ThePensmith

So sad to wake up and hear that Paul O'Grady has passed away today aged 67. He was always one of the girls' most vocal supporters, everytime they had a new single to promote they were always on his teatime chat show. Thought I'd share a few of their best bits together down the years. Couldn't of course forget the sketch he did with them on their Party special as well with Buster his dog. dzCwJiSzNf8 2TB3X3BVMY8 WV_6X3bT7rk v8baKQcLdag SYClRK7sRGw

The clips sound wicked. Love that one of the tracks is called "You Could Start A Cult", that's funny 🤣 McFly appear to be releasing their new album "Power To Play" on the same week as this!

Oooh the cover looks ace. Looks like they'll be going head to head with Niall Horan then - his new album is out the same day as theirs is!

I've been seeing a lot about these guys on my socials the last couple of days. New four piece all male R&B group - Ebubé, Josh, Zeekay and Kaci. The latter two will be familiar to fans of Little Mix, as they were members of the boyband New Priority that were formed on their BBC One show Little Mix: The Search. Their first single interpolates a sample of "True" by Spandau Ballet and it works rather well, 1Xtra seem to be getting behind them already and they appear to be trending on TikTok. I'd be interested to hear more! z_phV3KYHjY

Something's happening on Thursday - their socials have just updated with this!

Ah, I've seen pictures from that same shoot this one was (there was one of them where they're all looking at each other inside the booklet for Now 44 I always recall, and also on the back of the boxes for their dolls). But this is a new one to me too!

I noticed that too - they must have just changed them in the last couple of days! So hoping this means Uncle Simon has got Chris Fox on the phone to do remastered videos!

They're on This Morning tomorrow for St. Patrick's Day. Big announcement apparently so I would think that a tour's gonna be confirmed!

Rachel will be joining Heart 00s Radio to guest host Ashley Roberts' Saturday afternoon show from 4-7pm on 18th March, 8th April and 15th April!

I noticed whilst browsing at lunch that National Album Day has been confirmed for October, and the theme this year is the 90s: @1635573215039815681 Releases and ambassadors are yet to be announced, but how cool would it be if we got the first album on vinyl from this?

They've confirmed through medium of amusing TikTok video that a matinee show for Newcastle has been added - on sale this Friday!

"The Greatest" and "In Too Deep" off Seeing Double are probably my least favourite as well. How they made it on the album and neither "Rain" or "Discotek" did is beyond me.

The reason it sounds a bit True Steppers-esque is because it is produced by one of the True Steppers - Jonny Lisners! He and Cathy Dennis wrote and produced the song, along with "Do It Till We Drop". In an ideal parallel universe, if the last album era has been handled a lot better, and Jo hadn't had back problems and Paul was still there, we would have got "Alive" a lot earlier than we did as a single (late August / early September) if we absolutely had to, and this would have been the follow-up, released as the second single along with the album and the movie in late November (they really didn't need to wait to release the movie until April the following year. It wasn't that high concept!) It would have shown that "Don't Stop Movin'" wasn't just a one off and that they could move forward with another punchier sounding dance pop single but with a different vibe. I suppose the only thing that works against it is the fact that unless you've seen the film, the lines "When you're a clone, you know you're never alone" don't make much sense. Other than that it's one of my picks for best lost single that never was from the "Seeing Double" era.

Interview and performance on The Jonathan Ross Show tomorrow night at 9:40pm on ITV.

They're also the cover feature and interview in this month's Retro Pop magazine: @1633515331229556770 A preview of the full interview here confirms that the single is written and produced by their old producer Ray "Madman" Hedges and they've signed with Sony again, and that the album is still being recorded: https://retropopmagazine.com/bwitched-reuni...-over-20-years/

Exclusive first play will be on Sara Cox's Drivetime show on Radio 2 tomorrow afternoon:

He's on The One Show on BBC One tonight talking all things "Heaven" and the new album. He was on Radio 2 on the Breakfast Show with Zoe Ball yesterday and talked to this adorable old man 😍

Tom has posted on his Instagram Stories today that they are shooting a new video for the first single off their new album - so I guess the topic can start, right? I did love "Young Dumb Thrills" so I'm excited to see what they do next!

I was gonna say, definitely not a wholesale retread of their sound, but that same pure pop feel with a cooler edge that they were heading towards on their last two albums; that upbeat, four to the floor disco pop like "Don't Stop Movin'" or "Love Ain't Gonna Wait For You" were. Which actually sonically is still very current now, particularly things like Dua Lipa's most recent album or Lizzo's "About Damn Time",.

I was reading the S Club thread over on Popjustice yesterday. Came across this rather excellent post that dreamt up a mood board, if you will, of what new material or even a new album in 2023 might sound like: https://forum.popjustice.com/threads/s-club...30/post-8831786 Now, whilst I don't want to get ahead of ourselves here - the fact that all seven have come back together for this tour and the fact Simon Fuller seems to be putting in considerably more effort with this than he did last time, even in a small way, is what they deserve. But a boy's allowed to dream, and it did get me imagining what new material would sound like. And indeed, it got me asking other questions: who would they work with? What sound would they go for? The classic upbeat pop sound or something more in keeping with what's around now? I think Cathy Dennis being on board would be an absolute non-negotiable. She wrote most of their biggest hits, and new S Club material without her would be like Girls Aloud without Xenomania. MNEK would be a really good shout too, I think. He grew up when they were around the first time and so he really understands all the 90s / 00s reference points and sounds, but he would also bring something different to it. He did the title track on Blue's most recent album and it perfectly encapsulates where they were with fresher sounds. I remember when Alphabeat came out and thinking they had a very strong S Club vibe to them - songs like "Fantastic Six", "Fascination" and "The Spell" in particular. But then also Jo mentioned at the press conference about K-pop and BTS being quite close to what they were, which also wouldn't be a bad shout. A song like "Dynamite" has that kind of same lively gang feel that say, "S Club Party" had. What are your thoughts and ideas?

Not that I'm aware of. I remember Bradley being on BBLB as a guest very early on that series talking to Dermot O'Leary about Jo going in but that was literally two days in, so long before the whole thing unfolded. Hannah was then promoting the first series of Primeval about a month or so later but I don't recall her being asked about it.

Speaking as someone who's been there, done it and bought the merch four times over (fifth after this year) - you're gonna love it! Honestly their live show is part of why I've always loved them.

I'd say it's a racing certainty based on past experience!

Bournemouth, Brighton, the first Cardiff date and the second London date are all now sold out! Also loving this that they shared on their Insta tonight:

Redid the first one - Bradley now no longer reads as "Bradlev" 😂