May 10, 20223 yr I doubt they'd ever come back for a whole tour given how unsuccessful their last two tours were but I would love to see 'One Night with The Saturdays' in London maybe - that could sell well given it's only one night and the right venue. I think a performance ten years after splitting up or maybe for the 15th year anniversary after Chasing Lights was released (2023 Autumn) - that would be cute.
May 10, 20223 yr Notorious really hurt them and the On Your Radar campaign, Headlines tour sold out in minutes and probably could have been upgraded to an arena tour, Notorious even opened with great sales and then had a poor chart run as it wasn't really supported by radio. Gentleman was the final nail in their 99 lives.
May 10, 20223 yr I’d love them to come back, they represent such a fun time in life for me to be honest but I don’t see it happening. I’m sure Frankie said recently she wouldn’t go back to singing.0
May 10, 20223 yr i remember how wild the forum was when they went to #1 :cheeseblock: In all honesty, All Fired Up if released today would still do well, TIMELESS CLASSIC. Those 16 writers knew what they were doing
May 10, 20223 yr i remember how wild the forum was when they went to #1 :cheeseblock: In all honesty, All Fired Up if released today would still do well, TIMELESS CLASSIC. Those 16 writers knew what they were doing I still haven't forgiven myself for my own stale reaction upon it's first listen. Nowadays I consider it holy.
May 10, 20223 yr The Saturdays actually made so many poor choices... Following What About Us with Gentlemen... Wordshaker era was so bad (promo wise and the whole styling) Headlines saved it luckily! The campaigns really started to feel meh with Living For The Weekend (The cover was so bland and it was a bit of a mess) It’s a shame as they had some iconic songs (I even loved half the dross) but I can see why sales dwindled with poor decision making / thought. What about us was just the best feeling as a fan though! When that hit number 1 we all went wild!
May 10, 20223 yr Notorious really hurt them and the On Your Radar campaign, Headlines tour sold out in minutes and probably could have been upgraded to an arena tour, Notorious even opened with great sales and then had a poor chart run as it wasn't really supported by radio. Gentleman was the final nail in their 99 lives. I think trying the OA/OS method for 'Notorious' is what damaged that the most, it was obviously never going to work for an act like them - see also The Wanted with 'We Own The Night'. They really did well to survive the amount of forks in the road they did though, I certainly didn't imagine they'd last 6 years when they started out.
May 10, 20223 yr I feel like Notorious did very well to debut at #8 with the OA/OS method, but this resulted in them struggling to find momentum for it in the following weeks! When the CD came out it only climbed back up to #21. Funnily enough it managed to climb to #18 a week after without the physical boost, so that suggested that they mistimed the CD release. 9 weeks inside the Top 40 is better than many of their singles achieved though, so that was a positive to take from how the release of Notorious was handled. Maybe if they'd done a traditional held back release it would have been more like 5 weeks Top 40, even if it's likely they'd have got a better peak position for it. Top 40 weeks, in order of release: #08, 05 weeks - If This Is Love #05, 19 weeks - Up #04, 13 weeks - Issues (Post-album single) #02, 07 weeks - Just Can't Get Enough #22, 07 weeks - Work (Post-album single) #02, 06 weeks - Forever Is Over #09, 13 weeks - Ego (Post-album single) #03, 07 weeks - Missing You #10, 13 weeks - Higher (Post-album single) #08, 09 weeks - Notorious (On Air/On Sale) #03, 06 weeks - All Fired Up #15, 02 weeks - My Heart Takes Over #07, 03 weeks - 30 Days #01, 10 weeks - What About Us #14, 02 weeks - Gentleman #05, 05 weeks - Disco Love #19, 01 week - Not Giving Up (Post-album single) #38, 01 week - What Are You Waiting For Top 40 weeks, in order of most weeks to least: #05, 19 weeks - Up #04, 13 weeks - Issues (Post-album single) #09, 13 weeks - Ego (Post-album single) #10, 13 weeks - Higher (Post-album single) #01, 10 weeks - What About Us #08, 09 weeks - Notorious (On Air/On Sale) #02, 07 weeks - Just Can't Get Enough #03, 07 weeks - Missing You #22, 07 weeks - Work (Post-album single) #02, 06 weeks - Forever Is Over #03, 06 weeks - All Fired Up #05, 05 weeks - Disco Love #08, 05 weeks - If This Is Love #07, 03 weeks - 30 Days #14, 02 weeks - Gentleman #15, 02 weeks - My Heart Takes Over #19, 01 week - Not Giving Up (Post-album single) #38, 01 week - What Are You Waiting For Up spending 19 weeks in the Top 40 was truly remarkable! All Fired Up deserved so much more. :cry: Their label deciding to abandon the 'On Your Radar' album and not even try with a post-album single, that was a shame really. I don't actually mind '30 Days', but I'm not sure what the idea was behind them releasing a stand alone single like that (I know it was eventually included on 'Living for the Weekend'). It didn't really do much for them, and they could have spent that time trying to course-correct the album they'd only just released? :lol: Their career was so messy!! With a few high points. I always felt like they were on the cusp of getting bigger, but it never really happened. 'What About Us' felt like things finally were coming together for them, so in typical Saturdays style they well and truly unravelled it with its follow up! :lol:
May 11, 20223 yr 30 days was cute but when you had the likes of faster, get ready, get set and white lies just sitting on an album, it was crazy that they were passed up in favour of it. the album had done so poorly that the gp wouldn’t have known where the tracks had come from.
May 11, 20223 yr i’ll also die on the hill that wildfire was leaps + bounds ahead of gentleman in quality - that really should have been the a-side. it was so much more where the uk music scene was at that time. gentleman was very clearly meant for an american audience, the rap section listing off a list of largely american men, as if lamar odom and larry king were households names here?! had they gone what about us > wildfire > disco love > not giving up i think a different story would have played out. Edited May 11, 20223 yr by kye
May 11, 20223 yr 'Wildfire' would have been a better choice (I mean, anything would). I'd really love to see how it would have panned out if they followed up 'What About Us' with 'Not Giving Up' (knowing they had that the whole time, and 'Disco Love' didn't exist yet). I can't imagine they'd have survived long into the streaming era anyway, but they could have easily have squeezed a few more hits and perhaps one more studio album out of their run had they not catastrophically f-ed up with 'Genntleman'.
May 11, 20223 yr Their taste was certainly questionable because they were all super excited and passionate about Gentleman. Although Una said years later that it became a least favourite for her because whenever they performed it they sensed tumbleweed from the crowd. I seem to remember they were apathetic about Not Giving Up and surprised that it was a fan favourite. :thinking: They really needed to follow up What About Us with a song that was somewhat similar. For some reason I’ve not given Wildfire much attention over the years, but I just listened to it and I agree that it had more potential than Gentleman! Trust them to make it the B Side to it :lol: I also agree about the songs you mention from On Your Radar, Kye! I’ll always find it curious their label decided to launch a dance-pop heavy album with a ballad single. Their decision making was wild! I think the album really should have been ready to release directly after All Fired Up.
May 11, 20223 yr As much as I blame their label/management for their shocking decisions at times, I have to admit that looking back these girls just weren't good enough. It wasn't until I saw other girl groups after them that I realised how lazy and sloppy The Sats were. Little Mix and Fifth Harmony blew them out of the water vocally and work ethic wise and even GRL were giving amazing performances on their first single release. They definitely had bops and they looked SO GOOD together and yeah they had nice harmonies and some of them were decent singers but they had so many performances and chances to impress people and gain new fans on TV and they always sucked. :lol: Their performances of What About Us and All Fired Up were always atrocious.
May 11, 20223 yr They didn’t often get the opportunity to do major TV performances did they? I think their budget was a bit of an ongoing issue for them and may have held them back. Their earliest performances included being a support act, lots of nightclub appearances & shopping centres, which was a fairly low level start, in terms of honing their performance skills. The regular GMTV & This Morning performances, with their basic set ups and camera work, always shone a spotlight on sloppy choreography. I feel like those sort of performances were always a bit phoned in because they didn’t allow for anything extravagant. What I’m getting at is that if they’d had the chance to “level up” earlier on in their career, such as gaining experience with The X Factor appearances, then maybe they’d have honed their skills & generally been able to put on more of a show? I think we saw occasional glimpses of what The Saturdays were capable of. Their “So You Think You Can Dance” performance of Notorious was good, I thought! Towards the end of their run, they were totally going through the motions. I feel like I can sense their boredom when they performed What Are You Waiting For on This Morning :lol: Little Mix had a very different journey from the very start, which I think put them in better stead to become a far more polished act. If you think about it, before they’d even released their first single they had a string of major performances under their belts thanks to The X Factor. They weren’t stuck in a perpetual cycle of This Morning performances.
May 11, 20223 yr Well honestly I remember their Greatest Hits medley on Tumble and that was a PERFECT opportunity to really let loose and sell some tickets for their tour and even though they had a HUGE empty space they just stood still for half of it and done some basic arm movements as usual. They had 5 big songs to showcase and they didn't even bother. Their Paul O'Grady performance of Forever Is Over was traumatic, they performed Missing You on some big TV shows and it was dodgy miming and crap dancing and their Ant and Dec performance is only known for Mollie's bum note so they definitely had chances on bigger stages and never made a good impression. Even in America when they launched on Jay Leno with a live band and vocals both Una and Vanessa were shocking at points and Rochelle completely changed the melody of the chorus.
May 11, 20223 yr The Sats had no budget though... It was obvious they were clawing cash from all sorts of brand deals to keep them afloat. I don’t doubt they made a lot of money but it was totally different back then labels focused on chart positions / every single needed to succeed with decentish sales... I’m sure they would have looked / seemed more polished if they had more of a budget which included some clever choreo (They tried to stay with old school moves (Steps etc) but times were changing especially half way through the 6 year stint they had.
May 11, 20223 yr Well honestly I remember their Greatest Hits medley on Tumble and that was a PERFECT opportunity to really let loose and sell some tickets for their tour and even though they had a HUGE empty space they just stood still for half of it and done some basic arm movements as usual. They had 5 big songs to showcase and they didn't even bother. Their Paul O'Grady performance of Forever Is Over was traumatic, they performed Missing You on some big TV shows and it was dodgy miming and crap dancing and their Ant and Dec performance is only known for Mollie's bum note so they definitely had chances on bigger stages and never made a good impression. Even in America when they launched on Jay Leno with a live band and vocals both Una and Vanessa were shocking at points and Rochelle completely changed the melody of the chorus. It really showed when they performed What About Us on The Today show in the US! Such a big moment and they literally looked like they had been formed the day before or it was an audition :(
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