16 February 2002
In fairness, who among us hasn’t ever mislaid their passport and mistakenly given their correct date of birth instead of a fake one while being filmed for national television? As an Irish pop culture moment, Nadine’s mix-up with her date of birth was magic stuff. If only that had been the series finale: the end, roll credits. After all, no mere pop group or record could match such TV gold. So, in that spirit of anticlimax we get a group named after its headcount, covering a schmaltzy ’70s bubblegum pop hit, managed by Louis Walsh and signed by Simon Cowell. Great.
Given she didn’t make the initial cut, Sarah—Nadine’s replacement—is unexpectedly front and centre of Six for ‘There’s A Whole Lot Of Loving’. In fact, it’s the three girls, including future kids’ TV presenter Emma and future Mayor of Cobh Sinéad, who are the dominant personalities here, in that they actually get to show personality. The three lads are here as Stephen Gately placeholder text, all patented Steo coy smiles and pouts: one of them has ’00s frosted tips, but I can hardly tell the other two guys apart by sight. I’m relying on sight because the cheap, disinterested sub-SAW production boils down their voices: I can’t tell the guys apart by sound either, or the girls. I assume this is by design. You win a singing competition just to be made sound like this?
As for the song, despite its mid-Atlantic twang and travelogue of US locations ‘There’s A Whole Lot Of Loving’ was a British composition for a ’70s British boy-girl vocal group called Guys And Dolls. Also, it was originally written as the jingle for a ’70s McVitie’s ad. This is the sort of twee ’70s cornball I know from bitter Boyzone experience Louis loves: just the thing to make Six the Irish Steps, or even the Irish Brotherhood Of Man.
I bet you’re as surprised as I am that we’ll actually see Six top the Irish charts again in 2002; I have no recollection of this. What’s more, they’ll have more Irish number ones than Nadine’s new group, which sounds fair, right? Poor Nadine, the Pete Best of Six. She could have had it all. Oh well. That’s showbiz, baby!
