*Album “Angels With Dirty Faces” has sold over 800,000 copies in the UK*

*Two No 1 single’s ’Freak Like Me’ and ‘Round Round’ have both sold over 250,000 copies*

*sugababes won BRIT Award for Best Dance Act* 

 SUGABABES have just announced an extensive UK tour in November/December 2003.   The band are currently wrapping up their debut UK tour which will culminate in 2 sold out shows at the Shepherds Bush Empire in early April.

 2002 was an interesting year for SUGABABES.   Written off by the label that released their debut album, they landed up at Island Records.  A year on and they have had two number 1 singles (“Freak Like Me” and “Round Round”) a top 10 hit (“Stronger” – incidentally all three singles were No 1 Airplay Hits!) and reached over a million sales with their second album, Angels With Dirty Faces (over 800,000 copies in the UK alone).

 In addition, they have won an array of awards including an Elle Style Award (Best Music Stars), a Q Award (Best Single), a Smash Hits Award (Best Album) and to cap it all they won a BRIT Award (Best Dance Act).  The girls also performed their number 1 single “Freak Like Me” at the BRIT Awards.

SUGABABES are shortly about to commence work on their new album which will be released through the Island Record Groups later this year.

 The UK tour dates are as follows:

When one of the most succesful young girl groups of recent music history says that when it comes down to it, they 're "just three girls who love music", it's easy to imagine there's a hint of modesty at work. Sugababes are "just three girls who love music" in the same way that the Harlem Globe Trotters were "just a, bunch of guys who liked to jump".

The rapid ascent of the British threesome Keisha Buchanan, Mutya Buena and Heidi Range, to the heights of commercial and critical success might indeed have been made possible because of the trio's heartfelt love for a range of music, spanning R'n'B, UK garage, pop and hip hop, but that doesn't mean they're just your average teenage fans. The ladies are special. If there were any doubts about that prior to the 2002 release of 'Angels With Dirty Faces' the response from public and critics to band's second album has erased them forever.

The least plastic, most genuine and most from-the-block of all the girl bands had a dream year when they emerged from the seven months of writing and recording their second album. In April 2002 a first single, the cutting edge cyber-soul collage 'Freak Like Me', went straight to Number One, selling over a quarter of a million singles in the UK, storming the European charts and establishing the band as future street divas without parallel. Straight out, they had the defining tune of the year.  The follow up, 'Round And Round' ,gave them another smash, again hitting the Number One spot in August. Hailed as "a triumph" in the UK press,  the  album (Angels With Dirty Faces) then shot to Number Two in September, only kept from the top by Coldplay.  It would still be in the UK Top Twenty seven months later.  Meanwhile the girls notched up a further Top Ten single in the form of the double A side 'Stronger'/'Angels With Dirty Faces'. And by the time they put out 'Shape' their collaboration with Sting, in March 2003, they had been deluged with enough awards to keep an army of carpenters busy shelf building.

"I don't know how, but we seem to have crossed over into different areas, where all these different crowds of people appreciate it, " says Heidi." Its nice to win the awards, but also with things like the Brits, we were just honoured to be put into the categories like Best Album with people like Miss Dynamite, Coldplay and The Streets.
"It seems like the music's connected on all sorts of different levels. Winning the Smash Hits award meant alot, because that's voted for by the public, but then doing a show like V2002 was great as well, because that's a festival crowd and it was one of the best gigs we've done."

 
At the prestigious UK music industry awards 'The Brits', Sugababes were nominated in three categories, and took the award for Best Dance Act.  In addition to the Smash Hits award for Best Album, they received rock'n'roll approbation, beating Oasis to the coveted Q Magazine award for Best Single ('Freak Like Me'). Their sweep of the ceremonies also took in a Royal Variety Award and a National Music Award. In addition their perfomance at the urban music awards, the Mobos, was one of the night's highlights, and they were more than happy to be invited to call Eminem on stage at the MTV Awards. Clearly they had done something very right.

"I don't think that everything thats happened so far will ever sink in," comments Keisha. "Maybe at the end of our careers we'll look back and think 'Wow!, but when you're in the middle of it its hard to get a perspective."
Sugababes slew of trophies and whirlwind year are a huge acknowledgment that they had perfectly caught the mood of the times on 'Angels'. It would be difficult to find another group capable of mixing American and British influences, nudging urban flavours into the future, asserting a sassy self confidence and independence of spirit while delivering a succession of superb pop highs, all within one album.

If there is a secret to the group's success, its not to be found in a formula. Unlike many of the pop acts temporarily visiting the charts, Sugababes co-write their own songs, bring real teenage city girl authenticity to the music and guide the direction of the group away from empty contrivance. Maybe that's why 'Angels' works for so many people. From the bootleg/soundclash culture derived 'Freak Like Me', with its electro Gary Numan sample and provocative lyric, through the fake male dissing, edgy R'n'B of 'Blue', the pure pop rush of 'Round And Round', 'Stronger's post-Mary J ballad, the salacious nu-fly floor filler 'Supernatural' and the robo-garage groove 'Angels With Dirty Faces', the statements ring (and bling) musically and attitudinally true. 'Virgin Sexy' ("if you want me just text me") is something all generation cellphone kids know about. 'Shape' takes Stings beautiful melody and adds a female veracity to the lyrics. 'Just Don't Need This' and 'No Man No Cry' set out the girls ability to be self-reliant (while also claiming the right for Keisha to ragga MC in 'Just Don't'). The feisty nu-phunk of 'Switch' lays down the law while cleaning up on the dancefloor, and 'More Than A Million Miles' reminds of the delicious brilliance of the girls intertwined vocals, while getting all introspective on love and fate. If it's not immediately easy to put a label on the concrete-to-gold alchemy that goes down in the studio, thats fine by Sugababes.  "It doesn't really bother me what people call us," says Heidi. "If people say Sugababes are a pop group or we're an urban group or an indie group it doesn't matter because for us it's just a matter of if we're proud of the music an if our fans like it, that's what's important."
"And I think its good to break the barriers which exist between different types of music,"adds Keisha. "We're not going to settle and say 'Yeah we're a pop group or we're an R'n'B group and have to do a particular type of music because we'll get bored if we do that. You can call us what you want, we're not going to change up our style."

A girl isn't going to climb her way up out of the humdrum routine of school days in North West London to the top of the heap of hip music without a good deal of determination.  In the case of Sugababes it's particulalry remarkable that they've done it their way, while still in their teens. The first phase of the band's career as newly arrived innocents in pop, is way behind them now, and what may have made the early years of the group problematic is now a huge bonus. Now they have experience, as well as time on their side.  The roots of the group go back to the childhood friendship of Keisha and Mutya. Neighbours in the medium heavy outer city area of North West London near Wembley, they went though school together making the days bearable trying out beginner MC techniques and listening closely to American R'n'B girl groups. Their vocals were already exceptional enough for them to land a manager at 14 when he heard the girls giving out En Vogue style.  Immediately they had a record deal. With original member
Siobhan Donaghy in the line up they released their first single 'Overload' in September 2000, while legally still too young to work more than 72 days a year. The UK was instantly fascinated by the band's fresh blend of soul and pop. Overload went to Number Six, and the microscope of fame was focussed on the girls, their clothes, their relationships and their resistance to pop puppetry.  Their debut album of teenage cyber-Motown, 'Overload', sold over 200 000 copies leading to acknowledgement from the Mobos to the Brits and propelling the band into a global promotional schedule. With typical determination and coolness Keisha and Mutya turned a difficult two weeks in autum 2001 into a new launch pad for the band.  Siobhan left to follow her own musical path, and the group split from their original label, quickly signing to Universal/Island Records. Auditions for a third member came up trumps in the form of Liverpool born singer Heidi Range who instantly joined the group. Heidi had briefly been in the earliest incarnation of popettes Atomic Kitten, but in Sugababes she found an ideal home. The harmonies and songwriting now had an extra dimension. Sugababes were re-born, slicker, tougher and sexier.  "I think one of the good things about us is that we're three totally different characters," continues Heidi. "We're not like each other at all, personality wise and I think thats good, because it gives you different perspectives to write better songs."  "We're three solo artists in a band." adds Keisha. "And we're true artists because we're in it for the music and for the love of singing. We're not in it to make money or for publicity. If wanted to make money I'd get a job. I don't need to have all the stress that you go through in the music industry!"

Ask the girls what they listen to and it you're likely to get a response which leapfrogs the spectrum from 50 Cents to Norah Jones, from Avril Lavigne to So Solid, from Alicia Keys to Tupac. What they have already proved, however, is their perfectly tuned instincts for absorbing the best of culture, colouring it with their own teenage urban girl survivor perspective and sharpening it for tomorrow. With the whole of their 20s before them, they're in an enviable position.
On the immediate horizon they're set to enjoy tours and live festival shows through summer 2003. There's also no shortage of excitement at the prospect of working on a new album. The schoolkid dream of making it in the wide world, while keeping respect from the neighbourhood, has been realised. They've found a way of making rooted pop that speaks internationally. Where and how far they go from here is all about infinite possiblities.

"We've got plenty of time," says Keisha. "We could still be doing the band until we were 26 if we wanted to, and then decide that the time was right for a solo thing." "I think we want to get to the point where we don't think we could write a better album together," adds Heidi. "Whether thats the next album or the album after that, who knows? But I think that musically we just need to feel we can't make anything any better."  The awards, the statistics, the plaudits and the crowds mean its already a scientifically established fact that Sugababes rule to the max. It doesn't even require an educated guess to figure out that they're going to reign for the longest time.

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