The sweet smell of success

For the Sugababes, the highlight of 2007 has been returning to the big-time with their successful new album, Change, the band’s fifth studio outing since 2000.

“We’re absolutely thrilled with the way the new album’s gone,” beams a friendly and upbeat Heidi Range, the aptly named representative of blonde beauty in the Sugababes, who in a past-life was a founding member of Atomic Kitten.
“You always get nervous with a new album and worry about people’s reactions and whether they’ll still like you, especially when you haven’t produced a new studio album for a couple of years. So we were thrilled that Change went to Number 1 and stayed there for four weeks. We only finished writing it last September, so it all seems to have happened really fast. We love the record, and we’re really enjoying what we’re doing right now, looking forward to our tour coming up next March and writing a new album next year.”
Range admits that Change was also scary to release because it was the first album featuring the Sugababes’ new line-up. On Change, all vocals are done by Range, Keisha Buchanan (who started up the band back in 1998 with her friend, Mutya Buena, getting signed when they were both only 14 years old), and new member Amelle Berrabah, who replaced Buena when she left in 2005 soon after their album, Taller In More Ways, earned Sugababes a number one album slot for the first time.
It’s to be expected for a group of very young, beautiful, talented women to be the focus of tabloid speculation of the shit-stirring variety. And sure enough, the Sugababes – particularly in the wake of their two line-up changes – have been described in media coverage as moody, catfighting backstabbers, and are regularly surrounded by rumours of in-fighting and band splits. The most notable of these was the alleged bullying of Siobhan Donaghy, who quit the band in 2001, and allegations – denied by Range – that Buchanan and Buena bullied her when she joined the band. In Dublin in spring 2004, ‘a heated difference of opinion’ between Range and Buchanan over Britney Spears’ pop song ‘Toxic’ was apparently reason enough for the band to cancel two gigs at the very last minute.
Playing down the rumours, Range insists that the Sugababes have always got on really well.
“We have a really good relationship. We enjoy what we’re doing and are really very happy. That whole celeb speculation thing is just part of it all, and we accept that, though sometimes stuff gets written that’s completely untrue and then it can feel like things are overstepping the mark. But what’s happening recently is that we’ve met a lot of the journalists by now, and they’re getting to know us, and so there’s more respect there, so it’s getting easier now.”
Looking back over 2007 and ahead to 2008, Range is excited by what she sees as a renaissance in the world of pop.
“It’s definitely coming back,” she enthuses. “For a while there, we were really only one of the few pop bands around – the music scene seemed to be dominated by indie and rock. Now I absolutely love that type of music, and all good music from every genre, but at the same time it’s great to see – with the likes of Take That coming back – how pop music is being re-invented at the moment. Fans are breaking out of any hard moulds and crossing over into different categories now in what they like – much more so than before. And the same crossing over is going on between bands from different genres; like Arctic Monkeys did a cover of a Girls Aloud song, then we did a cover of their big hit ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’, which was the B-side of our single ‘Red Dress’.
“We were delighted when Primal Scream said they like what we’re doing,” coos Range. “It’s great to get a seal of approval from an incredible band like that, and to be getting a lot more support from different areas of the music industry generally. We’re getting to know more musicians from every area, and they’re getting to know us, so there’s a lot of mutual appreciation going on, and that’s influencing pop in a really good way. Overall we think it’s a really healthy, positive time for pop music, and we’re really looking forward to the year ahead.”