number 6 but still responding extremely well under competition from Coldplay and Oasis! Congratulations guys. 17th June 2005 - Best New Band - Official! TMN were awarded the 'Best New Band 2005' prize at the Mojo Awards this week, incredibly beating off competition from Antony & The Johnsons and Willy Mason amongst others. Next stop, Mercury Music Prize? 13th June 2005 - Massive 14-date October Tour Details were released today for a huge UK-wide tour throughout October, including a huge London show at the Shepherd's Bush Empire and big venue shows in Nottingham and Portsmouth to boot. 13th June 2005 - Album Released Today! The debut album is out today. What else is there for us to say? Go and buy it! Twice! 12th June 2005 - Hanging On In There! Whilst the Numbers were busy wowing crowds at the Isle Of Wight Festival, Forever Lost charted for the third week, this time at #46. There's a chance of a re-entry into the top 40 next week if album sales push the single a little too. 3rd June 2005 - Hear Album Tracks First With Zane Every day from Monday to Thursday next week, Zane Lowe will be playing a track from the album in the days leading up to the album release as he has made 'The Magic Numbers' his record of the week. Radio 1, 7pm-9pm. 2nd June 2005 - Rolling Out The Hits Fresh from the release of Forever Lost last week, Zane Lowe announced live on his show tonight that the next single the band will release is going to be the live favourite 'Love Me Like You'. A release date isn't yet known. 30th May 2005 - Slam-Dunkin' In At... Forever Lost hit the UK singles chart debuting at number 15 today. It was the sixth highest new entry with Coldplay being beaten to top spot by gimmick track 'Crazy Frog'. 27th May 2005 - Glastonbury Slot Announced The full schedule for the Glastonbury festival this year has been confirmed and revealed in Q Magazine, with the Numbers set to play second-top billing on the inauguaral John Peel Stage on Saturday 25th June. 25th May 2005 - August Tour In Offing? Live dates have been arranged in Liverpool and Northampton in late August, shortly after the band's planned appearance at the V Festival. Early speculation suggests that this may be timed to coincide with a followup single release. 23rd May 2005 - Unleash The Dragon! The Magic Numbers' first commercially available single is release in the UK today and will hit the charts at the end of the week. Available on three formats, it will compete against Coldplay's 'Speed Of Sound' for a chart entry. 17th May 2005 - Later... By Popular Request At request of the show, The Magic Numbers are to appear on 'Later... With Jools Holland' during this series. This will probably be filmed in late May or early June, and screened during June. More details if I can lay my hands on them! 15th May 2005 - Chart Toppers! The NME/MTV2 Video Chart lists Forever Lost as it's number 1 favourite as voted for by viewers/readers, and of course supported by the show's presenter Zane Lowe, who has championed the band for some time. 11th May 2005 - Forever Lost Format Details The debut commercial single will be available on three different formats, according to promotional material this week - as well as a standard CD and a DVD, Forever Lost will also be released on limited edition picturedisc vinyl. Details on B-sides and DVD extras are still unclear. 8th May 2005 - Going Global! Following confirmation of attendance at practically every major British Festival this summer, the Numbers have signed up to a host of European shows including two in Ireland, and even a trip to Japan - all listings appear on the live page. 1st May 2005 - Next Stop, World Domination? The groundswell of support appears to be never-ending, still three weeks from the release of the Numbers' first full single. Forever Lost has been playlisted by Radio 1, Radio 2, 6music, Xfm and made regular appearances on MTV and MTV2, plus TheAmp and QTV music video channels. 28th April 2005 - Tracklisting Confirmed Heavenly have confirmed the rumoured tracklisting here, and also that the early single Hymn For Her will appear as a 'hidden' track on the record. Album release date is also confirmed as 13th June. 27th April 2005 - Numbers To Play Glasto Despite not appearing on the initial schedule, The Magic Numbers will be playing at this year's Glastonbury festival as confirmed by Heavenly on their website. Day/stage/tent/time details are not yet clear, and of course it's completely sold out. 25th April 2005 - Xfm Just Can't Get Enough Not content with playlisting Forever Lost, Christian O'Connell's excellent Breakfast Show has chosen it as his record of the week, and it's also being heavily voted for in their music:response chart, a full four weeks ahead of the release date! Further, it's now charting in the MTV2/NME top 10. 20th April 2005 - Provisional Album Tracklisting? The messageboard has had a reliable-looking post with a rumoured tracklisting for the album. Against general expectation it doesn't follow the 'classic' setlist, with Morning's Eleven first and some surprise exclusions - we will try to confirm this (or otherwise) asap. Tracklisting: 1 Morning's Eleven, 2 Forever Lost, 3 The Mule, 4 Long Legs, 5 Love Me Like You, 6 Which Way To Happy 7 I See You, You See Me, 8 This Love, 9 Wheels On Fire, 10 Love's A Game, 11 Try. 15th April 2005 - More Live Appearances Adding to the tours and one-off shows we're already aware of, a host of additional dates are in the offing with the band playing a slot at the HMV/MOJO Awards Bash, a secret gig at the Basement Club in two week's time and also Radio1's Big Weekend in Sunderland in May 10th April 2005 - Anima Sola Competition Winners Thanks to the hoardes who entered - the four winners of the Anima Sola Competition are Alan Johnson (Montrose), Jackie O'Neill (Brentford), Karly Phillips (Sutton Coldfield) and Jon Zehnder (New York). Winners have been advised by email and their prizes despatched this week. 9th April 2005 - Another Festival Added The Numbers have added to their growing list of 2005 Summer festivals by being confirmed in attendance at the Bestival on the Isle of Wight on the weekend of 10/11 September. Hopes for an appearance at this year's Glastonbury festival should be settled one way or another on Monday when the line-up is officially announced. 4th April 2005 - Headline Tour Extended The Nationwide tour has been extended with the addition of three new dates, at Cardiff to kick off the tour, in Leeds between the Glasgow and Sheffield slots, and to close at Oxford - all dates now added to the 'live' page of this site. 1st April 2005 - Xfm Playlist Forever Lost Another milestone reached - Xfm has put Forever Lost on its 'Upfront' list, effectively a selection of tracks that will be playlisted within the next 1-2 weeks. With the full release still 6 weeks away, this augers extremely well. 30th March 2005 - Jo Whiley Adds Early Weight To continue the sweeping flow of support already shown from BBC Radio 1 with the likes of The Blue Room and the Zane Lowe show featuring the band regularly, Jo Whiley played Forever Lost today with a very positive reaction from listeners. 26th March 2005 - NME Rumours More Festivals The Numbers feature in a two-column article in today's NME with the rumour that they are "expected to play" at both Glastonbury and the V Festival, although neither of these are yet confirmed - only Isle Of Wight, Truck and Summer Sundae are as yet. 24th March 2005 - Live In Your Living Room One song from the Numbers' set at SXSW will be featured on MTV2 next week for six days - at 9pm on Sunday then at 8pm every day for the following five hours. 14th March 2005 - Album Pushed Back 4 Weeks Announced for the first time on tonight's Lamacq Live, the release date of the debut album has been pushed back a little to Monday 6th June, allowing for its full production, promotion, tours and the single Forever Lost. 11th March 2005 - Get Lost In May The Numbers' first full-release single will be 'Forever Lost', as announced on stage last night during the band's set at the Camden Crawl. This will probably be in late April or early May. 7th March 2005 - Going National The London Forum show in two months has been increased to a full-scale nationwide tour from Brighton to Glasgow, calling at Birmingham, Manchester and more. Full details and links to ticket merchants listed on the 'live dates' page. 3rd March 2005 - False Start The Numbers have called off the first leg of their scheduled support slot for Athlete that was due to start in Norwich tonight. The reason cited was a late tweak required to the album. The five dates through til next week have all been removed from the band's official website gig listing as does Athlete's official site (athlete.mu). Stephen Fretwell is deputising the slot for these dates, although those four support slots planned for late April still remain scheduled. 28th February 2005 - Across The Pond With a SXSW slot already confirmed in between Athlete and Doves support slots, two State-side gigs have also been arranged, one in LA the other at New York's famous Bowery Ballroom. Both are in support of Doves. 25th February 2005 - Pack Your Tents The band have been confirmed for an appearance at this year's Isle of Wight festival, on the Sunday alongside some big big names. Tickets vendors are linked from the 'live dates' section of this site, as usual. With the band "95% sure" to be playing TinthePark and "strongly rumoured" by eFestivals.co.uk for Glastonbury 2005, they're bound to be at an open air venue near you somewhere this summer! 21st February 2005 - eBay Madness! With the Hal tour now under their belts, and two big support slots lined up in the coming months, the Anima Sola 7" single has sold out with 50/500 copies distrubuted at each live date and is already fetching £30+ on eBay. Treasure those gems! I've added as many setlists and photo links to the site as I could lay my hands on. 17th February 2005 - Xposed! Not content with playing a live date for the station next week, Xfm have started belting out Hymn For Her during the daytime - twice today already! The Barfly show with Willy Mason, being recorded for Jon Kennedy's show, will be played out on Xfm sometime the week after. 6th February 2005 - Chart Toppers The band capped an excellent week with an interview on Steve Lamacq's 6music show, completing their first week in the UK charts where their contribution on the Chemical Brothers' album "Push The Button" helped push that to the UK Number 1 slot and an incredible gig at London's Bush Hall. 5th February 2005 - Were You Watching? I've now begun the process of adding setlists to the list of previous shows. Lack of immediate information means that there are only five listed so far, but any further additions are more than welcome. Please feel free to drop an email, or contact via the official forum. 2nd February 2005 - More Gold Dust! A second limited edition single will be available to attendees at the band's forthcoming tour with Hal with a free 7" to each of the first 50 fans through the doors at the nine nationwide dates. Side A features the Numbers' track "Anima Sola" with the flipside being Hal's "Keep Love As Your Golden Rule". 1st February 2005 - All Aboard! As the band get set for their mammoth tour that will see them play around 30 live dates in just over two months, the promoters for their rotating-headline tour with Hal this month have set up a mini-site especially for the tour with a range of goodies - halandthemagicnumberstour.com 23rd January 2005 - Friends In High Places In the last few days two massive support slots have been announced as the band go on tour with Athlete in early March, followed by label-mates Doves in late-March/early-April. More details on the live dates page. 18th January 2005 - On Your Hands And Knees Xfm report that the band have signed up play at the massive "Camden Crawl" event to take place on March 10th at a secret venue to be revealed on the night. 40 bands are each to play across one of nine Camden venues on 10th March between 7pm and 3am with the running order for each venue to be announced on the night. More details here 16th January 2005 - For Charidee Mate There's a very strong rumour that the band will be headlining a date at Bush Hall in late February in aid of the tsunami relief effort. Details are rather shady at the moment, but the date pencilled in is 26th February - ticket details will be added to the live page as soon as they're known. 10th January 2005 - Not For Love Nor Money All of the individual dates outstanding (i.e. everything bar the Hal tour) is sold out with a gig in Reading for Steve Lamacq's 6music show alongside Bloc Party selling out over one weekend. The live performance is due to go out on air on Lamacq's Sunday afternoon on 13th Febuary from 2pm. 6th January 2005 - Like Hot Cakes The band have sold out all currently planned London dates now that the Bush Hall date was fully subscribed today. This is on top of the Xfm Xposure gig in late February at the Barfly selling out earlier this week and the NME date at the Astoria with The Tears selling out within half an hour of going on sale. The nationwide tour with Hal remains on open sale. 2nd January 2005 - Gold Dust! 'Hymn For Her' sold out inside 6 weeks, with practically no promo. There are occasional copies selling on eBay that are fetching around £25 apiece currently. These are sure to be collectors items this year, particularly if Oh Sister isn't included on the album. 1st January 2005 - Bush Tickets All Gone After the support slot for Saint Etienne on Thursday and Friday, tickets for the 'secret' gig at Bush Hall on 4th Feb and Xfm's Xposure Live at the Barfly on 24th Feb both went on sale - tickets are available for both at ticketweb. 24th December 2004 - Release Dates? Heavenly have informed me that the closest approximation for release dates for future material are likely to be a late-March single release, followed by the debut album in April 2005. 24th December 2004 - Chat Away Kids! The official messageboard has now been set up and can be accessed here. As a result i've switched the link from this site to the official forum, although i'll leave the old one running in the background. 22nd December 2004 - Something Materialising? Heavenly have indicated that there'll be some Numbers material released around February, arranged to coincide with the Nationwide tour. 21st December 2004 - Hal Tour Dates Each date of the Hal tour has tickets on sale somewhere or other now. We've got a full listing on the live dates section of the site.. 19th December 2004 - Secret Gig? Ticketweb have listed a live date on 4th February at Bush Hall in Shepherd's Bush, London. No more details as yet, tickets don't go on sale until midnight of 30th December, but it's probable that this could be a warm-up show ahead of the co-headlining tour with Hal which starts a week later in Glasgow. 16th December 2004 - Into The Studio With the Borderline shows under their belt, the band have retreated to the studio to concentrate on completing their (as yet untitled?) debut album. November 2004 - Chemical Reaction The band will feature on a track of the new Chemical Brothers album (Push The Button, released 24/1/05). Track eight, titled 'Close Your Eyes' has been described by those who've had a preview of the material as "emotional" and recalls the Chemical's past psychadelic side. Pre-Site News - The band are playing two shows in the twighlight days of 2004, supporting Saint Etienne. The first is on Thursday 30th December at Brighton Concorde 2. The second on New Year's Eve at the Shepherds Bush Empire. - The first release from the band was put on sale at the November Borderline shows, and limited to 500 copies. These are already changing hands on eBay for £25 apiece. Please send any updates/queries to mark@mtedwards.co.uk.