Wish I Were You

Wish I Were You 3.23

Director: Karen Lamond
Producer: Jeremy Bannister
Production Company: The Moving Picture Company
Date: 7 November 1998

This is the second single from the girls' second studio album, Illumina.

The video was shot over two days. The first day they were in the trendy K bar in Chelsea for the club scenes, and the second day in the tunnel under the Barbican theatre for the outdoor scenes.

There was a Winnebago for the seven ladies - Karen, Shellie, Polly and Katie the stylists, Alison Butler the hairstylist, Tess from the video department at Mercury and Debbie Bunn, the make-up lady.

Hairdresser Alison, instead of just blow drying Karen and Shellie’s hair, decided to give everybody a hair cut as well so the whole crew got makeovers too!

Debbie has been the girls' makeup lady since the very beginning, doing all the make up for the “I Am I Feel” video shoot and everything since.

This video is a great pictorial rendition of the song, featuring an extreme case of sibling rivalry where each fancies the other is more attractive/successful.

All I can say is I'd be happy to be in either of their shoes!

Again, a much more pared down look makeup wise and dress wise.

Was this a personal decision or influenced by Mercury Records?  "Oh God no!  They don't tell us how to look, thank God!" the girls say.

So why a drastic image change?  "It just got to the stage where we couldn't be bothered with all the make-up.  It's always nice to have a change - as this album's more open, more acoustic on the image front, we thought why not?"