RACHEL Stevens is loving every minute of the S Club 7 reunion tour but the singer can’t wait to finish – so she can see her ­daughters again. The former FHM pin-up is mum to Minnie, one, and four-year-old Amelie these days, and admits finding the last few weeks hard without them, and her husband Alex. Rachel and her old bandmates are in Scotland and take to the stage at ­Glasgow’s SSE Hydro tonight for the ­penultimate night of their UK ­comeback tour. She said: “It’s tough to be away from my daughters and husband. “Minnie is only one and it’s so hard not being with her, but I’m very lucky and have brilliant support around me. I have a brilliant au pair who lives with us and my mum is round the corner and chips in to help. Amelie is at nursery all day and it’s just a case of keeping that consistency and balancing everything.”
Rachel, who took part in Strictly Come Dancing in 2008 and returned for last year’s Christmas special before joining the show on tour, has been using Apple’s ­FaceTime to talk to her wee ones while she has been away. She is looking forward to a different kind of reunion when the girls join her for the final night of the tour in London on Saturday. She said: “I am always checking in throughout day, before the show and then we have a little chat before they go to bed and it’s lovely. It’s really special to be able to share this with them. Amelie is coming to London to see me with Alex, even though Minnie is a bit too little and she will be in bed. Amelie saw me on Children in Need and came to Strictly in January. This is her first proper arena big show and she is so excited. She knows all the words to the songs and Alex has been playing the CD in the car whenever we go out. She’s not seen the tour bus yet and someone asked me if I’d get her on stage but I wouldn’t be able to get her off because she’s a little performer. I’d always be so supportive if she wanted to be onstage too and go into this business.”
Rachel is not the only mummy on tour and bandmate Jo O’Meara has already let her son Lenny join in on the activities at earlier dates. Rachel said: “He came down and watched the show in Cardiff last week. It was his seventh birthday, so we had a party and cake and balloons, which was adorable and really special. It was gorgeous.” Despite giving birth to Minnie only a year ago and a stint as a judge on The Voice of Ireland, Rachel reckons she’s in good shape for the tour. She said: “I was really lucky doing the Strictly tour in January because dancing for me is the best exercise ever and always gets me in shape. “It was really great post-Christmas and I’m very fortunate I didn’t put on too much weight having Minnie. It usually takes a good year till your body comes back to you after a baby and I’ve pretty much been dancing since January. I get more of a lie-in being on tour than at home because I’m usually woken by the girls at 6.30am. We do have quite late nights here, though.” She added: “It will be lovely to be home with my family after the tour finishes and we’re going on holiday. It’ll be so lovely to get some sunshine. We had a big build-up to the tour with rehearsals and I was also on The Voice, going back and forth from Ireland every weekend. With the kids it’s been non-stop and I’ve not had a day off for six months. A holiday is very much in order, although I love being so busy.”
Rachel said that while everyone is a little older and wiser this time round, she believes S Club always had a strong work ethic. She said: “It’s all healthy eating on the tour bus these days because when you get older you are more aware of what you are eating. We are really not that rock’n’ roll and have all got sandwiches and ­blueberries on the tour bus. The social networking element has also changed and now when you are up on stage there are thousands of phone cameras in the audience and everyone is filming, so you get an immediate response from fans online. S Club have always been hard workers because we had the TV show as well as doing promo and recording. It always was pretty non-stop, 24 hours a day, so we expect to work hard on a tour like this.” Rachel claims there are no other plans for future S Club 7 projects when the tour finishes, despite it being a success. She said: “I don’t know what’s next. That’s it, really. This tour was all about a greatest hits tour and to celebrate it for fans. We’ve had a brilliant time and who knows? It’s lovely to all come back together.” The band are looking forward to hitting the stage in Scotland, where they have have always enjoyed a great rapport with the audience. She confirmed: “Without sounding corny, Scotland has amazing fans and has always been one of the places we remember going to. The crowds are really loud and up for it. The support has been incredible and the ­feedback so positive.” As the last date looms on the horizon, Rachel confesses that she’s already getting emotional thinking about the final curtain. She said: “I think there will be some tears in Glasgow. We’ve had some already and are a soppy lot – Jo, Hannah and me in particular. We have our moments in the show when we get all sorts of visuals and big screens and when we watched the Say Goodbye video for the first time in soundcheck, Hannah and I had a little tear. There are lots of memories and it’s really special to appreciate it all again 15 years later. When we sing Never Had a Dream Come True it gets emotional too, but Reach and Don’t Stop Movin’ bring it all back. It’s just brilliant as everyone just sings along.”
– DailyRecord.co.uk