Pynchon

I am seriously pissed off for all sorts of reasons, none of which I have the inclination to go into at this time. I want to write about the interesting things that have occupied me since Friday night.

So...

The Sugababes at the Birmingham NEC. Friday 30th March 2007.



Is it OK to plagiarise myself? Sure it is!

A couple of years ago, when I was somebody else, the mighty Swiss Toni asked me to compile a list of earworms for his now legendary Friday Earworms feature on his blog. On that list I had the mighty "Hole In The Head" by the Sugababes at #10 and I wrote the following.

10. The Sugababes - "Hole In The Head"

I've always loved The Sugababes, even after they kicked out their most attractive looking member (the foxy Siobhan Donaghy, growl.). I don't think that they have put a foot wrong with any of their single releases, and would go as far as to say that "Freak Like Me" was the best single of 2002 and was robbed at the Brits awards that year. I saw the video of this song this week when I was flicking through the music channels. Wonderful.

Nothing to change there, guys, except to say that being a fickle male, my attention has been caught in recent times by Siobhan Donaghy's (growl) replacement Heidi Range (double growl).

Ah... Heidi...

On Friday night there was a moment at the end of the performance of "Freak Like Me" when Heidi was in the centre of the stage, sideways to the audience, consumed by the flames being projected onto the backdrop, totally lost in the song, singing the 'Good for me...' line over and over again.

Ah... Heidi...

Ice Queen.
Devil.
Goddess.
Superstar.
Er... Scouser!

But I am getting ahead of myself.

My seat. Downstairs, row 11, centre. Perfect view. Most of the people in front of me were shorter than me. It was a miracle. (If you ever meet me you will realise exactly what a miracle it was. I am just a little bit taller than Michael J. Fox.) I sat between a girl, approximate age 15, and another girl, approximate age 8. They ignored me and I ignored them. It was probably for the best.

The audience. I was worried about the age of the audience. Pah! Nothing to worry about. You could say that it was an interesting mix. A lot of kids chaperoned by parents, young teens, teens, twenties, thirties and some old fogeys like me.

The support. Two support acts.

First up was a girl called Laura Critchley. Blonde, thin, white teeth. Looked like she had walked out of a Cadbury's flake advert. Nice voice, pleasant songs - a bit rocky, a bit folky a bit poppy, a bit cheesy. Connected with the audience - she got them clapping along. Laura Critchley was as boring as hell. Yawn.... Of no interest to me at all. Outrageously she seemed to mime to half of her songs. She was very good at miming.

Next up were a band called Dragonette. Imagine Nelly Furtado, singing like Cyndi Lauper, fronting the 80's band A Flock Of Seagulls and that will give you some idea of what Dragonette looked and sounded like. I have learnt to dislike many an 80's synth band (fuck you and your Linn Drum!), but I thought that Dragonette were brilliant. Dragonette didn't give a shit about connecting with the audience. Dragonette were there to play their songs and to make an impression. Lead singer Martina (I've looked her up!) wore a hat, a jacket, heels and a pair of shorts that were so short Kylie would have balked at wearing them. Martina strutted, she sang, she showed off her (admittedly) magnificent legs. Marvellous stuff. Dragonette will either be huge or will get absolutely nowhere.

... And then the Sugababes.

I thought they were wonderful. Absolutely fantastic. I really enjoyed it. I had a boogie. I blew my funky horn. I got on down...

Brilliant pop music. Brilliant band. They were better singers than I thought they would be from the records. (Keisha was just a fantastic singer. She surprised me.) The dance moves didn't always come off, but that was almost endearing. To me the Sugababes have always seemed like a bunch of girls who struck lucky. Trying to be cool, but betraying it by enjoying themselves a little bit too much. They just had smiles on their faces all night and waved to the fans. Cool pop stars don't do that kind of thing. (Heidi waved at me. She did.) At one point one of them said that this was their first arena tour and the NEC was the biggest audience they had ever played to. Enough to phase anyone.

They played practically everything on the "Greatest Hits" album and much more. You should know some of those great songs.

"Red Dress", "Round Round", "Overload", "Run For Cover", "Hole In The Head", "Push The Button", "Too Lost In You", "Caught In A Moment", "Stronger" (in front of a film of starving Africans, which then turned into a video for the Make Poverty History Campaign - it could have been cheesy, but it wasn't), "Ugly", "Freak Like Me", a cover of Primal Scream's "Rocks" that was just blistering.

All this from a group where, apparently, the members really dislike each other.

Great night. Do go and see them if you get the chance.

Hang on. What's that I hear...? It's some pop music!



Run out of time. Back tomorrow.

Labels: Music