{"id":15144,"date":"2025-04-13T00:42:20","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T00:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/15144\/"},"modified":"2025-04-13T00:42:20","modified_gmt":"2025-04-13T00:42:20","slug":"arena-tour-brings-pop-nostalgia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/15144\/","title":{"rendered":"Arena tour brings pop nostalgia"},"content":{"rendered":"

It might have taken Sugababes <\/a>25 years to get to the point of heading out on an arena tour, but judging by the dedication of their 02 audience last night, the iconic British girl group\u2019s songs have stood the test of time.<\/p>\n

Read next<\/p>\n

With the original trio of Siobhan Donaghy, Mutya Buena and Keisha Buchanan having reunited in 2019 and become unlikely club favourites (including headlining a False Idols party at Drumsheds), they have since shut down their Glastonbury stage twice and performed to record-breaking crowds at major festivals across Europe.<\/p>\n

Considering the clearly high demand, it\u2019s surprising that tickets for the London leg of their first ever arena tour were offered on a two-for-one basis just last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the arena is full and, following the hedonistic Kylie-meets-Charli club-pop energy of support act Rose Gray, Sugababes go on to deliver a career-spanning show mix of their greatest hits, deeper cuts from across their back catalogue \u2013 and even a cover (Sweet Female Attitude\u2019s \u2018Flowers\u2019).\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the most part, it\u2018s a night (or 80 minutes) of wall-to-wall bangers. It\u2019s easy to forget just how many bangers they have in their arsenal but, whipping through \u2018Overload\u2019, \u2018Hole in the Head\u2019, \u2018In The Middle\u2019 and \u2018Red Dress\u2019 within the first 15 minutes (the later is paired with empowering messages like \u201cdress to express, not impress\u201d and \u201cless objectification, more liberation\u201d in tabloid font), it\u2019s clear that there is no shortage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vocally, their runs and riffs sound great, especially when they harmonise together, like on the TLC-esque \u2018Shape\u2019; their live band, meanwhile, add extra oomph to the show.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also worth noting that everyone remains up on their feet throughout the entire concert \u2013 even during softer moments, like anti-bullying anthem \u2018Ugly\u2019, which has everyone signing along (and reading the key words on screen) as a giant disco ball lights up the arena.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In fact, the only slight lull is their freshly-released single \u2018Weeds\u2019 which, somewhere between Massive Attack and fka Twigs, brings the mood down a little. Their other recent single , Jungle\u2019, fares better later on, however, perhaps because of how catchy its chorus is; a timely release post-Padam which ends with the group in a Charlie\u2019s Angels style pose.<\/p>\n

Throwing things back to, as Keisha puts it, the \u201craw and real\u201d songs that \u201cintroduced us to the world as teenagers\u201d, their early music videos and archive rehearsal footage serve as a time capsule; in a nice touch, a camcorder-style filter depicts the contrasting decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sticking with this theme of times gone by, transition photos from their younger days to now play alongside voice messages \u2013 all serving to fill a costume change gap.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Returning to the end of the platform in their rave gear, \u2018Round Round\u2019 is served with a dance break and neon green strobes. \u2018Freaks\u2019 and \u2018Push The Button\u2019 come in quick succession and, before final song \u2018About You Now\u2019 \u2013 which has groups of mates frantically jumping together as if they are at a pop-punk gig \u2013 the trio stand and take in the cheering adoration.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t bring us to tears, we feel so much love from you guys,\u201d Keisha gushes as she thanks the audience and recognises \u201cthe times we\u2019re living in\u201d. With confetti raining down while the trio lead one final a Capella with the audience, there\u2019s no denying Sugababes\u2019 status as one of the UK\u2019s greatest girl groups. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It might have taken Sugababes 25 years to get to the point of heading out on an arena…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,7414,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-15144","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-london","12":"tag-sugababes","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114327882527733422","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}