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The Veronicas, No support

Alisha Ahmed 24/09/2009

The first time I heard The Veronicas I suddenly thought Avril Lavigne had finally got a good voice and talent. It was last year, and they were still strangers to the UK, except for one very tiny scandal: they gave an interview to underground website Altsounds, which apparently was quite witty and much liked by all parties involved, except the record label (Warner Bros) who actually got the interview removed. As always, when you try to silence something, you'll just make it bigger, and that is how The Veronicas started to make me curious. I had almost forgotten about them till I heard the two Aussie twins were paying a visit to Koko in London, and I thought they were definitely the winning the bid for my night out on September 24th.

One song in I found myself in a pretty much sold out Koko, filled with devoted (and screaming) fans which were filling up all the floors of the century-old Camden theatre, mainly teenagers who apparently travelled all the way from other countries and were quite literally 'touring' with The Veronicas. I confess I haven't seen this kind of devotion-borderline-obsession from fans since the Take That's golden days, and I was quite surprised to see the kind of effect Jess and Lisa could have on this crowd. Now at the second album mark in their home country Australia, these ladies do not officially have even one album out here in the UK, nor in any other European country - yet all 1,500 people knew the words of every song perfectly. From Untouched to the most unknown of B-sides Don't Say Goodbye. Waiting around the backstage door for the Aussie twins well into the early hours of the morning I decided to sneak into the aftershow party instead. It was here I found out that maybe these ladies really do not deserve to be simply dismissed as a pop-duo act: they have a strong band feeling along with 'The Boys' who are also part of The Veronicas; the boys being Sherman, George and Vikk. And they still travel around the world accompanied by a very special personal assistant who is... Mrs Origliasso herself, mother to the pretty Aussie twins. This detail alone made me feel that all their effort to be taken seriously as a band, and the will to keep their feet on the ground without forgetting for one second who they are or where they come from, might deserve a chance more than just from screaming teenagers, but also from true music lovers.

The Veronicas Myspace

Veronicas photo also by Alisha Ahmed.