I remember that Tommi video was on music channels quite often, and I seem to remember they promoted on CBBC and the likes. 2003 did have a few "chavvy" entries, for instance a couple of flop boy bands were similar, so Tommi weren't too out of place. #12 was considered a bit of a flop position in those days anyway, so that prevented further material. :kink:

 

When I think back to 2002/3 I tend to only think of Sugababes, Girls Aloud, Atomic Kitten & Mis-Teeq. I forgot about some of these dire flop girl groups like Lemonescent!

Loving all your comments as always peeps. Just to let you know, as of next week, I have decided to change my posting schedule for this thread. Today excluded, every week, new reviews to this thread will now be posted on Wednesday evenings and Sunday afternoons. Onwards we go with 2003 though...

 

10TH AUGUST 2003

 

The Cheeky Girls - "Hooray! Hooray! (It's a Cheeky Holiday)"

Official UK Chart peak: #3

 

http://s12.postimg.org/ly9yee47x/R_2724610_1298197072_jpeg.jpg

 

Now for another review I'm going to keep brief and blunt. Single three from the Transylvanian terrors found itself released in the hottest summer of the 00s - with temperatures on most days in the UK in July and August 2003 hitting a record high of 37°c. This single however, was about as a hot as an eskimo on a wet weekend in Rhyl.

 

 

A substandard reworking of Boney M's 'Hooray, Hooray, It's a Holi-Holiday', it was more sub-Europap than the ragga tilted disco of the original, and was the kind of thing that you suspect not even the Vengaboys would have touched with a barge pole four years previously. Bizarrely though, their third straight top 3 hit it became. I'll say no more except take from that what you will.

24TH AUGUST 2003

 

Girls Aloud - "Life Got Cold"

Official UK Chart peak: #3

 

http://a2.mzstatic.com/eu/r30/Music/v4/08/76/66/0876664c-011c-f1d4-5682-0fa317273f26/cover600x600.jpeg

 

There's few suggestions that strike fear into the heart of any record company chief exec quite like when one of their artists suggest that the fans decide what single they release next. After all, deciding what their artists release as singles is their decision, isn't it? Such was the case in the summer of 2003 when, fresh on the back of two hit singles and a gold selling debut album, Girls Aloud put a poll up on their website for fans to vote for their favourite song on 'Sound of the Underground'.

 

Although 'Some Kind of Miracle', a 60's tinged sassathon that called to mind Madonna's 'Beautiful Stranger' (with a co-writing credit from B*Witched's Edele Lynch, no less) was the tipped favourite, even in reviews for the album from the usually more serious likes of Uncut and The Times, critics were hailing 'Life Got Cold', a wistful, guitar tinged ballad as an equal highlight of the album. The fans seemed to agree too, and so it duly became their 3rd single - and 3rd straight top 3 hit to boot.

 

Despite this, even two years on when the girls headed out on their first theatre tour, they themselves can remember seeing the shock of 'Oh my God, I'd forgotten about this one' registering on the faces of their fans when it cropped up in their live set. The trouble was, even with an impressive start for their singles run as they had, and a gold selling debut album, compared to the mega huge sales that Hear'Say had generated with their first single and album, it was, by comparison, a drop in the ocean.

 

 

Of course, as we'll see over the next 19 entries still to come in this thread for the girls, it was a marathon, not a sprint, and they were still only 8 months into their career at this point. It kind of goes without saying that some of their singles we'll meet are going to be better remembered and more aired than others, and 'Life Got Cold', gorgeous a track though it was, wasn't going to fall into that category. There was a public perception that they were the 'moody' combat wearing bad girls of pop - even the single cover above seemed to illustrate that point, and the press, as was to be the case for the next 10 years, seemed to be forever on their case at this time, and not necessarily in a positive way.

 

Not to mention that around the time of this release, Cheryl was largely absent from promo for it as the court case surrounding her toilet attendant kerfuffle from earlier in the year waged on, eventually leading her to be sentenced for two months' community service. As has been documented in several of their books, there was a chance that with pop suddenly struggling more than it had done two years previously (their labelmates, short lived boyband Triple 8, for instance, lost their deal after two top 10 hits), that they could have been dropped.

 

Just a week or so after this single's release though, Richard Curtis, the man behind Comic Relief and blockbuster Brit films like 'Notting Hill' and 'Four Weddings and a Funeral' came a-calling to the girls' team at Polydor. He had a new film coming to the big screen for Christmas that year, and wanted the girls for the soundtrack - but that's another story for our next GA entry...

Edited September 12, 20159 yr by ThePensmith

I adored Life Got Cold. Although wasn't there some controversy surrounding the track's similarities to 'Wonderwall'?

I adored Life Got Cold. Although wasn't there some controversy surrounding the track's similarities to 'Wonderwall'?

 

There was indeed. I think (correct me if I'm wrong) Noel Gallagher has been credited on subsequent pressings of the track on the likes of their (spoiler alert) 2006 best of 'The Sound of Girls Aloud'. What's actually more interesting about the song is that the main guitar riff actually samples (albeit uncredited) another Xenomania production for an Aussie singer songwriter, Sean Sennett called 'On a Bus, A Car or a Train'. I have the MP3 of it still on my old laptop but I don't *think* it's on YouTube for comparison sadly. Of course, as we all know now, it wouldn't be the first time Xenomania either saved or recycled songs that didn't work for other artists for the girls - and also for a couple of acts which we'll meet much later on!

 

I remember that there was a stocking problem with Life Got Cold CD2! I couldn't find a copy until the second week of release. It was only 1000 copies behind Lemar, so perhaps that problem prevented them from getting a #2 hit with this single. Although I was actually glad it got to #3, because it marked the first time an act had gone 1-2-3 in the singles chart with their first three releases. :D

I remember that there was a stocking problem with Life Got Cold CD2! I couldn't find a copy until the second week of release. It was only 1000 copies behind Lemar, so perhaps that problem prevented them from getting a #2 hit with this single. Although I was actually glad it got to #3, because it marked the first time an act had gone 1-2-3 in the singles chart with their first three releases. :D

 

It took around 50 years for that to happen? :o

"Life Got Cold" is an okay enough, at the time I really liked it, but now and compared to some of their later stuff, it's kinda boring and doesn't do anything for me.

 

Wow also forgot that The Cheeky Girls actually had 3 top 3 hits in a row, I knew sales back then were low, but come on even crap like that managed to get a couple of high charting hits, and if I remember correctly didn't they have some cheesy terrible Christmas song in that year, I would be gobsmacked if that managed to get into the top 10 also.

28TH SEPTEMBER 2003

 

Clea - "Download It"

Official UK Chart peak: #21

 

http://eil.com/images/main/Clea-Download-It-258656.jpg

 

Pop is indeed a funny old game. At exactly this time a year ago at this point in the thread, there were no girl groups touched by the hand of reality TV. In the autumn of 2003, however, there were two, which was something of a personal best. Because having already met Girls Aloud, it's time to meet the girls who very nearly were allowed. See what I did there? Ah, good one me etc.

 

Apart from Javine Hylton - close but no cigar to beating Sarah Harding to a place in our beloved Aloud - who'd of course been enjoying top 5 solo success that summer with 'Real Things', Chloe Staines, Lynsey Brown, Emma Beard and Aimee Kearsley had all been fighting for their place in the band on 'Popstars: The Rivals' a year ago too. Or at least, in Aimee's case, fighting for a place and crying every 5 seconds. (I know they all did on that show but she was the worst!)

 

It's perhaps quite lucky for them that Javine decided a solo career was a better option, because Cleaj would have been a terrible name for a girl group. Not that Clea is any better, you understand, but grateful for small mercies as they say. Signed up by Warners offshoot 1967 Ltd in the spring of 2003, the four 'nearly Alouds' set about work on their debut album, 'Identity Crisis', with Canadian songwriter and producer Christian Ballard.

 

 

'Download It', a dramatically backed ode to the joys of cyber sex was their first single, coupled with a suitably racy video of the girls in a house in Vancouver being well...sexy robot ghosts? It's an odd sight to behold indeed and a shame that the original video isn't on YouTube, hence the Top of the Pops appearance being embedded for the purposes of this entry. The actual video's here if you care to take a look.

 

It's an odd single indeed, not least because from the off they don't seem like a band of equal but barnstorming parts like Girls Aloud were to become. Lynsey seems to have taken lessons from the Jenny Frost school of singing and may as well not be there (little wonder she went home in the first week of the lives of Popstars), whilst Chloe is a-hollering over the top from the off with the conviction of a woman who'd stop short of drowning puppies to get the de facto lead vocal on every song.

 

Not to mention that the word 'download' and its still negative connotations in the music industry at that time - iTunes and the first official chart for legal downloads was still a year away from launch at this point - having a knock on effect meant that 'Download It' was a doomed vessel from the off, conking out just outside the top 20 before falling. Any hopes of doing a Liberty X were - for the time being at least - firmly quashed for Clea from this point on. A swift rescue plan in the form of a major league support slot for the then massive (in success terms, we mean) Daniel Bedingfield on his arena tour was drafted in for the girls whilst they pushed back their album and waited to release their second single in the new year. And thankfully, as we'll see, that is much more to write home about...

I remember that there was a stocking problem with Life Got Cold CD2! I couldn't find a copy until the second week of release. It was only 1000 copies behind Lemar, so perhaps that problem prevented them from getting a #2 hit with this single. Although I was actually glad it got to #3, because it marked the first time an act had gone 1-2-3 in the singles chart with their first three releases. :D

 

I did get the CD2 that week. Then again, I was on holiday with my family in Scotland at the time and we went to Edinburgh on my birthday. The HMV there is MASSIVE.

19TH OCTOBER 2003

 

Sugababes - "Hole in the Head"

Official UK Chart peak: #1

 

http://a4.mzstatic.com/eu/r30/Music/v4/9c/43/bf/9c43bfca-c4d3-3df7-a06e-b7f8d7702bb9/cover600x600.jpeg

 

Clea's non-start aside, September had been an oddly quiet time for girl groups on the UK charts. Not least because, sitting astride the number one spot for most of that month were the Black Eyed Peas, who got their big breakthrough with 'Where is the Love?' and went onto have the year's biggest selling single as a result. Come October though, business was back to normal as their six week run came to an end when Sugababes v2.0 returned with their third album, aptly titled 'Three'.

 

Leading it off was another Xenomania collaboration, 'Hole in the Head', which strutted easily up to number one to become their third UK chart topper in a little over 18 months, and also, fact fans, the first British chart topper we'd had in two months by the time this was released. This was one I loved and played to death at the time but that with hindsight, does seem a bit like Brian and Miranda were aiming for 'Round Round' Mk II. In fact one of my friends at the time did remark how easy it was to sing said former chart topper over the top of this then new one.

 

 

Still, it's not without its charms, even though it sounds VERY of that time now. Namely as it's probably the only pop single - number 1 or otherwise - not released during the 90s to credit US talk show host Ricki Lake. And it's indeed sung with the usual sort of dismissive sass and furvitivity that's a trademark of any Sugababes single from this or the original line up. Even Heidi sounds a bit more embittered than usual on here when she hisses 'It's late at night, I'm caught in a groove / I'll kiss my ass before I'm feeling blue'.

 

And given we've met far, far worse than this single over the course of this particular year, this is like audial heaven compared to the trash of your Tommis and Lemonescents. It's just well, it's good, but it's just very Sugababes-by-numbers if that makes sense. Thankfully, the further we go into the 'Three' era there's some much stronger singles from the ladies awaiting us - and the next entry in a few posts time is in fact one of them...

Clea were never going to be another Liberty X - no matter how much their record label and themselves were hoping for it. They just didn't look like a girl-group. Obviously that is easy to say when we know exactly how the band was formed but while GA looked "right", Clea just didn't.

 

'Hole in the Head' was a great lead single for the Sugababes but I agree with you - it was very Suga-by-numbers. I much preferred their final single from this era.

Clea = Never really liked them, thought that they kinda bland and forgettable and also remember "Download It" which I didn't really like, glad it didn't become a hit, none of the other songs they had were all that either.

 

Sugababes - Hole In The Head = Awesome love it instantly when it came out, and remember having the album for Christmas along with Blue - Guilty, Liberty X - Being Somebody, Kylie - Body Language, Atomic Kitten - Ladies Night, Pink - Try This & Britney Spears - In The Zone. Best X-mas ever.

2ND NOVEMBER 2003

 

Atomic Kitten - "If You Come to Me"

Official UK Chart peak: #3

 

http://s30.postimg.org/y06wgjyld/R_1199267_1200176253_jpeg.jpg

 

By the end of 2003, v2.0 of the Kittens had been away from our airwaves and screens for the best part of six months. The attempt at cracking America had largely failed, even though the Far East, core supporters of the Kittens from the beginning had continued to welcome them with open arms. In that time as well, they'd been recording their third album, and although Tash was now back in the fold by this point, things were going badly wrong under the surface.

 

As anyone who's watched 'The Big Reunion' knows now, despite behind the scenes footage of the time showing her happily balancing life in the band and being a new mum to her son Josh, away from the cameras she was struggling with post-natal depression, meaning incongruous sets of appearances with the girls with her absences shied away under the excuse that she 'wasn't feeling well', sometimes leaving it as just a duo with Liz and Jenny.

 

Post-natal depression or not though, she was soon called back to work for the release of their new album's first single - 'If You Come to Me'. And, even though it was coupled by a change of image which saw them turn into overstylised, borderline size zero Bratz dolls, there was something about this song which I actually rather loved at the time. Reason of which I shall now go into.

 

 

Whilst musically there may not be much to differentiate this from any of their other mid-tempo v2.0 singles, with all in their production team and label very quietly aware that this may well have been their last studio album, they finally saw sense to give some more time in the spotlight to the very obvious star from this lineup. Yes, Liz took most of the shining light on this single.

 

And her vocal is just an absolute delight on this. It's sweet but pleasantly so, rather than taking a leaf out of Tash's bellowing passed off as 'soulful tones' or Jenny just being well...Jenny. In fact the closest I could compare Ms McClarnon's performance on this is to Emma Bunton on '2 Become 1' 7 years previous to this for the Spice Girls. Pop is about shining, beautiful moments like those, and hers is here for all to hear.

 

It was an easy top 3 hit, though never contending to dislodge the shouty antics of Fatman Scoop at number one, but its chart life was fairly short compared to their singles that had gone before it, the first time in fact since the heady Katona era days of the band. In fact, it was six weeks later, just in time for the Christmas chart, that their next single would appear - but more on that monstrosity when we get to it...

23RD NOVEMBER 2003

 

Girls Aloud - "Jump"

Official UK Chart peak: #2

 

http://a4.mzstatic.com/eu/r30/Music/v4/35/ad/cc/35adcc4a-7658-2ff0-c2a9-bfcd25e43dc5/cover600x600.jpeg

 

Mis-Teeq - "Style"

Official UK Chart peak: #13

 

http://eil.com/images/main/Mis-Teeq-Style-497106.jpg

 

So now for a week where two girl groups, believe it or not, faced a bit of a make or break situation with their careers. Things however, were only going to end happily for one of them, so let's focus on the happy one to begin with. As we touched on at their last entry, despite a blinding start with three top 3 hits and a gold selling album, compared to the megabucks that Hear'Say had generated from their first releases, Girls Aloud's sales kudos wasn't yet the megaforce it was to become.

 

Coupled also with public perception of them as being the moody, 'bad girls' of pop, Polydor knew a rescue plan of sorts was needed to make sure they'd last beyond the year and a bit Hear'Say managed. It was just as 'Life Got Cold' was charting that summer that Richard Curtis contacted Colin Barlow, the head of their A&R, asking for songs for the soundtrack to his then forthcoming festive romantic comedy blockbuster, 'Love Actually'.

 

He got two songs for the soundtrack from this - one of which we'll meet shortly, the other, for use in a scene with Hugh Grant as the prime minister dancing around his office. Originally a hit for, again, yet another group of ladies who I'd have been writing about a lot were this an 80's thread, the Pointer Sisters, 'Jump For My Love' had been a huge hit on both sides of the Atlantic in 1984.

 

 

The girls were very excited to record it, having all grown up loving the song, but Peter Loraine, head of marketing at Polydor and the girls' then surrogate manager whilst Louis Walsh continued to do bugger all and take a third of their royalties, was unsure of them covering an old 80's disco song so soon into their career, fearful it would be a bad move for them, especially when he'd been toiling hard to make them be seen as a 'cool' girl group.

 

However, having a song on a potentially hit movie and with their debut album's then average sales still fresh in his mind, Colin Barlow laid it on the line to him - he had no choice in the matter, and if this didn't work for the girls, it was over for them. Through gritted teeth, and backed with a snarly, nagging Jupiter 8 synth riff, 'Jump' thus came out complete with a super smiley video of the girls legging it round a mock up of 10 Downing Street, dressed in a rainbow of sports clothing with heels.

 

The new, lighter and more fun Girls Aloud thus out saw their first year in pop with their fourth top 3 hit and biggest since their debut, and its success heralded the Christmas re-release of the 'Sound of the Underground' album, with 'Jump' and several new songs added on to finally take it to platinum sales. After a rollercoaster 12 months, they could finally breathe easy knowing that their future was no longer in the balance.

 

Also re-releasing an existing album at the same time were Mis-Teeq, whose 'Eye Candy' now included several new songs including a special US remix of 'Scandalous' featuring rap heavyweight Redman, and 'Style', which became this album's overall third single. But without the usual flush of promotion that some of their singles had had - perhaps because of their now burdgeoning commitments to the US market where this album's biggest hit had really taken off - it became their first single to stall outside the UK top 10.

 

In hindsight, it has to be said I can see why this happened. It's actually quite a lazy effort all told, particularly at the following lyrics: 'I need a t-shirt some jeans, uh / That's just, how it is'. Even Alesha doesn't seem to be as on fire here with her MC'ing. As they spent most of 2004 attempting to build on the Billboard success of 'Scandalous', by the time they came back to the UK at the end of the following year, they suddenly found they were without a label after Telstar had plunged into administration in their absence.

 

 

Having achieved all they realistically could do at that point, it was March 2005 when the ladies decided to sadly but finally part company. Their final single, 'Shoo Shoo Baby', however, never saw the light of day other than in promo form so this is our last meeting with the girls for now. In the years that followed of course, Alesha would be the one going onto roaring solo success with her 'Strictly' win in 2007, big hits with 'The Boy Does Nothing' and 'Breathe Slow' to name but two and of course, now being a judge on 'Britain's Got Talent' - and as of September 2015 a reunion is still not forthcoming. Or at least, that we know of...

Girls Aloud - Jump (For My Love) = Actually loved this at the time, so fun and colourful and bouncy, although now don't love it as much as I did back then, due to the them having much better material as the years went on and very excited to see what you have to say on their other hits. Also I know sales back then were low, but how in the hell can a group who had 3 top 3 hits and a gold selling album, can be close to getting dropped, that's just ridiculous, It would have been a travesty if they got dropped in that year, then we wouldn't have had some of their classic hits such as = The Show, Love Machine, Biology, Something Kinda Oooh and so on... Anyway Girls Aloud will always be one of my all time favourite acts that just got better with each album, shame we don't have this kind of pop music anymore, that current charts are dead now.

 

Mis-Teeq - Style = Watching that video again, and I do agree it did lack something, the song was very generic and they had no go in them anymore, which was so sad given that they were still pretty early on in their career, it was only their 2nd era. There must have been better tracks on the album than this borefest, where's the spark, where's the fun, what happened to the fun attitude they had on their other hits. Honestly surprised this got as high as #13, would have expected a #36 peak or something, if this was these days at least. Also looked up "Shoo Shoo Baby" and listened to it for the first time, and well, firstly why was that gonna be their next single, it was dreadful, so lifeless and glad it wasn't released, as that would have definitely flopped, what was the record label thinking, no wonder it was pulled, they did the right thing by splitting up as that would have been a total downer for them to end on. But at least they had some great tunes previously such as (All I Want, One Nite Stand, B With Me, Roll On & Scandalous), such brilliant pop gems.

Mis-Teeq only entering at #13 required pretty low sales anyway*, and back then it would certainly have been regarded as a flop position to chart at (particularly because it was a brand new song). 2003 was a year of declining sales, still based on physicals of course, so it wasn't too hard for a pop group with a fanbase to go Top 15 with a single that seemingly wasn't striking a chord with the general public/not being supported a lot by the media.

 

* I can't find precisely how many, but the #10 that week sold 11,600, and the #9 sold 16,000. I would assume 'Style' sold less than 10k in its first week.

 

~

 

They ended prematurely. :( When 'Scandalous' smashed it seemed like their career was stepping up a level, so at the time I wouldn't have predicted that they were approaching the end of their UK chart life.

I do agree that after "Scandalous" it did seem that they were stepping up, given that it did really well worldwide and became their biggest UK seller, and even when the follow up single "Can't Get It Back" only peaked at #8, I didn't think they were in trouble, but yeah releasing a brand new song would have been the way to go, shame they couldn't come up with anything better than "Style".

I personally really loved 'Style' - I still have the CD single of it. :lol: I never knew 'Jump' was a make-or-break single for GA. I personally was never a particular fan of the song so I'm shocked the rest of their career was determined by it. I really liked 'If You Come to Me' at the time and while it's one of Atomic Kitten's strongest singles, like a lot of their discography it sounds very dated now.

Ta muchly for all your comments peeps, I'll try and respond to some of you all tonight! Our last two entries from 2003 now - on Sunday, we get cracking with the year I've been the most excited to write about since I started this thread: 2004 :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo:

 

For now though, if it's good enough for Tesco, it's good enough for this thread, so here's some entries about Christmas in the middle of September...

 

14TH DECEMBER 2003

 

The Cheeky Girls - "Have a Cheeky Christmas"

Official UK Chart peak: #10

 

http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0002/345/MI0002345164.jpg

 

And so, a year on from the one hit wonder that went on longer than a Brussell Sprout tainted fart in a lift, we reach the fourth and final Cheeky entry of 2003. Some good news, and bad news at this brief and blunt juncture. The bad news: their fourth top 10 was dredged in more cliched sleigh bells and rumpy bumpy Slade rip off beats than any other bad Christmas novelty record before or since.

 

 

Now the good news: just three months into 2004, Telstar Records - the chief licensee of the Cheekys' label, Multiply, was plunged into administration after failing to recoup investment from several million pound record deals for the likes of Victoria Beckham, Claire Sweeney, and er, Vinnie Jones, meaning they were suddenly sans label. Unfortunately for us, there is one more Cheeky sting in the tail coming just under a year later - I'll save my thoughts on that for then...