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Sugarbabes

From the archive, first published Friday 19th Mar 2004.

THE Sugababes are definitely doing something right.

Sexy, sassy, clued-up and switched on, the kids love 'em, the serious rock critics chew their pencils and waffle on about them being `the sound of multicultural Britain' and everyone else deliriously laps up their stardust-dipped singles.

And best of all, the girls don't seem to care. No cheery smiles of the new Spice Girls for them: they scowl, seem to dole out a fair share of abuse to rival bands and occasionally each other.

"I don't know if our personalities were coming across before but now I think we're getting a chance to do that," says founder member Keisha Buchanan.

"You would never think that I'm really, really bubbly and a kind of Jim Carrey pulling faces type girl, and that Mutya's quite fresh, and obviously there's plenty of personality on Heidi, and now I think we're getting a chance to show all of that."

The group's roots go back to North London schooldays when Keisha and school-friend Mutya Buena's obsession with music prompted them to form a band with a distinct r 'n' b direction. Gradually honed into a sound and picking up on the flavours of underground London club-land and US diva ensembles, the girls hooked up with Siobhan Donaghy, who has since been replaced with Heidi Range, and launched what at the time seemed to be a `here today gone tomorrow' pop career.

While their first album dallied with lightweight r 'n' b and pop, they persevered even in the face of losing both Siobhan and their record label.

But since holding the charts in a headlock with their take-no-prisoners rewrite of Gary Numan's Are Friends Electric? on Freak Like Me, the girls have dashed off irresistible pop confections like Round Round, Hole In The Head and new single In the Middle, while showing more of their r 'n' b and soul influences on albums Angels With Dirty Faces and Three.

"We've grown up a lot," concludes Keisha. "The whole thing of `aren't they sweet' just doesn't apply now. And we're going to show that to people.

"The reason why we're doing this is because we love music and we're not going to let anything else that happens or anything that people say stand in the way of that."

Sugababes are at the Bournemouth International Centre tomorrow. Performance: 6.30pm. Tickets: £17.50. Box office: 0870 1113000.

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