7272“ALL BANGERS,
NO CLANGERS”
CLAIRE SAYS
OF THIS, THEIR
FOURTH
PROPER
ALBUM...
And she’s right.
Having out-
balladed themselves
on that disastrous Light Up The
World misfi re, the perky popsters have
most defi nitely put their foot down on their
pedal and served up a relentless chain of deliciously
shame-free dancefl oor anthems that will niggle your
noggin for hours. Lead single Scared of The Dark is by far
the strongest of the bunch and manages to out-sass and
out-strop the sour-faced classic Deeper Shade of Blue.
Other gems include Happy, which beneath its
glistening disco sheen, sits a melancholy melody that will
make it an immediate fan favourite.
The easily remembered title track No More Tears On
The Dancefl oor – penned by Savage Garden’s Darren
Hayes – has a sassy and cheesy 90s Pet Shop Boys
likeability that would single it out as another release.
However, the Benny and Bjorn-penned Story of my
Heart provides the only quieter moment and is a melodic
masterpiece with a delightfully sombre lyric.“ALL BANGERS,
NO CLANGERS”
CLAIRE SAYS
OF THIS, THEIRballaded themselves
Light Up The
misfi re, the perky popsters have
most defi nitely put their foot down on theirat the top, even though it was painful at the
time. I think it was actually for the best and
that is why we are here today! We lived
to tell the tale.”
Lee, too, says that H & Claire’s
resignation came as a mighty surprise
to him but is philosophical about what
happened. “I’m a massive believer that
things happen for a reason,” he muses.
“I wouldn’t go back and change
anything, good or bad. It helps
you grow, you learn
from mistakes.”
He added: “Was I
ready for it to end
when it did? I’d
have to say no. We
were all very hurt,
we were all quite
shocked, and to
be honest, I really
didn’t believe it for
a long while. I just
thought they were
having a moment. I
certainly don’t like the way
it happened, but I do think that
things happen for a reason. And
had that not happened I’m not sure we’d
be here again now. We could have just
faded away.”
Almost six months later H & Claire
released an album of their own, Another
You Another Me, but their former
bandmates merely pretended it wasn’t
happening. “To be honest,” Lee pipes up.
“I cannot name two songs off their album.
I know they had a track called DJ, I think.
But I didn’t buy the album, or listen to it.”
Funnily enough, neither, it turned out, did
the record buying public – the album failed
to make the Top 50.
While her bandmates may have been
secretly laughing their pants off at the
disappointing performance of Another You,
Another Me, Claire reveals that she was
absolutely mortifi ed.
“I was devastated by the way the album
did. I really was. And that was the reason
why I stopped doing music for a long time.
The lead-up to the release of the album had
been so positive. DJ was No.2. We had
three Top 10 singles and I think the album
was a good record. I still stand by it now.”
When the second single Half A Heart
halted at only No.8, she remembers their
label panicking and demanding at the 11th
hour that she and H record a super-Steps-
sounding track called All Out Of Love,
penned by the group’s writers, Carl Twigg
and Mark Topham and Andrew Frampton.
Claire was heartbroken: “I really hated it.
I fought against releasing it, which is weird
now because I think it’s really good.”
Claire retreated from public life and
focussed on family. “That experience really
scared me off music,” she recalls. “I am not
a risk taker, which is probably why I have
never released any solo material.”hesitation, Cyndi invited Faye to stay with
her at her house in the US. “She was
an absolute dream,” Faye reminisces.
“She was as crazy and as wonderful as
I wanted her to be. We recorded and
wrote all over the house and she did
backing vocals on one of my demos.”WHEN THE FEELING’S GONE
AND YOU CAN’T GO ON
In 2001, Steps fans were
devastated when on
Boxing Day the
group announced
they were
splitting up.
Little did
anyone
know at
the time
that the
break-up
hadn’t
been as
amicable as
fi rst thought.
Instead of the
band mutually agreeing
to take some time out, H & Claire
had surprised their bandmates just minutes
before their fi nal tour date in Manchester
(which was being televised live by Sky that
night) with a letter of resignation.
“I don’t know why H and I split when we
did,” Claire says. “I think I just couldn’t do
it anymore. I don’t like confrontation at all. I
will go along with something for as long as I
can deal with it. I will just put up with it until
I couldn’t take it anymore.”
Although the hectic schedule played
a part in her decision to quit, she admits
that the animosity from other members of
the band, irritated that she was given
so many of the lead vocals, hurt
her, too. “Obviously there were
tensions between certain members
of the band because I was given
a lot of the lead lines. To be honest,
I always felt uncomfortable about the
whole singing situation. And it just got
to me and upset me.
“I don’t think anyone did this on purpose
but I always felt I like I had done something
wrong because I was getting most of the
vocals. But all I was doing was going in
and doing what I was told.”
Looking back, Faye says that she, too,
was having reservations about her place in
the band and reveals that she had thought
about walking away long before it was a
seed in H and Claire’s mind.
“I went through a stage when it all felt
a little bit too overwhelming for me,” she
confi des. “I think I felt it took over my life
and that scared me. I think we were
heavily overworked.”
With the benefi t of hindsight, Faye says
she now thinks that the split in 2001 was
in fact “perfect timing”. She said: “We left“The fans have
stuck by us and
have given us
everything. They
loved us, they love
us still and don’t
care about what the
industry says”- Claire Richards
DANCE
FLOOR!
ON THE
TEARS
“I DON’T KNOW WHY H AND
I SPLIT WHEN WE DID. I THINK
I JUST COULDN’T DO IT ANYMORE.
I DON’T LIKE CONFRONTATION AT ALL. I
WILL GO ALONG WITH SOMETHING FOR AS
LONG AS I CAN DEAL WITH IT. I WILL JUST
PUT UP WITH IT UNTIL I COULDN’T TAKE
IT ANYMORE.”
CLAIRESTEPSCP30.steps.print.indd 72 07/06/2017 17:11