The Saturdays recently travelled to Ireland to perform their new single 'Up' on 'Tubridy Tonight'. Linda McGee caught up with the girls during their visit to Dublin but unfortunately they were a member down because poor Frankie was in hospital suffering from appendicitis.
Linda McGee: How is poor Frankie? Is she doing OK?
Mollie: Yeah, she wanted to be here though.
Vanessa: Better out than in!
LM: So, this is your first Irish television appearance? Are you excited about that?
Una: Yeah, it's our Irish debut really. I'm delighted, ya know. I've wanted us to come to Ireland for so long.
Rochelle: She's been pushing, haven't you?
Una: Yeah, so it's great.
LM: Una, seeing as you're from Thurles, have you been getting much reaction on visits home?
Una: Well, I haven't been home, you see. I haven't been actually home enough to know. But I'm getting so many texts from people. It's ridiculous. They're starting to catch on to us now back here as well and we're in the Irish Top 20 at the moment. This is our first promotional day really.
LM: Can I ask about the process of putting the group together? How did you all meet?
Vanessa: The label kind of knew all of us already. We were all working in the industry, doing our own thing. But they did a few auditions and then you know we just kind of got on. We just clicked straight away.
Rochelle: And then that's when they finalised it. They called us into the office and we were like explaining lots of stuff and we were like: 'Are we the ones going on?'. We just wanted to know and they were like: 'Oh yeah, it's you'. And we were thinking: 'We've been sitting here all this time hearing the plans for the band and we didn't know if we got it.
LM: Now, two of you have known each other since you were children - Rochelle, you were in S Club Junior with Frankie, weren't you?
Rochelle: Yeah, I've know her since I was 9 actually.
LM: Does that make it easier for you starting off, having someone you know standing beside you onstage?
Rochelle: I think it does. But it's also quite refreshing having three other people as well. It makes it easier when you know someone, you know for going away. Because we went to Norway – it was the first thing we've ever done.
Una: But they never did it in a way that they never made us feel: 'Aw we know each other'.
Rochelle: Because I was keen to just get to know everyone. It's like when you move schools and go with a friend that's from primary school to secondary school.
LM: How are you finding the tour schedule so far? Is it pretty gruelling being on the road so much?
Mollie: It's not much sleep, lots of work. The thing is everyone says to us: 'Is is annoying getting up early and that kind of stuff?' and it's like 'No' because we're doing the best things. We're performing to people. We're doing TV or radio. It's just so fun. Every time I get it's like 'Yes, I'm doing this today'.
LM: Is it a bit tiresome having to look good all the time because people expect you to conform to a certain image?
Una: We spend hours in make-up so it's fine, you know.
Rochelle: Sometimes you wish that you could just not have make-up and be boys!
Vanessa: That's why we have to come in three hours earlier.
Una: To have all our hair and make-up done, that takes hours.
Rochelle: I wish we could just go on TV in a pyjamas sometimes.
Mollie: As soon as you get home, literally, it's make-up off and my hair goes into this hideous bun. I put it up there (gestures skywards) because I need to get it off my face. And I need to get all the make-up off. My pyjamas are so comfy. I think that's the only way my mum ever sees me anymore. As soon as I'm home I'm like that.
Vanessa: I like to get straight into my bed as well.
Mollie: I'm like 'Hi, Bye, Night'.
LM: There have already been lots of comparisons to other girlbands currently on the scene, like Girls Aloud and the Sugababes. How do you feel about being compared to acts like that?
Vanessa: It's a huge compliment. You know, they're huge bands so to be compared to them in the first place is such a compliment. But we don't feel at all like we're copying them.
Una: We want people to see that we have a new sound, establish ourselves – The Saturdays. And we are a girlband and we can be compared in the fact that we are five girls and we're doing pop music so that's nice to be compared to them and you know, we want to bring a fresh new sound.
Vanessa: The thing is as well, we're so new as well so people don't know what to do when there's someone new. It's like 'Oh there's a new girlband, they're like the Sugababes'. We kind of accept that. They're so good anyway so it's a big compliment and we went on tour with Girls Aloud and we saw them and they're amazing. And we just want what they have. We were like: 'Wow, we want our own tour'. I think eventually we would like to get rid of people comparing us. We don't really want that forever. But for now it's fine. It's a compliment.
Mollie: I think also, it's quite good for fans if they think we're kind of like that – it's nice for them to think that there's something else out there as well. Our music hasn't really been compared to Sugababes or Girls Aloud. It's more like Rihanna.
Una: And it's nice because she's not a girlband.
Mollie: We were working with her producers and also a girl who writes Pussycat Dolls music. So it's good to get those comparisons as well, rather than all British girlbands because that's very similar.
LM: What's been the most exciting thing that you've got to do as a result of your involvement in the group?
Mollie: There's so much. I think performing at the O2 in London was good because we're from London and our families could come and stuff. We get cool stuff as well and we get to go to premieres.
Una: My favourite is actually today (appearing on 'Tubridy Tonight'). I've been waiting for this moment for years – to go on national TV in your own country, you've achieved the ultimate thing that you've already dreamt of. I think the local paper in Thurles announced it. I'm going to be going back home and watching it. My family are in the audience.
LM: Have you been living away from Thurles for a long time, Una?
Una: I left Thurles a few years ago. When I left I lived in Limerick for a while. I lived in Dublin for a while. I've been living in London since the band started. We've been together since summer 2007. I've been away a good bit, yeah, but I did spend my whole childhood in Thurles. I'd be well-known in Thurles from the fact that I've always been there and gigging around there.
Mollie: She's like our tour guide. When we got off the plane she said: "Guys, I have one thing to say to you... Welcome to Ireland". It's funny to see her do that now because when we've been working in London so much she always goes on: "Wait till we go to Ireland, wait till we go to Ireland".
Vanessa: And now she's here she's in her element. It's funny.
LM: Well, I'm sure the public reaction will be huge after the show because a lot of people might have heard the song on the radio but not actually realised that one of you is Irish.
Una: Yeah, I've just a text from someone there, saying: "I've just seen your music video on MTV and I've seen you, you look great in it, heard the song so many times and don't know it was you." So when they hear the song they mightn't realise.
LM: How exciting was it for you to hear the final cut of the album?
Una: We love the album. It's one of those albums that every song is really good. It's not just two singles. We've had two top 10s in the UK with the first two singles but it's worth getting the album for every song on it, because I believe that every song on it could be a single, and we're not just saying that. They're very strong.
Rochelle: We are very, very proud of our album.
LM: So when you were deciding on the songs for the album were you all thinking about the kind of songs you yourselves would like to listen to as you're getting ready to go out on a Saturday night?
Vanessa: Yeah, especially when you're getting ready before going out, that is the album to play.
Mollie: And there are some really good ballads on there and I just love ballads.
Rochelle: You know like if you split up with a boyfriend you should really want to listen to up-tempo stuff but you always want to listen to the slower ones.
Vanessa: And then that makes it worse because you start crying. Why do you do that?
Mollie: I don't know.
Rochelle: Everyone does it though, right?
LM: How did you come up with the name for the band? Was it inspired by Saturday nights on the town?
Vanessa: We actually sat down and came up with like 200 names.
Mollie: We all loved the weekends – good times!
LM: How is your schedule at the moment? Are you still on the road all the time promoting your single 'Up' and the album?
Una: Yeah, we're on the road. I'd never really travelled all around the UK and I've been around it a few times now, up and down, up and down, over and back. Mark, our tour manager, drives us around and we stop off at petrol stations.
LM: So is it hard having five women cooped up in a van going around the country? (I should probably ask tour manager Mark this one!)
Rochelle: There's just loads of toilet stops.
Mollie: I feel sorry for him sometimes (the tour manager) because we'll just be on the road and we've just headed off and we'll be like: 'Mark, can we go to the toilet please?!'.
Rochelle: And he's like: 'Already? Why didn't you just go when she wanted to go?'. And we're like: 'I didn't need to go then, I need to go now!'.
LM: Are you planning any more trips to Ireland in the near future?
Mollie: Yeah, we're coming back over to Ireland for the Childline concert in the 02 here.
LM: And Una, presumably they might let you come home to Thurles for Christmas?
Una: I hope, yeah. I really, really hope so but I don't know. If I have to work I have to work. I don't mind, you know the way.
Rochelle: The thing is with us - my friends are texting to say to me: 'Aw, can't you just phone in sick today?'.
Vanessa: You can't. Everything is an opportunity.
Una: Unless you're on your death bed - with your appendix out! You have to be very sick. You can't just have a sniffle and go: 'I don't think I'll go in today'.
Rochelle: Everything we do is good for our career.
Mollie: With colds you just have to fight through it. I remember once we all had sore throats and we were doing MTV. You just pull through it. You can't actually mentally let yourself get ill.
Rochelle: I love that though because I hate being ill.
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