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| ThePensmith Reviews Every Girl Group Top 40 hit (2000 - now), Updated every Sunday |
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 Apr 28 2015, 08:45 AM
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#1
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 They've had the very Tunnocks, Mary
Joined: 13 March 2011
Posts: 5,505 User: 13,208 
  
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 I do love reading the old retrospective 'review' based countdowns on here so I thought I'd do my own one on here, covering one of my pop passions: the girl group. Most of my favourites are from, or have had most of their success in this century, so I felt it only appropriate to centre my reviews around girl groups that have had a top 40 hit in the UK in the last 15 years. The main criteria I shall be focussing on (i.e. the boring bit): 1) Songs that made their debut or peaked inside the Official UK Top 40 between 1st January 2000 and now (if this topic lasts that long enough, hell, it may be ongoing). 2) Girl groups of a minimum of two members i.e. duos are included (good news for Mini Viva then). 3) Re-entries e.g. in the case of more recent years where download boosts have been a result of performances by contestants on reality TV shows etc are disqualified. Hopefully I won't forget about this and get bored, hopefully it will also be fun. All feedback welcome! This post has been edited by ThePensmith: Aug 14 2016, 11:14 AM |
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Apr 28 2015, 09:07 AM
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#2
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They've had the very Tunnocks, Mary
Joined: 13 March 2011
Posts: 5,505 User: 13,208
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2000
16TH JANUARY 2000 TLC - "Dear Lie" Official UK Chart peak: #31  A thoroughly chilled start to the new millennium here - especially considering the act behind this single who were usually more renowned for their sassier numbers. TLC had just waved goodbye to a massively successful 1999, both here in the UK and around the world, as their third album 'FanMail' racked up record breaking sales and massive hits with both 'No Scrubs' and 'Unpretty', both of which were huge top 10s for them here and back to back Billboard chart toppers in the States. 'Dear Lie', the third single from the album had made its modest debut one place lower than its peak in the pre-Christmas rush, and then languished just outside the top 40 for a few weeks before the January effect saw it creep (yeah, I just creep. I literally couldn't help myself with that reference and I'm not even sorry. Let's move on) back in for a month, its peak being reached on it's third week back inside the top 40 - all told, an impressive feat for a third single off an already massive selling album which is beautifully sung and harmonised. This very same week, the band's foremost rapper Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes was gearing up for a solo career - firstly with guest contribution to Donell Jones' number 2 hit 'U Know What's Up' (which I bought on cassette that week. Aah memories), and then a few months later on fellow girl group alumni Melanie C's first big solo chart topper 'Never Be the Same Again', so this was to be the ladies' final appearance on the UK charts for a couple of years - and the next time we'll meet them, it'll regrettably be under some very sad circumstances. This post has been edited by ThePensmith: Jun 4 2015, 08:06 AM |
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Apr 28 2015, 09:39 AM
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#3
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They've had the very Tunnocks, Mary
Joined: 13 March 2011
Posts: 5,505 User: 13,208
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30TH JANUARY 2000
Daphne & Celeste - "Ooh! Stick You!" Official UK Chart peak: #8  Is it too late to change my rule about duos? I jest. In a whole decade long before Jedward, the most raucous pairing to hit the charts were this unruly pair from the States - and who, like the deadly Irish twins, were such a Marmite act that it was hard to tell whether they were being ironic or deadly serious. We'll meet them twice more before the year's end so I won't go too in depth at this stage about that, or what happened to them in their short run of success. So let's focus on the offering at hand here. Originally released in September of the previous year, it failed to chart. A re-release in the new year in the traditionally 'quiet' sales period later, it went rocketing into the top 10. A truly bonkers debut, all cheerleader chants and borderline hilarious 'Mean Girls' taunts that called to mind Shampoo from five years previously (specifically 'Saddo' and 'Viva La Megababes'), when taken in that context 'Ooh! Stick You!' is a feisty but sneakily fine pop nugget in amongst the more sickly sweet offerings of the time. Naturally, however, it's not dated anywhere near as well as I thought it had, and in age where the uber-troll reigns supreme (Hopkins, Brick et al, I am looking at you), there's not a chance in hell they'd get away with this now...or could they? This post has been edited by ThePensmith: Apr 28 2015, 05:48 PM |
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Apr 28 2015, 10:04 AM
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#4
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They've had the very Tunnocks, Mary
Joined: 13 March 2011
Posts: 5,505 User: 13,208
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Last one today - the next three posts will be this Thursday!
6TH FEBRUARY 2000 Fierce - "Sweet Love 2K" Official UK Chart peak: #3  A bit of an anomaly this one. British R&B trio Fierce had, much like another British R&B trio we will encounter in a few entries' time *cough*HONEYZ*cough*, been getting by with good-to-modest charting singles (their personal best before this, "Dayz Like That", was close but no cigar to a top 10 debut, peaking at #11 in May the previous year) and their debut album 'Right Here Right Now' had spent a solitary seven days inside the top 30 in August 1999. And yet somehow, this reworking of an old Anita Baker hit from 1986 managed to outpeak the original by 10 places here in the UK. A top 3 hit with a bullet. How so? Well, as far as the memory of 10 year old me can recall, I remember both Zoe Ball and Trevor Nelson at Radio 1 championing this heavily at the time, which may have been a large part of its unexpected success. But to all intents and purposes as time's gone on, it's the original by Baker that I associate this song more readily with. It's sung pleasantly but non-eventfully enough, but the 'Fierce got it like this/Stargate in the mix' raps rather jar the whole thing - not to mention the tacking of '2K' onto the end of the song title which they and precisely few else were doing a month into the new millennium when it became apparent that 2000 was going to be a year just like any other year. Bizarrely, but perhaps not unexpectedly they were dropped following this release. This post has been edited by ThePensmith: Apr 28 2015, 05:50 PM |
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Apr 30 2015, 07:45 AM
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#5
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They've had the very Tunnocks, Mary
Joined: 13 March 2011
Posts: 5,505 User: 13,208
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13TH FEBRUARY 2000
Hepburn - "Deep Deep Down" Official UK Chart peak: #16  One trend that will become abundantly clear as we progress through the first three years with this thread, is what could otherwise be described as the 'Spice boom/hangover effect', and we will in fact, in this year, encounter the very band responsible for said effect. The period of late 1997 to late 2002 suddenly saw the charts littered with girl groups. Whilst the first three years were the boom years for the effect, it was the new millennium's dawn that quickly saw it become the years where it started to go a bit A over T, so to speak. It was only in May 1998 that Geri's departure from Spiceworld truly set record companies off on a mission to find the next big thing to replace them, whether they were clad in double denim and bursting into an Irish jig, looking a bit sultry and moody in army fatigues and combats, or just plain ripping them off in both sound and image (more on which a bit later in all three cases). And in the case of Hepburn, they were girl power but with added guitars. This kind of en-masse bandwagon hopping is not unusual behaviour with record companies in any instance, regardless of artist or genre, but it was particularly at its most manic in this period. One of several of their kind launched in 1999 (both 21st Century Girls and Thunderbugs had fallen by the wayside after modest debuts and flop follow ups), and fronted by Jamie Benson, this Cambridge based quartet had stormed in at number 8 with debut effort 'I Quit' that May (which if you believe the rumours, was meant for Natalie Imbruglia), and they soon set up camp in the top 20 again with 'Bugs' that August, preceding the release of a self titled top 30 debut album. But in hindsight, it was their label's indecision as to exactly what audience they were pitching them at that that killed them off in an already overcrowded market. They frequented the Saturday morning kid's TV and summer roadshow circuit, but also found themselves soundtracking 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and playing V Festival (albeit to a bitter reception from an audience of 'serious' music fans who couldn't yet compute the idea of young girls making pop music with actual instruments). Even so, as a single that should have really been putting them back inside the top 10, 'Deep Deep Down' just lacked the punch and energy of their first two singles, and it was thus inevitable that it would firstly underperform, and secondly result in them losing their deal. Jamie would make an attempt at a solo career over a year later with a cover of Lisa Loeb's 'Stay', but it failed to reach the top 100. |
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Apr 30 2015, 07:48 AM
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#6
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They've had the very Tunnocks, Mary
Joined: 13 March 2011
Posts: 5,505 User: 13,208
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20TH FEBRUARY 2000
All Saints - "Pure Shores" Official UK Chart peak: #1  And finally, we meet our first chart topper of this thread! And fitting then, that it should be the band that the then 10 year old me and my best friend at school Jack were ardent fans of. After a hectic 1998, where they clocked up three UK number ones - including million selling 'Never Ever' - a multi platinum self titled album, a sold out tour and two BRIT awards, the final year of the 20th century was a largely quiet one for All Saints. Although as any copies of the nascent Heat or Now magazine from round that time will tell you, that was only in the 'releasing new music' sense. They'll be popping up several times over the course of this thread, including - spoiler alert - half of the band in an entirely new one, so we'll try and let their infamous story unravel as such. So, the previous 12 months before this single then. The largely publicity shy Shaznay Lewis, as the band's songwriter and joint lead singer, kept a low profile beavering away on new tracks for their second album. However, if you were in All Saints at that time and your last name was either Blatt or Appleton, you were pretty much unavoidable from the public eye. Most of us know why this was. The questionable famous boyfriend choices. The in-band rows that continued to plague them and which almost saw a member depart for good. The pregnancies (again, by famous boyfriends). The Met Bar shennanigans. And THAT movie directed by Dave 'I was in Eurythmics, me' Stewart (renowned box office flop 'Honest'). They were, much like Lily Allen between her first and second album campaigns, in danger of becoming famous for all the wrong reasons. Enter stage right Leonardo DiCaprio's first major role of note since 'Titanic' in the big screen adaptation of Alex Garland's novel 'The Beach', and the perfect opportunity to relaunch themselves after a year away had presented itself. Produced by William Orbit, who was hot property following his work on Madonna's universally praised 'Ray of Light' album, 'Pure Shores' was an ambient, blissful number that took their brand of soulful, streetwise pop in an altogether dreamier direction that would continue on into their next single. Arguably their biggest hit since 'Never Ever', it went onto spend a fortnight at the top - one of the few chart toppers to last beyond 7 days at the summit in a year that was full to the brim with one week wonders - and was (until the last two weeks of the year when a certain Bob the Builder gatecrashed the party) the biggest selling single of 2000, and it's one of the rare few we'll meet in this year that still stands the test of time 15 years on. This post has been edited by ThePensmith: Apr 30 2015, 07:59 AM |
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Apr 30 2015, 07:52 AM
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#7
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They've had the very Tunnocks, Mary
Joined: 13 March 2011
Posts: 5,505 User: 13,208
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Last entry today - next three updates will be coming earlier than usual on Sunday, as I'm away in London seeing Olly Murs on Monday and Tuesday...
5TH MARCH 2000 Honeyz - "Won't Take It Lying Down" Official UK Chart peak: #7  Madasun - "Don't You Worry" Official UK Chart peak: #14  And from our first chart topper, we now encounter our first week in this century with more than one girl group entering the top 40. And oh, what a pair of corkers we have here! So first up, we did mention another R&B trio were coming up, and so it's hello to version 2.0 of Honeyz. Now, I will admit that it's only since they did 'The Big Reunion' that I've become something of a Honeyz loon - I bought up all bar one of their back catalogue (said 'bar one' will be coming later in this thread) after seeing their episode of the series. God bless Amazon used and new. But back at the turn of the millennium, when I was more concerned with having an S Club party or getting on up when I was down, they didn't fully register on my radar. Or rather they did, but just solely with their songs when they cropped up on a 'Now' compilation and I thought, 'Oh, it's pleasant enough I suppose'. Their single prior to this - and first with Mariama Goodman in the lineup since original member Heavenli Abdi quite literally did a runner - "Never Let You Down", was their fourth top 10 in a year, also reaching #7 in October 1999. I distinctly remember at the time, however, most people saying that it was one sickly sweet ballad too far from them. Smash Hits in particular called the single 'pants on toast' and recommended the girls went and got some lessons in sass and edge from another set of girls we'll be meeting shortly in this thread. And so what followed it up was indeed full of sass and edge to rival said set of girls. In fact as spiky R&B putdowns to a wrongdoing boyfriend go, and I'm not exaggerating here, it was bloody amazing. Even with some questionable fashion choices in the video (Naima, I am looking at you and that crazy ass gimp mask. Just why?), 'Won't Take It Lying Down' sounded like a song that deserved to be way bigger than it was, if not for the awesome line 'Well honey, my suspicion is the only thing / I'm gonna be gettin' aroused'. But alas, as we'll see much later, this was to be a peak from which they never bettered or returned to... And also entering that week, we meet another two/three 'hit' wonder - but probably I'd say, given who is still to come of this type from 2000, one of the better ones we'll meet. Vonda, Abby and Vicky, otherwise known as Madasun formed from auditions in the spring of '99, and were said to have got their band name following that summer's solar eclipse, because they wanted to have the effect on the public as being as 'mad as the sun'. Of course, that story has all the believability it is likely to have (i.e. none) so thank God the music is actually half decent. A subdued debut, 'Don't You Worry' was an interesting sound for a girl group, and sounded like the sort of thing Texas were always rather good at at their peak - souful, guitar fed pop with a nagging hook line. Annoying then, that it only got as far as a top 15 - more so considering what we'll see that is yet to come and which DID get nearer the top end of the chart. |
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May 2 2015, 05:06 PM
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#8
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 It's a cruel summer.
Joined: 26 May 2014
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Adore Pure Shores, one of my favourite songs ever
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May 3 2015, 12:55 PM
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#9
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They've had the very Tunnocks, Mary
Joined: 13 March 2011
Posts: 5,505 User: 13,208
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26TH MARCH 2000
Precious - "Rewind" Official UK Chart peak: #11  M2M - "Don't Say You Love Me" Official UK Chart peak: #16  Another double header week now, and up first we have one of two encounters with an act who, like Gina G, Katrina and the Waves and erm, Love City Groove before them, were struggling somewhat to make themselves known a year on from being at the mercy of block voting, corny stage gimmicks and generally un-British behaviour. Kinda. Precious were of course the UK's entry for the last Eurovision Song Contest of the 20th century in Israel, and had a lot to live up to following the win of 'Love Shine a Light' two years previously and the near win of Imaani's 'Where Are You' nearly a year before that. 'Say it Again', which also doubled as their debut single here and in much of Europe following the contest, was an instant top 10 smash, peaking at #6 in May the previous year. It wasn't to be reciprocated on the night however, as they finished joint 12th - some way behind Sweden's Charlotte Nilsson, who won that year's grand prix with 'Take Me to Your Heaven' (which eventually debuted in the top 20 here). And so Louise Rose, Anya Lahiri, Sophie McDonnell, Kalli Clark-Sternberg and Jenny Frost (the latter of which, spoiler alert, we'll be meeting quite a bit in this thread) - headed back to the UK and to the studio to commence work on their debut album. Their first post-Eurovision fruit of labour then, was 'Rewind' (despite the fact 'Stand Up' had been pencilled in as far back as September the previous year as a second single - it featured in remix form as a B-side on this release). It continued much along the lines of their pleasant supermarket own-brand Eternal vibes that their first single offered, albeit with a small nabbing of the infamous 'Britney' sound a la 'Baby One More Time' that suddenly more than a few people in the world of pop were utilizing in the new millennium. It's not hard however, to see why this failed to reach the same near giddy heights of their debut - it didn't have quite the same hooky energy that 'Say it Again' had and as we'll see much later on, their progression further down the diluted R&B trail they'd been hinting at was to be an unwise one. And speaking of the ginormous, Scandi-pop vibes that Britney had been offering with that record breaking debut (along with Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC), the sound of Swede and Nordic production heavyweights like the Cherion studios - home to Max Martin and the late DenniZ POP, were suddenly reshaping the sound of pop charts worldwide. This was the case even for their homegrown talent - including sprightly, guitar led teen duo Marion Raven and Marit Larsen, aka M2M. Their sole appearance in this thread was initially a tricky one for me to write about, until I saw the video again on YouTube, and I was immediately reminded that part of its success in the UK was down to featuring on the soundtrack for the then big screen debut of notorious late 90's toy and anime craze Pokemon, and suddenly, memories of playground squabbles with my friends over swapping a shiny Charizard card for a rare Japanese Tokepei card (which turned out to be a fake scanned in from the internet, grainy image and all. How very turn of the millennium) and Ant and Dec's well executed lampooning of the series on SMTV Live where it was first aired in the UK (in particular, one sketch where Westlife were involved. I'll say no more other than BRYYYYAAANNN!!!) came flooding back. 'Don't Say You Love Me' is itself a pretty uninspired and twee debut considering its subject matter, a bit first album era Robyn cast off. It's meek associations with Pikachu et al is not enough to mark it as a notable one hit wonder. It's in fact surprising, given his success with both the Power Rangers and Teletubbies singles in the 90's, why Simon Cowell hadn't seen sense to release the Pokemon anime's infamous theme tune 'Gotta Catch 'Em All' as a single here in the UK, as with the intense popularity of Pokemon at that time, it would have surely been destined for at least a top 10 position? (Then again, as we'll see a bit later, Simon Cowell is not generally one for applying logic or common sense when he gets it spectacularly wrong). And so this was both M2M and the franchise's sole contribution to the UK top 40 - and a fairly unremarkable one at that. This post has been edited by ThePensmith: May 3 2015, 01:00 PM |
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May 3 2015, 02:14 PM
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#10
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They've had the very Tunnocks, Mary
Joined: 13 March 2011
Posts: 5,505 User: 13,208
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As there were THREE (count 'em) new entries from this particular week, and we have a bit of a dearth approaching us with weeks between debuts and peaks, this'll be the last entry today until Thursday. Thanks for all your feedback so far!
2ND APRIL 2000 Destiny's Child - "Say My Name" Official UK Chart peak: #3  Atomic Kitten - "See Ya" Official UK Chart peak: #6  B*Witched - "Jump Down" Official UK Chart peak: #16  A pretty momentous week for the girl group concept in the 21st century by all ocassions, this one. For as two sets of girls were on the ascent, one of the late 90's most notable and successful were holding on for dear life - and not very successfully either. So next, we make our first visit to Camp DC - that's Destiny's Child - in this thread. Having broken through with their debut 'No No No' in 1998, a slow and steady stream of top 20 entries, including but not limited to 'Bills Bills Bills', 'Bug-a-Boo' and 'Get on the Bus' were to follow through to the end of 1999 with the group that gave the world Beyonce Knowles, Kelly Rowland and...the other two? Let's not forget this single, the third off their second album 'The Writing's on the Wall', was at the very start of the Destinys' career, and was not long after original members LeToya Luckett and LeTavia Roberson were both given their marching orders, to be replaced by Farrah Franklin and Michelle Williams. So it was only natural for most people not to remember all the members who were in the lineup at that point when they were something of a human resources nightmare. Nevertheless, they were still a few months away from the mega Transatlantic success that they were to enjoy for the remainder of the 00's, so this maybe what made the appreciation of the music over the inter-band dramas a bit easier. And 'Say My Name' is without question one of the finest moments from their early back catalogue, all clipped, Rodney Jerkins helmed beats, staccato string flourishes and an irresistible chorus that hinted at what world beaters they were yet to become. And as Destiny's Child were making the tentative footsteps to super stardom, so too, were three feisty Liverpudlian lasses who we make the first of 14 visits to in this thread. Now, I should probably make a point of saying now that I am a staunch Katona years fan of Atomic Kitten's and generally have very little time for the music from the period of their career where they had about 90% of their success. I've since invested in a copy of their greatest hits for the purposes of this thread and the revisits we'll make to their many single releases, so this may yet change. But back to this week. Formed in late 1997 by OMD synthesizer whizzkid Andy McCluskey in retaliation to that ultimate rejection in pop - the failure to obtain a playlisting from Radio 1 - and originally featuring a member of another mutliple entry band we'll meet later in this thread, Liz McClarnon, Tash Hamilton and of course Kerry Katona had first sunk their claws into the top 10 at the end of 1999 with disco pop stomper 'Right Now' (although it's still beyond me to this day why that single's B-side, 'Something Spooky', the theme from CBBC fantasy drama 'Belfry Witches' wasn't picked first given it had had an airing on primetime TV in front of their key audience for six whole weeks prior to its release. Aaah, hindsight.) which was still hanging around the lower rungs of the top 40 some three weeks before this single was released, and were already - like a lot of British girl groups we'll meet from 2000 - big business in Japan and the Far East. This, their second single, a thoroughly bonkers but cheeky offering with a delightful chorus, was also at that point in their career their highest charting single to date at #6, and it's not hard to see why. Yes, it was a bit on the shoddy side for some compared to the slickness of Destiny's Child or the subdued cool of All Saints, but for me that was part of the Kittens' appeal when they first started, and 'See Ya' remains I think as one of the best singles - along with the next one of theirs that we'll meet - that they did in their career. Exactly two years previous to this, and four girls from Dublin - sisters Edele and Keavy Lynch, Sinead O'Carroll and Lindsay Armaou - were just a couple of months away from releasing the single that would catapult them into girl group legend status on both sides of the Atlantic. That was of course, the harum scarum, psuedo-Riverdance day-glo thrill of 'C'est La Vie', and the band behind it was of course B*Witched. Shifting over a million single sales in their first year in the UK alone, their perky dance routines and double denim wardrobe saw them break records as the first girl group ever to go straight in at #1 with that first single and the three others that followed it - 'Rollercoaster', 'To You I Belong', and 'Blame it on the Weatherman'. It was also a top 10 on the Billboard charts in early 1999 - and a primetime support slot on *NSYNC's US arena tour and an ensuing promo assault thus saw them away from their core audience in the UK and Ireland for the large bulk of that year, as S Club 7 and Steps neatly filled the gap they'd temporarily left vacant. By the time they returned to home soil in the autumn of 1999, it thus meant they had a bit of a problem. Namely, keeping on top of the record breaking momentum they'd obtained with their first album. The release of country inspired comeback track 'Jesse Hold On' did little to solve this problem, breaking their run of chart toppers when it debuted at #4 that October. A respectable chart position for any other band, but for a band with a hit rate like B*Witched's, it was hard not to see it as a bit of a comedown. Their struggle to balance rehearsals for their first headline arena tour and their US promo duties also affected the release of their worldly collaboration with African choral outfit Ladysmith Black Mambazo, as the beautiful yet mistimed 'I Shall Be There' limped in at #13 that Christmas. Come the new millennium, their record company saw only one way to get B*Witched's magic sparkling again - by ditching their infamous double denim and fiddle tinged tunes for a new remix of 'Jump Down', undoubtedly one of the highlights of their second album 'Awake and Breathe', which was accompanied by a new 'sexy' image (see their cringey FHM shoot from this month that even the girls themselves said they weren't comfortable with). But with outfits that were even more dated than what they'd been wearing previously, and a remix that lost all of the spark the original album version had, it's no wonder what was left of their fans voted with their feet on this one. We may have possibly been hearing from them again in this thread c. 2002 had their label not decided to pull the plug on them before their third album saw the light of day, but the luck of the Irish had well and truly run out for B*Witched by this point - perhaps highlighted no clearer than in the fact that Westlife had overtaken their record this week with fifth consecutive chart topper 'Fool Again'. |
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May 10 2015, 02:45 PM
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#11
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They've had the very Tunnocks, Mary
Joined: 13 March 2011
Posts: 5,505 User: 13,208
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Apologies for no show on Thursday peeps...I got otherwise indisposed when I was invited along to another date of the Olly Murs tour so I duly went! Back on with the reviews and up next, we have the most Y2K specific sounding act we've met so far...
9TH APRIL 2000 Sweet Female Attitude - "Flowers" Official UK Chart peak: #2  There are a couple of acts we'll come across in this thread who barely push at the envelope at the very idea of being a 'girl group' per se, particularly those more aligned with fashionable musical trends of their particular time. Whilst in theory, the overall sound had been around as far back as Tina Moore's club anthem 'Never Gonna Let You Go' in late 1997, the explosion of UK garage and 2-step music in the summer of 2000 was no exception to that rule, and thus we have the first and only appearance on this list for Leanne Brown and Catherine Cassidy - two Northern girls otherwise known as Sweet Female Attitude. Gezza launched a fair amount of venom at this particular one on his list of every number 2 from the 00's on here a few years ago, and with hindsight it's probably hard not to see why. Sunship's technicolor hiccupy, addictive production that helped turn 'Flowers' into a crossover chart and club smash almost acts like a blueprint for what was to follow with their work on Mis-Teeq's early material a year later (and it goes without saying we'll meet them later on). But if truth be told Sweet Female Attitude could have been any other two random vocalists at the front of any similar garage or dance smashes from that same year - Fragma's 'Toca's Miracle' and Madison Avenue's 'Don't Call Me Baby' spring to mind here - and it lacks the vital grit that, as we'll see, made a Mis-Teeq record that bit more enjoyable (i.e. Alesha Dixon's MCing). In fact it's somewhat telling that a then unknown Stockport session singer called Sarah Harding - who we'll encounter much later and many times over in this thread with another motley set of girls - could, had fate not played a hand, have been either vocalist on here. I was a big fan of UK garage and 2-step back at the start of the 00's but compared to a Craig David or So Solid Crew record - it was incidentally David who beat them to the top that week with his solo debut 'Fill Me In' - whilst it's not an unpleasant record it's by no means one of the classics of the genre. If anything, 'Flowers' is more an interesting and rather dated relic from a time when UK garage seemed like it was gonna be the music industry's most happening and exciting export since Britpop - which, as with most moments of madness in pop, it very briefly was. This post has been edited by ThePensmith: May 12 2015, 03:07 PM |
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May 10 2015, 03:00 PM
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#12
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They've had the very Tunnocks, Mary
Joined: 13 March 2011
Posts: 5,505 User: 13,208
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16TH APRIL 2000
Sister2Sister - "Sister" Official UK Chart peak: #18  Up next, another one hit wonder for whom my memories of which are sketchy at best. Along with several other short lived Aussie imports from the start of the 00's - Human Nature and Vanessa Amorosi, I am looking at you - Sharon and Christine Muscat, otherwise known as Sister2Sister, had grown up in a musical family whilst having walk on and bit parts as television presenters and in that most Aussie of finishing schools for a future pop career, 'Neighbours' and 'Home and Away'. After chance meeting with Tina Arena whilst performing at several showcases through the dance school they were members of, she secured them their record and management deal through her then husband, and in their native Australia superstardom beckoned once this song went rocketing into the top 3 of the ARIA charts. It was a different story here in the UK though, where it coughed into the lower top 20 before stuttering straight back out. A thoroughly insipid offering even then, it's hard not to see why that success wasn't replicated here. With cringey lyrics like 'She won't get off the phone, she won't leave me alone', and a 'we fight but we love each other as sisters' theme throughout that set girl power back by about 10 years, 'Sister' is just a very naff and utterly irritating record - and the sisters are probably fortunate therefore, that in a year of girl groups deemed more annoying than them, that they got away relatively Scott free. This post has been edited by ThePensmith: May 10 2015, 03:01 PM |
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May 12 2015, 01:33 PM
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#13
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They've had the very Tunnocks, Mary
Joined: 13 March 2011
Posts: 5,505 User: 13,208
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7TH MAY 2000
Made in London - "Dirty Water" Official UK Chart peak: #15  Remember, back when we came across Hepburn, how I said some of the big girl group flops in the Spice boom/hangover effect of the time were just so because they had no clear sense of audience? This was indeed the case with our first and only encounter with, as Jamie Theakston describes in his intro for them on their only Top of the Pops appearance (watch below in absence of the official video), 'an exotic mix of Jamaica, Norway and the UK, simmered for a couple of years'. Or, as they were more commonly known, Made in London, a lady trio geared towards Cosmopolitan readers but flogged round the Saturday morning kid's TV and roadshow circuit regardless. My lasting memory of this lot was in the week before this single was released, when a postcard from their label, BMG, to promote the single fluttered through our letterbox addressed to me. Aah yes, the days when you filled in the 'Freepost' info cards inside CDs and when popstars told you what they were up to and/or releasing via medium of the promotional postcard (or if you were on S Club 7's fanclub, a full blown fanzine that folded out into a poster). I think I might have been sent on a postcard from this lot as a result of being on another BMG mailing list - which I can only imagine must've been Five's for then 10/11 year old me. So where does this story fit in? Because of my dad's deadpan reaction upon seeing the name of the band and title, which prompted him to say 'Made in London - Dirty Water? Is it a song about how full of s*** the Thames is?' Turns out he wasn't the only one to make that joke (Chris Moyles and/or Scott Mills on Radio 1, I am looking at you) but he did have a point. A girl group singing a socio-political preach about pollution of rivers and forests etc would have certainly made for a more intriguing debut. Instead, what we're offered here is a song that lyrically, uses the tired old 'water like clarity of a friendship gone sour' metaphor sung, just two months ahead of Big Brother's launch on UK television screens, with all the hissing, furtive passive aggressiveness of any random warring female housemates you can think of from it's Channel 4 heyday, and constant hackneyed repetition of phrases along the lines of being 'full of spite and tension', 'I never thought that you'd betray ... double faced and telling lies'. If Sister2Sister were too sickly sweet, Made in London were doomed for the very opposite reason - for looking like they all hated each other from the off with a song to match. It's fine if you're at least keeping it feignly under control - with a sense of cool, streetwise brooding as say, another trio we'll meet soon in this thread - but to come out with essentially, the sound of an impending catfight down a back alley with a backing track sounding like an All Saints cast off meant they were never going to go far. Well. That and also - spoiler alert - as a result of being signed at the same time as another girl group BMG were gearing up for the very high profile launch of that summer. But that's another story... 
This post has been edited by ThePensmith: May 12 2015, 01:34 PM |
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May 12 2015, 01:53 PM
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#14
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They've had the very Tunnocks, Mary
Joined: 13 March 2011
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21ST MAY 2000
Madasun - "Walking on Water" Official UK Chart peak: #14  Question - what connects Made in London with our next act? Well. 'Mad' makes up the first three letters of their bandnames. They are both trios. And 'Water' is the last word in each of their respective single titles. Lame comparisons aside, for which I duly apologise, that's about all the close resemblance Madasun have to them with this, their second single. Arriving in exactly the same position that their debut we met earlier on did, 'Walking on Water' takes the tempo up a notch from 'Don't You Worry' and is again, a rather cool little number, even if it cringily opens on the following rhyming couplet: 'You could be a two time loser / Everybody used to use and abuse ya'. Aside from that, and a slightly odd looking video, there's little to really fault here. Again, with its bluesy guitar riff, it sounds like the sort of thing that Sharleen Spiteri and her pals in Texas could've rustled up on their lunch break but with a distinctly more FM sheen. It's uplifting whilst remaining enjoyable, but just sadly lost in amongst the pop rush and high turnover of the charts of 2000. The next time we'll meet them, they'll be in a much more precarious situation. |
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May 13 2015, 04:41 AM
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#15
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 "Jayrusaleminians" - Umi.
Pronouns: he/him
Joined: 4 April 2007 Posts: 41,412 User: 3,217
       
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I'll get around to reading this whole thread soon!
 I rather liked 'Walking On Water', haven't heard it in an age. There really was an influx of new girl groups around this year which just didn't catch on for whatever reason, despite some pretty good songs. I have a lot of love (or nostalgic affection!) for nearly everything listed thus far. 'Flowers' and 'Sweet Love Y2K' are still great all these years later. It was a shame that Fierce fizzled out as soon as they got a sizeable hit! 'Pure Shores' & 'Won't Take It Lying Down' are two of my favourite ever girl group tracks. The latter deserved more success, I agree. |
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May 14 2015, 08:54 AM
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#16
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They've had the very Tunnocks, Mary
Joined: 13 March 2011
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Thanks Jay! Hope you're enjoying it so far
Onwards we go with three more entries today... 4TH JUNE 2000 Mary Mary - "Shackles (Praise You)" Official UK Chart peak: #5  Buffalo G - "We're Really Saying Something" Official UK Chart peak: #17  Another set of duos for today's first entry, from opposite sides of the Atlantic who couldn't be more unalike from each other. The higher charting of the two from this week were Californian sisters Erica and Tina Atkins, who, in amongst the many pick 'n mix styles of music dominating the top end of the chart in 2000, were offering up a slice of gutsy gospel from America. Unlike in the States, gospel music is generally considered to be a bit of a niche market here in the UK just as say, country music is. But once in a blue moon an act or song will cross over from those niche genres into the mainstream pop charts - see Shania Twain from the previous year - and Mary Mary, named after the two Biblical Marys (Mary, mother of Jesus and Mary Magadalene) did just that as 'Shackles (Praise You)' rocketed into the top 5 - still, as far as I'm aware, the most successful charting act of their genre in the UK. It's an interesting mix of the sisters' roots with more contemporary hip hop and R&B - the underlying, feelgood 'Sister Act' vibes are indeed all present and correct, and there was one point that summer where it seemed like this was never off the radio. 15 years later, it's still a sunny little number but ultimately, one that has dated somewhat with the use of autotune and scratchy vinyl effects. Twelve places further down from that, the UK charts were about to have its final gatecrashing by the Lynch family from Dublin - or at least, the female side of it anyway. Having watched and waited two years whilst Edele and Keavy had had their moment in the sun with B*Witched (and of course, Shane in Boyzone), their little sister Naomi teamed up with close friend Olive Tucker and duly went through the same route to success her denim clad siblings had in 1998. Major support slot on a top pop act's arena tour (Steps)? Check. Schools tour? Check. Crazy wardrobe choices? Check (their name apparently derived from 'Buffalo Girl', a girl's hip hop inspired clothing brand popular with the pre-teen market in the States and Ireland at the turn of the millennium). All that was needed now was a zany debut single with video to match (with a cameo from their brother and, in a reference only Irish readers of this thread will get, Dustin the turkey?) to guarantee them a rocket to the top of the charts. But where their cover of the Velvettes - and then most famously Bananarama - hit fell flat was that, unlike the playful, melodic charm that made 'C'est La Vie' such a delight in 1998, Ray 'Madman' Hedges (who both bands shared a producer in) had literally thrown everything including the bathroom sink at it. Of course, as we'll see with the productions of the then nascent Brian Higgins on his work for two of the acts still to feature in this thread, this is fine if they work as a cohesive structure. 'Really Saying Something' was anything but cohesive and was an ugly, messy listen, devoid of any redeeming features. The Lynch luck of the Irish had well and truly run out. |
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May 14 2015, 09:35 AM
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#17
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They've had the very Tunnocks, Mary
Joined: 13 March 2011
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11TH JUNE 2000
Daphne & Celeste - "U.G.L.Y" Official UK Chart peak: #18  The second of three visits to the other 'DC' of 2000 in this thread now - and we did promise as we visited Daphne & Celeste again we'd go into a bit more depth with their story, so we'll do that now. Firstly, the single itself though. And if the chart position for this one was any to go by, 'U.G.L.Y' was one set of bonkers, 'are-they-ironic-or-deadly-serious?' cheerleader hailed playground taunts too far as a single. But this is the question I have to put here: even taking the fact this lacks the same naughty thrill of 'Ooh! Stick You!' out of the equation, had the public missed the joke entirely? There was much to suggest that really, it was all just a bit of fun for these two. Even in - spoiler alert - an interview to promote their comeback single 'You and I Alone' this year, they said themselves that they weren't striving to be Grammy winners or be world changers. They were just doing silly, unapologetic fun pop music and embracing every second of it - hence why the more 'serious' targets for their derision like Christina Aguilera and Westlife made them immediately unpopular (with fans of the latter, at least) on the Letters pages of Smash Hits and Top of the Pops magazine. Parents were also even on the latter's case when a cut out promotional 'Stick this on a person you hate' 'Ugly' sign to promote the single appeared in the issue published just before this single's release, inciting that it was encouraging bullying among their presumed target audience. But this disregard for being taken seriously is probably what gave them a certain level of kudos with more 'credible' publications of the time like NME and Melody Maker - the latter even awarded the highest praise possible to their debut set 'We Didn't Say That!' and made it its 'Album of the Week' upon release, even if commercially, it bombed. Alas, this is the year 2000 we are talking about, when a grey area between genres - and one that could have potentially catapaulted Daphne & Celeste to a wider audience - was yet to properly exist, and the battle between 'uncool' 'manufactured' pop vs. 'cool' 'authentic' rock still waged on - and as we'll see by the time of our final visit to them later, a battle that was to be a huge part of their story, and ultimately, downfall. |
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May 14 2015, 09:53 AM
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#18
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BuzzJack Regular
Joined: 13 February 2014
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'Say My Name' is such a classic - the only song Beyonce has ever been involved with that I'd give a 10/10.
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May 14 2015, 10:32 AM
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#19
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They've had the very Tunnocks, Mary
Joined: 13 March 2011
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25TH JUNE 2000
Girl Thing - "Last One Standing" Official UK Chart peak: #8  En Vogue - "Riddle" Official UK Chart peak: #33  I've been dropping none too subtle hints for the last few posts that we were about to meet, in a year full of new girl group launches, a notoriously high profile one masterminded by BMG and one Mr Cowell. That time, my friends is now, so it's hello to Linzi, Nikki, Anika, Michelle and Jodi - otherwise known as Girl Thing. Anyone who watched 'The Big Reunion' last year when they were that series' token 'WTF?' addition will know the back story behind this, their debut single, so it only seems right that if you don't know of them (or it) by now that we hand you over to Andi Peters and let you watch their episode first and then come back here to assess the carnage with us. Watched it now? Very good. So, 'Last One Standing'. A doomed carbon copy of the Spice phenomena, or a potentially good if mistimed new set of feisty ladies that were deprived of rightful pop dominance? Well, yes and no to both, I'd say. As famed chart commentator James Masterton once said, if at any point in his seminal phase of fame with the first 'Pop Idol' and 'American Idol', you wanted to make fun of Simon Cowell, you simply threw Girl Thing's name back in his face and he went as sour faced as when confronted with a terrible auditionee. As with several flops of his to follow - most X Factor winner's debut albums, 'Grease is the Word', the Pudsey the Dog movie (wow. That was easier to list than I thought) - his set of girls were a prime example of when his steely belief, drive and percieved magic touch went horribly wrong. The fault I'd say lies not with 'Last One Standing' as a song itself - it's a punchy yet chirpy debut number that wouldn't have sounded out of place on the first Billie Piper or Five album more than it does a Spice Girls one. Had they been modelled more on say, a female version of Five i.e. a girl group with a rougher edge, they'd have at least had a much more interesting slant to launch on and build a career from. The fault lies more with the direction they took it in. Cowell had missed the boat completely when the Spices were on their whistle stop tour of management teams and record labels after leaving - spookily enough - Girl Thing's then future managers Bob & Chris Herbert in the spring of 1995. The fact it took him, by the time this single was released, nearly four years on from 'Wannabe' to come up with a suitable response to their colossal success suggests something of a lack of confidence, even for all the hype that we saw he generated for them (I remember very clearly the issue of Smash Hits Linzi mentioned above, and also I've read that Music Week were reporting at the time that other record labels were either pushing back or cancelling their girl group launches in the run up to release - remember Made in London we met earlier?). Styling and image wise they were modelled so closely on the Spices that we're surprised Virgin and Simon Fuller didn't file a lawsuit of some description. But here's where I'm gonna get forensical. Watch the video for 'Last One Standing' and compare it side by side with 'Wannabe', and you can see quite clearly where he and BMG made the fatal error that cost them a number one debut. 'Wannabe' depicts five girls from differing backgrounds and styles crashing into an 'ordinary' place and causing havoc (St Pancra's Grand Hotel) but there's a sense of warmth throughout, a sense of 'everyone' being part of their gang and part of the fun, whether it's the Sloaney hipsters on a chaise lounge by the stairs, or the aging drag queen in the restaurant. Girl Thing attend - and then wreck - some poor couple's wedding and it's never really explained why, other than that they were bored and didn't really want to go in the first place. Cowell's failure to understand that having fun didn't mean at the expense of someone else's happiness is what made this such an infamous debut - for all the wrong reasons. Further down the top 40 that week, and it's goodbye to a set of ladies who, in terms of headache inducing personnel changes, were at this stage Destiny's Child but just 5 years earlier. En Vogue had notched up seven top 20 hits here in the UK, the biggest of which of course, 'Don't Let Go (Love)' - still to this day a classic of 90's R&B - had scaled the top 5 in 1997 after featuring on the soundtrack to blockbuster film 'Set it Off'. It was a different story three years later when this, the first single off their fourth album 'Masterpiece Theatre', limped into the top 40 for seven days before slipping straight back out - and it fared little better in the States where they'd always had a great deal more success. Although they were always more of a 'vocal harmony' outfit than some of the other acts we've met so far, there's no denying that their imperial phase was well and truly over here, highlighted when Elektra dropped them following poor sales of the album. One more independently released album 'Soul Flower' was to follow from them in 2004, but it never made it to these shores. This post has been edited by ThePensmith: May 14 2015, 11:41 AM |
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May 19 2015, 08:38 AM
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#20
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They've had the very Tunnocks, Mary
Joined: 13 March 2011
Posts: 5,505 User: 13,208
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9TH JULY 2000
Atomic Kitten - "I Want Your Love" Official UK Chart peak: #10  Precious - "It's Gonna Be My Way" Official UK Chart peak: #27  An interesting week this one, where we meet Atomic Kitten in their first incarnation again, whilst a future member of their next incarnation was on their way out with their then current band. Let's focus on the Kittens first though. There's few hits - however small or large the definition of that word - we've met so far in 2000 that are as barnstorming as 'I Want Your Love'. I mean, just look at the video for starters. Centred around the famous score from the old Charlton Heston film 'The Big Country', the Spaghetti Western orchestral is married to a pumping, thumping disco beat whilst Tash, Liz and Kerry giggle and growl their way through a song that lyrically, isn't a million miles away from Spice Girls' 'Say You'll Be There' - basically, would be suitors to the Kittens need to walk the walk as well as talk the talk when it comes to relationships or they can clear off. As with 'See Ya', an absolute riot from start to end - and in some ways, given what's still to come from them in this thread, like the party before the wake. And whilst Kittens v1.0 were rodeoing up the top 10, Precious were getting the 'nul points' factor from the public again as they hung on by a thread inside the top 30. It's perhaps of interest here, that I should note that they shared a management team with the (by this point) two piece Eternal, who themselves had been dropped following the flop of their self titled comeback album at the end of 1999. It's a point that has to be made with 'It's Gonna Be My Way' because, between they and (to a lesser extent) Honeyz, Precious were being given the sort of songs that the Bennett sisters and Kelle Bryan (when she wasn't being fired by fax) would have made light work of but they, for all their glamorous looks and sassy dance moves couldn't pull off. R&B flavoured pop was the in thing at the start of the 00s, and whilst we'll meet some brilliant examples of the genre as we go on, this was not one of them. Their final single - the spookily titled 'New Beginning' - peaked outside the top 40 that October and, bar one of their number, it would be the last we would hear from Precious. |
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