Dance music has been a component of the Sugababes. Now that the original trio have reunited, they dominate the dance floors, collaborate with trendy DJs, and assert their credentials in the new club scene. Patrick Hinton reports

There are many venues known for their raucous atmosphere at Glastonbury Festival, but the Field Of Avalon is not one of them. Once part of The Green Fields Zen sanctuary, its setup is similar to a village festival: a cheese toastie van, screaming children wandering around and a packed real beer bar. Avalon is a place where “festival travelers come to rest their weary legs and recharge their batteries”, says Glastonbury’s website, while the music offers notes of conviviality, nostalgia and appeal to the average Absolute RadioArray listener.

On a warm Friday afternoon in 2022, everything is going according to plan. But as night falls, absolute chaos reigns. The beats pump inside the store, which can be filled five times over due to the overflow that invades the field. There are 3 Reasons for this change of atmosphere: Mutya Buena, Keisha Buchanan and Siobhán Donaghy, the Sugababes, the original Sugababes, back together after twenty years. Avalon had never noticed things like this. It’s a parade of hits on stage, and the tent bounces. The trio feeds off the energy, reveling in it with garage-style MC jams. Dancers inside light sparklers and many others outside climb on hay bales to enjoy a greater view and distance themselves with the same force. Security has closed access to the area, but undeterred, other people desperately climb the fence to sign up for the action. It seems a bit like an illegal rave in a disoriented provincial village, taking over. this quiet area for a crazy party.

When they leave the stage, the Sugababs are stunned. ” Actually, we’re still. . . like, I’m just looking. . . Is it hard when you get off stage. . . Get off the – get off?! Does that make sense?'” Keisha Buchanan asks BBC presenter Remi Burgz. “I’m having some kind of out-of-body experience,” Siobhán Donaghy says wide-eyed. Burgz turns to the camera with one last unequivocal comment: “I just need to confirm: the Sugababes are back, okay?You saw it here!

Two summers later, on a Tuesday afternoon in Berlin, a city known for its loud party atmosphere, the dance at an unconventional venue is in danger of being shut down. A späti (we could just call it a corner shop) in the center of Freidrichshain has been remodeled into a pop-up venue, with a sound formula in position, turntables on the counter and a makeshift dance floor. Local duo DJ Heartstring are on the bill, starring in a special bill.

The line is long, but there is none of the funeral procession atmosphere that one might associate with the long lines at Berlin clubs, although most have evidently given up hope of getting in. Libauer Straße is a sea of ​​people drinking beers on the road. and hang out to watch some of the action from the outside, hindered only by a strong Polizei presence. When the visitors arrive, you guessed it, it’s the Sugababes! – are greeted with excited shouts. An internal catwalk has been opened and the triad strides across the dance floor with determination, bringing the level to the analogue synth anthems of “Freak Like Me”. The local club explodes and continues to bounce off the walls with hits like “Overload” and a mix of British garage songs. To conclude, The Sugababes head to the counter booth and sing live with DJ Heartstring while releasing their remix of “Push The Button. ” His vocal mastery is impressive and focuses on reworking that plays with melody, tone and adds a driving rhythm. People dance in the street as far as the eye can see. Inside it is chaos. As this peak of euphoria passes, the dance floor podium reopens and emerge with waves and kisses sent to the extremely joyful crowd. The turnout doesn’t leave them speechless: it’s just a day in the life of the Sugababes in 2024, now favorites of recognition clubs in addition to their pop and R&B stardom.

The crowd is excited and the showcase continues, with DJ Heartstring dropping remixes of Disclosure, Shygirl and ecstatic piano house. You can help yourself to drinks and snacks from the späti, but it’s still illegal to see other people raiding refrigerators and shelves for beer, wine, candy, and, in one case, a pot full of ice. Have I died and gone to rave nirvana? Not quite, it’s definitely a logo activation. The occasion was organized through Deutsche Telekom with Electronic Beats, kicking off its ‘A Summer to Remember’ campaign, in which the telecommunications giant will offer “free music reports throughout Europe”, adding “unforeseen occasions in exclusive locations “. It’s not the epitome of rave culture, of course, but it is an attractive reflection of several similar themes: the effect of nostalgia on dance music; the restriction of pop culture for young people; the fusion of mainstream and underground pop; , and the Sugababes finally get their flowers as club icons.

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Whatever the reasons for the announcement, the fact that the Sugababes are invited to play with one of Europe’s most popular DJ duos at a famous Berlin nightlife venue is especially hip. It makes sense though; dance music has been in his DNA. The trio first came together over a shared love of garage, sharing mixtapes that weren’t played on mainstream radio and hanging out at under-18s club nights in suburban London. “Very exciting spots like Rayners Lane,” Siobhán tells me when we speak the day before the Berlin event. “It was amazing. You didn’t have to go to the 18+ clubs because it was more fun. Mutya is also a great space leader. “Soulful space, hard space, anything with space music in a dark room is more o less what I like,” he says, “Ibiza is one of my favorite destinations. I literally go out to book a ticket for three people. days and ended up staying there for over a week. Siobhán’s tastes also became darker. “I went to Berghain,” she shares. “I don’t forget being so pressured by what was happening. bring because I didn’t know if I would have compatibility in it. To be fair, it was as clever as I expected, I had an amazing time. ”

Musically, the influence has been there from the beginning. Their debut single, “Overload,” released in 2000 when they were just 16, was nothing like other “pop” groups of the time: a mutant combination of electronic production, indie, and hip hop, with a dynamic bassline and random percussion all at once. point. Shift one upset guitar solo to the next. After Siobhán left the organization in 2001, dance music has become a priority for all three, despite the divisions. Siobhán has become a DJ at the trendy Boombox nightclub and frequented East London nightspots such as Dalston Superstore in his spare time. Keisha and Mutya got to work on their second album, “Angels With Dirty Faces”, together with new member Heidi Range, with electronic production as a vital element. The first single is a cover of “We Don’t Give A Damn About Our Friends,” an unauthorized mix that combines R’s vocals

Much of that direction came from the album’s production team, which included Xenomania, the eclectic and eccentric songwriting group founded by Brian Higgins, Bloodyshy

The result of the Sugababes’ harmonica making a song about those more danceable rhythms is that they constitute a different sound from the world of pop and R

As this replacement took shape, Mutya, Keisha, and Siobhan were excluded from the Sugababes brand, and Siobhan’s decomposition followed later through the questionable replacements of Mutya and then Keisha, until there were no original members left. This was the case for a decade, until a legal victory in 2019 allowed the trio to regain their name. They immediately leaned into their dance music roots, releasing a canopy of classic British garage “Flowers” as a comeback single, recorded for DJ Spoony’s “Garage Classical” compilation. “When we got our name back, we probably thought it would have been a great [original] single,” Keisha says. “But we’re such old-school garage enthusiasts and thought it was a cool task to be a component of. ” Meanwhile, the Sugababes were moving into the club world like never before, with new makers and DJs latching onto their tracks to edit and release amid a developing trend.

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“In my humble opinion, one of the most productive things about the trendy music industry is the pop resurgence of the 2000s. The music that my coolest older brother laughed at when he was seven, and that now plays left to right through all your favorite DJs in clubs around the world!  ” says Jaguar, DJ and BBC Radio 1 dance presenter, who coined the term UKC (UK Cunty) for her taste that mixes “peak-hour queer clubbing and bass music. ” The DJs who have attracted the cuts and reworks of Sugagabe of late come with Midland, Yazzus, Elkka and Four Tet, with notable edits by Two Shell, Majestic, Metronomy and Joy Anonymous A clip of Eliza Rose debuting this new remix at Boiler Room to a fervent crowd earned another. viral post on TikTok for the most sensible of the list “B. O. T. A” The band that once covered a bootleg of the most sensible pop charts and now enters a new era of club notoriety was asked to create its own Boiler. Room (apparently due to the huge amount of their bootlegs uploaded to the platform), were booked to play dance events like FALSE IDOLS at Drumsheds, on a bill with Job Jobse, Saoirse, Paranoid London and more, and are now on. being chosen when brands need to have influence in clubs for occasions like the one in Berlin. späti is delirious.

The wild reaction to the filming of Avalon at Glastonbury turned out to have contributed to this. Simon Denby, co-founder of FALSE IDOLS, proves this when he talks about the reservation. “We got lucky and got in, it was joyful and I enjoyed it. ” Watching the crowd combine (partying with queer raver friends, avant-garde DJs from Berlin, and a more expected giggly pop crowd), it was varied and everyone was singing,” he says. “His music is well produced and has stood the test of time, crosses garage and British space and was incredibly popular in the early days of many of the artists we played with who listened to Sugababes when they were little. “

Expanding the attitude to “why now?” “, your comment alludes to nostalgia, which is an apparent force behind all of this. It is worth noting that nostalgia in music is rarely perceived as a symbol of poor scene adaptation and artistic stagnation, perhaps reflecting an aging clubbing base, while for younger audiences, the “boom of delusional 90s nostalgia among Generation Z… has been linked to economic hardship” (discussed more intensively here) but this too It is a cause for absolute cynicism, as Siobhán points out. Music on the Internet has changed drastically and the other eras have now become more mixed with each other. “I’m fascinated by what my niece listens to,” she says. “It was very fun because she tried to introduce me to it. Cocteau The other day I had the impression that the twins were not new and that Liz Fraser was around 60 years old, and she could not understand that fact. She believes that this replacement “has opened the doors, and they are not other people. ” . telling the younger generations what’s cool, they find it themselves and like it. ” Who doesn’t like pop hits?

DJ Heartstring, whose real names are Jonas and Leo, have a tendency to combine nostalgia with fresher club sounds, making them an ideal choice for sharing a lineup with the Sugababes. They do it very well. The Berlin-based duo has one of the most sought-after bands on the circuit for their taste that sits halfway between eurodance and techno, fusing a pop-rave technique driven by the best BPM and an ecstasy-infused euphoria that’s hard to resist. They host a popular event series called Teenage Dreams, which gets a call from a punter who once complained about Jonas’ picks. “She said, ‘Can you stop gambling those piano pieces?’Because it feels like an endless teenager. I dream,” he says with a smile. “I thought it was amazing, I’ll keep betting because that’s precisely the feeling I want. Nostalgia, reminding you of the smart old days, or whatever that means. That’s what we’re looking for. Out for.

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It is harder to be positive about the adjustments that have occurred between the “good old days” and today. Britain’s clubbing scene is struggling, with intimate nightlife venues set to close their doors amid a trend towards festival-style megavenues. This is another explanation why it is attractive to book with Sugababes fans. This is also the reason why DJ Heartstring is very happy to play with them in a späti. “It doesn’t make any sense in my head. The Sugababes in a späti! Leo exclaims, incredulous. “It’s like we can bring those mythical characters into our world and offer them in our own way,” says Jonas, referring to Spätis (which provided its young people with reasonable drinks, 24-hour opening hours). Street seating (24/7, casual, bar-like atmosphere) “is as much a component of Berlin nightlife as clubbing. ” However: “Unfortunately, the city seeks to suppress culture a bit,” he continues, reflecting on the scourges related to nightlife, such as gentrification, stricter entry restrictions and the cost of living that also affect Germany (among other countries). He fears for the future of nightlife if a new generation is unable to participate. “If we lose the next generation, they will end up disappearing. » This is the concept behind the späti rave crusade and, more broadly, DT: giving Gen Z “access to a diversity of musical experiences” (and advertising the brand).

Sure, the nightly fights are a somewhat bitter backdrop, but we still can’t agree with Jonas that “it’s because of poor health that [the Sugababes] are willing to do this. ” There would be artists of his stature who would be too great or too vital for that. And to get back to basics, it’s wonderful that the Sugagabes forgot the industry nonsense and came back from the desert to find their place in the club scene and their contribution to the newly known dance music. They love that new generations get attached and delight in their music. “I’ve noticed quite a few clips of DJs supporting our music, and it’s fantastic to see such a young audience making a song with our lyrics. Just remix it, stream it and laugh with it. That’s great to hear,” says Mutya. “Especially when they come with a big drop!” chimes to Siobhán. “You don’t get that in the original, so it’s fun. ” And not only that, but they are also encouraged through it. More intimate club performances are a favorite of his and have encouraged adaptations to his larger stadium concerts, such as the garage medley segment of his live set. “It has become a vital component of our set. In fact, I can’t believe the exhibition without it now,” says Siobhán. The decision to play this on a level in the middle of the crowd at the O2 Arena was due to the complex atmosphere they felt playing in the Boiler Room. “We were looking to create an atmosphere of intimacy, that’s why we maintained the circular game concept. You may feel that sense of intimacy and garage delirium. We just laugh,” says Keisha.

It has come full circle for the three London women who connected through a garage and formed one of the most successful musical groups in United Kingdom history with a string of pioneering hits. As for the music in the long run, expect the love affair between the Sugababes and the clubs to continue. As Siobhán explains, “faster tempos don’t lend themselves to a situation with a lot of harmony,” but, he jokes, “it worked on our new album. “

Patrick Hinton is a copywriter and digital director for Mixmag, he on Twitter