The 2019 So Pop national tour is a smorgasbord of '90s nostalgia, featuring the likes of Aqua, Vengaboys, Blue, B*Witched and more.
The announcement has stirred up a lot of memories for not only fans, but also Sinead O’Carroll of B*Witched. “We last toured Australia two years ago. It was the first time since… God, 20 years ago!”
The Irish girl-group was a big deal in the late '90s. Sinead, Lindsay Armaou and twin sisters Edele and Keavy Lynch dominated the singles charts, with their first four singles hitting number one all over the world.
Unforgettable is their classic debut single ‘C’est La Vie’, a song that has more innuendos than most remember including Sinead. “We were so young. We were so innocent that we did not look into that in any way, shape or form, and that’s the God honest truth.
“I think we were in Germany doing a promo and somebody suggested that. We were just so offended! ‘How dare you!’” she laughs. “I can now see why it was taken that way.”
The girls broke up in 2002, but were asked to reform for the UK reality series ‘The Big Reunion’ in 2012.
They’ve been going strong since, even independently releasing some new material. “We’ve been together longer now than when we were a band in the first place.”
Life is different now for B*Witched. The girls all have families and live in different cities, with Sinead the only one still in Ireland.
Sinead has also noticed how much the audiences have changed during that time. “It’s funny because I suppose years ago the gigs were just for kids. They were always full of children, whereas now they’re all for adults going mad. We have people in their 30s who are losing their minds and it’s a little weird,” she laughs.
“It’s so funny because we did a big gig in Ireland at a festival called Electric Picnic. It’s really weird because years ago we weren’t cool to do those things, but now we’re kind of vintage. The nostalgia thing is just not going away.
"People really, really want us, and that’s great. Now we get to go to Australia for holidays and they pay me.”
The girls’ last Australian tour saw them performing with Atomic Kitten and S Club 3. For So Pop, B*Witched will be joining another line-up of great pop acts of the past.
“It’s so exciting, this tour, because we met the Vengaboys on the touring circuit but we never actually gigged with them. We haven’t gigged with Aqua, either. So I’m really excited to be on the line-up with them. And Blue, if we were a boy band we’d be Blue. We love them!”
Sinead is most excited about Blue, or in particular torturing the UK boy band with their pranks. “We did a big reunion and on one of the last nights we got their sound monitor to give us their microphones and we started singing ‘Mustang Sally’ from The Commitments in their ears while they were onstage.
"Another time we went into their dressing room and we turned everything upside down, and we left a note saying: ‘The Upside Down Man was here’,” she laughs.
So Pop 2019 Tour Dates
Wed 30 Jan - Kings Park & Botanic Garden (Perth)Fri 1 Feb - Qudos Bank Arena (Sydney)
Sat 2 Feb - Melbourne Arena
Sun 3 Feb - Adelaide Entertainment Centre
Sat 9 Feb - Eatons Hill Outdoors (Brisbane)
