Read the full interview here on SCM!

IT’S been more than a decade since S CLUB 7 last visited Bizarre HQ, but yesterday they brought their party back for good. Three months after I revealed the Nineties pop favourites had secret plans to reunite, RACHEL STEVENS, TINA BARRETT, PAUL CATTERMOLE, JON LEE, BRADLEY McINTOSH, JO O’MEARA and HANNAH SPEARRITT made it official. After announcing details of a UK arena tour next May, they sat down with me for their first interview in 12 years and revealed how they got back together.

– http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/6101029/Pop-band-S-Club-7-give-first-interview-for-12-years-to-The-Sun.html?CMP=spklr-112997525-Editorial-TWITTER-TheSunNewspaper-20141118-Showbiz/Celebrity

IT’S been more than a decade since S CLUB 7 last visited Bizarre HQ, but yesterday they brought their party back for good. Three months after I revealed the Nineties pop favourites had secret plans to reunite, RACHEL STEVENS, TINA BARRETT, PAUL CATTERMOLE, JON LEE, BRADLEY McINTOSH, JO O’MEARA and HANNAH SPEARRITT made it official. After announcing details of a UK arena tour next May, they sat down with me for their first interview in 12 years and revealed how they got back together.
Amazingly, Tina said the comeback was sparked by the power of social media. She said: “Twitter is our main reason for doing this. If it wasn’t for it, this would never have happened because we wouldn’t have realised how many people still wanted us and liked our music.” But the reunion has been a long time in the making, with the first discussions taking place over prawn crackers at Tina’s house in 2012. Jon explained: “We met up at Tina’s and had a Chinese. She reached out to each one of us individually and said we should get together and talk about this. “It was the first time we all got together in the same room to really talk. There was a lot of love. We all wanted to do it really badly.” Jo said: “It feels right. We never actually split.” Rachel added: “There’s definitely a natural chemistry between us.” Paul went on: “That’s the main reason the Big Reunion wouldn’t have suited us, because we’re not like other bands. “They wanted to focus on the negative aspect of every group. We don’t have that.”
Then they had to get music mogul SIMON FULLER — the brains behind the SPICE GIRLS and S Club — on board. Bradley said: “He was well excited. We couldn’t do it without him.” Tina added: “It was Simon’s idea to do Children In Need. It was perfect.” Their performance of a medley on the BBC1 charity extravaganza last Friday captured the nation’s attention, with the band trending on Twitter and their greatest hits album storming up the chart. All the band members were petrified, especially Jo, who has had a rough few years since being caught up in the JADE GOODY/SHILPA SHETTY Celebrity Big Brother race row in 2007. She said: “It was terrifying, I had never been so nervous in my whole life. “We used to all mime so to get up and do it completely stripped back, my voice was a little bit shaky. And then people were saying, ‘Oh, Jo’s lost it.’
“But it was just the pressure of it — my voice was shaking. It felt like someone had just got a load of sand and thrown it down my throat. But we’re back now and I’ll redeem it.” I was a huge fan of S Club in my teenage years and it was genuinely exciting to see them back together. Their energy is contagious and there’s none of the negativity around their comeback like so many bands on The Big Reunion. The only awkwardness came when I asked Paul and Hannah about their romance. They were together during their time in the band but split in 2006. Now they’re both single. Paul said: “We have known each other for 20 years. We were friends first.” Hannah added: “So we’ve kind of gone friends, lovers then friends.” Never lovers again? There was an awkward silence before Hannah replied: “There is a chemistry between us all.” Obviously there are lots of people out there claiming the S Club reunion marks another nail in the coffin of real music. But Paul said: “We came from an era where not everyone was an armchair critic so it’s a more tense atmosphere. “But the Children in Need charity director said it was the best thing they’d had in 15 years. So the negative stuff doesn’t matter, really.” I’m fully on board for this party.
– Tickets for the Bring It All Back tour go on sale at 9am on Thursday.

PAUL wants the band to reunite with CATHY DENNIS – the genius songwriter behind S Club classics Reach and Never Had a Dream Come True. He said: “New music hasn’t been discussed but I’d hope we could work with people like that again. “Cathy would be vital. I think she’d be up for it too. She’s one of the best pop writers.” One person who loves the group’s old hits is RACHEL’s four-year-old daughter. Rachel said: “Amelie knows Bring It All Back. She came down to rehearsals and was dancing away. “It was very emotional but that’s what kids would have done back in the day.” JO’s six-year-old son Lenny isn’t quite as keen. She said: “My little one was impressed but straight after was like, ‘I’m going back to my game now’.
S Club 7 tell their stories:
Bradley: FOUR years after S Club split, Bradley joined another, less successful boyband – UPPER STREET – alongside DANE BOWERS. They flopped and split after just a few months. Bradley said: “One per cent was us singing in the studio and the rest was us sliding down the stairs on whiteboards.”
Jo : SHE found herself at the centre of a racism storm after a disastrous stint on Celebrity Big Brother with Bollywood star SHILPA SHETTY. Jo said: “It was the lowest point in my whole life. But not long after that I had a baby. I was busy being a mum. It put everything into perspective.”
Jon: IN 2010, Jon revealed he was gay for the first time in public. He said: “I’ve always been gay. I never didn’t talk about my sexuality – it was just no one ever asked me. “I was just so young at the time. So it was probably inappropriate to ask those questions.”
Rachel: SHE enjoyed a successful solo career post-S Club but nowadays, you’ll find Rachel mentoring other budding artists as a coach on The Voice of Ireland. She said: “I want to be honest and give the contestants as much advice as I can.”
Hannah: HANNAH has forged a successful acting career with a lead role in ITV show Primeval. Yet a shot of her in her knickers somehow managed to steal the show. She revealed: “There’s a really funny clip on YouTube. They’ve done a little montage of my bum to music.”
Tina: SINCE S Club, Tina has done everything, from launching a solo singing career to posing for Zoo magazine. But reality TV was just too “scary” for her. She told me: “I was offered it but at that point I just wanted to see what I could do creatively.”
Paul: HE quit S Club just over a year before the band split but said it was “one of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made”. Paul revealed: “If I’d known S Club would only go on for a little longer, then I wouldn’t have left. “I’ve been wanting the comeback for quite a while.”