ESP’s Susan Saunders grabbed a word with Vanessa and Mollie from The Saturdays, our July issue cover stars, ahead of the release of their Greatest Hits album and tour.
Read the rest of Susan’s interview in the new issue out now…
What’s the worst thing about touring?
Vanessa: “There’s nothing I don’t love about touring – it’s one of my most favourite things to do but if I had to say the worst thing about being on the road is being away from home. We’re all such home girls, we love our own beds, family and have babies, dogs so I’d say that.”
Which is your favourite song from your Greatest Hits Album?
Vanessa: “I love all of our songs but if I had to pick one, it’d be one of the oldest ones but the What About Us would probably be my favourite as we got to number one with it.”
The thought of a Greatest Hits tour has made me take a trip down Nostalgia Lane as these things do. Rewinding back a few pages – how did you go about getting into The Saturdays?
Mollie: “I was in a band before The Saturday’s, gigging around the country trying to get spotted. Someone from the label spotted me and asked me to audition for The Saturday’s that he was putting together. I went to the audition and I was successful. It was quite a few years of gigging around with the other band but it all paid off in the end.”
Has much changed over the past seven years in the band?
Vanessa: “The normal things have changed. We’re all in nice relationships, some of the girls have had babies – not much has changed for us apart from all we’ve achieved with the band.
“I’ve kept the same friends that I had before the band, which is great and they and my family keep me down to earth. We can’t stand any of that stuff when people change or act differently with us and as for us, we’re all the same. We always said that if we did change, we’d tell each other and that’s just never happened.”
Most people dream about becoming a popstar at some point or other. Did you always know you’d become a popstar?
Vanessa: “I always wanted to be a popstar. I’d been singing since I was five and by the time I was 16, I was kind of like ‘sign me now’ – I probably put unnecessary pressure on myself. I mean, I always knew what I wanted to do but I guess I just got really lucky.”
What’s the best thing about being a popstar?
Mollie: “Erm… I think it’s getting to go on tour, perform all of the songs, meet the fans and hear them singing all of your words back, I would say that’s the very best thing.”
What do you love to do the most outside of the band?
Vanessa: “We’re actually really, really boring [I don’t believe that for one second]! We like to catch up with family, friends; go out for dinner and that’s about it really, bit of shopping and somedays just sleep and snuggle up in our onesies!
“I just want to be at home some days, just not leave and watch rubbish TV with no makeup on – hair in a bun. Lovely!”
If you could pick any other career what would it be?
Vanessa: “This is a hard one because I’ve always known that I wanted to be doing this. I guess I’d still be trying to crack the industry as a singer if I wasn’t in The Saturdays because I love music so much.”
Mollie, I loved how you handled yourself with perfect discretion during the Prince Harry romance links. ‘Harry-gate’ was hot property!
Mollie: “Ah thank you. I’m now in a relationship with a lovely guy called Jordan who I’ve been with for a year and a half. He lives in LA so it’s kind of a long-distance relationship – you just kind of get used to it after a while – we’re really happy.”
Quick fire round – Vanessa was asked a handful of questions that she needed to answer with the preferred word that popped into her head in 5 seconds!
Twerking or Tweeting?
“Twerking.” (Oooohlala!)
Selfie or belfie?
“…Selfie.” (said quite apprehensively!)
Cat lady or bag lady?
“Bag lady.”
Singing or song writing?
“Oooh that’s a tough one – I really like both but I’ll say song writing.”
Look out for the release of The Saturdays’ new single ‘What Are You Waiting For’ out on August 10.