When steps were officially formed on May 7th 1997, little did Lisa Scott-Lee, Ian ‘H’ Watkins, Faye Tozer, Lee Latchford-Evans or Claire Richards know that they would become one of the iconic record breaking pop acts of the late 1990s.
As a previous incarnation of the band, which included Lisa & H, imploded after being formed in November 1996 further auditions were held to replace the 3 leaving members by Barry Upton, Steve Crosby & Tim Byrne.
In November of 1997 Steps unleashed their debut single on an unsuspecting British public. 5,6,7,8 was a line dancing track, with a techno twist to cash in on the line dancing craze sweeping the country.
The single crashed into the charts at #18 before peaking at #14 8 weeks later, it was with their debut single that the group would make their first piece of chart history – becoming the biggest selling single of the 1990s not to break into the top 10 after shifting 290,000 copies.
They promptly signed to an album deal by Jive records and Pete Waterman soon became involved in the project, wanting to create ABBA style tracks with a modern twist – describing Steps as “ABBA on speed.”
They returned early in 1998 with a cover of a Bananarama’s single ‘Last Thing On My Mind‘ entering the UK charts at number six, which gave the group their first top 10 placing.
It was with their 3rd single ‘One For Sorrow‘ – a pop ballad which showcased Claire’s powerful vocals – that the group would finally gain the attention they deserved and begin an unbroken chart run of Top 10 singles.
After narrowly missing out on the #1 spot, the group found themselves on the covers of magazines, and appearing on every TV showing going.
As their popularity increased they appeared on Top Of The Pops for a few consecutive weeks. Riding high on the success of One For Sorrow, their debut album Step One was released a few weeks later, again missing out on the top spot. The album went on to sell in excess of 2.4m copies in the UK alone, becoming one of the biggest selling albums for boy/girl group.
Their 4th single would become the release that would gain the group their fame, a double A side of ballad Heartbeat, taken from the Step One album, and a cover of the Bee Gees song Tragedy, which would arguably become their signature tune.
The single went straight in at #2 and Tragedy became the song of the xmas party season, with the nation copying the dance step of putting both hands parallel to the sides of the head in time with the word ‘Tragedy’.The group started 1999 with a bang as Heartbeat/Tragedy hit the top spot 7 weeks after it’s release and went on to sell over 1 million copies and stay in the UK single charts for a further 23 weeks.
The group embarked on their first headlining tour in March, taking in just 11 sold out dates across the UK and one in Belgium, this was supported with the final single to be lifted from Step One.
Even with it’s released by 2 months, Better Best Forgotten would become the group’s biggest selling single of 1999 and also the second of three singles to be in the charts simultaneous, the release of Thank ABBA For The Music a month later would make the third Steps release.
July saw the release of the lead single from their second album. Love’s Got A Hold Of My Heart, a track which had allegedly been sat in PWL vaults for nearly 10 years. The single, once again, missed out on the top spot.
The video for the song featured the band searching for a stolen Steps movie, which sparked rumours that the group may be about to feature in a Spiceworld style film.
Following the release, Steps headed to America to be a support act for Brtiney Spears’ …Baby One More Time Tour, supported with a remixed version of One For Sorrow which would act as their debut American single and feature on the soundtrack to the film “Drive Me Crazy”.The remix appeared as a bonus track on several editions of Step One in Australasia.
Whilst on the tour the group filmed the video for After The Love Has Gone, which would become the second the single from the album Steptacular.
Hot on the heels of the single came the record breaking Next Step Tour, taking in 37 shows over 33 dates – Matinees were added on some dates to keep up with the demand. The tour played to over 350,000 and earned them a Brit Award for Best Selling Live Act.
Steptacular was released a few days into the tour and went straight to the top of charts, and remained there for 3 weeks. It would go on to sell in excess of 1.5million copies.
One of the highlights of the sold out Next Step Tour was a cover of Kylie’s anthem Better The Devil You Know, this would form the group’s next realease, along with Say You’ll Be Mine, which would continue their run of top 5 singles.
February 2000 saw the first series of Steps To The Stars, a critically acclaimed talent show for children presented by H & Claire. Each week 3 acts would compete for the chance to spend the day with the band and to perform on Live & Kicking. Each show would end with the group performing one of their hits.
As plans for the next single were made, the group would ditch their colour matching outfits for a more edgier look. The video for Deeper Shade Of Blue would see in the band adopt blue PVC uniforms and showcase their darker alter egos .
Another tour followed, named after their latest album, which culminated with 5 open air dates including Hyde Park. The tour showcased two tracks from the forthcoming 3rd album. Lisa’s disco stomping Never Get Over You and the new single Summer Of Love, which formed an AA side with a slightly rerecorded version of When I Said Goodbye which would peak at #5.
As third studio album Buzz was announced, the group moved away from an exclusively PWL led album and took to writing their own lyrics and working with new producers in America & Sweden, moving away from their ‘Cheesey pop’ sound.
The second release from the album would be Stomp, a disco track sampling an orchestral riff from Chic’s Everybody Dance, which went straight to the top of the charts, giving the group their second and final #1.
With Christmas fast approaching, Steps hit the road for the second time in the year with the Steps Into Christmas Tour, with the show ending with a medley of xmas songs to get everyone into the festive spirit.
Their next single It’s The Way You Make Me Feel would become an unintentional record breaker, scheduled for a 1st January release, some retailers sold the track a week early entering at #72 on the last chart of 2000. Upon it’s official release it jumped 70 places to #2, breaking a record for biggest chart jump.
An international promo tour for Buzz would follow in the first few months of 2001, with different versions of the albums being released within different territories. Various TV appearances were also recorded for the coverted American market including performances of album tracks which have never been performed – unfortunately these performances never aired.
The fate of the final single from Buzz was in the fans hands, with a vote on the official website for a double A side track to pair up with Here & Now. The clear winner was the Lisa led track Never Get Over You, however You’ll Be Sorry was chosen to appear on the single, both tracks were remixed for the release.
A competition was held, given a few lucky fans the chance to appear in the You’ll Be Sorry video, however, these scenes never made the final edit of the video.
As news broke that the next Album would be a greatest hits package, rumours began to circulate that the group were about to split up, which the group strongly denied and counteracted with news that plans for a 4th studio album – named by the fans as Step Two – were well under way.
New single Chain Reaction was released to promote Gold: Greatest Hits, becoming one of their biggest selling singles in 2 years, once again narrowly missing the top spot. The song was teamed up with the US Remix of One For Sorrow – it’s first official UK release.
Gold: Greatest Hits was released in October 2001 and immediately took the #1 spot, and would later regain that position. The album was backed with the 30 date Gold: Greatest Hits Tour and a second single, Words Are Not Enough/I Know Him So Well. Their final single would continue their run of top 5 hits.
The final date of the tour was broadcast live via Sky Box Office, during the broadcast members of the group were seen to be crying, many assumed they were emotional as it was the last night of the tour. 4 days later, on Boxing Day, the truth would finally be revealed – the band had split up.
A backlash from angry parents and fans ensued, claiming the split rumours were previously denied to maximise the group’s sales in the lead up to xmas. Various members of the group were blamed for varying different resons, it was finally revealed that H & Claire had handed in their resignations shortly before the last show of the tour.
One final Steps album and single were planned for 2002. The aptly named The Last Dance was billed as a double album of new unreleased tracks, and exclusive remixes – the released product failed to meet fans expectations, consisting mainly of b-sides and commercialy available remixes, only a handful of the content was actually new.
The album broke the group’s run of successful albums and limped into the charts at #57. Plans for Baby Don’t Dance to be released as a single surfaced, with copies of the single becoming available via ebay, the release was cancelled.
Ever since the group disbanded rumours would regularly surface about the group reforming, in 2009 fans were given a glimmer of hope when Lee confirmed they had been approached to perform a series of concerts, claiming the “time wasn’t right”.
Rumours of a documentary and concert began to surface at the begining of 2011, with denials from various members of the band. In July 2011, just days after Claire stating in an interview that a Steps reunion would be “silly”, but she would “never say never”, a 4 part documentary for Sky Living was confirmed. The documentary will depict their split and the intermittant years and will be supported by a new album The Ultimate Collection.