18 wow! Friday, November 20, 2009 wow! music Friday, November 20, 2009 wow! 19 Two years ago, The Magic Numbers stepped off the From Genesis to jazz, Steve’s FAMILY AND FRIENDS exhausting treadmill they’d AGAIN: The Magic Numbers been on since their debut have regrouped stronger a heck of an eclectic guitarist album became a hit and and better than ever disappeared. Now they’re back, STEVE Hackett is a happy chap at the mo- turous journey, and using one style is limit- ment, not only has the litigation over his ing yourself unnecessarily.” rested and rejuvenated, with a latest album been settled in his favour, he is He warms to his theme: “There’s Turkish also about to undertake a UK tour. influences and Spanish music has been an new album in the pipeline. “There was an injunction stopping me from influence ever since I first picked up a Frontman Romeo told JUDITH releasing the album, but it was settled last nylon string guitar,” continued the 59 year- week and it’ll be out next week,” he says. old Londoner. DORNAN how they rediscovered After two weeks on the continent, he’s very “ Still Waters is a blues number. It’s really upbeat about touring: an excuse to play blues guitar. their magic “It’s been very good The music has a spirit, an unre- and I still feel fresh. It lenting pulse and audiences get Tales from MAGIC Numbers frontman must be the lack of excited by it.” Romeo Stodart clearly remembers smoking and drinking. Also in the mix is a bit of jazz with the day they realised they had to I sleep better these Ghost In The Glass. problematic emotions step away from the band they loved. days with just a cup of With the new album just being re- Despite being family – Romeo’s sis- tea.” leased, you might be forgiven for ter Michelle plays bass while drum- Steve came to promi- thinking that it will be heavily fea- YES 2009: From left – Alan White, Chris Squire, Benoit David, Steve Howe, Oliver Wakeman mer Sean Gannon and melodica nence in the early 70s tured in the concerts, but Steve player Angela Gannon are also sib- as the guitarist with quickly points out that that is not FANS of progressive rock legends Yes Jon Anderson could sing again with Yes lings – they were at the end of their Genesis, but left in the case. have a treat in store this November as the ... but not yet, as drummer Alan White tether. 1977. VARIED: Steve Hackett “We’ll play a mixture of things re- current line-up of the band undertake a Romeo recalls: “We were in Aus- From that moment on, ally. Obviously we’ll pay a fair six-date tour of the UK. tells MARTIN HUTCHINSON tralia and it was quite a mad day ac- Steve released album after album and has amount of the new album, but I don’t ram Over the past 40 years, the band has contin- tually because, myself and Michelle, never been tied to one particular style. it down people’s throats.” I enjoy playing ued to redefine the boundaries of rock ready to go out and play again.” and our mum back in London “I like experimentation.” He says simply. the early tunes and there’ll be some old music, and are set to carry the torch into But it may not be the end of Jon’s involve- weren’t well. He has covered blues, classical, rock and things of mine and some Genesis moments the foreseeable future. ment, White says:“I don’t see us not play- “Then, on top of that, Sean had in- jazz amongst his 29 solo albums, but some that I instigated. We do Blood On The But key figures are missing: legendary key- ing together. It may possibly happen next jured his hand and had to play some people say that his 1979 album Spectral Rooftops from the Wind And Wuthering boardist Rick Wakeman (whose place is year, it’s up to Jon and the rest of the shows with a broken hand. Mornings takes some beating. album that Genesis never did live, and with now occupied by his son, Oliver) and singer band.” “It was abysmal and it was the first “We still play a few things off that album,” the improvement in technology we can do Jon Anderson (more contentiously re- The “replacement” members of the band time ... we were loving the gigs still he says. “It really has stood the test of the whole of Firth Of Fifth.” placed, because of his recent health scare, have shaped up well. but we were like, ‘We’ve got to end time.” MARTIN HUTCHINSON by Canadian Benoit David) “Oliver’s great,” says White. “He’s just like it.’ And it turned into two years. Al- The new album is called Out of the Tun- ● Steve Hackett and his band will be Jon is now fully restored to health, and ac- his father. He even sounds like him.” most three years really.” nel’s Mouth and is available exclusively on appearing at The Lowry, Salford on tually undertook a small British tour in Au- Many people have commented on the simi- It was their first break since the suc- his website www.hackettsongs.com and tomorrow at 7. 30pm. Tickets are £22.00 gust. He had advised the band that he was larity between Benoit’s and Jon’s voices. cess of haunting single, Forever contains just eight tracks. from the Box Office on 0870 787 5780 well and available for this tour, but they de- White says: “He has his own slant on Lost, and the follow up, Love Me “There’s lots of styles (on the album) be- or online at www.thelowry.com. Subject to cided to keep Benoit in the line-up. things, but he’s uncannily like Jon. Like You, took their self-titled cause I feel that music has to be an adven- a booking fee. Drummer Alan White said: “We felt it was “People really like Benoit, we’ve been get- debut album to number seven in the unfair to Benoit after his performance on ting some good reviews in the States.” UK. the American tour. ● The 2009 version of Yes will be It all began when Romeo had be- “We waited for Jon for three years to get appearing at Manchester’s Apollo Theatre come friends with Sean and began well, but in the end Steve (Howe, guitarist), at 7. 30pm on Sunday 22nd November. to make music with him when the Chris (Squire, bassist) and myself were all Tickets are £33.50. Stodarts arrived in London as teenagers after growing up in Trinidad and New York. Yet they struggled to complete the line-up, auditioning numerous mu- sicians – until the day their little sis- ters joined in – and they realised, to their horror, that no-one else sound- ed this right. But having gone without ceasing from touring the first album straight The Magic into the follow-up, Those the Brokes, on that day in Australia they finally admitted they were falling apart. Romeo recalls: “We’d done three- and-a-half years straight on the road. We were loving it but, at some point... someone was waiting for someone else to go, ‘Yeah, let’s just jump off for a bit.’ “Our relationships had become re- ally fraught and we were sitting in touch is back the room together and not saying Growing up in Trinidad, his earliest ed!’ And I was like, ‘No no, it’ll be ask me things and then we’d work anything because we had exhausted This time around, having the time and memories are of his opera singer cool!’ on finishing it. That’s been cool, the friendship. our own place, we have made something mother singing Webb’s songs – and “I leave mum for 30 seconds to see that’s been a first.” “And myself and my sister, ugh, our so far from what we’ve done before, it’s Romeo grabbed the opportunity to if we could maybe get a drink or They’re so desperate to play, they brother and sister relationship had introduce his starstruck mum. something and I hear her laughing. can’t wait for the album in February. gone out of the window. I would just amazing. It’s a new beginning He giggles: “My mum was just really And she’s there chatting away to Their mini-tour arrives at 53 De- solely talk to her about the band and cute, she was like, ‘Hi, I used to sing Dionne Warwick, just like they’re grees in Preston on Monday and music. want to go out for a drink?” thing I’ve learnt throughout the your songs!’ And he was like, ‘Oh, old pals!” Romeo says: “It’s like, we’ve got to “I was never able to stop and say, Once he’d recovered physically and whole time, it’s that that’s actually thank you very much.’ With a new album, a new song, get out there and play these songs to ‘How you doing, you know, how are mentally, he began to work on a what we need. We don’t work in the “I just remember hearing all his Hurts So Good, out on download everyone. you coping with all this?’ So we were ‘dream he’d had since the band’s best way when the clock’s ticking songs, like By The Time I Get to and a track, All I Believe In, record- “We’re itching to get back on the just fighting a lot and we said, ‘We first album – building their own stu- and the engineer is saying, ‘I’ve got Phoenix, which is the most beautiful ed with Malian superstars Amadou road! I need an escape from my life! have to stop now’.” dio. to go at 12.’ We’re night owls! song ever. and Mariam on the movie sound- It’s gone to the complete other side Once home, Romeo fell apart. He He says: “My whole intention was to “This time around, having the time “And I got to play the solo! And track for The Twilight saga: New now. Are we in a frickin’ band or remembers: “I must have slept for buy a desk and Pro Tools and loads and our own place, we have made every time it came up, he’d go, ‘And Moon, Romeo says he and Michelle what?!” three days! I just conked out. It was of gear and mics so we took time out something so far from what we’ve Romeo on guitar!’ I was like, this is are closer than ever. ● The Magic Numbers play Pre- kinda weird. and accumulated everything that we done before, it’s amazing. It’s a new just too cool!” He says: “My sister helped me a lot ston’s 53 Degrees on Monday No- “Then I went through my phone thought we needed. beginning.” Before he was famous, he once with the lyrics which has not hap- vember 23. Tickets are £10 advance and there were so many people in “And then we hired a place and had He also took time out to play guitar sneaked his mum backstage at the pened before. I was in a vulnerable from Students Union reception on there, you know, like, Tracey, Birm- that as a haven where all of us could on tour with his hero, 1960s song- Albert Hall to meet another hero, state with a lot of the songs and I’d 01772 893000, from Action ingham. You just meet people. turn up and just record every day writer Jimmy Webb, responsible for Burt Bacharach. get it to almost be finished. Records, Church Street, Preston, on “And I was like, hang on, I’m home and write. classics like Wichita Lineman and He recalls: “My mum was like, “Then she would talk to me about 01772 258809 or online at now. Who am I going to call if I “It’s been amazing. If there’s any- Macarthur Park. ‘Romeo, we’re going to get arrest- what she thought the song meant or www.lancashiretickets.com