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Oh I only read about this a few weeks ago! And the dog barking was Geri's! Haha
Halliwell. Read it in an Annie interview, song is based around the incident where Geri locked herself in Richard Xs car cos he wouldnt let her record 'Some Girls', ie save her career.
'Get out of the car...it's done...it's gone'
I didn't think, I just posted
Oh I only read about this a few weeks ago! And the dog barking was Geri's! Haha
That story is even funnier than the Sugababes almost splitting up due to listening to "Toxic"
The boy is mine
Originally Posted by chocolat
That story is even funnier than the Sugababes almost splitting up due to listening to "Toxic"
eh? Tell the story!
I didn't think, I just posted
Where's the interview at??
oh it was in an article questioning why Annie wasn't the biggest female pop artist of the year...I can't remember the magazine to be honest, but i think it was a supplement of some bigger newspaper
I didn't think, I just posted
HereWhere's the interview at??
Oh .. i'm sure i asked that question re: Halliwell via the popjustice site .. he never printed the Q & A's session for her on there actually like he said he would!
Oh & Gimme Your Money the new Annie track is amazing
Last edited by Superstylin'; 08-10-2005 at 02:14 PM.
You can work it out for yourself just by listening to the lyrics anyway!
Well yes in hindsight ..
That story is even funnier than the Sugababes almost splitting up due to listening to "Toxic"
found it! This article has got me well excited about the album
I am waiting for my breakfast appointment with the Sugababes in the lobby of the St Martin's Lane hotel when John, their tour manager, comes over. When he learns that I am here to interview them, he grins. "You're in luck. They're all in a good mood, for some reason. Amazing! They're never in a good mood."
The Sugababes are notoriously stroppy. They are as famous for being "moody cows" - their description - as they are for having had two back-to-back triple platinum albums. Tales of backstage catfights and press junket tantrums abound. In 2001, former member Siobhan Donaghy slipped out of a meeting and never came back, claiming later that being in the band made her feel "terrible". (Their response? "Maybe Siobhan was jealous of me," said Keisha.) My only hope is that age, given that they are now out of their teens, might have mellowed them.
Article continues
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"How are you today, girls?" I ask when they appear, sounding like a form mistress trying to jolly along a bunch of bored teenagers who would rather be in bed, which, come to think of it, is probably not too far from the truth. Mutya Buena - who has piercings, several tattoos and eyebrows plucked so thin that they look vaguely menacing, like gangland pencil moustaches - chooses the seat furthest away from me and mumbles: "Tired." Keisha Buchanan, who looks every inch the regular Topshop Saturday girl in her white denim jacket and perfect nails, says she's "a bit hung over". Heidi Range, who is unmistakably the ex-Atomic Kitten, all honeyed skin and vanilla-blonde hair, is the only one who really plays the game, flashing her dimples and making I-love-your-blouse girly small talk.
By Sugababes standards, this is charm school stuff. They each order a full English breakfast (for the record, they each eat it, too), and I warm to them even more. Keisha orders a hot chocolate on the side. (Their band name, which dates back to when they started the group at 14, refers to Keisha and Mutya's shared sweet tooth.) I turn my tape recorder on and Mutya immediately scrapes her chair back and flounces off. Oh dear, I think - blown it already. But she's just gone to fetch a bowl of Coco Pops to keep her going until the bacon and eggs arrives.
If the Sugababes have not always made themselves easy to love, their music has won plenty of admirers. All three number one singles - Freak Like Me, Round Round, Hole in the Head - have been radio-friendly, more-ish pop, but knowingly modish. It's the kind of pop music that grown-ups don't mind admitting they like. Disarmingly, for a band known for being headstrong, they give credit to Cameron McVey, one of their first producers, who worked with them on their new album. He, they say, nudged them towards a more interesting sound with their very first single, Overload.
"We were 14, and we thought we just wanted to do straightforward R&B," says Keisha. "That was what we knew." Even now they admit to singing along to Boyz2Men ballads on the tour bus. For their new album, Taller in More Ways, they recorded some R&B ballads that they all love but are holding back for the US version of the album. "In Britain, we'd get slated for them."
But the Sugababes have broadened their horizons. On the new album, one of the tracks they are most proud of is Gotta Be You, despite it being one of only three that they did not co-write, because, as Keisha says: "I love that we're the first British band to use that American crunk sound." It is Mutya's favourite song on the album: "I guess if it came on in a club I wouldn't mind dancing to it," she shrugs, which is about as close to gushing as Mutya gets. They have a natural affinity with feisty-girl pop - they all love the Pussycat Dolls, and, asked what album they would all agree on if they were in a car together, they choose Gwen Stefani's Love Angel Music Baby. (Heidi and Keisha suggest the Kaiser Chiefs, too, but Mutya frowns darkly, and they drop it.)
Taller in More Ways employs the talents of McVey, songwriter Cathy Dennis and producer Johnny Rockstar, but the key new influence is that of Dallas Austin, songwriter for, among others, Stefani and Pink. Austin has contributed five of the 12 tracks, including both of the first two singles, Push the Button, and Ugly. Austin wrote Ugly after reading the cuttings file he was sent about the band: "All the rubbish and nasty stuff that's been written about us, calling us the Sugalumps, that sort of thing," says Keisha. Heidi loves the lyrics, the sentiment of which she likens to Beautiful by Christina Aguilera; she picked the album title from the lines "I grew taller than them in more ways/ But there'll always be one who will say/ Something bad to make them feel great".
"As a title for the album, it means we've been through a lot as a band: the other girls lost a member, I joined, we got dropped, we got signed again, Mutya had a baby, the press were always saying we were splitting up. And we've overcome all of it. We haven't let any of it break us, and we're still here."
This messy, complicated, human story is what gives the Sugababes an edge over other pop acts. It is what enables them to sing lyrics like those on Follow Me Home - "I won't walk away/ I'll stand by your side/ I'm here for you/ For the rest of our lives" - and sound as if they might just have some idea of the emotions behind the words. Their songs about men, sex and relationships - from Freak Like Me to Push the Button - have a stop-you-in-your-tracks quality that comes from hearing young women sing like red-blooded, quick-tempered young women, rather than the dead-eyed, sexually available Playmate-of-the-month types embodied by the likes of Jessica Simpson.
Push the Button came out of a crush Keisha had on another artist who was working with Austin while the band were staying in his Atlanta mansion. "I really liked this guy, so I'd be like, there's this good movie coming out, you know, dropping hints. And he'd be like, that movie sounds great, let me know what it's like if you go see it. I knew he liked me too but he just wasn't getting what I was trying to say. And Dallas was teasing me, saying, you've got to tell him to push that button or you're moving on." The song bristles with the sexual frustration of a girl who has, as she says, "been waiting patiently for you to come and get it ... If you're ready for me boy/ You'd better push the button and let me know/ Before I get the wrong idea and go."
When they co-write lyrics, the three girls sit in separate corners of the studio, with their piece of music, each writing a verse or chorus. ("If you listen to Round Round," points out Keisha cheerfully, "it doesn't make any sense, because we all wrote different bits and we were all writing about different subjects.") Ace Reject, on the new album, was written in this way, with each of them writing about elements of dysfunctional relationships. Keisha wrote the chorus about the band: "It's about the fact that we break up and make up and we don't know why."
I take this as my cue. You've been reported as being on the verge of breaking up ever since Heidi joined the band three years ago, I say. Do you want to tell me the truth? Mutya chooses this moment to wander off and get another bagel. Heidi looks at Keisha, who, you sense, is the bridge between her bandmates.
"Can I be blunt?" says Keisha. "This is the truth, and I'll be struck down by lightning if it's not. We have only ever had one big row, in Dublin, and it was between me and Heidi." Famously, in spring 2004, the Sugababes cancelled two nights in Dublin minutes before the gig was supposed to start, because of a row. So what was it all about? "Britney Spears. Toxic. That's all I'm going to say." She looks faintly sheepish at having to admit that the group nearly split up because of a playground disagreement about a pop song.
And what about the claims that Mutya went out of her way to make life difficult for Heidi, when she joined? "I never argued with her," corrects Mutya. "I just didn't speak to her. I thought: I've worked from the youngest age to get where I am and here she is, just jumping in. I found that really hard."
Arguments over Britney, jealousy, petty freezing-out campaigns: if these girls weren't gossip column fodder, their relationship would not be that different from that of many gangs of teenage friends. "We're all strong women," Keisha says, "and we know that if we ever argue properly, that will be it. So we've learned when to read someone's mood and keep your mouth shut." If that's not growing up, I don't know what is.
Mutya has a baby, Tahlia, who is nearly six months old, and her verse of Follow Me Home, which is about protecting someone you love, is about her daughter. You get the feeling that Tahlia has changed the dynamic of the band for the better. The breathing space has allowed Heidi to come into her own: "This is the first album where I don't hate any of the tracks," she says. And motherhood has given Mutya, who is clearly bright but has always had a certain frustrated aggression about her, a new focus for her energies and emotions. Her guarded expression disappears the moment she starts talking about the difficulties of sharing a bed with a wriggly five-month-old.
I didn't think, I just posted
Has having a baby changed her? "It has calmed me down a lot," says Mutya. "From being someone who would go out from Monday to Saturday and get trashed out of my head, now I hardly ever drink. Don't get me wrong, I was never an alcoholic, but I did used to like a little drink." She raises an eyebrow at me meaningfully and the other two snigger and look away; I don't think we're talking about the odd small sherry here.
"But I haven't really changed," she carries on, into her stride now. "I am who I am. I always said that if I wasn't in the Sugababes I would have wanted to have a baby at 19. And you know what? I am in the Sugababes, and I still had a baby at 19." And she smiles for the first and only time.
· The single Push the Button is out on September 26. The album Taller in More Ways is out on October 10.
I didn't think, I just posted
Well yes in hindsight ..
yeah precisely! It clicks when you know but otherwise I thought it was just an ode to Top of the Pops
I didn't think, I just posted
Found it on the popjustice forum yesterday:
Taken from an article posted on sugababesuk forum:
"It all started with a conversation between me and Heidi. About Britney Spears and her single 'Toxic'. Heidi was trying to copy Brit's dance moves in the video," says Keisha quietly. "I was in a bad mood that day, so I just told her that she looked pathetic."
"We were all stressed out that night 'cos we were getting ready to perform on stage. I told Keisha to shut up. Then we started fighting," Heidi says.
"They weren't just having an argument. They were shouting at each other so loud and Keisha threw her make-up bag at Heidi. I tried to stay out of it all, but I things were flying everywhere. I got pissed, and told them both to stop it," says Mutya. "Heidi slapped Keisha and went out. We nearly split up that night. Our manager was getting ready to make an announcement on TV. It was horrible. I felt really bad about it."
"Afterwards I apologized to Heidi, and she apologized to me," Keisha re-assures. "It all ended well. We didn't split up, and now we're back with a new #1 single and a fourth album."
The boy is mine
Did Geru ever respond to or acknowledge this?
Last edited by jivafox; 18-08-2012 at 09:13 AM.
Heidi was trying to copy Brit's dance moves in the video," says Keisha quietly. "I was in a bad mood that day, so I just told her that she looked pathetic."
Last edited by Phoenix; 18-08-2012 at 09:29 AM.
same
Heidi slapped Keisha?
I can't wait to read this.
But back to Geru, I always thought "who the fuck is this bitch? does she think she's some sort of Norwegian starlet? I don't THINK so" etc. It's just a shame that Annie is so frequently amazing, and although Me Plus One is a decent song, it's nothing essential. Even now I'm getting annoyed at how rude it is, poking fun of an unhinged, half-Spanish single mother with food issues.
Reflected onto the wet pavement, can you see what I see?
Oh I'm sure Geri takes it as a major accolade. I mean, it's a WHOLE SONG, ABOUT HER.
Robbie Williams 'Eternity' was positive about our Geru, so she probably thinks this one is too, along with 'Tell Me Why' and 'Whatchu talkin' bout' After all, attention is attention!
I wonder if Geri even KNOWS.
MOTIV8 VOCAL SLAM
Probably not. It IS by no-mark Annie that couldn't score a hit if her life depended on it. Spends too much time chewing gum and not riding on a horse down Old Compton Street, obviously.
I'm sure Geri knows. She probably dropped the dog off round the studios to re-record his bits.
Last edited by Gangsta Nancy Lam; 18-08-2012 at 06:41 PM.
Lest we forget, Harry MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEARED shortly after this record was released.
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