Sugababes at Loves Saves the Day review: ‘Festival pop nirvana’
"It’s as if three awesome solo artists are moonlighting as a super group," writes Attitude's Jamie Tabberer of the girls' performance in Bristol
“Ooh-oh-oh-oh – oh-aaaaah!” With these soulful exclamations at the climax of Flatline, one of the century’s most underappreciated pop masterpieces, the (original) Sugababes delivered a harmony so perfect it verged on godly at yesterday’s Love Saves the Day Festival in Bristol. That’s what happens when three gorgeous voices, so distinct as to be poles apart, combine to form a singular fourth that’s more than the sum of its parts.
Thousands of rowdy, pissed-up youngsters – many of whom surely didn’t exist when the arrestingly cool Overload dropped in 2000; hell, half weren’t even when Ugly came out in 2005 – looked momentarily perplexed by the beauty, better-suited as they were to the punishing drum and bass vibrating from every other corner of the festival. (Dance veteran Katy B, by the way, was awesome.) But if they came for palate-cleansing pop, that’s exactly what they got. Monster hits like Push the Button, so continually ubiquitous as to render age irrelevant, popped off to the extent that even straight men were singing along en masse.
Pop purists like yours truly, however, may have been conflicted about the setlist. Particularly closer About You Now, the band’s sparkly most-streamed song on Spotify… On which Mutya Buena and Siobhán Donaghy didn’t originally sing. (Siobhán, of course, left the group in 2001 after their first album. She, Keisha, and Mutya reunited to form the clunkily-named MKS in 2012 and won back rights to their original name in 2019, thank God.)
Neither sang on the single version of ‘Red Dress’ either. But you don’t begrudge them that bop, given Mutya co-wrote it and Keisha basically carried it on release. As such, a sort of mental arithmetic plagued their one-hour set: does Siobhán belong on conventional club banger In the Middle? In theory, yes, if Mutya and Keisha are fine with it, but it doesn’t suit her. Does she belong on growling opener Freak Like Me, and its punchy, attitude-laden companion Round Round? A thousand times yes: both songs are actually tailor-made for her, in that they’re decidedly left of the middle. (In hindsight, it’s sort of surprising Heidi Range sold their gritty, alterna-pop appeal as effectively as she did, given she’d one day usher in the Babes’ basic AF ‘Sweet 7’ era.)
The way Siobhan performs the likes of Hole in the Head, too, is utterly convincing: all undeniably pristine vocals and steely conviction that stands shoulder to shoulder with Mutya and Keisha’s fabulous confidence. Together, they enjoy a mutually advantageous synergy that leaves one wishing the star never left in the first place. (But if she hadn’t, we wouldn’t have her hauntingly perfect solo LP ‘Ghosts’. So, swings and roundabouts.)
They’re proper, proper pros. Put simply, this line-up can’t be beat: it’s as if three awesome solo artists are moonlighting as a super group. Which, in way, they are. As such, why not have About You Now performed solo by Keisha?
To be clear, such critical thinking comes from a place of wanting the girls to gig on and prosper for another two-and-a-half decades, so that they can platform, outside of a festival setting, historic hidden gems like Soul Sound, and latter-day triumphs like Drum. Based on the strength of this performance, they absolutely will. Powerful singing and swaggy choreo more than made up for the odd production and timing issue. And Flowers – the girls’ 2019 DJ Spoony collab and cover of the Sweet Female Attitude hit – pushed the crowd to a state of hysteria, suggesting there are many new Sugababes chapters to come.