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‘Steps - The Re-union’ - the Sky Living
series we did. Claire and H both decided
to resign and handed us letters a couple
of hours before the last show of the
Gold Tour. It was a complete surprise. I
remember my mum and dad had come
to Manchester to see the show and stay
over and I walked into their hotel room
dumbstruck and handed over the letter
for them to read. I was hurt and confused
that they hadn’t been able to talk to us
and basically chosen to end the band.
I still believe management was heavily
involved in their decision. It’s all water
under the bridge now though. I think the
end of Steps at that time was probably
inevitable sooner or later. We were tired.
As a result I was forced into finding out
what I could achieve personally and it
opened up a whole new world for me.
into H at a musical theatre showcase. It
was a bit awkward but we have lots of
mutual friends in theatre. He invited me to
his next show and it went from there.
Did you all remain on good terms after
the split?
I didn’t speak to Claire or H for a long
time. Nearly two years I think. Claire and I
slowly began talking again and I bumped
How was it reuniting ten years later?
How had your lives changed?
We heard that Sony was going to release
our Greatest Hits and so we all started
speaking about it …naturally we wanted
There was quite a backlash from fans
initially, how did you all deal with that?
The story of the split was broken on
Boxing Day. We had been told that we’d
have warning from our press officer when
they were going to release the story,
but we didn’t. Any papers that had any
quotes from me were all made up as I
was skiing in Italy at the time and spoke
to no-one. My mum called and said that
Aunty Cathy had heard it on the news.
It was out of our hands. Obviously fans
were upset. But I felt like it wasn’t my
doing. I just stayed out of it. I didn’t want
to add fuel to the fire.
to be a part of it and try and promote it
as best we could. It would have been
a shame to waste the opportunity. It
was exciting and scary at the same
time. There were mixed feelings for
everyone. We had all made new careers
for ourselves. We were settled with
our partners and families and had no
idea if there’d be any genuine interest
from the public. It all happened very
quickly actually with not a lot of forward
planning. The deal with the T.V. show
‘Steps the Reunion’ was signed and off
it went!
You had great success after the
reunion with a sell-out arena tour,
summer appearances, a Christmas
tour, and the sale of fragrances but
you decided in 2013 to all take some
time out to work on solo projects, do
you think you will come back together
again?
We couldn’t believe what an amazing
reaction we had from the reunion. It was
a big surprise and quite overwhelming.