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1999 Daily Mail Interview On Saturday, October 16, the British newspaper the Daily mail printed a two-page interview with Edele, and the other three B*Witched girls, in their lame magazine supplement, Weekend. Although Keavy, Sinead and Lindsay were all there, it was Edele who answered just about all of interviewer Dave Thomas rather stupid questions. He described Edele, and sister Keavy, as follows; "With their straight, black hair, and thin, pallid faces, they resemble Courtney Cox.....without the spray-on Hollywood glamour." If you say so, Dave. He says of Edele, "(she) marshals the group as impressively as Alastair Campbell steering a bunch of Blair Babes through a tricky media encounter. No-one goes off message. No false impressions are left uncorrected. And no-one goes out of line." This is obvious throughout the interview. The questioning began with Edele talking about her upbringing.
"My mam and dad were just so ambitious to do what they
wanted and we grew up around that. They worked really, really
hard and they dedicated their lives to their kids.They never
forced us, or said, "Go do this, go do that," They just
encouraged us. Anything we wanted to be, they were always behind
us and Asked whether brother Shane (from Boyzone) had given them any advice on their chosen careers, Edele said, "The one thing he did say, was just to make sure we really did want to do it because it was so much hard work." Then Thomas raised the suggestion that Shane was hardly as successful as Ronan Keating, Edele told him, "Shane's really happy in Boyzone, but he really loves his racing at the moment. It's something he's wanted to do ever since he was a young boy, and now he's got a deal driving for Ford. He doesn't remotely mind not doing as much as Ronan. As far as he's concerned, it's great; let someone else do it." At this point, Thomas himself writes," If Shane is happy to let others take the limelight, Edele is certainly not. All successful bands have their dominant personalities and she is clearly Top Witch. At one point, running through the list of things traditionally done by girl groups, I ask if B*Witched would sack their manager. I was expecting a gushing vote of confidence in Kim Glover, who handles their affairs. But Edele just says, "That's not a traditional girl band thing to do, but if our manager wasn't doing the best job in the World, then yes, we'd be willing to do it." (Note: Remember, this interview took place literally days before Kim Glover was sacked by the girls.) Thomas asked which of the girls gets the most attention from boys while on tour, and the answer was Lindsay, who he describes as, "...the youngest, prettiest member of the band," (Lindsay is undeniably pretty, but here on EdeleWorld, guess who we think is the prettiest?). Thomas asked Lindsay how she deals with the attention, and Edele immediately told him, "She flirts with them and then she has a laugh!". When Lindsay denied this, Edele said to her, "I'm kidding, he knows I'm kidding" in a manner Thomas describes as 'with utmost seriousness'. Perhaps because she didn't want him to make Lindsay out to be more than just a flirt, which a lot of newspapers would. The girls were asked in which ways they resemble the Spice Girls. When they gave this question a swift rebuke, Thomas told them it's actually a way of saying how different they are to the Spice Girls. "Well, that's a better way of putting it, " Edele replied. When asked if she is the assertive, bossy member of the group, she says, "No....the strong headed one. I know people do think I'm bossy, I just keep things in order sometimes." On the subject of dealing with tricky interview questions, Edele says, "If we owned the shop on the corner, we'd know everything that was going on and we'd know all the accounts. It's the same here. you have to know everything.". Pressed on the group's 'squeaky-clean' image, Edele said, "No one sat us down and said: We need you to be really squeaky clean. It's just that people picked up a lot of things wrongly. I said my favourite drink was whipped milk (what the heck is that?) so all of a sudden we all loved milk and that was all we drank. I said that I didn't drink alcohol so that meant B*Witched don't drink alcohol. But the girls do drink. They don't abuse it, but they do drink. It's probably hard for some people. They think we must be hiding some skeletons in the cupboard. But we're just four people and that's who we are." On the subject of Britney Spears and her, shall we say 'grown up' way of presenting herself, Edele said, "Britney's a really pretty girl (not as pretty as you, Edele) and she dresses quite sexy, so automatically older people are interested." Thomas writes that she says this, "in a tone which suggests grave disappointment at the weakness of older people." Asked about Britney's rumoured breast implants, Edele said, "It's pretty sad that you have to reveal more of yourself to get older people to listen to you. We could all go out and get boob jobs tomorrow and we'd sell millions of records. But people should go for the music that they love and not the image that's behind it. I know how you sell the product has a lot to do with it, but if people just like it then they should go out and buy it." Thomas asked whether following their dreams has made the girls unable to do things ordinary girls can. Edele told him, "we went for our dreams and achieved them. We think that people who haven't gone for their dreams because they wanted to be hanging out are missing out as well. We've done all we wanted to do and can still do the rest, too. We can't hang out as much, but we can still kiss the wrong bloke if we want to." (Note: The wrong bloke being any bloke not a member of the EdeleWorld team). And have they kissed the wrong bloke? "Yeah, we have done!" Edele admitted. DAMN! The final part of the interview had Edele speaking about her younger sister. "My younger sister is a dancer. She's danced all round Ireland and she's a European champion as well. She's brilliant." Thomas stated that she must be 'determined, hard-working and clean living as well' - obviously his lasting impression of Edele. EdeleWorld Verdict: if you read between the lines their was an argument here, with Edele and the interviewer saying most of the things. He wanted to make the girls out to be something they aren't, he obviously thinks of them as the new Spice Girls, and wanted to get some tabloid gossip on them, and B*Witched have done enough of those interviews. Edele, as always, handles the questions superbly - she's not just an extremely pretty face, a wonderful singer, a fantastic dancer, an awesome songwriter, a genuinely wonderful person.....
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