inyourroom

Sound of the Underground vs. No Good Advice The Show vs. Love Machine Long Hot Summer vs. Biology Something Kinda Ooooh vs. I Think We're Alone Now Sexy! No No No... vs. Call the Shots The Promise vs. The Loving Kind Something New vs. Beautiful 'Cause You Love Me Beat of My Drum vs. Lucky Day

Oh dear. We all knew this was coming, but that doesn't make it any less devastating. I think I'm noticably older than most people here (I'm even older than Sarah herself - and will remain so, apparently...), so my formative years were in the '90s, and my taste in music is even "older than me": the bands making the biggest impact on me were all going already for 10+ years at the time. Those bands are made up of people who were born in the late '50s or early '60s, so they're mostly in their 60s now, and - almost miraculously - they're all here and still going strong today. They made it through the hedonism and the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the '80s, they (well, some of them) survived brain aneurysm, alcoholism, drug addiction, suicide attempts, cancer (caught early) and everything else that can happen to musicians who regularly tour the world for 4 decades. This kind of gave me a false sense of security, that tragedies happen to others, but not them (and through them, to me), so then seeing someone so much younger becoming the first to go is almost incomprehensible. My favourite bands don't necessarily sound alike, what they seem to share is more of an attitude, a way of doing things, which leads to their musical output being a bit too weird for most of the mainstream audience, but still accessible. Oddly enough, I found that Girls Aloud also hit that sweet spot. I never cared for "standard" pop bands (not on principle, just experience), I need something unusual to get me interested, and I suspect that having "not standard girlband material" members like Nicola and Sarah played a huge part in the way GA turned out. I'm not trying to suggest that only those 2 pushed them towards more adventurous directions, but their presence must have been essential, especially knowing what kind of music each girl did without the others. I'm eternally grateful to Sarah for all her contributions to the band, for entertaining us with her singing, acting, stage presence and endlessly fascinating personality. She will be missed, but always remembered. May she rest in peace.

10 Sound Of The Underground 11 No Good Advice 07 Life Got Cold 06 Jump 10 The Show 08 Love Machine 05 I'll Stand By You 09 Wake Me Up 07 Long Hot Summer 10 Biology 05 See The Day 06 Whole Lotta History 08 Something Kinda Ooooh 05 I Think We're Alone Now 05 Walk This Way 09 Sexy! No No No... 09 Call The Shots 10 Can't Speak French 09 The Promise 08 The Loving Kind 10 Untouchable 04 Something New 04 Beautiful 'Cause You Love Me

May I ask what is this (quite frequently mentioned) observation based on? I might be a bit ignorant on the subject, but I don't recall Kimberley slagging off Nadine too much since her book came out, and I'm fairly certain when she said "I think she's gonna be a great mum" in this interview, it wasn't because she knew how Nadine's going to come across in a TV show 6 years later.

I was drawn to Nicola as soon as I first set eyes on the 5 of them, and I was happy to learn later that it was not only superficial attraction, her personality and solo music lived up to my expectations. I don't dislike any of them, but I'm OK with "least liked", so Nadine ended up at #5 on the personality contest - there's a reason the others no longer wanted to put up with her, and I didn't appreciate her playing the victim in the break-up story to score points with the fans (of course she wanted the band to go on, her solo career was dead and buried at that point). Musically, I don't have a strong preference apart from my #1 spot, but for the sake of completing my vote, I went with Kimberley as least liked.

Now that Bake Off is back this week, should we remind ourselves who invented it in the first place? :D https://youtu.be/e332w2Zwims?t=245

Oh dear... Wishing her all the strength and support she needs to get through this

By having listened to all these songs (in my case, at least)

Poor Untouchable missing another list... (7" picture disc)

Exactly. To be fair, I don't think this will have any impact on the reception of Nadine's single - they're not in direct competition with each other, and the band's name being kept in the public's mind could even be beneficial for her. it was just my way of poniting out how poorly this release was planned: I understand skipping the crowded and highly competitive pre-Christmas period, but waiting another whole month kills any momentum she may have had. I'm A Celebrity... is already literally so last year, and we're still 2 weeks away from the release.

It's kinda both funny and cruel (or just plain cruel, depending on your point of view) that by the time this single comes out, she'll no longer be the most recently talked about GA member, especially in terms like "hey, I remember her, she can really sing"

Seems like an odd choice for her, having seen this: Let's hope her crew has everything (songs, media appearances, etc) all lined up already to take advantage of the renewed interest in her this show could bring.

1. Crocodile Tears 2. Can't Speak French 3. Sexy! No No No... 4. Call The Shots 5. Girl Overboard 6. Black Jacks 7. Fling 8. I'm Falling 9. Close To Love 10. What You Crying For 11. Damn 12. Control Of The Knife

I know they are listed in chronological order, but it's very helpful to find the best one at the top and the worst one at the bottom :)

1. No Good Advice 2. Biology 3. The Show 4. Sound of the Underground 5. Untouchable 6. Can't Speak French 7. Sexy! No No No... 8. Wake Me Up 9. Call the Shots 10. The Promise 11. Something Kinda Ooooh 12. The Loving Kind 13. Life Got Cold 14. Love Machine 15. Long Hot Summer 16. Whole Lotta History 17. Jump 18. I Think We're Alone Now 19. Walk This Way 20. I'll Stand By You 21. Beautiful 'Cause You Love Me 22. See the Day 23. Something New I expected Something Kinda Ooooh to finish a little bit higher, but it's based on my answers, so I can't complain

Something Ewwww? :lol:

By popular demand, here are some additional details after the second show (and having slept on it more than once): - the song I didn't know (well the second song, I didn't know the Frank Ocean one either, I just found it more easily) turned out to be God Is a Woman, originally by Ariana Grande. It was suggested by, and on the first night performed with Joe Ross, former Girls Aloud tour guitarist and musical director - the crowd was much louder on Friday - Kimberley was in attendance for the second show

I don't mind anyone's opinion, but it's probably worth remembering that this set is not meant to be a "tour setlist", it's very much constructed (and all songs are reworked) with a fully seated venue (well, a restaurant) in mind, focusing on more emotional songs. Uptempo songs would be totally out of place, and the only appropriate thing about a song like Take a Bite in this setting would be its title.

Would have preferred a proper venue without waiters running around, bar noises and the smell of fish, but she was magnificent. Set: Forrest Gump (Frank Ocean song) Fish Out Of Water I Say A Prayer For You I Untouchable Memory Of You Sticks + Stones (song unknown to me) Whole Lotta History (with the middle 8 from Call The Shots as intro)

Singing in front of an audience again, it seems: "Nicola Roberts 9th - 10th May 2019 In association with GF Entertainment We are thrilled to announce the lovely Nicola Roberts will be performing a medley of Girls Aloud hits, her catchy solo material and classic covers that have inspired her incredible career" https://www1.boisdale.co.uk/MusicSearchResu....aspx?sq=nicola

Well, this "vote against" format favours less divisive material, so the winner makes sense in that aspect (and why Call The Shots pt 2 got roughly 0 votes before it was eliminated through the format reversal). Call The Shots is a good song though, I just prefer what ended up at #2... and 3... and 4... and some others. And I wholeheartidly agree with this: "14th for Something New?! BuzzJack, get better collective taste in GA singles", but probably not for tha same reason :D (And it shouldn't have been all about the singles, but... see the very first statement in this entry)

1 Biology 2 The Show 3 Sound of The Underground 4 Untouchable 5 Sexy! No No No... 6 Call The Shots 7 Something Kinda Ooooh 8 The Promise 9 The Loving Kind 10 Love Machine

If I'm not mistaken, some people here seem to suggest that she could be more successful if a) she'd be willing to put more effort into her career and b) she'd come up with better songs. I disagree. In my experience, the quality of a song very rarely had an effect on its chart position (and it's subjective anyway), and no amount of promotion would return her to the position she was in 8-9 years ago. A key component to success nowadays seems to be touring, which isn't her strong point, she toured for about 3 weeks during her entire solo career. She isn't the best singer live (to put it mildly), and doesn't have a very particular stage persona, so she needs the big production, which means a future tour would require a substantial investment. She doesn't have too much of a following outside the UK, so the number of places where she could do her own gig is quite limited, and I don't think she'd fit in well on any festival bill (Girls Aloud could get away with a few festival appearances because they were an indie band disguised as a pop act). Of course, there's still the other way of being a celebrity constantly in the public eye, and releasing songs/albums from time to time on the back of her fame, but she's been there and done that already, and it probably wouldn't be very wise to go down that road again above 35 with a small child at home. I think she achieved the absolute maximum of what was within her reach - she took great advantage of her high profile relationship (and then marriage) with a well-known sportsman, her beauty and her fun personality at the time (meaning she didn't take herself too seriously and didn't mind ruffling some feathers every now and then). In fact she worked so hard that even in the year of almost dying from malaria and ending her first marriage, she managed to record and release an album and appear regularly on the biggest show on TV - she knew very well that she had to keep the momentum going, because it's not gonna last too long. I actually applaud her for making a more than a decade long successful career out of her limited skills, some luck and a very strong work ethic (I doubt she had much time off between 2002 and 2013), and it's understandable that she gives it another go if she has the opportunity, but I'm guessing another #1 single is no longer her biggest priority.

I'm one of them, and I would have gladly stopped voting for it after round 1, but the majority just kept eliminating some great songs instead. I'm also a bit disappointed, but not too surprised that all the non-singles are gone.

Biology is a very clear winner in this for me, and I do like Wake Me Up as well.