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2024-07-05 Sugababes - Iveagh Gardens, Dublin

I've been a Sugababes fan since I first heard Overload way back in 2000.  It was, and still is, a pop classic.  Over the years, I managed to catch them live a couple of times.   The first time I caught Sugababes live was way back at Creamfields 2002.  Unfortunately Siobhan had left the band by then and been replaced by Heidi, so I never got to see the original lineup.  Did it matter much at the time to me?  No, not at all, I was just their to party!  As a side note, post Sugababes, Siobhan went on to release two solo albums, Revolution in Me in 2003 and Ghosts in 2007. The next time I saw them was at Oxegen 2008, and by then Mutya had left the band and was replaced by Amelle, leaving Keisha as the only remaining original member.  It was a tad strange seeing the band with only one remaining member, but again, it was a festival and all we were looking for was a good time, which we definitely got! Another side note, just like Siobhan, Mutya went on to release her own solo work, a gr

A Whole Lot of History...

Back in the day (by that I mean the mid 80s and early 90s), music came on Vinyl and Cassette Tape. Yeah, CDs were just starting to make headway, but CD players were still expensive.  Me, being a poor student, stuck to the humble cassette tape.  They were rugged, cheap, easy to record on and best of all, easy to create your own mixes. You could, if you searched, get C120 tapes, on which you could fit up to 120 minutes of music!

Why do I mention this?  Well, this week I collected my old tape collection from my parents house.  It had been living in their attic, undisturbed, for the last 21 years.  Actually, not only did I pick up the tape collection, I picked up my vinyl collection also! 

There were some absolute gems in the tape collection, Dignam and Goff, Power of Dreams, The 4 of Us, Blink, The Golden Horde, The Dixons, Ghost of an American Airman...  and that was just in one bundle!

Only another 170 something tapes to get through!

As for the vinyl, I haven't really gone through it yet, but I did notice some great singles from the Fat Lady Sings, That Petrol Emotion and, as it happens, all the singles from the Joshua Tree and Rattle and Hum!

Apart from those gems, I found a few flexi-discs, these two were cover mounted on Hotpress Magaxine.
So flexi-discs are exactly what they sound like, flexible discs that you play on a record player.  They are rather delicate though, prone to creases and other damage. You got to mind them well (like leaving them in an attic for 21 years....).

Anyway, the top disc is from The 4 of Us (mentioned above) and features extracts from their debut album 'Songs for the Tempted'.  The second flexi-disc is from The Pale features the track 'Moon'. I was talking with the band about it and they told me it was actually their debut single and they don't have a copy of it.  Well I figure it's worth more to them than me, so I said I'd forward it on to them.  I really got to get that sorted this week!

As I look in to the collection more, I'll post any gems I find here. It's such a blast revisiting the past through that collection.

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