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X-clusive: The Magic Numbers On TOTP Walkout

added 10 August 2005 at 17.03

The Magic Numbers controversially walked out of Top Of The Pops after host Richard Bacon's questionable introduction. Now they speak exclusively to Xfm about exactly why they did it.

It's been difficult to ignore the media frenzy surrounding the The Magic Numbers after they walked out of the Top Of The Pops studio moments before their debut performance, set to be broadcast next Sunday (August 14).

This was all down to TOTP host Richard Bacon's introduction, which went along the lines of him saying "What do you get when you put two brothers and two sisters in a band? A big fat melting pot of talent".

While Bacon himself has denied meaning any offence, the band issued a statement saying they found the comments “derogatory" and "unfunny". Now however, the band's singer Romeo Stoddart has spoken exclusively to Lauren Laverne on Xfm about why he felt they had to leave the show.

"Basically we just thought it was uncalled for - the way we were introduced in a sort of bad manner, and it just wasn't funny." he explained, "We were really excited about appearing on 'Top Of The Pops', it's a kind of a dream for us. And we got up there and there was no way we could have played the song after that and it all sort of hit us as a big shock and we just thought it was out of order.

"So we apologise to anyone who was  looking forward to seeing us. I mean, We told quite a lot of people that we were on and we got loads of calls saying 'Hey I though you were going to be on' And we said well, y'know..."

Romeo also went on to explain that Bacon didn't apologise for the remark, not that they've spoken since, saying,

"He didn't [apologise]. We just said, 'Look that's it we're not going to take that' and we just walked out. A few people said that he was upset and a few people said that he was making jokes about it all day. It was just one of those things where it doesn't even matter about the person. I didn't even know who he was until afterwards  and everybody said well people don't really like him. It doesn't really matter. It's just the fact that someone said it when they shouldn't have.

But it seems the band are keeping their reputations as some of the nicest people in music, by wanting to put the whole thing behind them. 

"It's fine. The way we see it is that it's done and dusted and we walked out." Stoddart continued, "We just wanted to stand up for ourselves in the sense that in any reviews and interviews people always mention it and we're just like everybody else, we can take a joke, and it's not like we're ever sensitive about it. We feel confident and cool about ourselves. And we think we look great as a band."

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