The Saturdays - Turn Myself In [Studio Version Preview]

The other day we listened back to the live version of Turn Myself In from the Headlines tour and were struck at just how good a song it was. At the time of the tour, it had felt like little more than a cute live curio, a little bonus for the fans to fill out the set and offer a taste of what the next album might hold. Of course, as things turned out, said new album (On Your Radar) went for a direction far removed from the moody, rock-centric Turn Myself In, and you can kind of understand why the song was left off the record.

Praise must be given then to the girls for finally giving the song the proper release it deserves, the studio version serving as b-side to their excellent 30 Days. As far as fan incentive b-sides go, this is up there with the Nicola solo version of Memory of You on her Yo-Yo single, which we absolutely loved.

The studio version, interestingly, goes for a harder, crunchier vibe than the live take - the beats pack a real bite to them and the vocals have a smattering of vocoder laced all over them. The result is a haunting, introspective track that offers a fascinating look at what On Your Radar might have been like if the girls hadn't gone wholeheartedly down the dance route.

The Saturdays - Headlines tour Rihanna Medley

Of all the tracks the Saturdays performed on their brilliant Headlines tour, it was perhaps the Rihanna medley that best showed off their true versatility and the sheer hotness of the production at large - all within the space of six minutes.

The Love The Way You Lie opening is surprisingly moving, somehow almost even more bittersweet than the Rihanna original when fed through Mollie's posh London vocals. Moving on to What's My Name, Rochelle and Vanessa prove their worth as the powerhouse vocalists of the group and Only Girl In The World remains every bit the pop party anthem.

If the girls' All Fired Up tour this winter is as good (if not better) than the Headlines outing, it's got a place within my top ten favourite pop concerts of all time already.

The Saturdays - Turn Myself In [Live Tour Video]

Nearly a year on, the London date of The Saturdays Headlines tour remains one of the best pop gigs I've ever been to. Sometimes, there's just an atmosphere, a vibe, a feeling in your bones that you're having one of the best nights ever.

The girls are releasing this very date as a live DVD available with the deluxe edition of their new On Your Radar album, and they've offered a preview in the form of Turn Myself In.

Originally touted as one of the tracks the band had recorded for the album, turns out that Turn Myself In won't actually feature on the final tracklisting - who knows where it'll end up, as a future b-side perhaps?

Either way, we have to make do with this live version for now - the track sees the girls going for a classy rock-based sound they haven't really dabbled with since the sublime Forever Is Over.

The Saturdays announce their 'All Fired Up' UK arena tour dates!

We've known for a long time now that The Saturdays are set to treat us to a poptastic arena tour this December, and today Capital FM revealed the complete list of dates on their website.

This marks the first arena tour for The Saturdays and follows on from their fantastic Headlines theatre tour earlier this year.

Ticketmaster has also revealed some further details about the Manchester date of the tour - tickets here will be priced between £31.45 and £38.

The tour dates are as follows:

Friday 2nd December – Bournemouth BIC
Saturday 3rd December - Liverpool Echo Arena
Monday 5th December - Cardiff Arena
Tuesday 6th December - Brighton Centre
Thursday 8th December - Birmingham LG  Arena
Friday 9th December - Manchester MEN Arena
Saturday 10th December - Newcastle Arena
Monday 12th December - Nottingham Arena
Tuesday 13th December - Glasgow SECC Hall
Thursday 15th December - Sheffield Arena
Friday 16th December - London Wembley Arena

INTERVIEW - The Ultra Girls

The Ultra Girls are Lauren, Lucy, Amy and Laura – currently supporting Kylie Minogue on tour, they’re bringing their own unique brand of girl power to the world of pop. Their brilliant debut single Girls Will Be Girls is out in April and it comes with an absolutely brilliant airport-inspired video. I caught up with the girls for a quick chat during a break in their hectic rehearsals for the tour.

Hi girls! So, what have you been up to today?

Lauren: Teen press! Going round chatting to loads of people really.

Lucy: We’ve been eating lots of snacks to keep our energy up. We’re really craving a Nando’s though! Maybe one day if we’re very lucky we could get one of those cards that let you get free Nando’s.

I think there are even some celebs who’ve done promotional stunts to get one of those cards...

Amy: We’d do it! Like eat as much Nando’s as possible in a time limit or something like that.

So, you’re supporting Kylie on the UK leg of her Aphrodite Les Folies tour. That must feel pretty good, right?

Lucy: She’s not had a support act in about seven years so it feels amazing to be going on tour with her.

How long is it until the tour starts now?

Lauren: A week!

Laura: We’ve just been rehearsing loads and it really gives you a sense of what it’s going to be like on the night. The whole thing is just feeling more and more real every day. It’s really starting to sink in.

And with all this rehearsing you’re doing at the moment, do you get a real buzz from it?

Lucy: We love it. It’s mental! The thing with rehearsing is that it makes sure you know exactly what you’re doing, and then you feel alright. It really calms your nerves. Every day we just love coming in and doing it. We can’t wait for everyone else to come see us!

So, do you all have a favourite Kylie song then?

Amy: On A Night Like This!

Lauren: I love Red Blooded Woman!

Lucy: That’s where she’s on the truck isn’t it?

Laura: I like the one where she’s walking around in combat trousers and a vest... Love At First Sight!

Lauren: Oooh, and Get Outta My Way as well!

Amy: What I really love is how on the video for Slow where she has all the people lying on towels around her, when they filmed it they had to glue the towels down because they kept slipping.

The video for your single Girls Will Be Girls is set at an airport... but it wasn’t a real airport that you filmed in though, was it?

Lucy: Nope, it wasn’t actually filmed at one. The one in our video would make a great airport though! It’s so colourful! We were thinking about going to Leeds & Bradford Airport to do it but then we thought let’s just get them to design it all on the computer.

And in the video each of you has a certain job that you’re acting out...

Amy: They were kind of all jobs that we had previously done in real life. Like I actually used to be a flight check-in girl. So it was kind of nice to revisit that ha!

Lucy: I’ve never really been a cleaner though! But I worked part-time at a hair salon and they made me mop the floor.

You nearly hit someone with your mop in the video.

Lucy: That was one of the most dangerous things we did when we were filming!

Laura, you’re a waitress serving out food - did you eat any of it?

Laura: Yeah, I ate some of the mushy peas. They were really cold though, and they weren’t green!

In the video you do a special ‘Trouble with a capital T’ dance move, will we be seeing that on tour?

Amy: We want it to catch on! We’d love for everyone to join in and do the dance move with us at the live shows. There’s going to be lots of fun stuff on tour, loads of energy and running around on stage. It’s all about getting the audience really hyped up.

And do you like to cause a bit of trouble yourselves?

Laura: You should ask our tour manager that question ha!

Lucy: It’s been a troublesome day, you could say.

Amy: We’ve had four interviews today and we’ve ended up talking about bogies... farts... poo?

Lucy: No, we didn’t talk about poo! Well... I guess we have now! Hahaha!

Laura: Hmm, what else? Twiglits!

Lauren: Boys!

Laura: Mashed potato... burps.

Lucy: We’re very boyish. Very vulgar actually. Vulgar with a capital V!

That’s the next single! Ha! Going back to the video, how did it feel filming something like that for the first time?

Amy: It felt really weird when we first walked out on set. We were just a bit like ‘What do we do? What do we do?!’

Lauren: The guys filming it will say stuff like ‘Quiet please, artist on set’ and you’ll be like ‘Oooh! Is that me?!’

Amy: Everyone was so nice to us which made the whole thing go really easily.

People getting you lots of cups of tea and stuff?

Amy: We got our own ha!

Laura: It was a bit weird doing everything against a green-screen, having to use your imagination to think about what’s there.

And was it a long day?

Lauren: Oh yes! It got to like one in the morning and we hit a wall of tiredness ha!

Lauren, you used to be in a band with Tom from The Wanted or something like that?

Lauren: People keep saying to me ‘You were in a band with him?!’, but we weren’t ha! Basically we both worked for the same company and we performed tributes. So I did the Spice Girls and Girls Aloud and he did Take That. So that’s how we know each-other.

So do you have a favourite Girls Aloud song then?

Lauren: The Show! I love that one.

There’s a brilliant video on your official YouTube page where you’re all in a car dancing away to JLS.

Amy: They put that up without telling us! And we were like... What?!

I take it you like a good party then? How’s the nightlife up in Leeds?

Laura: Yeah! It’s really good!

Lucy: We actually haven’t been out in a while, so we’re overdue a good night out ha!

You guys have done a brilliant mash-up cover of P!nk’s Get The Party Started and Blur’s Song 2. How did that come about?

Laura: We were just throwing ideas around really and it kind of grew out of that. It always amazes me too how even little kids know the Blur song.

So are any of you rock chicks at heart then?

Amy: I love 30 Seconds To Mars! Jared Leto is amazing!

Lucy: Ask her to name three 30 Seconds To Mars songs.

Go on Amy, name me some!

Amy: Hurricane!

Yes! With Kanye West!

Amy: Oooh, I didn’t know there was a version with him on it! I’ve got the six minute long album version on my iPod.

And there’s Kings And Queens...

Amy: Yes! *sings* “We were the kiiingssss and quuueeeensss!”

Lucy: Which is the one where he takes his top off in the video? Ha! Amy loves Jared Leto!

How did you come up with the name ‘The Ultra Girls?

Lauren: Well we were ‘Project A’ when we started out on the X Factor, but that was a bit of a work-in-progress; we weren’t really keen on it. So we were just trying to come up with some stuff and ‘Ultra’ really felt like us being determined to succeed and being fun.

Lucy: We’re also girls who are nice!

Lauren: And we can get away with anything!

A lot of bands live together when they’re first starting out, what about you?

Laura: We’ve had to really! We live out of our suitcases. It was a bit different for us as we’d already known each-other for about five years so it kind of cut out that ‘getting to know the other guys in the band’ phase.

You recently went on a tour round various schools across the UK, how was that?

Amy: It was cool! Really fun to do!

Lauren: The kids loved it!

Lucy: They were very responsive and really got what we were about. Just loving pop music and everything.

They don’t hold back do they?

Laura: They were all getting up and dancing! At one school we had this little boy that sung on his own, bless him.

Lauren: He was so good!

If you search on YouTube there’s a Spanish version of your song Girls Will Be Girls called Soy Como Soy.

Laura: We’ve been trying to sing it... Soy Como Soy!

Lauren: We might learn it at some point haha! Do a little rendition.

In their video they dance around with really not that many clothes on...

Lucy: Ours is the PG rated version!

Amy: Something for a wider audience.

And can you tell us anything about your plans for the rest of the year?

Amy: Well, Girls Will Be Girls comes out in April, then we’ll probably release two or three more singles and then the album will hopefully be out around September.

And what can we expect from the album?

Lucy: It’s a real goody bag of stuff! A variety pack of cereal!

Amy: We’ve got a few ballads on there. Then there’s some really powerful stuff, lots of good strong bass. Stuff that gets you in the mood to go out!

Lauren: We’re hoping to do some CD signings and we’ve got a lot of radio tours lined up too.

Amy: We just did a nice intimate acoustic performance for student TV which was really cool.

Lauren: We can’t wait to get out on the road and meet lots of people on our travels!

Interview originally featured on M Is For Music.

INTERVIEW - Twenty Twenty

Twenty Twenty are a passionate new pop-rock trio comprised of brothers Sam and Jack Halliday as well as drummer Sonny Watson-Lang.  Fresh from supporting acts like The Saturdays, Selena Gomez and JLS, they were recently signed to Geffen Records.

So guys, what did it feel like getting signed to a label after all the hard work you had put in?

It was great!  Obviously, for any band when they start up, getting signed is a dream come true.  We can’t wait to start releasing our music.  It’s almost like a new chapter for the band; a fresh start.  A lot of people think that as soon as you’re signed, that’s it - you’ve hit the big-time – but it’s not that simple.  There’s still a lot of hard work to do after that.

Sam and Jack! What is it like being two brothers working together in a band?

It’s alright actually!  We always say we wouldn’t have started the band if we didn’t want to do it together.  We’ve always got on really well together growing up and we both really shared that thirst for playing music.

No friction at all then?

Well there’s always going to be a bit of friction in a group, but not because we’re brothers; it’ll be from little creative differences.  And it’s good to have a mix of ideas like that.  I think that’s part of the reason we’ve done so well; because we’ve taken on everyone’s creative input and added it together.

For a boy-band, you’re a lot more ‘rock’ than anything else out there in that genre – is that the kind of music you’re influenced by?

We grew up listening to rock bands; stuff like My Chemical Romance and Funeral For A Friend. We’re a ‘boy-band’ in the sense that we’re three boys in a band, but we play all our own instruments and we write our own material.  We weren’t put together through auditions or anything, we grew organically and feel independent.  We’re still a pop band but we’ve toured loads in the process and feel very hands on with our music.

And when you get into the studio to record your tracks, what is it like? Relaxing? Quite intense?

A bit of both, I’d say!  It’s relaxing in the sense you’ve got those creative juices flowing, but it’s intense in the fact that you’ve got to make what you’re recording really good.  You’re under a lot of pressure and it’s hard work but the end result is definitely worth it.  It feels really rewarding.

You use social networks like Facebook and Twitter to keep in contact with fans.  Do you think that’s an important thing for fans to do these days?

We like to use them to get information out to the fans, to let them know what’s happening.  They’re also good to give free downloads away to people on; to get our music out there.  There’s the personal interaction aspect of social networks as well and we know we can just keep people really updated and in the know.

Of all the live dates you’ve played, do you have any particular highlights?  Certain cities that are your favourites?

Brighton was really good, the audience there were incredible.  We always get excited about going to cities we’ve never been to before; we went to Carlisle the other day and that was an amazing show too.  It’s been a really great experience for us.

Your album is coming out in April – what kind of stuff can we expect on it?

There’s something on there for everyone.  It’s been two years of work for us and it really captures a sense of what we’re about.   We think we’ve put across a sense of feelings everyone comes across when they’re growing up so people can really relate to the album.  There’s a few up-beat party tracks on there and a real slow track which is more emotional.

You get to meet a lot of fans on tour – what’s it like having all these screaming girls following you around?

It’s cool!  We’ve seen our fanbase really grow and they’re just so dedicated.  They’ll be waiting out in the cold just to say hi so we do our best to go out and see them.

Kerrang! named your song Get Down as their ‘video of the week’ – what’s it like getting all this acclaim from the rock music press?

It was amazing!  Our live DVD got to number 4 in the official charts too, just behind Michael Jackson and U2 – I think that was the biggest thing for us as a band.  It was great to be recognised nationally like that.

So what’s the filming experience like when you’re making a music video?

It’s just another piece of the whole puzzle.  When you’re in the recording studio it’s more of a mental experience – you’ve got to really concentrate.  But a music video is more of a physical thing – you’ve got to do twelve hours straight of recording and jumping around.  You can end up doing night shoots too, and they can be tiring – but it’s a good tired feeling.  When you see the final end-product it feels great.

And is there anything in particular you’d like to achieve by this time next year?

On this tour supporting The Saturdays it’s been amazing playing gigs at venues this big so we’ve always said we’d love to be able to headline a show at some of the places like this.  That’d just be the ultimate achievement for us.

Twenty Twenty release their new single Love To Life on the 3^rd April.

Kylie... but not as you've ever seen her before

This promotional video advertising the new Dance Central game on Xbox is genius. How many of us have watched Kylie Minogue's iconic Can't Get You Out Of My Head video and had its racey white dress and robotic dance moves imprinted on our minds? Now, massive Kylie fan I might be, but I don't think I'd ever go as far as the guy here, who takes it on himself to make his own home-made Kylie outfit and sneak into her dressing room. Cue quite a few chuckles, especially when he takes those gold hot-pants into a launderette.

But it gets even better when Kylie herself appears and is promptly locked up back-stage. I love this whole little send up and it's a great collaboration between the forces of video-gaming and pop music. Now, it's very nearly time for Kylie's UK tour dates and I can't flippin' wait!

The Saturdays - Live at the HMV Hammersmith Apollo - 17th Feb 2011

Live gigs are a very mixed bag; their vastly unpredictable nature meaning you never know quite what you are going to get. But I can safely say that the London date of The Saturdays’ latest tour has secured itself a place amongst some of the best live shows I’ve ever experienced. The sheer sense of energy and emotion on offer at the gig was incredible. Standing six rows back from the stage, the connection with the girls was incredible. I’ve been to many gigs at the Hammersmith Apollo and the bands always seem to feed off the prestige and richness of the setting; and here, amidst the ornate, gilded arches and chandeliers, the Saturdays seemed to fit so well – British pop royalty.

The theme of fun and glamour is well established from the start with an inspired intro to the night; to the tune of the recent dance hit Barbra Streisand the girls call out the names of friends, family and fans in the audience – Not gonna lie, I was more than a little chuffed when they called out my name!

Leading on from this, the girls launch into a frenetic trio of upbeat tracks that encompass some of their finest moments; their most recent single Higher, the fan-favourite One Shot and the anthemic Up. The set-list serves as a reminder of just how consistent The Saturdays’ output has been. In a previous age, pop bands would churn out new albums in a conveyor-belt like system. Quality was by-the-by; all that mattered was quick sales. But the Saturdays belong to a more discerning age. Listeners demand a better standard of music, and The Saturdays are more than up to the challenge of producing some of the best pop out there. And most importantly, it is distinctly British. In an age where so much of the charts are full of American import, the girls continue to fly the flag high for the UK.

As the band perform some of their older tracks, you get a real sense that The Saturdays now have their own legacy; a proper place among contemporary pop culture. For Died In Your Eyes Una pulls out her guitar and strums along, testament to her years as a budding singer-songwriter in Ireland. Each girl brings something unique to the band, their personalities shining through both individually and as a group collective.

Whereas before The Saturdays perhaps occupied a relatively niche position - drawing crowds of in-the-know pop lovers - now their appeal is universal, the crowd encompassing the whole spectrum of society from young to old. With their delightful ITV2 documentary series The Saturdays 24/7 and extensive press coverage spurred on by Frankie and Rochelle’s high-profile relationships, they have well and truly found themselves in the centre of the public eye. With that said, The Headlines Tour seems a particularly apt name for their current run of shows.

Halfway through the gig the girls pull out a brilliant Rihanna medley – the chorus of Love The Way You Lie showcasing just how strong their vocals are, while What’s My Name sees Rochelle and Frankie working some seriously sexy dance moves. The costumes are equally attention grabbing - from sparkly, glittery dresses that are the very essence of pop to street-smart denim and day-glo hoodies, the clothes complimented the songs perfectly. Switching into sultry black leather skirts for the encore, they deliver the defiant Ego.

Throughout their career, The Saturdays have remained resolutely upbeat and positive. It’s part of their charm. Up, Higher, Work – the message conveyed in their singles is there for all to read. This is the band who’s ambition and passion for what they do has carried them forever onwards and upwards in an increasingly competitive industry. Tonight, The Saturdays were on the finest of forms – they gave it their all, and so did the audience. They are the headlines-making band for a headlines-defined age. And you know what? We Just Can’t Get Enough of them. An amazing night.