The Big Reunion!

Have you heard about it?! If you are based in the UK you can't have missed it! To explain, 'The Big Reunion' is a TV show that has reunited bands from the 90's to form a big giant teenage crush extravaganza tour. The TV show has followed the rise and subsequent fall of seven bands and I (Sarah) am loving it.

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To give Laura her dues, she is quietly sitting and enduring me singing along to songs that would never win awards for being 'classic'. For me it is an opportunity to reminisce on my teenage years and remember just how cheesy my music taste is was.

What has been eye-opening for me is the fact that bands that dominated my music collection growing up are bands Laura has never heard of! To list the seven bands I'm talking about:
5ive: My ultimate boy band crush and with songs I still quote today - 5 what you waiting, 4, if you wanna 3, 3, 3, 2 1 lets do it - I loved seeing them back on TV, even if they are missing a member. 5ive bad boys with the power to rock you - hit the music scene in 1997 and had us 'Slam dunk da Funk' -in for 4 years before splitting.

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911: These pint-sized pop stars had classic (but completely inappropriate  in Laura's opinion) tunes like 'Bodyshakin' and 'Love Sensation' and spent more time dancing than singing. When they first hit the charts in 1996 I was 13 and thought they were AMAZING!

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Atomic Kitten: featuring the once departed Kerry Katona, the girl group are back as their original trio! With hits like 'Whole Again' and 'Eternal Flame' they were first in the charts in 1997 and disbanded in 2004.

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B*Witched; (the only band Laura had slightly heard of) an Irish girl group that mixed Irish tunes with pure pop - they had 2 albums and 8 hit songs. Their first single 'C'est La Vie' had an Irish jig that was imitated more than once by me, my sister and our cousins. Active between 1998 and 2000, they may not have had the longest career but they were one of my favourites!

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Blue: The man-band! These guys used to have it going on- with tunes you can't help but sing-a-long with, attitude (bad attitude in most cases) and outfits to show off their fit bodies Blue were the band every girl at school wanted to get with. They have technically been back since 2011 - we even saw them on a float at London Pride!!

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Honeyz: A band I can't say I have much opinion about and I couldn't name a song of theirs until I heard them on the show and it all came flooding back. Described as an RnB group they were soulful and sexy and prone to not wearing much but they managed 3 different line-ups and plenty of tunes.

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Liberty X: way back before X Factor we had 'Popstars' - a show that created a pop band, the winners were called Hear'say! The losers, however formed Liberty X and actually went on to be way more successful and have WAY better songs! My main memory was that they wore a lot of latex and sang 'just a little'! There is no doubt this band can sing though!

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Other than the fact that it's a TV show about a time that seems a distant memory, why am I writing this post?! Well as I mentioned, Laura may not be that interested in me reliving my pop past but it turns out my sister is! Well she is more than interested, she's excited - so excited that not long after the second episode aired I got a call asking can we get tickets to see the bands in action?! Well, how could I say NO!!! So on the 12th of May we are road-tripping up to Birmingham to see the Big Reunion arena tour!

And I am SO EXCITED!!!! Probably more than someone my age should be - but these bands came out and toured before I was earning my own money so the only one I've seen is 5ive as I got tickets for a birthday!

The show has brought to light something else though, something that makes you realise that you really do have to be careful what you wish for. Growing up I thought I wanted the fame, the fortune, the dancing and singing for adoring fans but to sit and watch episode after episode of those who got that quickly losing it all is shocking. So many of them have struggled with drink and drug addiction, so many became depressed after it all ended and nearly all of them said they had reservations about returning.

From the outside, it looked like the best career ever from the inside they worked non-stop, didn't have a life and became overwhelmed by the lack of privacy. It makes me count my lucky stars that my voice and dance moves did not set me up for life as a popstar :) On a serious note though it did make me stop and think about how often I see others having 'an amazing life' from the outside and question if it's really the case.

For all the amazing experiences I have had and for all the things I have done, I never want to look back and say it was great but......... - so for that reason I make sure and live every moment to the best of my ability. It's also why we write about the bad as well - it's important to put everything out there, if you're going to at all! To end on that note, I am loving Jason Mraz's lyrics in 'Living in the moment' - it sums up my life right now perfectly!