Hits 21 - 2002 (6): Darius, Sugababes, Blazin' Squad

Episode Date: February 26, 2023

Hello again, everyone, and welcome back to Hits 21, the show that's taking a look back at every UK #1 hit single of the 21st century - from January 2000, right through to the present day. Twitter: @Hits21UK Email: [e-mail]

Hello there everyone and welcome back to Hits 21 where me, Rob, me, Andy and me, Lizzie all look back at every single UK number one of the 21st century from January 2000 right through to the present day. If you want to get in touch with us, you can. You can find us over on Twitter. We are at Hits21UK. That is at Hits21UK.

And you can email us too. Just send it on over to Hits21Podcast at gmail.com. Thank you so much for joining us again. Just like our previous episodes, we'll be looking back at some number one singles from the year 2002. This time we'll be covering the period from the 4th of August through to the 31st of August 2002. So we had a bit of a longer stretch covered in the last episode, but it seems that we've reverted back to not getting out of a month in the space of an

episode but hey we're reaching the end of 2002 onwards and upwards last week our poll winner was I'm pretty sure to Andy's delight was A Little Less Conversation by Elvis and JXL well done

it won the vote despite me forgetting to put the poll on Twitter but thankfully a lot of people voted on Spotify I apologise if there are any Will Young fans out there who would have voted on Twitter

and are now outraged that the results are skewed because of human error in the testing process. Yes, exactly. I didn't rig shit for I think you should leave fans. But yes, okay.

Well, now Will knows what it feels like to come second. Ha! That's how it feels, Will. Yeah, for once in his life. God. Okay, right. So, on to this week's episode. And as always, we're going to give you some news headlines from around the time that the songs we're covering in this episode were at number one. In Cambridgeshire, 10-year-old girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman go missing. Their bodies are found two weeks later after what is still considered to be one of the largest police searches in

British history. Ian Huntley, a caretaker of a nearby school, is charged with their murders while his girlfriend Maxine Carr is charged with perverting the course of justice. Huntley was eventually convicted of the murders in December 2003 and sentenced to at least 40 years in prison while Carr served three years for her charges and I think has changed their identity several times since. Meanwhile seven people die and nearly 200 people are infected in the worst outbreak of Legionnaire's disease in the Lake District town of Barrow-in-Furness. The source of the bacteria was identified as a badly maintained air conditioning unit on Portland Walk in the centre of the town. A £1.5 million settlement was eventually

agreed between Barrow Council and construction company InterServe. Also Cherie Blair, wife of Prime Minister Tony Blair, suffers a miscarriage at home in Downing Street. The story only emerges when the Blairs cancel their holiday to France, resulting in many reporters assuming that their absence was linked to the ongoing crisis regarding the prospective war in Iraq. The films to hit the top of the UK box office during this period were As follows, Men in Black 2 For three weeks And The Guru for one week

Meanwhile Channel 5 Announces plans to rebrand as Five, which is a Really successful rebrand because I had no idea they ever did that I just always referred to it as Channel 5 Did they have to wait for the band Five to split up

before they could do that? Yeah, I imagine they were planning it in the mid-90s and it's like, right guys, next week, get ready for the big rebrand. Oh god, who's that at number one in the charts? Do-do-do-do-do-do-do. And then finally

they got their moment. They should have done it all as one in a bit of marketing synergy of like let's have them be the face of the relaunch yeah well you know like Spice Girls sort of launched the channel they could have had 5 launch the channel yeah watch 5 on 5 there we go

that could have been a regular show oh I'm in the wrong industry anyway yeah meanwhile the first episode of Dick and Dom into Bungalow is broadcast on CBBC in the first episode the contestants

known as Bungalow heads are made to wear fake moustaches for as long as they can are treated to a performance from a 67 year old tap dancing granny and Dick balances

a packet of McVitie's digestives on his head it was quite cheap television wasn't it really dick and tom into bungalow balance some digestives on your head i've watched them i've watched episodes of that since and like i'm really surprised that like they basically that show just advertises lots and lots and lots of cocaine to children on the Saturday morning. But they're just, that show is nuts. See, I have to say I met Dom from Dick and Dom once. And he happened to be doing a book signing and the queue dried up.

And so me and my family just went over and talked to him and he was incredibly lovely. So just to shout out that as well. And I think of all the many Ant and Dec imitators that were around this time in the wake of SMTV I think Dick and Dom were the most successful weren't they? With BAFTA award winning Dick and Dom in the bungalow which is just a lovely

thing I like to reference. They were kind of the tis was to Ant and Dec's swap shop. I'll take your word on that. Meanwhile the BBC publishes a list of the tis was to an index swap shop. I'll take your word on that. Meanwhile, the BBC publishes a list of the greatest Britons ever, which was voted for by members of the public in 2001. Among the top 10 are Oliver Cromwell, John Lennon and William Shakespeare. So Winston Churchill takes the top spot.

Elsewhere in the list, Boudicca charts at number 35, Boy George charts at number 46 and, for some reason,hica charts at number 35 boy george charts at number 46 and for some reason bono charts at number 86 despite being irish do you know looking at those chart places rob you really should have read that one because it kind of reads like the charts it's like gareth gates was at number one for one week before being knocked off at buddhica and plunging to number 46 i just love this idea idea that Britons in the year 2000 were like, oh yeah, remember Boudicca. I remember Boudicca.

Wasn't she great? Really interesting that Boy George is relatively high. Only just not beating Boudicca. That's like, yeah, they're not similar people, but they're charted very similarly. I need to see that full list. I think there's got to be some weird ones in there and some that probably with hindsight shouldn't be there. Oh yeah, absolutely. Definitely.

Andy, how are the album charts looking at the moment? Well, because it's a very quiet period on the charts, on the album charts this week, because it's a very short period, thanks for not staying at number one for very long guys, there's only three albums to discuss this week, one of which we discussed last week, which was By The Way by Red Hot Chili Peppers, which was still hanging around at number one at the start of this period. We tore that a new one last week so let's move swiftly on from that it was replaced at the top spot by imagine by eva cassidy who we have mentioned before on this show as someone who none of us are a particularly huge fan of but seems to really rack in those number one albums

oh so um yeah all full play to her yeah so she got a platinum album with Imagine before being unseated after one week by a little band called Coldplay with a rush of blood to the head. None of the singles off that album made it to number one. And just to say what those singles were, it was In My Place, The Scientist, Clocks, God Put a Smile on Your Face, all very successful, but none of them reached number one. Yeah. And the album was massive it went 10 times platinum and was the highest

selling album of the year in 2002 10 times platinum absolutely enormous, it's actually outsells most of the albums that we've covered on this show so far a huge huge hit for Coldplay there which very much is the way the wind is blowing as the decade goes on shall we say

yeah it's a Pretty good record, I think Rush of Blood to the Head It's not my favourite Coldplay album, we'll come to that In the future, but You know, it's decent I like Coldplay up to a point, that point is

Pretty much 2010 So we're still well before that They're okay Well, I mean, not these days These days they're just a sort of 2010. So we're still well before that. They're okay. Well, I mean, not these days. These days they're just a sort of a product. They're not a band. They're just a thing. But they were okay in the noughties. I think they got ragged on a little bit too heavily, but we'll see. We'll discuss them at a later date. Lizzie, how are things in the States? How are things faring there? at a later date.

Lizzie, how are things in the States? How are things faring there? Well, in the singles chart, after a seven-week reign at number one with Hot In Here, Nelly was eventually dethroned by Nelly, whose song Dilemma, featuring Kelly Rowland, hit the top spot for 10 non-consecutive weeks from mid-August to early November. It also finished at number four on the US year-end list

and number 11 on their decade-end list. Did it do as well in the UK, you ask? All I know is my gut says maybe. Oh, Lizzie! Hello! Tease. Yeah, well, meanwhile in the albums chart, it's much busier.

We've got four different albums for the month of August 2002. And the first of these is Busted Stuff by Dave Matthews Band, which hit the top spot for one week, selling 600,000 copies in its first week and eventually going double platinum in the US. I couldn't find any data for the UK. I'm assuming it just didn't chart because nobody bought it because nobody cares. After that, Toby Keith scored his first number one album with Unleashed, which went four times platinum in the US

and finished in the top 40 of the year end list for 2002 and 2003. Again, couldn't find any data for the UK. Assuming nobody cares because it's Toby Keith. Why would we? Yeah. That stayed at number one for one week before being overthrown by bruce springsteen and his album the rising which also got to number one in the uk as we mentioned in the last episode it stayed at number one for two weeks in the us

eventually going double platinum and finishing at number 34 on the year end list and to finish off august the number one spot was taken by who else Nelly with Nellyville returning to number one for one more week oh god

that guy owned the planet for a short while didn't he it really was Nellymania in 2002 yeah he really did pack up his drunk and say goodbye

to the circus yeah Lizzie did you mention that Toby Keith album was it did it say it was unleashed unleashed yeah unleashed that is the one that opens with i think what is probably the most american song ever the um courtesy of the red white and blue oh is that the one that's like we'll put a boot in your ass in your ass it's the american way yeah um i mean i'm just gonna read some lyrics to this just for a second i'm gonna do an aside andy have you ever heard this song before uh no not at all but i was just

about to jump in with a challenge to the most american song ever but do go on go on i'm willing to hear this this challenge may be ended very shortly. So, lyrics are, American girls and American guys will always stand up and salute, will always recognise when we see old glory flying there's a lot of men dead, so we can sleep in peace at night, we lay down

our head. And then imagine, like, in a really smooth country voice, my daddy served in the army. Where he lost his right eye, but he flew a flag out in our yard until the day he died. He wanted my brother, my mother, my sister and me to grow up and live happy in the land of the free. Now this nation that I love has fallen under attack. A mighty sucker punch came flying in from somewhere in the back.

Soon as we could see clearly through our big black eye man we lit up your world like the fourth of july and then the uh the chorus goes hey uncle sam put your name at the top of his list and the statue of liberty started shaking her fist and the eagle will fly man it's gonna be hell when you hear mother freedom start ringing her bell and it feels like the whole world is raining down on you brought to you courtesy of the red white and blue okay so yeah god patriotism man like um yeah yeah i remember getting played that in a music lecture at university about 10 years ago. A lot of people were laughing in that lecture. So, moving on to the songs this week.

Andy, did that actually end your challenge? It did. The only other one I was going to suggest was an American trilogy by Elvis, which is where he combines three old American folk songs about how great America is, particularly related to the American Civil War. And it's absolute schlock. It is awful. Don't ever listen to it.

Really, don't ever do it. Like, I've got to warn you, don't ever listen to it. It's terrible. So bad. Do not listen to an American trilogy by Elvis. It sucks. You're making it more appealing.

You're only making it more appealing. Okay, on to this week. Back over to the UK. And our first song this week that we're going to be looking at is this. Feeling blue When I'm trying to forget the feeling that I miss you Feeling green When the jealousy swells

And it won't go away In dreams Feeling yellow I'm confused inside A little hazy, but I know When I feel your eyes on me Feeling fine, sublime When the smile of yours creeps into my mind

Nobody told me I'd feel so good Nobody said you'd be so beautiful Nobody warned me about your smile You're the light, you're the light when I close my eyes I'm colourblind You make me colourblind Okay, this is Colourblind by Darius. Released as the lead single from his debut studio album entitled Dive In,

Colorblind is also Darius' first single to be released in the UK, and of course his first to reach number one. It is also his last. Colorblind went straight in at number one as a brand new entry knocking Gareth Gates off the top of the charts. It stayed at number one for two weeks. In its first week atop the charts, it sold 111,000 copies and beat competition from Black Suits Come In Nod Your Head by Will Smith, which got to number three, I Need a Girl by P Diddy featuring Usher, which got to number four, and Boys by Britney Spears featuring Pharrell Williams, who is credited as P. Williams on the track, which got to number seven.

In its second week at the top, it sold 62,000 copies in beat competition from In My Place by Coldplay, we mentioned it before, that got to number two, Like a Prayer by Madhouse, which got to number three, and Girl All the Bad Guys Want by Bowling for Soup, which got to number eight, and Girl All The Bad Guys Want by Bowling For Soup, which got to number eight. Bowling For Soup. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Colorblind

dropped one place to number two. By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 19 weeks. The song achieved gold status in the UK in May 2020, which was two years before Darius sadly died at the age of 41. Andy, colourblind Darius, how about it? Yeah, so I mean, I mainly want to talk about Darius himself rather than the song, because I do think he's a very interesting character. The deer departed Darius, we have to say. Absolutely awful news to hear about that. Very, very recently, unfortunately. And I've always thought he's such an interesting character

because he is the first example, really, of a joke contestant on a talent show. But he really did change that narrative and seized it in a way that was very ahead of its time and very clever. He really reminds me quite a lot of Ryland, who, of course, started on The X Factor, in that they both were very clearly positioned

as silly joke contestants who you're supposed to boo and jeer and go, no, they shouldn't win. But actually, beneath the surface, both Darius and rylan clearly far more intelligent than with then they led on clearly far more aware of how this all works and they knew that there is a game to be played here because uh it there's a real stark difference as far as i remember from how darius came across on pop stars compared to pop idol where on pop

stars he sort of came across as this kind of hippie type figure, you know, in a long ponytail who wore turtlenecks quite a lot, who did, mostly known for, I have to say, the world's worst version of Baby One More Time. It was so awful, hilariously bad. And that was kind of the overriding image of Darius and why he was brought onto pop idol, because like, oh, remember that funny, bad singer? But he totally sees that and actually came across as a very credible artist throughout Pop Idol. And now he's got that kind of runner-up thing, which we talked about a few weeks ago, where you're able to take your time a bit more. There's no pressure on you.

And he's come out with what I think is actually a pretty good song here. It's not perfect, and I do have criticisms of it which I will get into but what I really like about it is this lyrical gimmick of naming all the colours. It just works for me as a gimmick. It's really silly and it is sort of got that kind of tinge of cringe if I can call it that of like you know you kind of vaguely want to laugh at this song a little bit because it plays on that colour gimmick so hard and you know they've really kind of used every possible metaphor to do with colors in those lyrics but it works for me and it is a catchy song as well i think he's just got the right mix here of being you know an artist who is very poppy who you

remember from a talent show who's got that appeal, but also has come up with a genuinely quite decent song here with a gimmick in it that is, you know, we'll catch the kids and we'll catch the nanas at home, but also it's just a nice song. It really kind of struck me that we're very much on the cusp of Busted coming around, and I could totally see a rockier version of this being a Busted single.

Like, it's that sort of thing that has that sort of crossover appeal and I think it's it's quite understandable to me why I got to number one like it just has all the right ingredients really the things I don't like about it are first of all it's just a little bit dull a little bit overproduced it's it's quite straight down the line it's a pretty straight up debut single for someone who was off a talent show which is a little bit

disappointing because he could have done something much more wacky and different. I also don't think his voice in terms of tone and texture is the greatest really, like he's got very good range and the song he does a very very good job with actually singing it, he's got very good range, and the song, you know, he does a very, very good job with actually singing it, but he's got a little bit of a sort of restrained voice,

which doesn't have that much emotion in it, unfortunately, and I think that kind of robs the song of a little bit of an X factor that it could do with. But I'm just happy to see Darius here, to be honest. I think the way he sort of came across is someone who just wanted to be a pop star. Like he wasn't in it for the reality TV experience. He wasn't in it for, you know, the kind of tabloid fame because he never really pursued any of that.

He went on pop stars, he went on pop idol, and then he took his time and released a single, which is quite good, followed by some less successful singles. He just wanted to be a pop star. He's the right kind of person to be going on a talent show and i think it's very hard not to root for him and not hard and hard to not look back on him very fondly um so full credit to him and you know it's very very sadly missed it's not the greatest song in the world but it's one of those songs that i just kind of smile when i listen to it because it's like isn't this kind of fun you know isn't this just a sort of clever song and i don't really feel like it could have come out with anyone else from that era except good old darius dinesh so yeah it's a thumbs up from me for this yeah yeah okay yeah lizzie how about you yeah um it's a

really good summary andy and i think i'm like i'm really glad you mentioned the whole um going from pop stars to pop idol and it it almost being like he was two different people in one sense he came through on pop stars is like oh god he's terrible but we're going to keep him on because we want to see what he does next he's so wacky and like by the time he gets pop idol it's more like oh no but he's actually he's a serious musician and he's stuck in this world full of you know this this television show and he deserves so much better because he's an artist but it's like this is a song apparently that he'd written some years before and i think it kind of shows like the color motif is it's fine I don't know, it's very obvious straight from the get-go what it's doing. And I think once you've sort of picked up on it,

it doesn't really develop much into a theme that you can really hang on to much. It is just this kind of labored color motif. It's like some of the lyrics are really kind of labored color motif it's like some of some of the the lyrics are really kind of stretching like feeling red feeling red when you spend all your time with your friends and not me instead feeling black when i think of all the things i feel i lack it's all like this really needs a rewrite and and as much as like this must have been big because it was number one for two weeks right in the middle of summer but i have no recollection of ever hearing the song before this week oh gosh i do oh really yeah it was big yeah at all um i guess it must have

been one of those things that's kind of passed me by because I don't know I don't think it's terrible um I think Darius has a really nice and quite distinct voice it's certainly not something I'd expect to have come from a talent show I'd expect it to be you know maybe a bigger name but this is just a bit of a it's an okay track but I don't love it I think there's just something missing here that I feel could have really put it over the edge instead it's just this okay song

with a bit of a weird conceit so yeah I'm kind of in the middle with this one well true to form I think I land in the middle of both of you two I think this is sort of lovely and tuneful and sort of cute and adorable

I thought, like Lizzie, I would be put off by the colours gimmick in the lyrics or the feeling blue, feeling green stuff but there's something sort of weirdly charming about it, even down to the Jade, jaded pun.

Like when you think he's going to say feeling and he says, Jay did. I think it's that kind of thing that kind of stitches the song together in the end. Um, seeing which colors he'll go with next and which colors he leaves out and that sort of thing. And I sort of think the chorus is I tell you what I'd love to I'd pay to write a chorus that instant you know like just the nobody said you would be so it just it you know it goes up and down and it has a lot I think it

has a lot of character um to the the chorus the arrangement feels quite warm and bright in the way that I think that it's shooting for. But I can't shake the feeling that Ronan Keating could do this very easily. His name was in my head. Yeah. Yeah, I can see that. I think what Darius brings that Ronan can't is character.

Darius doesn't have a great voice, but he allows it to squeal and squeak and add a bit of colour, pun not intended, to the vocal performance that I don't think Ronan would bring. I think Ronan would play it very straight. But this all feels a bit safe and it still feels a bit managed. It's like the safest possible version of itself that it could be like just we've got to make sure that we bag this you know like it's you've got to go for a number one and it's like there's probably a conversation where it's like we've got to make sure that we secure this you know because this could set you up and so i think i imagine he's probably made a

few concessions with the sound of this um but still bless him i think you know i know we've kind of mentioned it but i think that people do kind of forget like that he was a bit of an embarrassment at first on pop stars but then he came back and changed his image and he managed to get a number one single out of it and a platinum selling debut album so fair enough like i think it's just darius is one of those guys like you said like rylan i mean rylan's twitter bio i think is something like started out as a joke but now i'm the one laughing or something like that and i think you know there are people who go into fame and go into celebrity and know it's all a game that you just have to play and it seemed like darius was pretty like you say pretty switched on with like how you could cultivate

an image before you were even really famous and then launch yourself off it but i think darius also benefited from not people forgetting about him because i don't think you forget a name like darius like it's not a name that you know it doesn't blend in with all the other names out there darius like how many famous people do you know that are called darius and i mean there's there's england and former city and villa footballer darius vas you know, like, it's not a, it's not a name that, like, is really common. Even before he died, I think if somebody was to mention Darius to you, you would go, oh, yeah, Darius, I wonder how he's doing, I wonder what he's up to these days. You know, he wasn't overexposed, it was like he had a couple of top 10 singles,

everybody thought quite nicely about him, he went away and did some other stuff and even like but then when he did die there was there was this sort of strange outpouring of grief where it's like i feel like we all have a collective niceness there's a warmth towards darius and from darius i think everybody just signed it sort of looks back and goes oh him yeah i remember him it was you know like a an icon from a different time an icon for a very short period of time but wasn't overplayed or overdone or on the tv too much i think i think people would have remembered him fondly whether if even if he was still alive. He sits in this very interesting place in reality TV and pop music,

like recent history, where he was positioned as a kind of quirky... I'm not going to say joke, because he wasn't that on Pop Idol. He might have been that a little bit on Popstars, but he was definitely the kind of, they shouldn't really have got this far in the competition, like you say. He was sort of in that place. But when you compare him to those who came later in that slot like jedward and wagner and honey g and people like that you know chico and chico they had a kind of obnoxiousness to them about them that like you know they weren't very good singers you know it was quite annoying that they got that far in the competition you really a part of you genuinely wanted them to go like you were quite annoyed at their continued

presence on the show it was never like that with darius it was always very soft touching that he was a bit different and he was a bit odd but you enjoyed watching him like you wouldn't have had any problem with him getting all the way through those shows and he did nearly get all the way through pop idol and i think he was just so completely uncontroversial despite the fact that he had risen from a point of notoriety you know he was still completely uncontroversial and people had really enjoyed what they'd seen of him and he'd never annoyed people with his presence on those shows and i think that makes a really big difference to the legacy that those kind of acts have yeah totally totally agree about that um okay we'll move on and second up this week is this Round and round, spending night on me I don't need no man, got my kicks for free

A wheel rides the fire, gonna be down low I don't need nobody but my honey When I go out, baby Round and round, spending night on me I don't need no man, got my kicks for free When you stare at my face You're messing with my brain If you try to convince me

Then you better think again If you move to the music The music's got to give If it's too complicated That's the way I wanna live If you hate me I will show you How to brain me Into something new If you hate me, I will show you How to bring me into something new

If you want me, run away now If you stop me, then I'll hit the ground Here we go Here we go Round and round, baby, round and round Standing out on it I don't need no man, got my tricks for free A wheel of light, stuff I don't want to be down low

I don't need nobody, got my honeys when I go Okay, this is Round Round by Sugar Babes. Released as the second single from the group's second studio album entitled Angels With Dirty Faces, Round Round is Sugar Babes' sixth single overall to be released in the UK and their second to reach number one after Freak Like Me reached the summit earlier this year. It's not the last time we'll be discussing Sugar Babes on this podcast. Round Round went straight in at number one as a brand new entry knocking darius off the top spot it spent one week at number one in its first and

only week atop the charts it sold 62 000 copies and beat competition from romeo done by romeo which got to number three yeah um james dean i want to know by Daniel Bedingfield, which got to number four. Lovin' Is Easy by Hearsay, which got to number six. Alone by Lasgoe, which got to number seven. And Half A Heart by H&C, which got to number eight. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Round Round dropped one place to number two. And by the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 100 for 14 weeks the song achieved gold status in the uk in august last year so august

2022 just want to say about that rest of that top 10 there that there's a couple of names that pop up there where it's like if it had been literally 18 months earlier then we might have been talking about them but they're just beginning to like fall off the edge of you know their journey through the uh sort of like massive public notoriety is kind of coming towards an end so here say get to number six and ancient claire get to number eight when i think 18 months earlier we may have been talking about them more in depth. I'll go first on this one. Round Round.

Erm, I love sugar babes in this mode. Like they're trying to end the conversation with you because they've got somewhere much cooler to be. Like I said the last time we covered them with Freak Like Me that they're a different kind of girl group. They approach the girl group dynamic differently, and I think this hammers my point home, which is that they sound kind of aloof. Like it's something Muchia really brings in her performances, I think. They have a lot of what I'll call disinterested sass in their voices.

All three of them, they all sound like ice cold, emotionally non-committal, and it makes them sound so cool, like they're the girls you want to be, um, there's all sorts of exciting electro clash production going on around them, dare I say it, I think people credit Sound of the Underground with a lot of things that Round Round sort of does first, like, I won't deny that Sound of the Underground feels more dangerous and new and we'll talk about that when we get to it but sugar babes are bringing something different here too it feels like at this point we we sort of learned from all saints what they were capable of given the right material and that the experience of this song is is great for me not as much as Freak Like Me just because

that bridge section the slow bridge where it kind of you know it really takes its time and switches to a different atmosphere it doesn't quite work um i love the idea but i don't love the execution it doesn't have the desired effect i think i feel like it suddenly lurches from this cool aloof dispassionate dance track into this little ballad suite and it doesn't quite land for me um but still it's not around for long and then we're back to the action which is really thrilling and exciting and i'd had no idearo Clash appeared not only in the charts so early but appeared so high in the charts. At this stage I always associate Electro Clash with the second half of the 2000s, especially in the mainstream anyway, but yeah, Sugar Babe's really

bringing something here. So yeah, I'm a big fan of it. Not as much as Freak Like Me, but yeah, I'm into it. Andy, what about you? Yeah, it's interesting with this one because I had not ever deliberately sat down and listened to this. I remember it very well from the time, but it probably been most of the 20 years that's passed since without me listening to this song you know it's really just not a feature of my life at all so i was just going off the memory in my head from a kid of what i thought of this really um then i actually sat down and

listened to it in preparation for the show and i just thought whoa there's loads about this that i didn't remember um and it's gone right up in my estimations, I have to say. The production is the star on this one, the same as Freak Like Me, the production is the real star of this, where there's so many weird little instrumental choices that don't need to be there, but are there and really add something. I think what really surprised me on revisiting this song is how un-poppy it is at various times that it brings in a lot of other genres as influences like there's a kind of there's that rock guitar in the background there's a kind of garage r&b kind of thing going on in the background with the drums there's that weird atonal percussion that always leads up to the choruses which just

offsets me and it's something that i really really love hearing that it's something that I really, really love hearing that. It's something that's a little bit off tone, a little bit out of tune, just to kind of push you. I mentioned this in Don't Call Me Baby, that it has that one particular synth that's out of tune that I just love. There's loads to this that I didn't remember at all. And as a kind of production number,

I thought, wow, this is really good. Really, really good. Way better than I expected. But there are a few little downsides for me. I have to make the same criticism of this, which I did of Freak Like Me, which is that the Sugar Babes, as singers, are just completely lost in this song. I disagree with you, Rob, actually, in terms of their voices as being, you know, sort of cold and aloof, which I think that's the intent.

But to me, they just don't hold my interest. The song is bigger than them, and they are quite dull to listen to as singers I find unfortunately quite sort of nondescript and this is a song that really isn't nondescript it has a lot of interest to it a lot of stuff built into it and I think them as artists are kind of lost in that mix they're sort of the last kind of afterthought of this song which

is a real real shame. You know, the comparison that is always made between Sugar Babes and Girls Aloud and which you choose, you know, which is better. For me the reason why I've always preferred Girls Aloud, we'll get to this really when we get to Girls Aloud, but I always thought there was so much character in them that they always seemed a bit quirky, like it just sort of came out in their voices that you really got a sense of their personalities a sense of fun i don't feel like you get that sense of fun from sugar babes voices in either this or freak like me and it is becoming a problem for me and i think that's why the sugar babes in general tend to be a hard sell for me

but having said that it's a really really well produced song it was far far better than I was expecting the only other thing that I'm not sure that I like is that breakdown in the middle before the last chorus because yeah I mean I genuinely don't know I really don't know because part of me thinks it kills all momentum of the song that it just slows everything down to a drag and then we have to find our way back to a chorus again but then part of me find our way back to a chorus again. But then part of me thinks, well, you know, it kind of needs something at that time to keep it as interesting, to keep it as fresh as it has been up to now.

It needs something extra. I'm not really sure. I think it's a weird choice, and I'm not... If I had to make a decision, I don't really think that breakdown works for me. And the chorus, I think, is probably the least interesting part of the song. I think, melodically, the chorus is nowhere near as interesting as the verses are but those are kind of minor points really

and on the whole this is a big plus I really enjoyed this far more than I was expecting so Sugar Babes are doing well for me so far I don't know if this will continue but that's two out of two so far that I've been far more raving about than I really ever expected to be so let's see how it goes but yeah this is a good one far more raving about than I really ever expected to be. So let's see how it goes.

But yeah, this is a good one. Awesome. Lizzie, what about you? Do you like it as much as me or Andy? I think I do kind of land somewhere in the middle between you both. It's like, I do agree on... I may as well just get it out of the way, so we're three for three. I'm not as keen on the part where it goes a bit slower, I think that's a I think it's a neat trick to do in a song

and there's ways you can do it where it can be really sort of compelling and exciting like in I don't know, French Kiss by Little Louie but here it does, I think it does kind of sap a bit of the energy from the song that it never fully pulls back, it does kind of sap a bit of the energy from the song

that it never fully pulled back because it's kind of towards the end. But I don't think it's a major minus on it or anything. It's not like a blotch. It's just something that you could cut it out of the song and the song would still be solid. So that's the thing. But yeah, I totally agree that this feels like it's sort of paving the way towards sound of the underground later on where you've got the kind of discordant guitar backing

but you can barely make out the guitars it's all just like fuzz and noise and and kind of the that combined with like the synthetic drums like you say it's quite electro clash and yeah I like the direction they're going with this I think I also agree with you Rob that I do like the more aloof vocals I think they can do that well where I don't want to say their vocals are anonymous but that they are kind of detached from the song and it just adds to this, let's say, cool vibe they're going for. They're not going for what we've been used to in pop for the years before this, where it's all showy and personality.

They're content with just sort of being in the shadows a little bit more and not dominating the song around them. It's just making it like it work as a whole rather than having one or two personalities just standing out and dominating the spotlight um but yeah all in all obviously as you know i i don't like this as much as freak like me but that's fine there's there's not many songs that we're going to cover that I like as much as Freak Like Me and yeah I do really like this, I think it's held up

really well, if only for that one bit but we can forgive that I think I think what you said there Lizzie actually about their vocals kind of becoming another instrument as opposed to the lead part, you know they kind of blend in.

Yeah, yeah. I think that's probably put in more concise words what I was trying to put across about them approaching especially the female vocal group dynamic a bit differently, where they probably know that they're not that strong as singers. I think this is probably why other songs of theirs, where they go, not for balladeering exactly,

but, you know, stuff like Too Lost in You. Yeah, yeah. Where, like, it's a good, you know, it's a decent song, but I think maybe that's the reason that their voices are a bit exposed in a song like that. It just means that the numbers that are required to get to number one, it doesn't quite manage. You know, there's just like, you know, if 20,000 people decide,

maybe not. It is the difference between a number one and, as Too Lost In You got to number 10 so it's which is strange because it's a song everybody sort of remembers probably because of love actually but um because i'm pretty sure it gets used in that midway through the film but um yeah so cool right good that we're all positive about sugar babes um our final song this week our third and final song is this

so tell me what you're gonna do ain't nowhere to run where judgment comes for you where judgment comes for you so tell me what you're gonna do where there ain't no place to hide where judgment comes for you cause it's gonna come for you

See you at the crossroads, crossroads, crossroads See you at the crossroads, crossroads, crossroads See you at the crossroads, crossroads, crossroads See you at the crossroads, crossroads, crossroads Yeah! So where you wanna go and pray? You gonna make it someday? You got a job so what you wanna raise?

Where you wanna act off? What can you play? This whole fame thing just comes one of these days And when it comes You got a job so what you wanna raise? Where you wanna act off? Why can't you play this whole fame thing? Just comes one of these days and when it comes You'll be one of a kind But before this, keep all this in your mind Cause it will hold you to the end of the line Want all this, you'll be mad to decline

So what you gonna do when every day's the same? Try and do this shit just for a glimpse of fame Didn't mean to do it, just plug yourself to shame Didn't wanna kill it, just try to play the game When you reach the crossroads, where you gonna go? Go with your conscience, let your feelings flow Life's up, life's down, but fists can turn around Innocent or guilty, you will soon be found

And we pray, and we pray, and we pray, and we pray Every day, every day, every day, every day And we pray, and we pray, and we pray, and we pray Still we lay, still we lay See you at the crossroads, crossroads, crossroads See you at the crossroads, crossroads, crossroads See you at the crossroads, crossroads, Crossroads, Crossroads, Crossroads, see you at the Crossroads, Crossroads, Crossroads. Okay, this is Crossroads by Blazing Squad. Released as the lead single from the group's debut studio album entitled In The Beginning.

Crossroads is Blazing Squad's first single to be released in the UK overall, and of course their first to reach number one. It's also their last. The song is a reworking of The Crossroads by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony which reached number eight in the UK in 1996. Crossroads went straight in at number one as a brand new entry knocking Sugar Babes off the top of the charts. It stayed at number one for one week. In its first and only week atop the charts, it sold 53,000 copies and beat competition from Addictive by Truth Hurts featuring Rakim, which got to number three.

I did not know that Rakim was involved on a hit single. What you got by Abs, which got to number five. Number five? That's Abs from five reached number five. Oh, yeah. At the same time that five relaunched, Channel 5, relaunched as 5, and Abs From 5 reached number 5, all in the same week. Illuminati confirmed.

Starry-Eyed Surprise by Paul Oakenfold, which got to number 6, and Just The Way You Are by Milky, which got to number 8. When Crossroads was knocked off the top of the charts, it dropped one place to number two. By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 19 weeks, and the song was certified silver in March 2021. Some people going back during the pandemic and going,

oh, remember when we didn't have a big virus? And that's probably what pushed it over the line so lizzy crossroads by blazing squad how do we feel so blazing squad actually played my school in 2003 no oh yeah god they did wow it was it was amazing. So from what I can remember, this was like, would have been in sort of late winter, I think. I would have been in geography class. And I remember one of the teachers came and it's like, you know, we've got a little surprise for you kids.

We need you to come to the sports hall. It's like, okay. Because I didn't know anything about this. And we all sort of bundled in there. And then Blazing Squad get up on the stage. And it's like, ah, because I didn't know anything about this. And we all bundled in there. And then Blazing Squad get up on the stage, and it's like, ah, everybody goes mad. And they do a couple of songs. I think they did this one.

They did a couple of others, but I can't remember the names. Did they do Flip Reverse? No, because... Love on the Line? Love on the Line is one, yeah. They probably did Love on the Line. I think this was a couple of months before they did Flip Reverse. But what had happened was we'd won a competition on a local radio station

for Blazing Squad to play our school. Now, we weren't the only ones. We won in tandem with a couple of other schools. So I'm assuming that after they played our school, they were kind of carted into the back of the van, like Twirl King style. They had to do seven other schools that day, presumably. You get a signed picture of Kenzie,

it's like, well, that doesn't look like you. Oh, that's the old Kenzie. And so on. But yeah, that's another memory from my childhood, is that Blazing Squad played my school that's pretty awesome yeah there's some evidence of it

in various places but all the pictures have been taken with a potato so it doesn't stick in the memory and plus it's that typical sports hall where all the lights are orange and you've got the apparatus in the back that doesn't do anything

it never gets used so yeah, good times I suppose we should actually talk about the song, shouldn't we? I don't know though, because for a day you were the envy of basically every other school in the country I don't know, in 2003 I think most of us

had moved on by 2003 Did you think so? Oh god yeah a little bit then again they get to number 2 with Flip Reverse Flip Reverse

yeah yeah yeah I think they did alright that's pretty cool by 2004 maybe I don't know the most famous group

to ever play my school were a Christian rap trio called the band with no name and they were from Stockport so take what you can Lizzie take what you can Christian rap trio called The Band With No Name and they were from Stockport so take what you can Lizzie

they never played at my school because I don't think they'd yet formed but the band Lawson, the boy band Lawson from the early 10s went to my school, were in the year above me but they went together while they were at school so I never got that but they've probably played that school since

that's rubbish compared to Blazing Squad I would say it's better than Band With No Name but yeah yeah the song I've been putting it off for me we'll talk about it while I don't mind this cover I can't help but think that it maybe misses the point of the original

which is like an unstated reflection on mortality as a tribute to Eazy-E. And like most notably with the original, you don't hear the chorus until about two minutes in, making it like a cathartic release in a clearly very emotionally charged song. Whereas in this version, they just cut to the chase and they get the chorus out there straight after the intro and again after about a minute and in a way I don't blame them because it's a solid earworm of a chorus and it still sounds just as sweet and melancholic in this version as it does the original but it loses a lot of its impact when they go back to it over and over again and when the verses here don't really connect to the theme of the original and like the verses by far to me are the weakest

part of this track and make them come off as like a fifth rate so solid crew where they're each taking turns to rattle off bars that are part forgettable and part questionable. You know that bit, like, didn't want to kill her just trying to play the game. What's all that about? We never said he did. It's always about killing women. What? Where did that come from? Anyway, aside from that, the production's nice enough,

even if it is just a slightly flatter rendition of the original. And the chorus is always going to be a winner it's just that that lack of something truly unique and special which means that Blazing Squad kind of feel like they're already on borrowed time as soon as they've hit the scene like there's already a sea change in UK hip-hop which is well underway but they seem completely isolated from all of that instead what they strike me as is a bunch of lads who are really into American hip-hop and whose idea of a unique selling point is having a London accent on top of that like they didn't deserve the backlash that they got from the press at the time I don't think but i don't think they deserved any more than this sole number one either yeah i don't think anything ever deserves

groups like this anyway that get backlash from the press for whatever reason you sort of look back at them you know 20 years hence and you sort of go what was all the fuss about like either way yeah they just seem like a bunch of lads like you know I'll go second on this one Andy you can close off this is sort of cute I guess like I watched that video and I recognise a lot of the lads from my own

life like you know you can smell the Calvin Klein aftershave and the VO5 wet look gel oh definitely emanating out of the screen you just sort of look at them and it's like you recognise the shirt like Lacoste

or something like that I can smell the Link's Africa from here Exactly, yeah there's an image that's very clearly cultivated in that I love the set piece in the video by the way with the kind of like half-finished you know, like dual carriageway that's

kind of hanging over this urban landscape that they're in. They seem like they're having a good time. I think there's a general sense in the video of like, literally like last week I was doing a Sunday job in a shop and now I'm like filming a video for something that's going to

be a number one single. Like, whoa! You you know that sort of thing it seemed like something like that happened overnight I think this cover does interesting if not entirely successful things with the arrangement of the original I've also noticed Lizzie that they pull the chorus forward by a good 90 seconds so that they can do it two and three times yeah because they know it's the most memorable bit of the original song and so they just go like oh yeah fine we'll just front load it and then overload it and yeah people will buy into that you know that the performances are charming ish and i can appreciate the technical ability that they all have and i think also there is this kind of feeling that like you know

now i'm 28 approaching 30 i feel so much warmer towards pop stars who haven't even hit 20 even when i don't like the stuff that they're doing like when i was a kid when i was also 16 or 17 it's like who are these people and we'll get into a lot of that in like 2010 2011 but like obviously at the time i was like eight when this came out so blazing squad are like whoa who are these dead old guys like who are they like you know they seem so much mature so much more mature than me um but the problems are plentiful uh they start with the obnoxious gang vocals, and I think that it just sort of seems a bit adorable when it's not supposed to be. They're supposed to be adorable visually to 14-year-old girls, but it does seem a little bit like they're

trying to make them more than just a group of boys. Like, you know, they've all got aliases. There's 10 of them, so be scared. But, like, it also seems like they would be adorable to grandmas as well. And I don't think that's good for their street cred. Like, you know, they don't have a G in blazing. So they're supposed to be... That's supposed to alienate everybody over 40 straight away. Blaze Inn?

What's that? You know that sort of thing so I don't know if they come across as I think this is the thing with Bone Thugs and Harmony their name says everything that you need to know about them which is that they play hard and soft and that they're quite good at both of those things

the original track especially um that e99 um eternal um is like a big you know it's a big deal that album and they play that balance really well and i think my issue with this my main issue with this my overriding problem is that something's lost in translation like you said lizzy like the original which was originally called crossroad and then they did it again for the crossroads both versions what i absorb from the original songs is pain and i think it's pain that's unique to the lives of young black americans who grow up in urban poverty and they grow up surrounded by violence and they have to grow up fast and they lose friends before they're

25 like the original version of this was written about someone one of their friends who was shot there are more mentions of people in this song who died before they were my age you know that when they wrote um crossroads and crossroads they were only about three or four years older than the lads in blazing squad but they feel so much older and not in a way where like ronan keating feels like he's 40 and boring these guys and a lot of black hip-hop artists they sound like they've been made to grow old before their time. Yeah. And, like, these guys grew up during, like, they were from Cleveland in Ohio,

so you don't associate it with, like, the gang violence of central Los Angeles or bits of New York and stuff like that. But they still grew up during the crack epidemic, which really seized ohio and there is something about them black hip-hop artists they always sound and look so much older than they are and they have wisdom and knowledge and experiences that they shouldn't have yet the thing that always blows me away considering the topics that they covered in their songs is that tupac and biggie were 25 and 24 like they were

babies but they both sounded like they lived through so much already and the version that blazing squad are reworking like you said lizzie was written as a tribute to eze who signed bone thugs that's why they know him and he was only 30 when he died and again it's an entire lifetime's worth of experience and influence in a really short space of time whereas blazing squad they all look 17 they all sound 17 and it's all made a little harder to believe by like you said lizzie the lyrics not really convey much beyond like i'm trying to make the right choice and that it could go one way or the other it's hard to tell yeah um and the other thing as well with the bone thugs version is that the crossroads is like a myth and legend thing in 20th century black music in america

it's surrounded by all sorts of legend like you know robert johnson and selling your soul to the devil so you can get talent to play music and communicate the blues and that sort of stuff it's a much much stronger metaphor than blazing squad have taken it for where they've hit you over the head with a sledgehammer and instead of the crossroads being like some mystical place the crossroads is literally just which direction are you going to take and it's not as interesting especially the single version because a couple of the verses from the album version are cut out on the single version it's harder to decipher what the lyrics are going for um and like i kind of like that the blatant squad version places greater priority on disparate different aspects of the original like the chorus being repeated more i don't know if i like that

or not but it's interesting and it's kind of curious um it's more interested in the melodic aspects of the original which is fine uh not bad but like when you listen to the original it just feels a bit like this one kind of pales in comparison uh in quite a quite a way actually um andy what about what about you yeah i don't i don't really have that much to add that to add sorry that you two haven't already said um i think it's it's to me one thing that is very interesting is that they are one of the very earliest incarnations of your stereotypical chav kind of act, um, which is,

is not a phrase that I like, but it's, it, they are one of the earliest examples. They have been mentioned by, um, by a journalist as being the, like the original pioneers of chav culture,

which is not true at all. I don't think there are many who preceded them, um, tv rather than in music but there are many um that preceded them but in terms of that kind of specific noughties image of like vicky pollard or like um you know taran edgerton's character in kingsman you, that kind of character. They are very much that archetype. And it's funny looking back on it now, because at the time I was the kind of kid who would have been very intimidated by them because I was a total softie. You know, I was not part of that culture at all.

But now looking back, it's just like, oh, look at them boys thinking they're hard. They're not hard. And it's very funny, really. You know, I don't hold it against them at all but the music video is really really funny um the way that there's two types of shot in the music video of them just hanging around on that flyover the first of the of those shots is them just kind of individually each just glaring at the camera and not glaring in a kind of doing a smolder doing a kind of you know expression down the camera and not glaring in a kind of doing a smolder, doing a kind of, you know,

expression down the camera, just like blank looking at it. Just like, just like they've been caught gormless, which is really, really funny. And the other kind of shot they go for is sometimes rather than being in their tracksuits,

they're in, um, they're in like, you know, the kind of shirt that you would wear when you are like 16, 17 and you want to get served at a pub. So you kind of overdress you would wear when you are, like, 16, 17, and you want to get served at a pub, so you kind of overdress a bit,

and wear something that makes you look 50 years old. Yeah. Yeah, and it's so, so funny to see that. They all look ridiculous. There's also one of the group, I don't know which one it is, who genuinely looks about 10. Like, really, really young. Really jumps out as sort of, like,

possibly having not hit puberty yet and that i thought that's quite funny but yeah the thing about blazing squad really is that they they were very much a marketing exercise a very successful one but that's kind of their real triumph really and that they were marketed as kind of bad boys you know an alternative to boy bands for girls who wanted to kind of fancy boys who are a little bit more dangerous you know who might get them into trouble the kind of boys you don't want to bring home to your parents but also they do it in such a way that they're not too dangerous you know they've got a nice ballad here that's kind of inoffensive that's not too in your face with any of the hip

hop influencers so it still feels generic enough that you can feel safe around them it's a good combination and it means that they really do strike the chord with that market but it is just an illusion really it wears off really quickly and the sacrifice they have to make to achieve that is that it's a really really bland song it's it's not in the realms of ronan keating or anything like that but there's not really much to the song to be honest and everything i could have possibly said about the song you both have already said really um yeah it's what's interesting to me is that around well exactly this time because we've mentioned them a few times in previous weeks s club juniors are a thing and these are like the same age as s club jun. And one is being marketed towards six and seven year olds. And one is being marketed towards like 13, 14 year old girls.

And these groups are like contemporaries of each other. Which is just, it shows to me the power of how music is marketed and how young people are marketed towards entirely different audiences. And I found that very, very strange to think about. But other than that, I really don't have anything to say about Blazing Squad. Other than that, they're a funny little time capsule of a way of dressing and a way of behaving that is just not a thing anymore and um it kind of i find it quite sweet and it kind of warms my heart to look back on blazing squad but um no it's not very good this it's not very good at all

it gets an overall thumbs down from me but i enjoyed revisiting it yeah okay then so before we finish this week's episode just want to check are we going to be putting any songs in the vault so or the pie hole um colorblind by darius Is that going anywhere for anyone? Oh, not quite, Darius. I'm sorry. No. No. Okay, yeah, me neither. Round Round by Sugar Babes. Not quite, I'm afraid, no.

No. Yeah, I'm kind of on the fence with this one. It might bump in there eventually for me, but not quite. Okay, well, I'm putting it in. It's going in the vault for me. Okay. I'm putting it in it's going in the vault for me okay um i'm sticking it in um and crossroads by blazing squad no it was a bit close to the pie hole for me because particularly that bit and the um that where a lot of the back and vocals are doing that sound that i can only describe as sounding like a goat that bit in the background and I really hated that

but it's not bad enough to go in the pie hole no okay then yeah me neither so next week when we come back

we'll be covering the period between the 1st of September through to the 12th of October so we're almost out of 2002 we're almost there guys

but thank you very much for listening this week we'll be back next time. Thank you. We'll see you soon. See you. Bye-bye. The day that he died, he wanted my mother, my brother, my sister, and me to grow up and live happy in the land of the free. Now this nation that I love is falling under attack.

A mighty sucker punch came flying in from somewhere in the back. Soon as we could see clearly through our big black eye, man, we lit up your world like the 4th of July Hey, Uncle Sam, put your name at the top of his list And the Statue of Liberty started shaking her fist And the eagle will fly and it's gonna be healed When you hear Mother Freedom start a-ringing her bell And it'll feel like the whole wide world is raining down on you Brought to you courtesy of the red, white, and blue