Ever Had A Dream Come True?
Imagine you are one of the former members of a well-regarded (but no longer with us) pop band. You've had the dream ticket, where some of your hits are still being played and remembered fondly (unlike, say, A1), and you came out of a hit teen TV show, so a lot of people grew up with you, which means you're with them forever, sort of.
But, the pop career has come to an end - either because you were never really solo star material or you've already done reality TV and failed to endear yourself to the public at large (to say the least). So what do you do to pay the bills?
Well, have you thought about getting the band back together? It worked for Take That, after all. And Boyzone. Why wouldn't it work for you?
OK, so there's a slight problem, in that there are so many of you it's a nightmare trying to co-ordinate everyone's schedules (those McDonalds shifts can be a swine to get out of, after all), and your band had a number in its name which corresponds to the amount of people in the band. You can't go back to your last known name - which dispensed with the number - in case people think you're all back for good. So what do you do?
If you are any of the former members of S Club 7 who are not Rachel, Jon, Hannah or Tina, what you do is form a band for gigs only, call it S Club 3, and head out on the road!
That's right, Bradley, Paul and Jo are now S Club 3!
Look, !
Now, the thing you will notice straight away is that there is no point spending huge amounts of money on a flashy website when you are trying to make enough cash to keep the wolf from the door. This is why corners have had to be cut. Expensive things like videos, biographies (theirs are pasted in from Wikipedia), spelling, punctuation and words which are big enough to read have had to be left behind.
See what I mean? No-one in Team S Club can even spell their own catchphrase. Which is fine, really. Everyone makes mistakes. Except it does rather set the tone for whether this venture is going to be an amazing success or not.
So does this line, from their biog/mission statement:
"S Club 3 will not record any new material - they will perform old S Club hits"
It's hard to know whether this is intended as a reassurance, but it reads more like a threat. There again, the hits are beyond criticism - I'm not even being sarcastic - so we'll give them the benefit of the doubt.
Oh, and the final scary concept...there's a concert mentioned in their gig listings, in which Jo O'Meara - the principle voice on almost all of the big hits - is listed as absent.
It happened only three days ago, at Leicester's De Montford Hall. I wasn't there. Neither, probably, were you. But don't you wish you were? Imagine the announcements from the stage...
Bradley: "And now I shall sing part of the first verse to 'Reach', while Paul does the worm..."
And clearly they can't do 'S Club Party', as half of the song lists the members of the band, most of whom are missing. Unless they rework the lyrics in a fairly major way, of course:
"Bradley's doing Tina's dance
Jon's looking for romance (in Los Angeles)
Paul's getting down on the floor
While Hannah's screaming out for more (television work)
Wanna see Bradley swing, wanna see Rachel do her thing?
(Paul: "I'll do it!")
"Then we got Jo, she's got the flow
So she won't be able to join us tonight.
Wanna see Bradley swing again? Please don't hit us!"
I should say at this point that it is not nice to mock the way in which former pop stars choose to make a living. Not unless you've been in their position yourself (and I haven't).
And it's not as if 'real' 'proper' bands don't go through the same situation themselves, as anyone who has paid to see the two-thirds of the Jam who aren't Paul Weller will tell you.
But still, there is something about this whole situation which is upsetting, in the same way it would be upsetting to watch two of the former Teletubbies attempt to recreate the innocent joys of tubby bye-bye, while muttering under their breath about how much better it would be if Tinky Winky's success as a dental surgeon hadn't kept him from joining in.
Consider this a warning from history, the Saturdays...
Comment number 1.
At 21st Jan 2009, mike-duke wrote:There are too many things wrong with this website, however I think the best thing is when you click on the Designed By button. It makes a lot more sense after this.
Also, Paul looks a lot like a bank manager in the picture, a really pervy bank manager at that.
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Comment number 2.
At 21st Jan 2009, Bob wrote:I like this page best
How can you misspell 'position' three times in a row?
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Comment number 3.
At 21st Jan 2009, XxlivsxX wrote:Yes, I think it has to be said, Paul's looked better. Time hasn't been kind to him.
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Comment number 4.
At 21st Jan 2009, catman231 wrote:My favourite bit is the "Hire" tab - I have never, and I mean NEVER, seen any band or group having a section of their website dedicated to gaining bookings!
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Comment number 5.
At 21st Jan 2009, Kim-ley wrote:I used to really like S Club 7 and even have the best of CD. But getting together as a band, but not even having half of the band, doesn't quite work for me.
How desperate for money must they be? I mean, doing some old songs for the fun of it is nice, but not doing any new material and singing pop that was cheesy then....that takes more guts (or desperation) than I hopefully will ever have.
But hey, if they ever toured here, I might go see them just for a laugh.
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Comment number 6.
At 21st Jan 2009, PoptasticLiam wrote:I saw Bradley and Paul them perform at a club night in Sheffield last year. It actually went down pretty well as they just mimed 3/4 old "classics".
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Comment number 7.
At 22nd Jan 2009, U13792948 wrote:I used to really like S Club 7 and even have the best of CD.
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Comment number 8.
At 22nd Jan 2009, mikeydread64 wrote:Quite amusing - especially taking the mickey out of their spelling. However, this was slightly let down by your use of "principle" instead of "principal". Do try harder.
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Comment number 9.
At 23rd Jan 2009, Fraser McAlpine - wrote:Haha! It's not about TRYING, it's a simple philsophical truth. It's always the thing you write about someone else's poor spelling which will contain a spelling mistake.
You can't fight philosophy, y'know..
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Comment number 10.
At 23rd Jan 2009, Fraser McAlpine - wrote:Or indeed spell it properly, it seems.
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Comment number 11.
At 23rd Jan 2009, -RachelS- wrote:Erm, now even more corners have been cut: expensive things like... having the website exist at all, have had to be left behind!
(Click on the link to the S Club 3 website to see what I mean).
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Comment number 12.
At 24th Jan 2009, XxlivsxX wrote:Apart from the atrocious spelling (apparently S Club were one of the biggest bands of the 21st centuary), my favourite part is the bit that tells us "Jo had a solo career in 2005" - her solo venture into the music world lasted a whole year. And she knows it.
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Comment number 13.
At 24th Jan 2009, -RachelS- wrote:Oh, it's back! When I clicked on it yesterday, I got a message saying, "This account has been suspended. Please contact the billing/support department as soon as possible."
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