‘I think the biggest part of this (Beth joining) is that from the second she first came in you could tell that she really wants to do this. We are on the same wavelength and that’s just so exciting.’ Ani Saunders, younger sister of Gwenno Pipette and part of the new wave of The Pipettes is waxing lyrical about the addition of new girl, Beth Mburu-Bowie. Beth’s addition to The Pipettes seems to have brought the band the stability that they have been craving since the original line up began to disperse and disappear after the unexpected success of their 2006 debut ‘We Are The Pipettes’.
With the line up now fixed though The Pipettes are looking forward to a healthy year. Beth played her first gig with the band at Wonky Pop in March and the band play the inaugural Turning Point Festival at the Roundhouse this month. They have also been busily completing vocals on the long awaited second LP. The record should mark something of a watershed for the current line up. ‘Originally we used to feel guilty that we weren’t the original line up and that we had to play a lot of the old songs. We still love those songs and we will be playing them, but the thing I think people will notice now is that there is a much heavier emphasis on the new songs. I wasn’t involved in the first record, I love those songs, but it’s really exciting to get the new songs out there as well. So I think for Turning Point people will be noticing a shift to the new songs.’ Not that this should pose much of a problem for fans turning up as the new songs have already been winning over some unusual audiences. ‘We played at Princess Caroline of Monaco’s Rose Ball. It was incredible, it feels like it was a dream. We were wheeled out playing, it was really weird. All those millionaires, it was bizarre, just thinking ‘one of those bracelets could pay for the entire record!’ Haha, but it was cool. The first song they were all looking at us as if to say OK, what’s this, but after that they were really into it.’
Fortunately though the band managed to avoid any royal faux pas or incident, fortunate that is because the band seems to be quite accident prone as a recent effort to try and burn down Martin Rushent’s house would indicate. ‘Oh my God it was insane!’ says Ani, ‘Beth had a little bit of a microwave incident! But we all managed to survive.’ Ani seems much more distraught when quizzed as to whether or not the band has ever suffered any unfortunate mishaps on stage. ‘You know what? I was wearing these amazing shoes at the Wonky Pop gig, and I lost one of them. No one seemed to notice though. It’s shocking, obviously the audience weren’t as impressed with the shoes as I was.’
When not suffering shoe malfunctions on stage Ani notes that she has been distracting herself from the downtime between recording and shows by developing an obsession for ‘20p Polka Dot Vinyl’, as well as taking part in the band’s new video blogging trend, the format through which they officially unveiled Beth. ‘We’ve got a new website coming out so we have been filming a lot of the recording for the new record and other things. So I think a lot of that will be coming out in some form.’
In terms of direction for the new record, which the band hope to have out as soon as they can this year, Ani indicated that there would be the trademark Pipettes sound, but with subtle differences. ‘I think people will be seeing a far more cheeky Pipettes, less Twee. This record will definitely have more of a fun, dance, cross over feel to it. We’re very excited.’ As for where they want to play this year there is a very simple answer, ‘I just love playing live’, Ani says with glee, ‘we want to play anywhere people are into it.’ Get into it at the Turning Point Festival on May 10th at The Roundhouse.
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