Sugababes redefined the girl group when they came along in 2000, injecting RnB into the well-worn pop formula with debut single Overload.

When it comes to girl groups I was never really a fan; then again I was never the target audience, being too old, too male, and too straight.

All the same, I had a lot of fun chasing The Spice Girls around the globe in my job at the Standard and always found them – well, most of them* – uplifting company whenever we crossed paths. 

But by the turn of the century I’d had enough girl groupery; All Saints had done a couple of tunes I liked, and the USA was producing great RnB girl groups like Destiny’s Child and TLC.

All we had to offer was copycat groups trying to ride on the coat tails of the Spice Girls, like Atomic Kitten, B*Witched and Eternal. 

Until the Sugababes.

They appeared out of nowhere with Overload and were fresh in every way. There’s the shuffling beat, Siobhán Donaghy’s languid vocal about a schoolgirl crush – and even a squealy surf guitar solo.

All that and a catchy chorus with the other two girls – Mutya Buena and Keisha Buchanan – joining in to sing: “Train comes, I don’t know its destination / It’s a one-way ticket to a madman’s situation.”

It helped that the girls really were 15 and 16 (they had been signed to All Saints’ management when they were just 13), so when they sang about skipping school, they were keeping it real – even if the song was written with four older men.

Speaking of which, I interviewed them once after Donaghy had departed amid allegations she had been bullied, and had been replaced by Heidi Range, and they didn’t seem the same.

They didn’t really give off the sunny girl-gang vibes of the Spices and didn’t seem especially happy to be doing what they did. Which seemed a shame for a group of young people on a glamorous adventure.

Anyway, it sounded pretty good then and, oddly, it sounds even better now. 

* All except one (and I’m sure you can guess which one).