Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Super sultry Saturday sisters take on reality TV
British band The Saturdays take on the world of reality shows in the new series Chasing The Saturdays
THE first season of Chasing The Saturdays, featuring Mollie King, Rochelle Humes, Frankie Sandford, Vanessa White and Una Healy, launched in January, premieres on our screens on E! Entertainment at 11pm tomorrow.
The series focuses on the British girl band taking up residence in Los Angeles where they will live, work and play together as they expand their successful music careers and break into the American music market.
In the UK, The Saturdays have 11 top 10 singles and three top 10 albums and recently wrapped their first tour. The five girls possess that rare quality that enables a girl band to survive in the music industry longer than the average group.
Five years after they were assembled by their record company, Polydor, The Saturdays are not only still going, they have gone global, with their reality show being hailed as “the new Kardashians”.
“At the point at which everyone thought we would go quiet, we’re coming back louder than ever!” says Frankie, 23 (the one with the short, dark hair).
“But we aren’t the new Kardashians – we’re nothing like them. We love their show, but what do they do? We’ve performed professionally for years.
“People used to call us “the new Girls Aloud”, and we have worked with them and they are lovely, but if we are the new anything then “the new Spice Girls” gets us more excited,’ adds Rochelle, 23 ( the tallest one, who is married to Marvin Humes of boy band JLS).
It is obvious that the quality that makes The Saturdays the perfect choice for the American cable channel – and the same quality that explains their longevity as a girl band – isn’t their talent for singing in harmony, but their talent for talking (often hilariously) in harmony.
At the end of a day that started at 8.30am, the girls seem unfazed by following up their photo shoot with an interview.
Which is impressive when Una, 31 (the red-haired Irish one married to rugby international Ben Foden), has had her 10- month- old baby Aoife (pronounced ee-fa) with her all day ( without a nanny) and Rochelle is expecting her first child with husband Marvin in June.
Asked about the qualities they most admire in each other, they pick Una first as the “yummiest and most natural mummy”.
“She makes it look so easy, but she never stops. She’s doing two full-time jobs,” says Vanessa.
Frankie is admired for her honesty and bravery in going public about the depression – panic attacks and negative feelings of being “ugly and worthless” – she suffered in 2011, which resulted in her being admitted to hospital briefly.
“I take time to measure people up, and I can be up one day and down the next. I really am ‘sunshine and showers’,” Frankie says, referring to the phrase she has tattooed across her back.
“Mollie is the one that you could most describe as pure. She doesn’t drink, she is a very good girl, she doesn’t swear. But she is very competitive,” says Una.
“The girls refuse to even play cards with me because I’m so competitive. I’m like Monica in Friends,” Mollie admits.
Meanwhile Vanessa has overcome her initial shyness to emerge as ‘the fun one’. “I can be very loud. Although at first there was this shy, quiet side to me,” she says.
The girls describe Rochelle as “the big sister” who looks after them. “Oh my God, she is so tidy. She repacked my suitcase on the way back from Los Angeles because she couldn’t stand the state it was in,” comments Mollie.
“I am a bit OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) but luckily Marvin is quite similar,” Rochelle says.
When E! commissioned the show, they expected it would involve the usual catfights, conflicts and bitching that dominate reality television.
But to their surprise – and ultimate delight – what emerged was very different. Chasing the Saturdays, the network believes, is an inspirational show about five young women with a great friendship who are “winning over America one hit at a time”, but are also coping with the complications of real life.
Filmed soon after Rochelle’s wedding in August, the show sees the girls living in LA flats for three months as they pursue their American dream. Separated from their families (although Una had Aoife with her most of the time), previews of the show reveal how the girls kept in contact with their boyfriends and husbands via Skype (with some footage between Marvin and Rochelle reportedly quite explicit).
“But you know what? It really is a family show,” says Una, holding up her daughter, who has been sleeping throughout the interview.
“With plenty of potential for expansion for a second series!” says Rochelle, laughing as she pats her tiny baby bump. – Daily Mail
● Follow Chasing The Saturdays on Twitter @TheSaturdaysTV or find them on Facebook at Facebook.com/ChasingTheSaturdays