Appletons: Ain’t ‘Fraid Of No SARS

Billy Joel, Elton John, Kelly Clarkson – the list of musical legends that have dropped "Visit Toronto" from their to-do list on account of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome is, well, at least three names long. Now that Toronto (seemingly) has its SARS problem under control and the World Health Organization has dropped it’s warning about visiting the city, hopefully that list won’t be getting any longer. And one name that definitely won’t be joining it, is Appleton. Natalie and Nicole Appleton, formerly one-half of hit Brit U.K. girl-group All Saints recently released their debut album as a duo, Everything’s Eventual, and one-stop they definitely plan on making on their upcoming tour is the T-dot. Which is good – especially seeing as how they were born here and everything. "Absolutely," confirms Natalie when pressed on if they’re coming. "We were discussing that when all that crap about the SARS came out. And we were like, 'What do we do? We can’t fly to Toronto now.'" Both girls were born in Mississauga, a suburb just outside of Toronto proper before moving on to New York, Florida and, of course, England. An All Saints picture book published at the height of their fame in the late '90s (and which sits proudly on my bookshelf between hardcover editions of Spiceworld – The Official Book of The Spice Girls Movie and The Unofficial Dawson’s Creek Photo Album) spreads the rumour that Natalie has a tattoo of a red Canadian maple leaf in a very private place. But I digress. "We’ve been waiting to find out when we can go. What the hell’s going on?" Taking on the role of civic-booster I reminded the otherwise wholly pleasant Ms. Appleton that the WHO has already announced that we’re, you know, not contagious or anything. "That’s the power of the television," Appleton acknowledges as we both contemplate the work of late Canadian theorist Marshall McLuan. "It’s scared the crap out of everybody ya know?" Yeah. Tell me about it. —Sean K. Robb