They just couldn’t get enough of Depeche Mode’s 1981 hit, so what happened to The Saturdays after their weekend was over?
The Saturdays were a British female quintet brought together by Polydor Records in response to the success of Girls Aloud and indeed, following a supporting slot on Girls Aloud tour of 2007, The Saturdays embarked on their own assault of the music charts. The Saturdays were/are Frankie Bridge (b.1989), Una Healy (b.1981), Rochelle Humes (b. 1989), Mollie King (b.1987) and Vanessa White (b.1989). Despite being offered unrecorded Girls Aloud songs (which they were not happy about), The Saturdays released their debut single, “If This Is Love”, in July 2007.
The song went to No.8 in the UK and this was followed by “Up” in October. “Up” did better in reaching No.5 and came just a few weeks before the girls’ debut album, “Chasing Lights”. The album would peak at No.9 and eventually earn a Platinum disc for selling 300,000 copies in the UK. Three more singles were lifted from the album, “Issues” (No.4), “Work” (No.22) and their cover of Depeche Mode‘s 1981 smash, “Just Can’t get Enough”, recorded for the 2008 Comic Relief charity, and which The Saturdays took to No.2, selling 280,000 copies, their biggest hit yet.
Polydor wasted no time with this success and the girls went straight back into the studio in 2008 to work on a follow up, “Wordshaker”, released 357 days after “Chasing Lights” in October 2009 and also peaking at No.9, although this time only a Silver disc was achieved. The album yielded two top ten hits with “Forever Is Over” (UK No.2) and “Ego” (UK No.9). The Saturdays released the EP “Headlines” in 2010, which features the tracks “Missing You” and “Higher” and which peaked at No.3 in the UK.
More top ten success came in 2011 with the singles “Notorious” (No.8) and “All Fired Up” (No.3), both of which were included on their third studio album, “On Your Radar”, which only got to No.22, but sure enough, even bigger things were to happen in 2012 with their fourth album, “Living For The Weekend”, which would return them to the UK top ten and features the smash hit singles “30 Days” (No.7), “Disco Love” (No.5) and, finally, a chart topper with “What About Us?” with DJ and producer Sean Paul, which would also do big business across Europe and make an appearance on the US dance chart, at No.27! The single has sold over 540,000 copies in the UK, by far their most successful.
Following the fifth and final single from “Living For The Weekend”, “Not Giving Up”, in early 2014, The Saturdays released a best of, “Finest Selection: The Greatest Hits” which included the new song, “What Are You Waiting For?”. The album became their fourth top ten release in their home country and went on to earn a Silver certification for sales of 60,000 copies. Before the year was done, the girls recorded their version of The Waitresses’ festive classic, “Christmas Wrapping” for a compilation CD and then came the news that the band was going to take a break. A break which still remains and looks likely to for some time yet.
Frankie had previously been a member of S Club 8, a band that came out of S Club Juniors and who achieved six UK top ten hits between 2002-03. Frankie married Chelsea footballer Wayne Bridge in 2014 and she has largely devoted her time to raising their two children. Una married Rugby player Ben Foden in 2012, although the couple divorced in 2018. She released her debut solo album, “The Waiting Game”, in 2017, which included the singles “Stay My Love” and “Battlelines”. More recently, she has achieved top twenty success in her native Ireland with the single “Wild Grasses” in 2020. Rochelle was also an S Club Junior, but since 2014, has become a TV presenter working both in children’s TV and as a host presenter.
Mollie released the singles “Back To You” in 2016 (UK No.90) and “Hair Down” in 2017 with the intention of releasing an album, but the lack of success of the aforementioned, never produced such an item. Mollie instead went into acting and appeared in the British soap opera Hollyoaks. In 2018, she became a regular Radio 1 DJ and now hosts the weekend breakfast show. Vanessa has released three EP’s, “Chapter One” in 2016, “Chapter Two” in 2017 and “Chapter Three”, which is ‘promised’…although this has yet to materialise. Her most recent single, “Rotation”, was released in 2018. To date, the band have stated that there is “not enough nostalgia” for a reunion to happen just yet. Make of that what you will…
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