The 90s was a great time for music lovers. Boy bands were taking over the world while the Spice Girls inspired a generation of feminists, and all that deliciously cheesy pop music culminated in the formation of S Club 7, the English, mixed-gender pop group with their own television series. It was everything we needed.
Before High School Musical, and before Glee, there was Miami 7, which followed S Club 7 to Florida on their search for fame. There was drama, romance, friendship, and conflicts neatly resolved in half an hour. As if that weren’t enough, they gave us a generous sprinkling of catchy, musical performances from the group’s latest album. Millennials ate it up. Oh, and that wildlife series they starred in to raise awareness for endangered animals? We ate that up too, along with their feature film. No amount of S Club 7 was too much.
20 years later, we still can’t help jamming to “Bring It All Back” when we need a big dose of corny positivity, but it’s easy to miss the less positive aspects of S Club 7. While it is scientifically proven that there ain’t no party like an S Club party, there were also some seriously dark things happening at the party, and even more happening long after the party stopped. S Club 7 wasn’t always perfect or pleasant behind the scenes, and most of its members did not live happily ever after.
We’ve put together a list of the darkest things you never knew about S Club 7, so grab some popcorn and get ready to see your favorite English pop group in a whole new light.
20 They Blatantly Lip Sync For Live Performances
S Club 7 certainly has a rough history with BBC’s Loose Women. When the three remaining members performed as S Club on the talk show, audiences noticed something very fishy. Somehow three singers were covering a song with 7-part harmony, and it sounded just like the original. Lip syncing is not uncommon for these types of performances, but it’s usually hidden better. Would it have been so hard to record a version with three vocals before pretending to sing it live?
It’s like S Club isn’t even trying anymore.
Perhaps it’s for the best that they don’t sing live, though. Jo’s vocals were harshly criticized after the group’s 2014 comeback performance for Children in Need. She said it was better to be criticized for a poor live vocal than a great mimed one, but it looks like she changed her mind.
19 They Get Into Petty Arguments On Twitter
Paul has a gift for attracting negative attention and looking pathetic, and it’s quite the spectacle. In addition to his financial woes, Paul never recovered from his breakups with Hannah, and what better way to show your love than telling everyone what a two-faced, shallow jerk your ex is? In 2017 Paul spent five hours posting and deleting tweets that accused Hannah of dumping him to further her acting career, in addition to his more bizarre tweets quoting ancient greek philosophers and comparing himself to a phoenix.
Hannah’s response was brutal: she just laughed at how pathetic he was.
Paul also publicly accused Jo of bullying him out of S Club 3; harsh words, given the backlash Jo received for bullying a contestant during her stint on Celebrity Big Brother. S Club 7 members have avoided being baited into an argument so far, but Paul hasn’t shown any sign that he’s done mudslinging.
18 Surprising Origins
Before Simon Fuller managed S Club 7, he managed The Spice Girls. Clearly, the man knew how to make a pop sensation; to this day, everyone still knows the alias of each Spice Girl. In just a few years since Fuller signed them in 1995, they gained million-pound sponsorship deals, sold millions of albums, and topped charts internationally.
It’s still not clear why the Spice Girls sacked Fuller just 2 years later, but rumors swirled that Fuller and Baby Spice were intimate.
The Spice Girls claim they fired him because they disagreed with the direction he was taking them in, but their vague explanation did little to alleviate suspicion. Fortunately for us, Fuller’s firing led him to create a new pop group: S Club 7. If you’ve ever wondered, the S stands for Simon.
17 Paul Can’t Afford To Clothe Himself
Some S Club 7 members found more success than others after the group split up, but Paul Cattermole’s life took a seriously dark turn. Someone fell on him while he was working on The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and he couldn’t perform for months due to the resulting back injury. Finding work has been tough for him; reality TV shows won’t take him because he’s not famous enough.
To make ends meet, he sold his BRIT Award on eBay for £66,000.
His interview on the talk show Loose Women was especially pathetic. He described going bankrupt, and how the money he made during the band’s 2015 reunion tour went straight to paying off his tax bill and lawyer fees. He couldn’t even afford a shirt to his interview, so Loose Women had to clothe him.
16 Jo Was Rude On Reality Television
Jo O’Meara, the lead singer, didn’t fare much better than Paul after the group split. Her solo career failed, and when she tried to break into reality TV on Celebrity Big Brother in 2007, she found herself in the center of the show’s ugliest controversy. Jo and a few of her housemates grew increasingly outspoken about their distaste for their Indian housemate: they complained about her, called her names, and mimicked her voice, and audiences did not respond well to their bullying.
She had hoped her appearance on reality TV would revitalize her singing career, but instead she received threats and distasteful mail.
The next year, Jo had to be rushed to the hospital during a reunion gig at a nightclub. Jo can’t catch a break, but her face can definitely catch a bottle. Tough crowd.
15 They Danced In Freezing Water
Remember that risqué music video for S Club 7’s fifth single “Natural”? Only two years after the group’s formation, they were ready to show us they were all grown-up with a more mature sound. What you didn’t know is how harsh the work conditions were for the gang.
Behind the scenes, that beach party was anything but fun in the sun.
S Club 7 members danced in their swimsuits in extremely uncomfortable, cold water produced by giant water hoses above camera. Just imagine how many takes they had to endure for your viewing pleasure. And that wasn’t even the worst of it: members describe long hours and a lack of sleep for years while they traveled back and forth between England and the United States to film Miami 7.
14 Going Solo Didn’t Work Out
In 2002, Paul broke our hearts when he left S Club 7 to pursue his solo career. He said it was time to move on and go back to his rock roots, joining back up with some old friends to form the nu-metal band, Skua. Obviously, it did not work out well for him because he wound up virtually begging for money on talk shows.
Most of the S Club 7 crew did not have successful solo careers, but Paul definitely had the worst go of it.
Skua fizzled out before it even started, though they reformed 12 years later for another attempt. Unfortunately, Nu-metal isn’t in much demand these days, and the band has fewer than 700 followers on Facebook. It doesn’t get much more tragic than ruining a promising career when your ambitious risk doesn’t pay off.
13 They Rejected Thousands Of Hopefuls
Millions of kids dream of being a star, but the sad reality is virtually none of them get to live the dream. Simon Fuller had perfected his pop group formula from time managing The Spice Girls, and when he advertised auditions for a diverse group of singers, dancers, and actors, he had a pool of about 10,000 applicants from which to handpick the most marketable pop group ever. Imagine thinking you could be the next Spice Girl, working your butt off for a once-in-a-lifetime chance at fame, only to be told you’re not good enough.
That happened to 10,000 people.
Master of broken dreams Simon Fuller didn’t stop there, either. That audition process inspired his next big creation, the wildly successful Pop Idol series. Now audiences everywhere can enjoy watching hundreds of talented youths experience rejection and public humiliation.
12 Half Of Them Won’t Show Up To Reunions
When artists from our childhood don’t find success with modern audiences, they have little else besides nostalgia to win back their old fans, and who can blame them for taking advantage of our desperate need to feel young again? Time was simpler in the age of corny pop groups, back when every song was about having fun, being friends forever, and falling in love.
Please come back, S Club 7. Being an adult is hard.
And S Club 7 did come back. Well, some of them did. Most attempts to get the gang back together fall apart because only 2 or 3 members show up. Hannah, Jon, and Rachel have pretty busy careers that don’t allow for much time to relive their glory days. Jo, Bradley, and Tina decided to go on without them, and are ready for their 2018 tour as S club 3. It’s anyone’s guess how receptive their old fans will be.
11 The Breakup That Happened Twice
One of the best things about S Club 7 was watching the romance grow between Paul and Hannah on S Club in Hollywood. Sure, it was TV, but the characters they played were based on their real life personalities, and their connection on TV was inspired by their relationship off screen. You can’t fake that kind of chemistry.
It was no surprise that they stayed together even after Paul quit the group, but as the years went on it was clear that the magic we saw on TV was gone, and they split in 2006. Their feelings for one another remained almost ten years later, however, and they started dating again in 2015. Then they broke up again in just a year. Their breakup was not pretty the second time around.
10 Upper Street Fell Hard
Like Jo and Paul, Bradley McIntosh struggled to keep his career going after S Club 7 split. He starred in an MTV series, Totally Boyband, which centered around former members of different boy bands and pop groups trying to revitalize their careers by forming a boyband, Upper Street.
They had one single, and it did not do well.
The group split up after their one failure. Luckily, Bradley landed on his feet and found work DJing, writing and producing songs for other artists under the nickname City Boy Soul, and performing with Jo and Tina after forming S Club 3 with them. He didn’t find the wild success that awaited Rachel, Hannah, and Jon, but Bradley’s been doing okay for himself, all things considered. Unlike Paul, Bradley could at least afford to bring his own shirt to his appearances on Loose Women.
9 Down Another Member
Remember Seeing Double, that wacky feature film in which S Club 7 members teamed up with their clones to defeat a mad scientist bent on taking over the world, and they sang all the songs from their latest album? You probably noticed that Jo wasn’t doing much.
That’s because right before filming, Jo had serious back problems and was unable to do anything physical.
Jo has to walk out of prison while the others run, she sits on the sidelines while the others rehearse, and her stunt double gets a good chunk of her screen time. When you’re struggling to stay relevant by releasing a musical comedy, you’re not off to a good start when your lead vocalist can’t dance. Not even a script by Kim Fuller, who also wrote the more successful Spice World, could salvage S Club 7, and Jo’s back problems certainly didn’t help.
8 Children Needed A Better Charity
S Club 7 has partnered with the Children in Need charity on multiple occasions, using their talent to raise money for disadvantaged youth. They performed in the charity’s annual BBC telethons, and in 2000 they recorded “Never Had a Dream Come True,” a single that raised over £200,000.
They help children, and their mascot is an injured teddy bear named Pudsey.
The charity came under fire in 2006 when Intelligent Giving, a donor information website, released a story blasting Children in Need for wasteful spending and a lack of transparency. There are some pretty controversial organizations receiving funding from Children in Need that the donating public doesn’t know about. It’s a little disingenuous to show children with cancer on TV to coax donations from viewers, when some of that money funds a lawsuit against a school for making a girl wear her uniform.
7 The House Of Heads
Back in 2000, S Club 7 partnered with the World Wild Fund for Nature for the seven episode BBC series, S Club 7 Goes Wild! To raise awareness for endangered species, each episode follows members across the globe as they searched for a glimpse of an endangered animal.
It’s a wholesome adventure, except for the time Jon checked out the sacred skull hut of a Kadazan warrior in Malaysia.
In the seventh episode of the series, Jon takes a break from his search for orangutans to explore the culture of a Kadazan tribal village. He plays with headhunter weapons, and then nonchalantly holds a human jawbone while explaining how many defeated warchiefs it took to decorate the skull hut.
6 The Boys Got Arrested
In 2001, police caught Paul, Jon and Bradley with substances in London’s Covent Garden. The boys absolutely reeked of the stuff, and a passing officer stopped to arrest them. Police took them to the police station and formally cautioned them. After all three of them admitted to the offense, police released them without further action. Being famous has its perks.
Unfortunately, the incident tarnished S Club 7’s clean-cut image, and it caused an uproar with the parents of their preteen fans.
The group’s female members also expressed shock at the boys’ scandalous behavior. The boys quickly made public apologies to win back the public, admitted to making an extremely stupid mistake, and promised never again to let their fans down. It may not seem like a big deal by today’s standards, but considering that Paul was involved in substances with teenagers at 24, it’s a little messed up.
5 Things Are Even Worse For The Animals They Tried To Save
In their quest to raise awareness for endangered species, the gang starred in a 7-episode series, S Club 7 Go Wild! They were a hit on TV playing fictional versions of themselves, so the World Wild Fund for Nature knew they could count on S Club 7 to bring in a big audience, much to the delight of animal-loving preteens everywhere.
Unfortunately, their efforts couldn’t save the black rhino.
Each episode focuses on a different member traveling the globe in search of a different endangered animal, and Paul’s episode featured the black rhino, which are now extinct in the wild. Nice going, Paul. The other species covered in the series remain endangered, and it’s utterly tragic that the gang couldn’t bring them back from the brink of extinction with the power of song.
4 S Club At Your Local Pub
It’s just sad what’s become of everyone’s favorite pop sensation. S Club 7 is down to Jo, Bradley, and Tina, and they’re just S Club now. They sing their old hits at small venues and universities to remind us how we used to love them, but it’s just not the same without the whole group.
We want nothing but the best for the gang, but sometimes it’s better to leave the past in the past so we can cherish our fond memories; seeing half the S Club members performing cheesy hits from their heyday ruins the image we have of them as young pop stars. Also, can you imagine how awkward it is when they sing “S Club Party” and get to the verse that introduces each of the seven members?
3 They Turned Down A Hit Song
Bet you didn’t know that Kylie Minogue’s biggest hit, “Can’t Get You Outta My Head,” was originally written for S Club 7. That’s right, the famously revealing music video that put Kylie back on everyone’s radar wasn’t even meant for her. 13 years after her last single topped the charts, Kylie Minogue came back with the hit that might have saved S Club 7 if Simon Fuller hadn’t turned it down.
When songwriters Cathy Dennis and Rob Davis showed the song to Simon Fuller, he said it wasn’t right for S Club 7, and perhaps he was right; It is pretty hard to imagine how the song would have sounded sung by S Club 7. Nevertheless, that song sold over seven million copies in the UK and became one of the best-single singles of all time, and Fuller passed on it.
2 19 Entertainment Left Their Fans Hanging
Viva S Club was the fourth and final season of the BBC TV series starring S Club 7. It wasn’t long after its release that the group split, so Viva S Club was the last chance fans had to feel connected to the young pop stars.
For three years fans laughed, cried, and grew with the members of S Club 7.
Fans were understandably upset when 19 Entertainment didn’t release the final season on DVD, and word on the internet was that those DVDs were on their way. Five years later, instead of giving the fans what they wanted, 19 Entertainment re-released Seeing Double. Fans put together multiple petitions for those DVDs, desperate for a complete set of the series, and there’s still no sign they’ll ever see Viva S Club again.
1 They Lied To Everyone About Splitting Up
Fans were not surprised that S Club 7 broke up after Paul left. It was fairly common for pop groups to disband after one member leaves, like what happened when Ginger left the Spice Girls. Everyone knew that Paul’s departure meant the end was coming, but what shocked S Club 7’s fans was that it happened so soon after the release of Seeing Double.
Worse, they adamantly denied all rumors of splitting up just days before announcing the end of S Club 7 from the London Arena stage.
Fans felt betrayed by the continued denials, outraged that the group lied to them. Other pop groups had similarly denied rumors of breaking up until the last possible moment, and public opinion was that it was a cynical, greedy tactic to squeeze as much money as they can from their fans before the well runs dry.
