On The Major Label Machine, Touring With *NSYNC & The Perks Of Reality TV

If you were a young, impressionable female growing up in the ‘90s — and no, being born in 1998 does not count as growing up in ‘90s — you will have fond memories of a little girl group called B*Witched with a little song called C’est La Vie. Dance routines were choreographed, primary school talent quests entered, roll-on body glitter purchased. So when the Irish quartet announced a tour with fellow ‘90s popstars Atomic Kitten and S Club 3 (yes, we know how ridiculous that sounds), the nostalgia was hard to deny.

 

“It’s pretty incredible actually … I think at some point I was getting a little fed up with it [the old music], and two years ago I did pantomimes and for whatever reason we had C’est La Vie in the pantomime, but I wasn’t in it, so I got to actually stand back and look at C’est La Vie from a different perspective. I just found a new love for it and really understood what it does to people still.”

 

Lynch is very conversational and it feels like catching up with an old friend over coffee. Though the phone-line from the Wirral Peninsula, UK isn’t the best, Lynch asks me kindly, "it must be early there, are you awake yet?"

 

The band were between the ages of 18 and 25 at their peak in 1998 — when songs like C’est La Vie, Rollercoaster, To You I Belong and Blame It On The Weatherman saw them become the first ever girl group to score four consecutive #1 singles in the UK. Despite moving over three million records in only a few short years, their fall from stardom began in 2002 when Epic Records, a division of Sony, dropped the band unceremoniously from the label. 

 

"At the time, the music industry was under pressure, really, and it was kind of downsizing … Basically, there wasn’t enough room for everyone," Lynch explains with an air of sadness. When a new managing director took over the label, he "just decided that he’d let us go and nobody else could say anything about it". Though being dropped came as a surprise, B*Witched were no strangers to the pressures of delivering for a major label.

 

"I remember when we got #1 with Blame It On The Weatherman, we were on tour with *NSYNC in America. We were on stage, and when we came off the stage, the *NSYNC boys had dressed up our dressing room with balloons and champagne and streamers and there was a blackboard in the room and they’d written all over it, ‘Weatherman is #1!’" she recalls. "We were just like, ‘phew, thank god’, which was a real shame, because we knew that basically if we didn’t have our #1, our demise was going to start in the press." There was a lot hanging on the young band, new to the music industry and having put their trust in the hands of "a big machine like Sony". Sony’s vision for success saw Lynch thrust in front of bandmates Keavy Lynch (her twin), Lindsay Armaou and Sinead O’Carroll, ultimately building tension between the girls.

 

"We were so young at the time and we were together as a band probably a year or two before Sony actually signed us and I guess when you’re at that point and so young, our dream was quite naïve. You kind of put trust in the next level that they know what they’re doing and they can see a vision … That’s really what happened — for whatever reason, they chose me, they felt I was vocally ahead of the group and heard something in my voice that was just going to pinpoint a different sound, so they just kind of zoned in on it. I have no idea, at the time it just made sense to roll with it," Lynch admits.

 

After their break-up and consequent falling out, surprisingly it was UK reality show The Big Reunion that brought the four back together in 2012.

 

"I didn’t really wanna do The Big Reunion, I was quite against it. Sinead and I had fallen out — not over the years in the band but in the years in between. I was kind of nervous to spend my time around her again because I didn’t really want the heartache of it, if I’m honest. But I’m delighted that The Big Reunion kind of slungshot us back together. We’re the best of friends again now and I talk to Sinead in particular every day and I wouldn’t want my life without her again."

 

Though reality TV can often "create drama where there is none",  Lynch says the show did the band good after ten years apart. "We all started speaking about how we actually felt back then. None of us understood where we were all coming from until that moment on The Big Reunion. It was really interesting to talk about all of those years from everyone’s perspectives, we all lived it from different perspectives, y’know?"

 

As for their upcoming Australian tour, fans have double denim and new material to look forward to, written for B*Witched's upcoming 20th anniversary.

 

"We’re gonna be what we are now [musically] and what we feel now," Lynch confirms. "We’re not gonna try tap into what we were because that’s nostalgia and the music industry has moved on as much as we all have … we’ve updated it so we feel comfortable with it. We’ve re-choreographed everything to a new style and what people will wanna see today."

 

It seems B*Witched's rollercoaster ride is finally pulling into the station.