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metromagazine
24/ 3/2006

The Sugababes

Apollo, Friday and Saturday

POP vixens the Sugababes bring their UK-garage influenced sound to the Carling Apollo this weekend.

The girl group is like one of those three-headed monsters from Greek mythology - chop off one head and another pops up in its place.

The original line up consisted of childhood friends Keisha Buchanan and Mutya Buena, along with Siobhan Donaghy. They formed in 1998 when all three were under 17, and their first single Overload was nominated for a Brit Award after making the UK Top 10.

But indie kid Siobhan left the band during a promotional tour in Japan in 2001, later saying she felt isolated by the strong bond between the other two and unhappy with their focus on garage/R&B sounds.

Siobhan was replaced by scouser Heidi Range, and the formula of urban beats and classic soul vocals proved a success over the next four years with the girls recording four UK number ones and three albums that all made it into the top five.

All seemed rosy in the Sugababes garden until Keisha and Heidi turned up on T4 late last year without Mutya. After lots of smiles and awkward shuffles, it was announced that Mutya couldn't be there because she was ill. She left the group days later for "personal reasons", replaced by Amelle Berrabah.

Whether Mutya's decision to quit the group will prove its final undoing is not yet known. The Sugababes have mostly maintained control of their style and sound, and she must have influenced both.

She left following a successful year. Push the Button was a worldwide hit and the fourth album Taller in More Ways (what does that mean?) reached the top of the album charts - after the artwork and cover were reprinted featuring Amelle instead of Mutya. It went platinum, following on the success of Angels with Dirty Faces (2003) and Three (2004).

The current single from the album, Red Dress, is at number seven in the charts, down from second and one place behind arch rivals Girls Aloud. So maybe their success will continue.

It would be easy to write them all off as identikit pop robots, but, whatever the line-up, the Sugababes produce great radio music and always fill the dance floor.

Apparently they'll be performing a cover of the Artic Monkeys' I Bet That You Look Good on the Dance Floor at the Apollo. It might be worth going along just for that.

Graham Coxon

The Ritz, Tuesday

ACCORDING to rock mythology, all bands are driven by their two creative giants - the guitarist and the lead singer.

Their planet-sized egos will inevitably clash, leading to a bust-up which can only result in the band splitting up. The pair will spend years publicly slagging each other off until a much-awaited reunion a decade or two later.

Like most things, Blur did not do this the usual way.

Graham Coxon was the guitarist in one of the most innovative bands of the nineties, sticking with them from their Madchester-themed debut Leisure, through the period when they created the Britpop mould, and into the period when they threw the mould out of the window and ventured into artier territory.

But playing on seven albums wasn't enough for the maverick, who had previously studied fine arts at Goldsmiths College, and had released three solo albums while still with Blur.

He left the band following a bust-up in 2002, but this did not lead to a split.

Although Damon Albarn has occasionally concentrated on his Gorillaz side project, Blur are still going as a three-piece.

The singer hasn't even bitched about Coxon to the press, but instead described the guitarist as a much better musician than himself, and said he hoped to see his return. After 2003's Think Tank - the last album Coxon contributed to - they are now recording their eighth outing, which Albarn said would be a "basic stupid record" without him.

Things continue to go from strength to strength for the multi-talented Coxon, however, who has just brought out his sixth solo album, backed by a single appropriately titled Standing On My Own Again.

It looks like fans will have to continue waiting for the reunion, even if one half of the old creative partnership wants it to happen.

Van Morrison,

Bridgewater Hall, Monday and Tuesday

VAN Morrison's music career now spans four decades.

The Belfast-born singer/songwriter has recorded 35 albums to date but, somewhat bizarrely, the first solo single he released all those years ago will be his legacy. There must be few men in the western world who aren't reminded of a lost love by his 1967 offering Brown Eyed Girl. Although Morrison had later successes with the likes of Moondance, Domino and Have I Told You Lately, he struck romantic (and presumably actual) gold with the enduring classic and love compilation staple.

Pay the Devil, his new album, consists of covers of a dozen country music standards and three Morrison originals, making him one of the few soul singers to record what is a country album. But the "rock poet" has always followed an unusual musical path.

He began his career with garage rockers Them, penning the 1966 hit Gloria before going solo. Since then he's experimented with jazz and gospel but generally stuck to the conventions of American soul, influenced by his Celtic roots. As well as singing and song writing, he's also an accomplished instrumentalist, playing the guitar, harmonica, keyboards and saxophone on many of his albums.

Although he'll be remembered for Brown Eyed Girl, which he must surely be sick to death of playing now, it would be grossly unfair to ignore his contributions to music since then.

He has been inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters' Hall of Fame and has had successes in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and current decade, selling millions upon millions of records.

Born in August 1945, he's now 61 but shows no signs of slowing down - a fact that will be evident to anyone at the Bridgewater gig.

Trainspotting

The Lowry, until April 1

IT launched Ewan McGregor into superstardom and bizarrely - for a film containing such a bleak view of life in the eighties - came to epitomise the optimistic nineties.

Posters adorned student flats across the country, while trendy young things proudly wore T-shirts bearing the film's "choose life" monologue - describing in minute detail where they would probably be in 15 years time.

Although many saw the film, bought the T-shirt and even read Irvine Welsh's original novel, it is less well known that this tale of fun and japes among Edinburgh heroin addicts also made its way onto the stage.

Harry Gibson, who brought the story to the theatre before Danny Boyle's breathtaking film version arrived, claims it was by far the most brutal of Trainspotting's three incarnations.

A decade after the film and the stage play, and heroin chic is getting a revival.

Gibson has returned to the story of Renton, Tommy, Sick Boy and Begbie, and his production is dropping into Salford as part of a national tour which has already won rave reviews.

While the popularity of the book and the film speak for themselves, the stage version has also had a fair amount of success - having been translated into 17 languages and played around the world.

The Reykjavic version was presented like an Icelandic saga, with the hero's mother emerging from the mist like a troll, while the Dresden version featured four blue eyed boys doing what the director described as "a buggery dance."

He is now waiting for a Japanese translation of the script, which may not contain quite as many swear words as the original.