Romeo Stodart goes solo for Worthing gig

Romeo Stodart, lead singer/songwriter for The Magic Numbers, breaks new ground as he heads to The Factory Live in Worthing on Wednesday, March 11.
Romeo StodartRomeo Stodart
Romeo Stodart

It will be just him… though he is promising a mystery special guest.

At the start of an important year for The Magic Numbers, which will see them celebrate the 15th anniversary of their first album, Romeo is doing a number of solo shows – “mainly because I’ve never done them before.”

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“I have only ever done a handful of shows on my own before, just the odd date. This is the first time I am doing a tour, going around playing some new songs, songs that are not Magic Numbers songs. It is something different for me. It’s definitely a different feeling going out on your own.

“There is a freedom to it. You can play whatever you want. There are a lot of songs that you write over the years that may not have fitted within the group. I just write songs. I am always writing songs. And sometimes something might go a different way. When you get together and you are playing within a four-piece band, you are looking at the arrangements and other people are involved, and maybe the song doesn’t feel right for the band.

“This last couple of years I have been writing with Ren Harvieu who is from Salford, and that was a huge departure in a way. I have done a lot of co-writing with a lot of people over the years, but this was different. When I met Ren, we started writing together for her album, and we wrote the record together. It was a whole new inspiring musical time for me. Within that departure from the band, it got me thinking about maybe doing something else outside the band and maybe just to look at different ways of expressing myself.

“I think it is a different side to me that has come out through writing with Ren. She had a lot to say lyrically, and for me that was inspiring, and it got me thinking about other ways I could push myself.

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“I have also been writing a lot more on the piano than I have ever done, and it was a new world that opened up for me. I have previously done more writing on guitar, but I think the piano gives you more voicings. I am obsessed with harmony, and you have got a wider spread with two hands. You can get into like creating a mood even within one chord where you can have different voicings.

“And it is very exciting. The whole thing is a journey of being creative and every now and again you can think that you are not turning corners, and then something like this happens and you are. It is a great moment.”

After the solo shows, attention will switch back to The Magic Numbers in the anniversary year: “It doesn’t feel like 15 years. It feels more like ten. It surprised me when my manager was saying last year ‘You know next year is going to be the 15th anniversary of the first record.

“We are going to perform the whole album in full which we have never done before. The first show of that will be in April in Mexico.

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“It has been a really big one for us in terms of going back there. Back in the day in 2005... well, you know how bands take off in different ways in different places. In South America back then, it was like wow! They really took to us in a great way, and we have really built a cool thing over there. They are really passionate about their music.”

And passionate about The Magic Numbers...

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