What: The Magnets

Where: The Pigmalle Club, London

When: Mon 13th December 2010

I had never heard of The Magnets when I was asked to pop along tonight. I soon realised though that I’d seen them before without realising. The guys feature in the recent T-Mobile advert where returning passengers are welcomed back to Heathrow by people breaking into song. This has been one of those viral marketing success stories of the year with millions of youtube views

The audience at The Pigalle club tonight were mostly there for their works Christmas dos and were as surprised as most of the returning passengers at the power and versatility of The Magnets. They certainly got something more surprising and longer lasting from this Christmas cracker entertainment. The group are made up of six guys using just their voices and what great voices they are. This a capella group though have a very big advantage over other similar groups and that’s in the unbelievable beat box and other instrumental impressions with just their mouths. The group create a sound that should you close your eyes you would imagine a full backing band at times.

From the start The Magnets show-cased their obvious talent with a good variety of cover versions including Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” and Blur’s “Boys and Girls”. The guys didn’t just stand there and sing though, they also had great audience interaction with theatrical moves and timing that made watching as well as listening very interesting. Throughout the show the group demonstrated how they can put together interesting arrangements and make songs their own.

There will be an inevitable comparison the the 80s group The Flying Pickets who had a UK Christmas number one in 1983 with a cover of Yazoo’s “only you”. This whilst inevitable is unfair as The Magnets have injected a very modern beat box twist to an old classic sound. This is no barber shop quartet but potentially a very relevant sound that shows that great singing and harmony still have a place in our modern over-produced pop environment.