The Saturdays' twist in the tale
Once upon a time pop was a bad word. But then The Saturdays made it all OK again. Didn't they fellas?
WHEN someone told bubbly Vanessa White going on her first headline tour would be the trip of a lifetime she never thought she would be taking it quite so literally.
So when pop lovelies The Saturdays flounce into Sheffield – on Saturday, of course – don't expect one of their number to be doing any back flips.
No sooner had their jaunt around our island begun, Vanessa, pictured second right, was having to use an accessory she never anticipated taking on the road – a wheelchair.
"I have been walking around again, doing some stuff," she says when we catch her and the girls at a pre-record session for GMTV. "I cannot wear any heels so I am on barefoot – I'm doing what I can."
Vanessa was having to sit through most of the earlier shows having damaged a ligament on just the second night of the tour at Dundee's Caird Hall.
She was in heels going on stage when disaster struck.
"I walked up some steps, it was dark and I tripped on one of the wires and couldn't make it," recalls the 19-year-old.
"The ambulance came and I got treated. I still made it out for half of the performance.
"I don't want to miss the experience so I'm having lots of treatment."
One part of the treatment features something called cupping, where pressure cups are placed on to the affected area. "It's not very nice, but anything to get it better. At least the other girls are putting in a good show.
"They've been really nice to me but I'm getting bored of sitting down.
"I get to see everybody else but I'm doing as much as I can on the chair. I can dance, but as soon as I put on heels..."
Then there's the burn she picked up, off her tongs.
"I'm very clumsy," admits the Somerset-born beauty.
Fortunately for The Saturdays, making their debut at Sheffield City Hall tomorrow with delightful recent chart-topping newcomer Pixie Lott in support, having five sets of legs to make the moves means the show has been able to go on unhindered.
That's just as well as tickets have been in demand for an act that, since bursting into our lives less than a year ago with unadulterated good-time pop, have chalked up a platinum album, Chasing Lights, and huge hits with electro-bop livener If This Is Love, Up, the soppy Issues and Just Can't Get Enough, a love it-or-hate-it cover of the Depeche Mode classic and their Comic Relief number one.
"It was nice to do something different," says Vanessa, who was the one with the cakes in the cheeky video.
"You're always going to get someone say you've ruined the song, though."
With V festival also in their sights and massive stadium dates with Take That before that, this summer is proving a very clear marker as to the success of these fun-loving ladies named after "everyone's favourite day of the week" – as well as an indication as to whether former S-Club Juniors Frankie and Rochelle, confessed worrier Mollie, one-time Irish rock band member Una and fall-girl Vanessa can cut it live.
"It's a very surreal feeling," adds Vanessa. "We've not really taken it in. We just about know what we're doing the next day. But it is such a good feeling... we did not expect sold out shows. But we just sing and we do it. It's what we are about.
"And we want to show people we have talent – that's why we are adamant we do it live. We hate miming although on TV they can't always cater for singing live."
Apparently they've recorded some songs for the next album, so expect to hear The Saturdays "trying some out", not least on the festival crowds which Frankie is looking forward to getting her mic into.
"We're not models who can't sing – we can all sing, we can all dance and no one's telling us who to be or what to do," she declares. "That's the way it should be."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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