Willy Mason, The Magic Numbers - Barfly, London - Thursday 24th February 2005

I'm ashamed to say I bought tickets for silly money on eBay for this one. Well, silly money was actually £20 per ticket, for a £6 face value - hopefully, by the end of the year it'll seem like a bargain. Having heard a couple of Willy Mason songs, and a whole 2 minutes of a Magic Numbers song, I really wanted to be there for this gig, you can tell from not much music that both of them are special.

I arrived just at the end of the support band's set, to be greeted by the band giving out hundreds of CDs to all in the audience - a nice bonus considering I didn't even watch them play.

After a short delay, the Magic Numbers appeared, to what seemed like a largely supportive audience - I sensed that many had seen them before, and were wildly cheering their every move. When they started playing, they gave a strange feeling that all of their songs were vaguely familiar, but excitingly new at the same time. You felt like you'd known them for a while, and they were extremely tight as a band to boot. Vaguely reminiscent of the Beach Boys, with great harmonies, and sunny-sounding music, they sounded fantastic.

As their set carried on, the band's genuine enthusiasm, and happiness to be playing on stage, really came through. The quality of the songs didn't dip at all, which suggests that they have a strong album-worth to come. Well worth the £20 already, with one act still to come.

Willy Mason is 20 years old, and I had heard a few of his songs before the gig tonight. As a singer/songwriter, his lyrics seem like they came from the brain of somebody much older! His songs are about being drunk, being unhappy, and confused with the world, its just that most of us don't seem to have had all that experience at the age of 20. Really clever words, and great music with them, to make a brilliant songwriter and perfomer.

Despite some people at the back of the room talking loudly at the bar throughout Willy's acoustic set, it was excellent throughout. The album will be bought tomorrow, and I sense that it will spend a lot of time on heavy rotation for a while to come yet. Well worth the foray onto eBay, and a bargain at £20 an overpriced ticket.