MKS live and unplugged

Mutya, Keisha, Siobhan live in front of a camera, acapella, no backing instruments, no autotuner.

 Amazing! 

 

Waiting, waiting...

Waiting, waiting...

Waiting for the MKS Album.

 Here's an idea. Why don't they put out an extended album and include the tracks from Keisha's unreleased album? In the days before mp3 this used to be known as a double album. In fact they could put a superb souvenir package in the shops with two CDs.

Here's to 2013 and the release of MutyaKeishaSiobhan's first album!

Strings and studio magic!

The reunited band seem to have been recording this afternoon judging by Mutya and Keisha's tweets.

Keisha's tweeted: Fat beats, strings, beautiful melodies...#Studiomagic :-)

Sounds like hard core Sugababes to me!

 Maybe like this:

Reunion band's first single?

Siobhan tweeted last night: "Oh boy, it's a first single!!! We killed it today"

 Officially, of course, she could be referring to her new solo project. But then why the "we"?

 Somebody asked Keisha if her first single was ready. Her reply: "Getting there :-)"  She'd earlier tweeted: "Studio session was soooo dope!!! " Shortly after somebody asked Mutya whether she was speaking to any of the other Babes. Her denial came (as it did in January): "We dnt speak but were kl".

Curious that as a few hours later she was out clubbing with Keisha - and here's the evidence: http://yfrog.com/mnysztej 

Bet they were celebrating the completion of that first single. It's gotta be good! And here's a reminder of just how good it could be:

Sweet7 - to buy or not to buy?

I'm struggling on this. I really don't want to spend the money on something that I'm not going to enjoy. But it's now a matter of conscience - having downloaded Sweet7, the new version, I ought to pay for it. Besides, a portion of the royalties will go to Keisha, who has some song-writing credits, I believe.

The album's getting uniformly bad reviews. That's no surprise. Catfights and Spotlights had mixed reviews - even though it was an authentic Sugababes album. There's a clutch of reviewers who've never liked the band and cannot be bothered to listen properly.

Who are the legal Sugababes? goes to court

Back in October, I asked Who are the legal Sugababes?

Keisha was made to sign all sorts of legal documents but what about Mutya and Siobhan? It was a good question, one that Mutya herself was pondering, it now emerges.

It's now been reported Mutya's filed a suit to recover the name. Here's the ITN version of the story. Keisha and Siobhan are said to be involved in the action as joint owners of the name.

Happy Christmases from the Babes past and present

Here are the Sugababes on Christmas Day this year...



An interesting performance as you can see Jade taking over the "soul" role from Keisha. However the quality of the vocals is different.

And here they are three years ago doing White Christmas on the Charlotte Church show...

Keisha and Mutya may duet

Keisha Buchanan has been talking about a collaboration with her original play-ground singing buddy, Mutya Buena, on her new album. Let's hope they get the bug and duet on a great song, which will make a great single for the "Original Sugababes"!

Here are the tweets which set out her hopes:

"@Jay_JayLondon I'll hopefully be working with mutya on my album! Lets see if i can get her attention 4 3 seconds first lol She's a busy beex
7:36 AM Nov 23rd from web in reply to Jay_JayLondon

I'm talking about the original line up by the way ;-) xxx
3:27 PM Nov 17th from TwitterBerry

:) I'm not re-forming the sugababes. We've spoken & I'm pleased they've lent me their support & vice versa. But we're 100% NOT reforming xxx"

Talking reunion!

Meanwhile there's talk of the original first ever Sugababes reforming!

Mutya Buena has apparently met Siobhan Donaghy. Here's the MTV report.

I wonder what they would perform as? Mutya, Keisha & Siobhan would be good enough. There were all sorts of gags going around about what the new Sugababes should really be called - I liked Nutrababes.

The reformed band would be a serious affair - how about Babes No More ?

The first smile...

This may have been the moment when a Sugababe first smiled...it was Keisha. It came during the Top of the Pops performance of Caught in a Moment. The single was not a great success but it's a great song and this was a great performance by Keisha, Heidi and Mutya. I haven't been able to find it on YouTube anywhere so have uploaded this clip. The smile comes at the end.

Keisha lets rip -

No, not on Twitter! This is a great video compilation posted on youtube some months ago by a fan, including a clip from the Sound of Goodbye from Catfights. It's entitled Keisha's high notes - but really it just highlights the strength of the ex-Sugababes' voice and, also, the way it has developed over the last decade.

Aint it crazy how you think you've got your whole life planned
only to find out it was never in your hands
(Change)

The difference

Siobhan walked, Mutya walked, Keisha was sacked to all intents and purposes. I wonder who actually has the copyright on the name...I can see legal action coming up.

This is a link to the photoshoot with the new line-up. Look at Heidi's body language. And, yes, the pictures and the poses are seriously demeaning.

Mutya's Buena's come out fighting - and as it happens she has a new single "fallin".

She's said some sensible things: like, why on earth has Heidi Guest stuck around? You can find her thoughts on Twitter. And that she's definitely interesting in reforming the Sugababes. Not clear whether it's with Heidi or Siobhan or both.

She says: It all started so innocently...a love for music and a dream...look what its become. RIP

She's also been heard talking about reforming the band. Check out this interview here...skip the yukky bits about plastic surgery, which occupy the first three minutes. I like the idea of the reformed band the "Sugawomen"!

Keisha walks

Keisha Buchanan has gone and the Sugababes in any recognisable form are no more. I speculated how Jade Ewan would fit in with Keisha and Heidi. The faceless managers running things appear also to have considered that - and demanded Keisha go rather than Amelle. It is a tragedy.

To my mind the challenge now is to see a band producing distinctive music worthy of the name Sugababes. Sweet7 - which should be renamed Bittersweet7 - started badly with Get Sexy and was shafted by its own producers. The others songs we've heard seem decent but not necessarily much better than we heard on Catfights.And will it be rerecorded?

This must now be the band's last album. Then they can all make friends again and we can look forward to that great reunion in the 02 stadium.

Stronger - Sugababes evolution!

I remember watching, even studying, the Sugababes performing Stronger on Top of the Pops, back in 2002. The question on my mind back then was "are these girls for real?" How could they be achieving the harmonies and lilting melodies of this song? The BBC programme TOTP was notorious for its requirement that acts mime their music.

There's another notable feature of Stronger - for it was the first time Keisha's powerful gospel vocals were let loose. And over the years, the song has evolved - in some recent performances Keisha has utterly freaked out, gospel style.

In fact it evolved in November 2002 - as these two recordings from the beginning and end of November show. Whatever the second performance was, it wasn't the recorded version:

Overload - the original live performance

Here's the original Sugababes live performance of Overload at Top of the Pops, October 22nd 2000 with Siobhan, Keisha and Mutya, all very young at the time: