70STEP ONE: WE CAN
HAVE LOTS OF FUN!
Pete dusted off a couple of Bananarama’s
Please Yourself album tracks and
repackaged them for Steps. The lead single
was Last Thing On My Mind, a track which
had barely scraped the Top 75 for the
’Nanas back in 1993. However, for Steps,
the tune became their calling card.
“It was a huge surprise and wonderful
that Pete Waterman had a vision for our
future at that time,” Faye recalls. “We
suddenly very quickly changed from being
a line dancing band to a pop band.”
And so the group set about recording
Step One, a collection of new songs and
little-heard covers that were all given a
glistening pop sheen by the likes of PWL
studio whizkids Topham and Twigg,
Andrew Frampton and Pete Waterman. It
peaked at No.2 and impressively would
go on to sell 1.4 million copies. Against
the odds, the public really seemed to buy
into the group, replicating the easy-to-follow
dance steps and giddily abiding by the
colour schemes set out by the group for
each single. However, critics were fast to
dismiss them as trashy pop.
“It defi nitely bothered us,” Claire says
defi antly. “We were young and we took
it all very seriously. It was our career and
when you’re selling the kind of records
that we were – and don’t forget we were
selling out arenas – people still thought we
were a joke. A lot of our contemporaries
were being given designer clothes but noLee added: “We were told by the guys
behind the band, Steve Crosby and Barry
Upton, that the idea was for us to release a
line-dancing song,” Lee says of the band’s
origin story.
“There was no label and no money but
we were all hungry to get started and we
were like, ‘okay then, we’re in’.”
While the rest of the band were hoping
that this line-dancing combo would kickstart
their careers, self-confessed pessimist Claire
Richards was less optimistic about a fruitful
future. By this point in her young life, the
pop-loving lass had already been
one third of a fl op girlband
called TSD so wasn’t
overly hopeful.
“I thought TSD
was going to be my
big break,” Claire
remembers. “But
it wasn’t, so this
time I wasn’t sure
what was going
to happen.”
Claire’s confi dence
was dented even more
when producers twiddling
the knobs balked at 5,6,7,8
themselves. “The engineers and
musicians in the studio were mortifi ed,”
Claire recalls, “they didn’t want to do it. I
remember them saying to me, ‘when you
want to come and record some proper
music, let us know.’ I don’t think they
actually put their names on the record.
Which is silly really.”
Regardless of what anyone thought about
the record, 5,6,7,8 went on to become
a Top 20 hit and caught the attention of
pop supremo, Pete Waterman, who saw
something special. Not only did he think
they had great pop voices, they also had a
natural chemistry. He knew he’d stumbled
upon something special and realised that
what the world needed was a modern day
ABBA... So Steps 2.0 was born.who were in need of a little hope and joy.
The positive reaction came as a massive
surprise not just to those fans but also to the
band themselves.
“The press have been so good to us, I
have been shocked by how people have
accepted us and wanted us,” a genuinely
surprised Faye Tozer tells Classic
Pop when we catch up
with three of the band.
“We’ve had weird and
wonderful people
interested in us this
time round. Even
punk magazines
have mentioned us,
all sorts. Maybe we
are a bit retro now;
maybe it’s fi ne now
to say it’s okay to like
Steps from time to time!”IT’S TIME TO BEGIN −
NOW COUNT IT IN...
Of course, back in 1997, as Britpop
reigned supreme in the charts, Steps were
a group you either loved or hated. But even
the most devoted fans would say they’d be
hard-pressed to fall totally for Steps Mk1.
Initially they had been conceived and
developed as a one-hit novelty act whose
schtick was to sing the boot-scootin’ line-
dancing song 5,6,7,8. Even today, the very
suggestion of it fi lls our hearts with dread.
But for Tozer, Lee Latchford-Evans, Ian ‘H’
Watkins, Lisa Scott-Lee and Claire Richards,
this was their chance to hit the big time.
“We were employed to front that one
single,” Faye recalls. “And as far as we
were concerned we were going back to
our jobs afterwards.”“WE’VE HAD WEIRD AND
WONDERFUL PEOPLE INTERESTED
IN US THIS TIME ROUND. EVEN PUNK
MAGAZINES HAVE MENTIONED US, ALL
SORTS. MAYBE WE ARE A BIT RETRO NOW ;
MAYBE IT’S FINE NOW TO SAY IT’S OKAY
TO LIKE STEPS FROM TIME TO TIME!”
FAYE“I’m a massive
believer that
things happen for a
reason. I wouldn’t
go back and change
anything, good
or bad” – Lee
Latchford-EvansPop legend Cyndi
Lauper invited Faye
Tozer to stay with
her at her house in
the US: “She was an
absolute dream. She
was as crazy and
as wonderful as I
wanted her to be”CP30.steps.print.indd 70 07/06/2017 17:11