So it looks like the S Club revival is really happening...

Part 2...
S Club 7 were riding high with their second Brit award for Don’t Stop Movin’, named Best British Single and the seventh-bestselling single of 2001. It was a new, more sophisticated sound for the group, more Billie Jean than bubblegum (in fact Michael Jackson was given a co-writing credit). S Club 7 had never not been successful, but this was the first time they had come close to having street cred. Then they were told the follow-up single would be You, which was saccharine by even their own standards, drawing more from golden oldies than the then-current trend for two-step and garage.

The group argued for a song to cement their new contemporary sound, one that would be “just a little bit of a move away from stuff for eight-year-old kids,” as Cattermole puts it – but were shot down. “We had absolutely busted our butts off to get the band where it was. The band never disliked You, but it was just like: ‘Wait a minute, we’re just making this crossover – we have wanted this for years. We have wanted to be perceived as cool since the very beginning, and you’ve given it to us, but then you’ve taken it away.”

No one in the group resented him for leaving – but no one asked him to stay. He would have stayed, he says. “I don’t mind admitting, I was upset.” The years that followed were difficult. Skua was stop-start and never signed to a record label. In hindsight, Cattermole says, he wasn’t up to being in the public eye – but taking a break didn’t seem possible. S Club, as the group was known post-Cattermole, hung on for one more year, announcing their split on stage in April 2003.

For all the No 1s, the world tours, the multi-million-pound merchandising and endorsement deals – including one with Pepsi – S Club 7 saw very little of their success in monetary terms. Cattermole, O’Meara and McIntosh formed S Club 3 in 2008; a rotating lineup from the group continues to perform, including Spearritt for the first time last month.

The extent of Cattermole’s money troubles came to light last year after he was found to be selling his Brit award on eBay for a reported £60,000. In an appearance on Loose Women that some criticised as exploitative, Cattermole said that he owed some £30,000 in taxes and more in legal fees. His share from the 2015 S Club 7 reunion tour went towards clearing his debts.

Explosively, Cattermole tells me that his five-year relationship with Spearritt was written into their Hollywood 7 TV show – “and because of that, it sort of happened”. Reports at the time said they had been secretly dating for six months, necessitating their on-screen kiss, but Cattermole says that was not the case – it did not happen organically.

He was forced into the relationship? “Yeah, but like I say. It didn’t feel like that because I had totally grown into the idea, quite quickly. I thought she was great.” In 2017, Spearritt lashed out at Cattermole online for speaking publicly about their relationship.

For the past year and a half Cattermole has lived in Swanage, in Dorset, where his family are based; he has been working odd jobs, most recently as manager of a community radio station. This Thursday he makes a heartwarming appearance on Channel 4’s First Dates Hotel, where he grapples with how to disclose to his date his background as “an entertainer”.

“It was five years of my life,” he says. “I definitely thought, when I was 20, that by the time I was 40 it would be a done thing. And it’s not … I’ve been answering S Club questions for 20 years. It will be great – it will be bliss – to one day not have to, but it’s part of it, and I totally accept that.”

In July, Stevens teased a reunion on the Lorraine Kelly show to mark the 20th anniversary of their debut album but Cattermole seems to think it unlikely. “The other guys know I’m up for doing it, but I don’t know what’s happening.”

A manager had approached him about it but was “rude and offensive” – typical, he says, of his experience of the industry. “It’s such a shame that the whole thing has been crushed and crushed and crushed … I’ve been in meetings and they’ve said, ‘No but Paul, legacy, legacy, legacy, you’ve got to do the gig because it’s the legacy.’

“The music’s there, the TV shows are there – that’s the legacy.” He still gets approached by fans wanting a selfie, who say that S Club 7 helped them through a difficult period in their lives or their GCSEs. “That is nine times out of 10 the way it goes.”

It is hard to think of any contemporary music, or even culture, that is as wholeheartedly upbeat. As we’re wrapping up, I tell Cattermole that I still associate their music with the optimism of the millennium. He leaps on the word.

“It is so important to remember how great so many things about the band were and, like you said, that time in people’s lives. That optimistic time.”
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It's a bit hard to feel too sorry for him as they had a far better run than many pop groups do. It must be galling to see all the money being made all around you, but that's the gig.

Steps going from strength to strength, off the back of a far better commercial deal (and frankly, a better back catalogue) must stick in the craw a little, but then they always did seem to be far more in control than S Club ever were.
 
It is crazy how much more Steps made - I guess their original contract was for a one-off single, rather than a big project, so they were able to get onto much better terms?

Still, S Club, as fun as they were, were hardly a high quality music act. Not to say Steps were Adele or anything, but their actual shows, performances and just ability at being actual good quality pop stars left all of S Club in the dust (hence some now play Uni halls and some the 02).
 
Didn't Steps make fuck all from sales due to a similar contract in that respect, but clean up in terms of tours?
 
I think it's fairly obvious that Steps music has dated far better in general, and they've maintained a much better relationship with their fanbase - largely because they actually seem like they enjoy what they do, miserable old Claire aside.

It always reeked of half-hearted going through the motions with S Club even at their peak. I imagine there's enough nostalgia for them to tour again if they can pull the whole gang back in, but they'll never have the success with new material that Steps have managed.
 
Devil said:
Still, S Club, as fun as they were, were hardly a high quality music act. Not to say Steps were Adele or anything, but their actual shows, performances and just ability at being actual good quality pop stars left all of S Club in the dust (hence some now play Uni halls and some the 02).
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This the exact difference. Steps are polished as fuck and able to headline their own tours, whereas as you say S Club are basically for provincial Prides and Freshers Week gigs. Least we not forget Steps were big album sellers as well and sold out stadium tours as the time. They ALWAYS WERE the elite of British pop during that era.
 
lolly said:
Didn't Steps make fuck all from sales due to a similar contract in that respect, but clean up in terms of tours?
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I'd assume they did ok? I know S Club were on like a salary, whereas I'd nearly guess Steps were somewhat tied to their success (given they were only meant to be a one-off)... 4 million albums sold at what was £13 a piece back in the day and, based on the production credits, very cheap to make probably earned them decent pay packets.

However, yeah - they did over 1 million concert tickets so I imagine they made a killing from that.
 
Ag said:
This the exact difference. Steps are polished as fuck and able to headline their own tours, whereas as you say S Club are basically for provincial Prides and Freshers Week gigs. Least we not forget Steps were big album sellers as well and sold out stadium tours as the time. They ALWAYS WERE the elite of British pop during that era.
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Agreed, for what they were they really were brilliant - I remember watching some S Club concert on TV and it was appalling. I was a fan but even I had to turn it off out of sheer BOREDOM.
 
lolly said:
Didn't Steps make fuck all from sales due to a similar contract in that respect, but clean up in terms of tours?
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This. Steps made their money from tours (they did LOTS) and merchandise. They made fuck all off the records- there were press reports at the time about how badly paid they were.

S Club could never have the same comeback as, primarily, they were a kids' band. I think they could manage a BIT of a splash if they got all 7 of them back together, though, but that would very much depend on whether La Stevens could be arsed...
 
I have to wonder if S Club Jo being one of the three bitches on THAT CBB kinda ruined the whole thing from ever having any credibility. Least we not forget H was on the same series.
 
S Club 7 were ALWAYS going to get the rough end of a deal; they weren't put together to release a few singles and see how things go. They were created - and launched - to be HUGE from the get-go. Their entire existence was to be a money-spinner for Simon Fuller in a way that he would have FAR more control over than he ever had with the Spice Girls.

In some cases with S Club, the music sometimes felt almost an incidental by-product. Steps found ways to make money from what they had - the merchandise, the tours, etc. but it came a little more organically, whereas it was written into the blueprint of S Club 7.

I love both acts, mind. But I would say the one aspect of S Club 7 that never really appealed to me was their tours. Something about their music in a live setting felt a bit FLAT. As a concept, they worked phenomenally well on TV but trying to turn it into anything more than that didn't do them any favours.
 
I think Jon always had the right approach, just taking it as another gig in a long line of theatre gigs, but one that just happened to pay unusually well and for much longer then the usual length of time.
 
Sheena said:
S Club could never have the same comeback as, primarily, they were a kids' band. I think they could manage a BIT of a splash if they got all 7 of them back together, though, but that would very much depend on whether La Stevens could be arsed...
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When they did that tour (was it 2015) with all of them, it was actually surprisingly a decent concert, but completely in a nostalgia way. The CIN launch performance, for example, was nearly embarrassing with how amateur hour it was. But agreed, all seven may be able to at least do some decent size venues.
 
I was always surprised by how much I enjoyed some of S Club 7's singles although there was the odd absolute clunker ("You're My Number One" springs straight to mind, that was absolute gash). But they don't spark anything in me when I hear them now, they were just decent pop records of the time, mostly good, sometimes very good indeed. Nothing wrong with that - I don't think something has to be built to last to have value. Everything is ephemeral, it's just a question of degree.
 
It was faceless pop music that could have been sung by anyone. Which I think is the difference between them and Steps.

The singles were consistently good, but I'd say up until "Don't Stop Movin'", any of their songs could have been carried off by many of the other acts of the time...
 
Faceless pop at face value perhaps, but it's top tier stuff. There's not a single one of their 13 singles which is less than 8/10 which is remarkable for a pop outfit.

They had a genuinely gifted vocalist in Racist Jo, the best pop songs of their generation bar Steps, plus the TV show gave them a personality their contemporaries would have traded their baggy trouser and tight top combos for.
 
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S Club Party was probably their defining moment, for the character mythos alone.

Tina - doing her DANCE
Jon - looking for ROMANCE
Paul - getting down on the FLOOR
Hannah - screaming out for MORE
Bradley - SWINGing
Rachel - doing her THING
Jo - getting the FLOW
 
Steps: going from strength to strength with excellent new material, national gay treasures status, selling out arenas, etc.

S Club:

 
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You know what, if our Teen did a solo set I'd actually pop along out of morbid curiosity.
 
I suppose if you're going to look for a younger, prettier, slightly hatchet faced blonde replacement, Amelia ticks the boxes.
 
Did they not get back together for a tour not all that long ago? Was it a FLOP?
 
I’m assuming they made next to bugger all again since one of them were trying to flog their Brit Awards on eBay not long after.
 
The tour did pretty well I believe, but it was a half-arsed effort all round.

There were rumblings about another full-scale reunion with new material in recent months but this sorry exercise can't be good for the brand. Much as I don't blame Bradley and Tina for getting a few quid where they can.

I was a bit :( reading this description on Paul's latest YouTube video (229 views and countin')

Hello There Everyone . I hope this video finds you well. Alllow me to introduce myself my name is Paul Cattermole... I AM a big fat nothing, a complete and utter Zero, and the time has come to share this online.
 
I don't understand how things have went SO BADLY for S Club.

They were a massive band at the time, and there seemed to be enough good will there for them last time around.
 
I don't care for her much bar YBMJ, but wasn't Amelia doing quite well? Not as a recording artist, but I thought she was still doing the rounds with touring stage shows.
 
SDF said:
I don't understand how things have went SO BADLY for S Club.

They were a massive band at the time, and there seemed to be enough good will there for them last time around.
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You know what, I went to the tour and it was fun for what it was. But the main thing is they simply aren't really popstars - they were kids that got lucky. The only have nostalgia and I couldn't give two hoots about any new music or think anyone would really want any? Added in with such ropey performances (see CIN 2014 or whenever) and it's all just a bit embarrassing.
 
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