Music > Live Reviews

Sugar Babes

The Nick Rayns LCR, UEA

22/10/22

“Can we go and see the Sugababes Dad”, asks my 27-year-old daughter? She then goes a step further, “You always did like them, didn’t you? A debate ensues as to who I bought the Angels With Dirty Faces cd for back in the day in 2002! As the reader, I’ll let you decide as you spend the next 5 minutes reading this review if that’s okay.
Its three gigs in four nights for me during this week and the Sugababes are sandwiched in between a night off, my current favourite band (The Snuts) and my all-time favourite band (The Undertones), but at least I was looking forward to the night out with Lily.

It’s almost full house this evening, it’s comfortable in the LCR and we are seeing a real a mix of fan. I’d say that at least 60% are 27 to mid-thirty-year-old females that were the ones originally buying most of the albums back in the day, but there are also some guys of all ages that are also having a good time. It’s a real feel-good atmosphere and from the opening song, Push the Button most of the audience are hanging on their every word, I guess it comes from years of practice, practice, practice spent in front of the mirror as a youngster with a hairbrush in the hand!
Very clearly, everyone is having a great time and really enjoying themselves singing in full voice, including me (hmm-hmm!), just don’t tell the daughter that, as I’ll never hear the last of it! No wonder that they smashed Glastonbury this summer, resulting in the organisers having to close the field off that they were appearing in due the overwhelming amount of people wishing to see them.
Several line-up changes and bust up’s later, these three childhood friends (Mutya, Siobhan, and Keisha) are the original Sugababes, they reformed a while back now and that’s what you always want to see from a band isn’t it (the original line up)? Getting the main stays of a band, back on stage, is so important to music fans. As a trio, they are good to watch, each unique in appearance and vocally on it, and that’s a good thing, right?

But did you know that under the various line-up changes that they are eight albums in now? I mean how on earth did that happen?
The girls can all sing that’s for sure and throughout the eighty-minute set, they all get a chance to remind us of that as they each take on various solo slots and of course they also combine in perfect harmony. But the Suga’s are not your traditional girl band with all the dance moves and no grooves, although they do throw some shapes occasionally, but it’s mostly about the music and their obvious talents of which they have in abundance.

Their ‘Live’ band is just amazing, they look cool, and are sounding just awesome, their musicianship is right up there, I kid you not. What! A girl band with a proper rock band behind them, who would’ve thought it? it’s different, original, rather very quirky, and rather classy. Whoever put it all together deserves a BIG fat credit.
On 2 Hearts, I spend almost the entire song watching the drummer, for he is amazing, such an incredible talent sitting and swashbuckling behind his ginormous drum kit. It’s a great song, yes, it is bloody good let me tell you.

The tracks Today, Overload and Flowers, with that super talented band sitting behind the great vocals also sound really very good, they really must get some of their newer material released at some point soon (please).

Sure, there are some filler moments, but I am not a full-on fan so therefore I don’t know all the songs, I am looking in from the outside, hearing many of the songs for the first time. However, there are some absolute killer moments too.

Freak Like Me and Stronger take them onto another stratosphere. I mean have there been two better pop songs during the past twenty years? Of course, there hasn’t and me and Lily and one thousand others want to see you in the UEA car park right now if you disagree with us, right!? 

 
Fair play to the girls for reclaiming their band name, I am sure that it wouldn’t have been easy and would most certainly have cost a few quid. But you can see tonight just how much it means to them.
It has been 9 years since they last played in Norwich, but I am sure that they will be back in the future and by the time that Lily asks me next time, I will probably already have the tickets in my back pocket? (Just saying).

And do you know what, maybe I did buy that cd for me more than Lily after all? I really can’t remember, but what matters most is that we both enjoyed listening to them twenty years ago as much as each other and here we are in 2022 and both enjoying it as much as each other as father and daughter once again at the LCR.
Don’t ever underestimate the power of music. Thanks, Sugababes and see you next time, that you’re in the city. Shhh! For I am really left feeling so good about you now!