The Saturdays

Article from The Daily Mail

WHO ARE THEY?

A new girl band who are hoping to reach the top without the catfights or Premiership boyfriends.

WHAT’S THE SPIN?

The quintet’s record label, Fascination (home to teen pin-ups The Jonas Brothers), reckons that The Saturdays are ‘a five-woman whirlwind’ who will put some fun back into the charts.

AND THE REALITY?

Well, the garish outfits and irritatingly catchy debut single are in place. And with Girls Aloud and the Sugababes (11 albums between them) approaching pop veteran status, The Saturdays’ timing is spot-on. Some will dismiss them as manufactured disco dollies, but they seem unfazed: ‘We’re a proper, full-on girl band and we love it,’ they say.

WHAT DO THEY SOUND LIKE?

More Rihanna than Girls Aloud. Their first single, If This Is Love (set to chart on Sunday), is a slick, electro-soul number built around a sample from Eighties synth duo Yazoo. The vocals are a little shrill in places, but the overall feel is upbeat and feisty.

WHAT’S THE ST0RY?

Two of the girls, Essex lasses Frankie Sandford and Rochelle Wiseman, were members of S Club Juniors in 2002. They continued to sing after that ill-fated project fell apart and eventually hooked up with Londoners Vanessa White and Mollie King, plus Irish singer Una Healy, a guitarist who has already released a solo album in her homeland and is regarded as the band’s most sensible member.

AND THEN?

The group got their big break when they supported Girls Aloud on their Tangled Up tour earlier this year. They have since recorded their debut album, as yet untitled, and are planning to play live at a London showcase when it comes out in October.

WHAT NEXT?

Chart success without the tantrums and tittletattle, hopefully. Frankie says: ‘We’re not models who can’t sing. We all sing and we all dance. No one’s telling us what to do. We’re all different because we’re just ourselves  –  and that’s the way it should be.’

This is a new Interview with Rochelle in the Metro Newspaper, during the Interview she mentions visiting our very forum – infact this topic – so proof that The Saturdays Fansite is THE place to be for the latest news about The Saturdays!

Did you get recognised?
Sometimes. It was a bit weird. They’d be like: ‘What’s she doing here?’ My friend sent me a link to an internet forum and the thread was: ‘Rochelle in leaflet shocker.’ It said: ‘Why has she lowered herself to that?’ I’m not too la-di-da to get a job. I wasn’t doing anything dodgy or making bogus benefit claims.

The rest of the Interview:

Are you the new Girls Aloud?
We’re five girls and we sing pop music but we’re a different band. It’s a compliment because Girls Aloud have done so well but we’ve worked with Rihanna’s producers and have a different vibe.

You don’t have a ginger one – will it prove a fatal mistake?
No, but we’ve got a blonde and a few brunettes. Having a ginger wasn’t at the top of our list of priorities.

What’s the biggest argument you’ve had in the group?
We don’t really argue. We get on well and that’s because we don’t all live together. There isn’t a Saturdays house, we’re not on top of each other. It was suggested we’d all live together but we’re happy living at home still. If someone’s a bit grouchy, it’s usually just because it’s that time of the month.

Why did you stop presenting?
Smile finished and my contract ended. They’ve stopped all those children’s morning magazine shows. I started dancing and singing lessons after the show ended and started auditioning again.

What was your worst presenting moment?
I had to cook on the programme and something went a bit wrong once. I said ‘bloody hell’ and got told off afterwards. It was very strict. I had to train myself not to say ‘s***’ and I couldn’t even say ‘Oh, my God!’ because it’s blasphemous. I really had to watch what I said.

Is Charley from last year’s Big Brother really your mate?
No, and I don’t know how that rumour started. I’ve never even had a conversation with the girl. I know people who know her and we’ve said ‘hi’ but we’re not friends.

Would you do Big Brother yourself?
No. We did Channel 4’s Nokia Green Room recently where you sit ‘backstage’ in a room chatting with other performers. Afterwards, I was thinking: ‘Did I pick my nose? Did I pull a wedgie out?’ We were edited nicely but it’s not like that on Big Brother. You’re setting yourself up for a fall.

Were you exploited as an S Club 8 member?
When you’re that age, if someone asks you if want to come out of school and sing and dance, you’re going to say ‘yes’. I was going to dance lessons every weekend anyway. Our parents were involved and we were only allowed to work a set amount of hours a day. It’s so different now. Now I know what real work is, ha ha.

Some people said your management dressed you all too saucily for your age…
That’s ridiculous. The only make-up we were allowed was a bit of lip balm and, on special occasions, mascara. The outfits were jeans and T-shirts. If you think that’s bad, you need to look around at what young girls are wearing today – it’s definitely more scary. You see children of that age walking down the street smoking, that’s worse than a bit of lip balm.

Did you consider getting a proper job after S Club 8 ended?
When it ended it was a shock. We went from having every hour scheduled to waking up at home thinking: ‘What am I doing today?’ I landed Smile straight after. When that ended, I had a year with no money coming in. I was giving out leaflets for a local radio station in Essex. It was horrible. Everyone was like: ‘No, I don’t want your leaflet.’ That’s why I take leaflets from people in the street now because it’s so disheartening.

Do you get on with Girls Aloud or are you deadly rivals?
We were the support act on their tour. They had long sound checks and interviews, they were always working, but they’d sit down and have dinner with us which was nice because they didn’t have to.

Remember “If This Is Love” is out in the shops NOW! It currently sits at number 22 on iTunes after just a day of sales! Buy it from iTunes and your local music store!

It’s been a while since a new girl group conquered the pop charts, but Fascination Records, the home of Girls Aloud, are hoping to end the drought with fresh-faced five-piece The Saturdays. With their glossy debut single, ‘If This Is Love’, out today, we caught up with three of the girls – Mollie, Una, and former S Club Juniors star Rochelle – to find out what The Saturdays are all about.

How did The Saturdays form?
Rochelle: “Well, there’s kind of a mish-mash of stories. Me and Frankie used to know each other from being in S Club Juniors, so we knew the label and obviously we heard about the opportunity to join this new girl group through that.”
Mollie: “I was in a girl group before this and we did The X Factor, and through that I was poached for this band.”
Una: “I was working as a singer-songwriter doing gigs at hotels and functions, and I decided to get away from that and come to London. I got in touch with the agent who was casting for this band and that was the first thing I went for. It was perfect for me so I haven’t looked back since.”

When did you all first meet?
Mollie: “About a year ago. We met last July, but we didn’t start working together until earlier this year because the contracts took a while to sort out.”

Do you all live together, or is that sort of thing a bit old-fashioned now?
Rochelle: “We don’t actually. I think this is kind of a fresher take on things. You hear about a lot of bands having arguments, but the reason we get on so well is because we go home at the end of the day and have a bit of normality.”

Why are you called The Saturdays?
Mollie: “We just thought it was fun and it didn’t sound like a typical girl-band name.”
Una: “We wrote out a list of potential names, almost everything that came into our heads really, and in the end we had about 200 names to choose from. We thought The Saturdays sounded fun and different to the other girl bands out there. We didn’t want to have a reference to being a girl in there, like Girls Aloud or Sugababes.”

What was the worst name that was suggested?
Rachelle: “Major Tom! I mean, who the hell came up with that? I really liked the runner-up name actually, which was Girls Can’t Catch.”
Una: “But I hated it!”
Mollie: “And I was sitting on the fence, but The Saturdays just seemed to fit.”

How would you describe your music?
Rochelle: “Pop!”
Mollie: “Full-on fun pop. We’re not trying to be too cool.”
Una: “It’s really catchy pop songs that people can sing along to.”
Mollie: “The lyrics are really clever too. We don’t write them, but we’re working with a lady called Ena who asks us how we’re feeling about situations and then writes about them.”

What’s the debut single, ‘If This Is Love’, about?
Una: “It’s about a love/hate relationship really. These two people are falling in love but they’re scared of getting hurt. The verses are all about one of them stalking the other one, hanging out outside the other’s window…”
Rochelle: “Ha ha! So watch out for the stalker!”

What was it like supporting Girls Aloud on their recent tour?
Mollie: “It was the best experience ever. The girls were so nice to us and said if we needed any help and advice we should go to them. It was like a big girly road trip.”
Una: “They’re such an inspiration to us because they’ve been together for five years and now they’re filling out arenas all over the country. If we could be like that one day, how amazing would that be?”

Which girl group from pop’s past do you most admire?
Una: “Spice Girls.”
Mollie: “My favourite girl group was the Spice Girls, but my favourite pop band ever was *NSYNC.”
Rochelle: “I really liked the Spice Girls, but I liked Cleopatra too actually.”
Una: “Cleopatra, comin’ atcha!”

Are you Sugababes fans too?
Mollie: “I like Sugababes, but I prefer Girls Aloud because I feel it’s more my sort of music. I feel we get to know their personalities more too, whereas we don’t really know much about Sugababes.”

Do you want people to know all about you?
Mollie: “We do want people to know us because we’re all different.”
Rochelle: “It’s a fine line because we don’t want to be in people’s faces, but we do want people to get to know our individual personalities. We’ve definitely got nothing to hide.”

Finally Rochelle, would you ever slip an S Club Juniors cover into your live set?
Rachelle: “Hell no! I’m proud of it but I don’t wanna go back there!”