S Club’s pitiful reunion was a sad attempt to reheat stale Noughties pop
The long-awaited 25th anniversary reunion of Noughties pop stars S Club 7 was not meant to be like this. For four years over the turn of the millennium, S Club 7 were pop royalty in the UK. The successful post-Spice Girls creation of pop svengali Simon Fuller, the seven-piece garnered four number one singles, five number twos and a brace of Brit awards. With Noughties nostalgia quite the thing at the moment, the reunion was greeted in many corners with gleeful anticipation.
But the tragic death of member Paul Cattermole in April, just weeks after this tour was announced, cast a shadow over proceedings. The withdrawal of Hannah Spearritt soon after compounded the misery. The group rebranded themselves as “S Club” and carried on as a five-piece. But being a reduced band in sadly reduced circumstances was only one of the problems with this forgettable show. With no live band, the group performed to a backing track. It made the event – I hesitate to call it a concert – feel like little more than a glorified nightclub appearance. The basic stage set – a stout, stepped pyramid with a flat top – didn’t help. Unless this was some grand postmodern comment on the disposability of Noughties pop, then I’m afraid to report that it just wasn’t very good.
The group bounded on stage to their 1999 single S Club Party (“There ain’t no party like an S Club Party”), urging the crowd to wave their hands in the air like they just didn’t care. “How you doin’, London?” they all asked individually. No cliché was left unturned. Jon Lee, Rachel Stevens, Jo O’Meara, Tina Barrett and Bradley McIntosh wore outfits of head-to-toe yellow, orange, green, pink and blue respectively. From up where I was sitting, they looked like a row of dancing Crocs. How very Noughties.
Was all the singing completely live? I couldn’t be sure. But I don’t think it was. It sounded and looked like a mixture of pre-recorded and live vocals. And I’m aware that Madonna sings to a backing track on her current tour, but Madonna also has 24 on-stage performers, a 4,400 square foot stage, 230 feet of catwalk, and four decades of hits. Plus she’s Madonna. S Club don’t have any of these.
A spirited Don’t Stop Mimin’ – sorry, Movin’ – was quite fun. And there was a touching video montage of dear Cattermole, who died from heart complications aged just 46, during Good Times. We were reminded what a character he was; cheeky and full of life. He fell on such hard financial times five years ago that he was forced to sell his Brit awards on eBay. It’s a desperately sad story. Poor Spearritt didn’t get a mention.
They ended with Reach and encored with ballad Never Had a Dream Come True and a reprise of S Club Party. We might be in the midst of a Noughties revival, but this show had all the cultural relevance of a VHS cassette of CD:UK.
Touring the UK until October 30. Tickets: sclub7.co.uk
