Ladies and Gentlemen, pop is back. After a ten-year Britpop hangover, guitar bands are finally wrestling with the charts and giving postmen new tunes to whistle. One of the most hotly tipped of these new acts is The Magic Numbers. A group with two sets of siblings, their brand of sunshine uplifting songs has got the critics worked up, as were the King Tuts crowd at the start of this gig.

Two songs in and it was going well. The American West Coast references were all clear and it was obvious the harmonies were a cut above their rivals. However, there was a nagging feeling that the band was not too far from late 70’s, Peter Frampton-esque cod-reggae rubbish. And that was a musical fad that even Britpop stomped all over.

Forthcoming single "Lost Forever" allayed these fears as it swept the crowd along into the evenings first sing along, no mean feat for a band who have only released one 7" single so far. And just as you felt one song was great a better one would arrive. "I See You, You See Me" started off simple but rapidly expanded into a vocal workout which would have shamed Crosby, Stills and Nash. The ‘hippy’ element of the music was added to with one or two guitar parts that were almost T-Rex like in their glam-swagger. And it was probably this extra element that helped the band rise above performances from other West-Coast influenced acts such as The Thrills and Hal.

Lead singer Romeo apologised profusely for his sore throat and the impact it was having on him but if this was his band on a bad night, it bodes well for the future. The first song of the encore "Try" was immense. When you hear a song for the first time and its harmonies remind you of "Good Vibrations" (although not as good, obviously) its almost worth the blasphemy to say this out loud.

I first got into The Magic Numbers through the song "Oh Sister", a melodious cheery little. This song never even made it into the set and yet I cant say its absence was missed, such was the quality of the other songs.

All that and they use a melodica – how better can a new band be?

They are the Langley School kids grown up.

They are the Carpenters times 2.

They are the Magic Numbers and don’t you remember you told me you loved them baby?