Mutya Buena - the husky-voiced heart and soul of the Sugababes - was both late and early for our interview. We bumped into each other outside the band's management offices in east London where Buena was huffing on a vape. It was 10.40am and when I mentioned that we were both early for our 11am appointment, Buena looked confused. "I was told 10.30," she said, "I thought I was late." When it dawned on her that she had been told an earlier time, perhaps on purpose, she offered a blunt summation of the situation: "Little fuckers!"
Her bandmates Keisha Buchanan and Siobhán Donaghy arrived shortly after. They all looked fresh-faced despite battling extreme tiredness: Buchanan had just landed in London from Toronto; Donaghy was at her wits' end given it was the summer holidays and she had two small children to wrangle; and Buena had just returned from a family holiday at Disneyland.
The exhaustion was tinged with an undercurrent of mania, the three of them chatting over each other with hurried life updates and concerns about the final mix of their soulful new single, When the Rain Comes, their first in this lineup as the Sugababes in more than 20 years. They seemed genuinely thrilled to be together.
Denne historien er fra September 22, 2023-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
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Denne historien er fra September 22, 2023-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Starlink's conquest of the Amazon leaves Brazil in a dilemma
The helicopter swooped into one of the most inaccessible corners of the Amazon rainforest. Brazilian special forces commandos leaped from it into the caiman-inhabited waters below.
Dalai Lama's mountain town feels the strain of tourist boom
SUVs and saloon cars pass slowly along McLeod Ganj's narrow one-way Jogiwara Road, blaring horns at pedestrians and scooter riders and playing loud music.
'I am all the world' The brutal rule of a West Bank settler
Palestinians tell ofblacklisted Yakov's reign across the Jabal Salman valley and heisjust one of many violent bosses
Stormy waters New flashpoint emerges in South China Sea dispute
Hopes that tensions in the South China Sea might ease have been short lived.
'Justice delayed' Why trust in public inquiries to bring closure is fading
After the final report of the Grenfell fire inquiry was published, Hisam Choucair, who lost six family members in the blaze, said: \"We did not ask for this inquiry... It's delayed the justice my family deserves.\"
Celeriac soup with almond pangrattato
I'm not ashamed to say that as soon as September hits, my stick blender comes out. Just as I embrace salads when the clocks go forward in the UK, I wholeheartedly throw myself into soup season once the summer holidays end. Autumn is approaching in the northern hemisphere and I'm ready with my ladle. Celeriac is one of my favourite soup heroes, because it gives the creamiest, silkiest finish with little effort. You don't have to make the almond pangrattato, but it is a wonderful addition.
Are smoke signals telling me to make an oil change in the kitchen?
Should you that is, not can you) cook with extra-virgin olive oil? Antonio, Atlanta, Georgia, US
Going underground
A darkly humorous encounter between an American spy-cop and the members ofan eco-commune she is hired to infiltrate
All work and no play
Hard Graft, a powerfulnew London exhibition, focuses onworkers’ exploitation, from the ruined hands ofa washerwoman to mothers forced to sell their bodies
What the princess and the shaman tell us about hereditary privilege
It should have been an Instagram-perfect wedding image, but it turned out to be something more embarrassing.
