-Jay-

Kind of annoying of them to do that and not release the extended Nikki Nair or Michelle Manetti mixes <_<

When it comes to the UK, by my reckoning Golden could be about 72,000 sales ahead of Tension: Disco - 180,221 (on 29th September 2023) [Judging by how it was selling in 2023, this could have exceeded 190,000 by now] Golden - 167,761 (on 22nd September 2023) [Even if it only sold 50 copies a week on average since then, it would be nearing 171,000] Tension - 98,521 (on 6th December 2024) Based on the worldwide sales shared, the albums would have sold this much outside of the UK: Tension has amassed ~401,500+ units in a little over a year Golden has done a minimum of 229,000 in 6 and a half years Disco, possibly 560,000+ in 4 years

Ooh 1,800,000 for Underneath the Tree! :cheeseblock: Just realised this means it's overtaken Leona's One More Sleep's total sales (both released in 2013). I wonder how close Leona is to 3xPlatinum?

so festive! It's nice that the CD is in a plastic case, rather than just a cardboard slipcase!

I've just realised that 'Not Tonight Santa' is no longer on Spotify's Christmas Pop playlist :( I think that playlist was the main reason for it getting great streams, so that's unfortunate.

Flopped feels like a strong word! :thinking: The fact that it was only released to buy as a download (which is a niche way of consuming music these days) and crucially not receiving any meaningful support from streaming platforms, meant it was inevitably going to struggle in a chart that is almost entirely geared towards streaming. I'll Stand By You reaching #1 on iTunes, and #2 in the sales and download charts, is a better indication of how it was received (within the context of how downloads perform). Also, I don't think how a charity download single performed would have any direct correlation towards the label's decisions about any future Girls Aloud products. I forgot about that re: All Saints and The Corrs! I'll try not to lose faith yet. I'll spend most of my 2025 yearning for it though :teresa: :lol:

Mariah Carey's physical singles for All I Want for Christmas Is You have been released today! I wonder how well they'll sell and if there'll be any notable impact for the song in the midweeks? If any of you are interested in buying a copy, here are some links: CD single (3 tracks) - £5.99 Amazon HMV CD single (6 tracks) - £8.99 Amazon HMV Cassette single (2 tracks) - £9.99 Mariah Carey Christmas Official Store 7" single (2 tracks) - £10.99 Amazon HMV 12" single (3 tracks) - £10.99 Amazon (£10.99) HMV (£10.99) 12" single (7 tracks) - £15.99 HMV

My CD (6 track version) & 7” arrived today :wub: Seems the 12” is due to arrive tomorrow. Will be interesting to see how well these physicals have sold for her and if they help her in any significant way in the midweeks!

^ How could I forget! 💃🏻 A quarter of a century of not hearing a studio version of WOMAN :drama: Here’s to the next 25 years of it remaining unreleased! :w00t:

I agree, that was just to clarify that she wasn’t still pregnant during the performances!

I hope so, but it feels very late for them to announce it! :cry: The international posting dates on their webstore (to try and guarantee arrival before Christmas) have passed now.

It's been 25 years since the Christmas in Spiceworld tour bega - 4th December 1999 in Manchester. 25 years since W.O.M.A.N. and Holler were heard for the first time!

Phoenix was 3 months old by the time Mel started to promote Word Up!

lsWuwRNva8U In the absence of the girls ever releasing the demo... I think this is the best attempt anyone's ever made at creating a "final" version. I know AI is frowned on by some but they've done well with this!

A mock up of the vinyl temporarily showed up on Amazon: Unfortunately I think it's something that they've either decided to postpone or cancel? :cry: And that they didn't intend to accidentally tease it with the Linkfire link. My theory is that its release date was going to be 6th December, but for some unknown reason they didn't go live with a preorder. I can't imagine that they'd suddenly announce it and put it immediately on sale. The vinyl in the mock up seems to suggest that there were going to be 5 tracks on one side of it - which could mean that this album would have had more than the original 8 tracks? :o Who knows what's happened but it'll be a shame if it is cancelled, after knowing that it was meant to exist. :( If it's not happening this year, I hope it's the case that they've decided to hold back on it for Christmas 2025 instead :thinking: Side note: The "Christmas 'Round At Ours" title - it never initially had an apostrophe in front of Round, either on the Chemistry CD or digitally. However the song title actually has been changed on streaming, to have the apostrophe. Judging by Last.fm it might have happened as early as August of this year. Curious!

Attitude magazine gave the musical 4 out of 5! https://www.attitude.co.uk/culture/here-now...tacular-476533/ Interesting that they write: "a West End run to follow (the tour)" :cheer: HERE & NOW review: Steps jukebox musical is utterly steptacular Pristine staging, an inspired story, emotional depth and songs reframed so as to be revelatory - H, Claire, Lisa, Lee and Faye should be proud, writes Attitude's Jamie Tabberer ★★★★☆ By Jamie Tabberer It’s 12 years since the Spice Girls’ musical Viva Forever was swiftly ‘viva for-over’ after six months on the West End. It remains the most fascinating of failures. The band’s all-conquering stadium tour six years later proved an army of fans were still with them, after all. And that iconic discography – including an admittedly sparse 11 singles – could still go down a storm at Glastonbury, surely. A one-two slam of ‘Spice Up Your Life’ and ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ to open? Come on! The creators of Here & Now, however, have gone to every length to ensure no such blip tarnishes Steps’s legacy. Rather than an all-guns-blazing debut, they’ve opted for a soft launch of sorts at Birmingham’s Alexandra Theatre, where Attitude caught the show last month. Next, a UK and Ireland tour, with a West End run to follow. The roll-out out suggests business savvy, offering scope for show refinement and hype generation without the pressure of filling a gigantic, expensive London theatre right off the bat. No shade to The Devil Wears Prada, which has just done the exact opposite (and, to its credit, seems precision-engineered to fly) but Here & Now‘s trajectory should be different. It reflects the optimism, perseverance and power of self-belief of Ian ‘H’ Watkins, Claire Richards, Lisa Scott-Lee, Lee Latchford-Evans and Faye Tozer – a band still scoring number one albums 25 years later. They know exactly what they’re doing, and an indefinite, Mamma Mia!-style West End residency is still to play for when the music remains this strong and the production itself this polished. Thank goodness the book – a pleasingly low-stakes story about four friends looking for love while working at seaside supermarket Better Best Bargains; think Sex and the City in a parallel universe – was written by an actual Steps fan, for starters. Shaun Kitchener understands the true value of the band’s underrated, ABBA-adjacent back catalogue: the gloriously silly ‘Last Thing on My Mind’, the resplendently beautiful ‘One for Sorrow’ and the fabulously dark, Gaga-foreshadowing ‘Deeper Shade of Blue’, for example, all of which deserve a new lease of life. Kitchener’s alchemy with the songs and their themes is such that he finds hidden depths among them, most powerfully when recasting the campy romantic ballad ‘Heartbeat’ into a stripped-back elegy from a mother to a stillborn child lost decades before. (“You are only a heartbeat away.”) Rebecca Lock as main character Caz sings the song with such haunting restraint, as opposed to the self-aware emotional intensity of Steps in the 90s, that the song in its new form is a revelation. This sweet sadness mined from a quiet, reflective moment in an everyday woman’s life is one of the biggest surprises this reviewer has ever experienced in the theatre. Especially given Here & Now had already laid out its narrative table as a frothy affair akin to a teatime soap, or so I thought. (But if you’ve seen that Dot and Ethel scene from EastEnders, or that Jack and Vera scene from Coronation Street, you’ll know soaps can also serve emotional wallops worthy of opera.) Kitchener does it again with ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’, once more elevated from overly sentimental origins and performed as a coming out anthem by Sharlene Hector as Vel, her absolutely joyous – and I mean joyous – voice strong and beautiful as she declares her love for a female friend. Not every song is repurposed quite so elegantly, or sung quite so exceptionally, of course. One crowd-pleaser in particular, which should have been the penultimate number, lands with a thud in both performance and placement. But like Steps themselves, there’s something perfectly imperfect about even the show’s shortcomings. The way the Marmite-like ‘5, 6, 7, 8’ for example, is shoehorned in to soundtrack Better Best Bargains’ hoedown-themed sale. As one of the biggest-selling singles never to make the top 10, this truly bizarre song was itself shoehorned into popular culture, and its use here raises a knowing smile rather than an eyebrow. There are many more quietly hilarious details, such as shelves that frame the stage, artfully stocked with everyday essentials like… toilet paper. The staging generally is pristine, and vividly lit in neon pinks and blues, almost like a TV-set, as a tireless troupe of dancers serve a celebration for the eyes. If only every high street supermarket were this aesthetically pleasing. Full marks, too for the unforced LGBTQ representation, lovingly folded into the mix rather than studded on like rhinestones. Vel coming out later in life, and late in the show, is handled with such subtlety that this reviewer couldn’t quite predict it. There’s generational contrast, too, in the quiet confidence of Blake Patrick Anderson as hook-up-loving Robbie, a charming, puppyish gay-boy-next-door. (The cheerful ‘Say You’ll Be Mine’ fits him like a glove.) Drag Race UK star River Medway, finally, serves another facet of queerness, and an array genderqueer fashion, as Robbie’s plucky love interest, Jem. Young Robbie, it transpires, is estranged from his dad, and the way he is swept up into the loving arms of his three female friends, two of them much older, feels like a novel take on found family cliches. Beyond this, queerphobia is lightly discussed but not depicted, which could prove healing for middle-aged LGBTQs who grew up on Steps. One hopes it will send an inspiring message to modern LGBTQ youth, too, as society becomes somehow more and less accepting of queerness at once. One thing’s for sure: if this show charms the nation, as it should, it could really make a difference.

Booked and busy!

It's Wrapped, not Unwrapped! 5th place in my Top Artists 7 songs appear in my Top 100: 27th - Edge of Saturday Night 31st - My Oh My 42nd - Lights Camera Action 53rd - Tension 61st - Padam Padam 72nd - Dance Alone 80th - Midnight Ride

I'm afraid for me it's: Using Last.fm (covering 1st January to 15th November because apparently that's the cut off date) Steps were my 19th most listened to artist with 140 scrobbles Top song: Something in Your Eyes with 7 scrobbles - my joint 377th most played song of the year Top album: Buzz with 32 scrobbles - my joint 53rd most played album of the year

You listened for 41,410 minutes this year - that puts you in the top 7% of listeners worldwide. Your biggest listening day was on 31 January with 585 minutes. You played 3,838 songs this year. Your top song was 'we can't be friends (wait for your love)' by Ariana Grande. You were in the top 0.01% of listeners globally. You streamed it 102 times, starting on 8 March. You listened to 1,423 artists. Charli xcx was your top artist of the year. Your longest listening streak was 9 days. You're a top 0.5% fan and you spent 2,198 minutes together. (My video message was from her!) Top Artists 1 Charli xcx 2 Ariana Grande 3 Taylor Swift 4 Troye Sivan 5 Kylie Minogue Top Songs 1 we can't be friends (wait for your love) by Ariana Grande 2 yes, and? by Ariana Grande 3 Fortnight (feat. Post Malone) by Taylor Swift 4 Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter 5 Good Luck, Babe! by Chappell Roan Bonus stuff: May was your Pumpkin Spice Talent Show Pop phase - your were really into artists like Charli xcx, Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter. September was your Dance Party Throwback R&B 90s Pop season - you were all about artists like Spice Girls, Steps and S Club. October was your Joyride Mashup Dance Pop moment - you were big on artists like Kylie Minogue, The Blessed Madonna and Bebe Rexha.

Only On the Metro (85th) and Something New (90th) made my Top 100 despite a lot of listening to them during the tour :o But my Top 100 is absolutely full of new music from 2024 and last year.

Well the link has been deleted and there's no sign of it going on sale today :thinking:

🤩 Did you manage to keep some of them in a good condition after all this time? From looking at eBay over the years, I get the sense that vinyl purchases in the 20th century weren't often treated as though they were precious items, so people weren't as fussed about keeping the covers pristine. I found it quite a challenge to track down reasonable looking Kylie singles, and in some cases I had to accept that some were a bit dog-eared/creased etc. :o I suppose back then because it was the main source of music listening, with constant handling and playing, they were more likely to get wear and tear. Despite the fact that I've amassed quite a large vinyl collection, I don't play them as often as I probably should do to have justified getting them! :kink: So pretty much everything is in excellent condition (bar the odd one or two that arrived with a bit of damage and I couldn't be bothered to try and replace).

Sixth? :nocheer: Two fabulous songs in the Top 2 but I hope Good Luck, Babe! is the winner!

Looks like we’re getting a Christmas release on CD and Vinyl :o With the title “Christmas ‘Round At Ours”. If so, they’ve left it rather late! https://girlsaloud.lnk.to/Christmas2024?fbc...ojU9FtEMMlkcu9A