Parade

November 2011

My weekend: Bianca Claxton

ALL this week we’ve been doing Blackberry's Live And Lost. They dropped us in a cave on Sunday in Buxton and since then, every day we’ve had to get to a different location to undergo a challenge.

We’ve been using Twitter to appeal to fans to give us lifts and food and somewhere to sleep each night.

They gave us each a Blackberry and we’d just say “We’re stuck in Ipswich and we need a lift to Broxbourne; can someone give us a lift?” Whoever helped us would set a challenge once we’d reached each destination.

We had to play netball for one, which was really embarrassing. I hadn’t played since school. Another one had fallen out with is friend so we had to write a jingle and then sing it to her. She wasn’t very impressed, to be honest.

The worst was feeding creepy crawlies and lizards. Me and Sian were just a wreck.

We finished last night with a gig in London and it’ll all be shown on Channel 4 on Sunday.

Rizzle Kicks, Chipmunk, Professor Green, Example and The Wanted have all done it in the past. We were the first girls to do it so I think they expected us to be completely useless but we dealt with it quite well.

The hardest thing was not eating. We’ve been starving hungry. We normally eat a lot of carbs. And a lot of cake. Everyone always says how surprised they are at how much we do eat but because of the dance routines we do on stage, we need to keep the energy up.

Because we haven’t been able to do that this week, we were all quite ill, full of coughs and colds yesterday.

It’s been a bit crazy but we’ve had a laugh.

We wanted to have a sleep but we’re off to Blackpool today to do a signing for our album which was released this week. We’re really excited to have it out, finally.

It has the singles Louder and Perfume on it and the rest of the tracks have all the same kind of energy. So they’re girly anthems, not taking ourselves too seriously. But there are a couple of ballads on there as well as a clubby track. It’s a good old pop album.

Tonight we’ll be doing a gig in Blackpool for Children In Need, which should be a good one.

Tomorrow we’re doing another signing in London and Birmingham.

On Sunday I think we’ll be back home in London finding out how well ouralbum has done in the charts.

All five of us still live together and we’re still really enjoying it.

The only times we do argue are what to watch on TV. Jess watches MTV Base and all those car-bashing programmes and I can’t deal with them. They drive me mad. I always Sky+ Glee, America’s Next Top Model and X Factor.

I watched the Lion King on DVD the other day and had a good cry at that. It wasn’t the 3D version. I think that might freak me out.

We don’t get to see many gigs although me and Jess went to see Wretch 32 the other night. Most of the time we only see other acts who are performing at the same gig as us. So last Sunday in Ireland it was Jedward, The Wanted, JLS and we went on stage with Westlife.

So far we’ve supported Shakira, Alexandra Burke, Ellie Goulding and Black Eyed Peas at Alton Towers, which was amazing. We’ve also played with Shayne Ward, Boyzone, Westlife and at the weekend we did a gig with Jedward – and we love Jedward.

Next month we’re doing two shows with Mel C and I’m dead excited about that. We are all huge Spice Girls fans. They were just the best girl band.

Hopefully we’ll be doing our own tour next year.

At the moment our fans on Twitter are saying that we should support The Wanted on their arena tour next year. But I don’t think I could tolerate The Wanted on tour. They trashed our dressing room again when we were in Dublin. And of course it was Jay (McGuiness). It’s always Jay because he’s from Nottingham and that’s what we do.

Parade’s self-titled debut album is out now. You can see how Bianca and the girls fared with Live and Lost on T4 this Sunday or visitwww.blackberry.com/liveandlost

The Saturdays

June 2011

SHE is the posh blonde one, the daughter of an accountant, the one who wanted to be a singer since she was seven years old. And Mollie King admits it took her dad and mum (a doctor’s secretary) some convincing that pop music was the right career for her.

“I’ve got two older sisters,” says King, who turned 24 last weekend.

“One is a lawyer and the other is a banker, so when I said I wanted to be a pop star it was a bit...”

Of a disappointment?

“(Laughs) No, not at all. It was more like ‘where did this come from?’ Mum thought it was a brilliant idea but for my dad it was more ‘gosh, how are we going to go about this?’ My family’s not at all in the performing arts world, so it was a complete shock.”

The turning point for dad was seeing his youngest daughter in his daily paper.

“My dad reads The Guardian and there was an article about us, so he was impressed then.”

She adds: “And now they really are The Saturdays’ No. 1 fans. They come to everything they can possibly be at... hang on just a minute...”

King is hopping from one car into another. Where is she off to?

“I’m actually going to, erm... I’m going to see... I’m going to, erm...”

She turns to her best friend in the seat beside her.

“Kate, what do you call it where we’re going to? The horses? The races.”

You’re going to watch horse racing.

“(Laughs). You can tell it’s my first time going.”

It’s a rare day off for her and the rest of the group who have been working on their next album.

“We’re writing and recording that at the moment. It’s the first time we’ve been allocated a lot of time to write the songs. On our last one we did write one of the tracks but this time we’ll be writing a good percentage of them, which is nice because the album now feels really personal to us.

“At the end of June we’re going in for a week’s writing camp with producers and writers from all over the world coming to see us, which is really cool. We are still beginners when it comes to writing so it’s nice for us to be working with such talented people.”

The album won’t be released until November but the first single from it, Notorious, was released last month. It’s their tenth hit in three years, following the likes of If This is Love, Forever Is Over, Missing You, Ego and Higher.

The Saturdays’ Frankie Sandford had plenty of column inches in the tabloids when her relationship with Dougie Poynter from McFly broke down but what is the situation with the rest of them?

“Four of us have boyfriends and Vanessa is single,” says King.

“My boyfriend’s a model. It’s actually very new. It’s been two months.”

And how he’s adjusting to the attention?

“He’s used to being photographed with his job but he didn’t really realise how much we get photographed in The Saturdays.”

She adds: “I’m really busy but he’s equally as busy so we do have to make time to see each other. But that kind of makes it more special when we are together. We plan to spend nice days together and to do things that are fun.

“If you really like somebody you can always make it work.”

Although singing is her priority, she does harbour ambitions to act and had a taste in Hollyoaks.

“We made a little appearance, which was funny. And we were acting but it was only a very small part. One of the characters was hitting on me and I had to give him a ‘back off’ look.”

Ahead of the next session of writing for the new album, The Saturdays appear alongside the likes of JLS and McFly at Alton Towers Live on Sunday June 19.

Says King: “I’m so excited because I haven’t been to Alton Towers before. I hope that I get to go on the rides. I’m told they have the scariest rides in the country and I’m quite a daredevil, I’m quite up for it.”

Tickets, including theme park entrance, are £55. The concert starts at 4.30pm. For more details visit www.altontowers.com.