B*Witched star Lindsay Armaou insists Boyz show was a hit and recalls touring with Britney Spears
B*Witched star Lindsay Armaou has described the Boyzone concert at London’s Emirates Stadium in June as “electric” and one of the most memorable nights of her life.
Although the Boyzone extravaganza was blasted by critics in a few UK publications, Armaou said the fans loved the show and B*Witched enjoyed a massive response.
“The audience was all generations and they were so receptive,” Lindsay said.
“The atmosphere was electric and I remember thinking to myself, ‘this is going really quickly, take it in Lindsey because you’re going to be off the stage in a flash and then it will all be like, ‘did that really happen?’
“So I remember a moment on stage where I went ‘take it in’ and I scanned the audience from left all the way across, almost like trying to absorb everyone’s faces all the way around to the right .
“It was incredible and the reception that we got, especially when C’est La Vie came on, the energy was something else.
“It was absolutely incredible on so many levels. Firstly, to be able to perform at a stadium in front of so many thousand people and to have that experience because we’ve never performed at a stadium before.
“So to think that we’re doing it now 30 years later it’s like, ‘what is happening!’ Then on another level it was quite full circle for us because we started our career supporting Boyzone and opening for them on their arena tour.
“It was kind of like, ‘and now here we are again,’ and it was the end of their career so it was quite poignant for them. And of course the girls, Keavy and Edele, are Shane’s sisters, so it was a big family affair backstage.
“Our families all came over and having them there was quite emotional. Some of Keavy and Edele’s family had actually flown over from Boston for the show.
“My dad and stepmother and my husband and our two kids were there as well. Naomi, who is Keavy and Edele’s younger sister, was our stage manager and creatively helped us with our show.
“It brings it all home a little bit when your family can share in your experience and they get something out of it as well…the pride that they feel and the involvement that they feel.
“For my kids as well, they are so young (nine and seven) and although they’d seen us perform once or twice before they haven’t seen us that many times and then to take in the enormity of a stadium show they were a bit in awe. It was the first time that they went, ‘oh, this is what Mummy does!’”
Do they know what a pop star is? “They kind of do and they kind of don’t,” Keavy says. “The funny thing about this era, I find, is you don’t really have the kind of pop scene we had back then in the 90s and the early 2000s with TV pop shows and magazines and the kids and teenagers would follow their favourite singer or band.
“Back in the day you would perform on TV and fans would get to see glossy photo shoots and read the interviews in their favourite mag. “They’d have all these lovely photos and an interview and you’d literally absorb every word and take every bit of information you could from that page.
“Or you’d buy the CD and go through the cover and read what each person had written or who wrote what and learn the lyrics. It was a very different enjoyment.
“Everything is so accessible now on social media and it’s not quite as satisfying, it’s fast-paced and even music is fast-paced.
“On the flip side, although social media and digital music platforms take away the mystery it does give the artist more power and control.
“Back in the day it was very monopolised by the record companies and who they gave a chance to and who they chose to put a bit of money into.
“Now it can be very organic and an artist or a musician can have a bit more agency over their career and whether people hear them or not. There is definitely that side to it which I think is really, really good.
B*Witched toured America with N*Sync and Britney Spears in the early days of their career and they’ve seen the corrosive effect of superstardom as Spears’ life fell apart.
“When Britney was starting out we were starting out over in the States and all of us were on tour together,” Lindsay recalls.
“Britney had just released Baby One More Time and backstage she was really sweet.”
Would you have liked that kind of extreme success? “I don’t know if I would, to be honest,” Keavy says. “The other difference is that we had each other and it was a very difficult industry to be in at the time on your own.
“I think the fact there were four of us and we were all going through it at the same time and we had each other to lean on was a huge help.
“It kept us grounded to be honest and kept us ok. We looked after each other whereas I can see how Britney would have gone down a different road with the amount of pressure she later had to deal with, the paparazzi and all of that.”
· LINDSAY Armaou of B*Witched was speaking in association with Zingo Bingo’s (zingobingo.co.uk/) retro, nostalgic and music-themed bingo rooms.