Author: Dale

Rachel Stevens and her former (present) band – S Club – are featured on the brand new compilation album Now That’s What I Call An Era – One More Time 1996-2007.

The compilation album features 4CDs and 48 vinyl tracks, it gathers 84 songs from the stars, singalongs and crossover smashes that defined the period to include some of S Club contemporaries Girls Aloud, Sugababes, Spice Girls, and of course, Britney Spears.

Disc One
S Club – Don’t Stop Movin’

Disc Two
Rachel Stevens – Sweet Dreams My L.A. Ex
(This song is excluded on the vinyl pressing)

Disc Four
S Club – Reach
Rachel Stevens – Some Girls
(These are featured on disc three of the vinyl)

The compilation album will be available from 08 August 2026 and is available to order here in your respective country.

Rachel was interviewed by the Irish Independent, released yesterday, the interview took place just prior to the release of her book ‘Finding My Voice‘ (which is available now for purchase)!

Check out the interview below:

The week I speak to Rachel Stevens, she is putting the final touches to her memoir, Finding My Voice, which is published a few weeks after we talk. Read any interview with Stevens, as I did in preparation for my own, and it’s obvious she is not someone who especially enjoys the process or naturally leans towards being forthcoming. She’s always pleasant, and chatty, but not a natural sharer. Writing a memoir must have been somewhat outside her comfort zone, I suggest.

“It’s really exciting but it’s also, I don’t know if scary is the right word, but I’ve had a mixture of emotions around it,” she says. “Because it’s sharing my story right from the beginning to now really, so it’s been quite a process. I found it really intense. An incredible learning experience.”

“I started writing it not long before I went off on tour, so I got really into it, and then I went off on tour and I couldn’t even think about it while I was doing that, because I was on the road and with people all the time. The last few months, it’s just been go go go with the book. It’s been really intense, an amazing learning process. But also hard, too. A mixture of everything, really.”

Going back over everything in her past was a challenge, she reflects, but also the book was difficult because she was pushing against her own nature, which tends towards a preference for being reserved.

“The thing I found really hard is that I care so much about it being really true and honest, and I’ve always been quite a private person. I think that’s one of the things I have had challenges with within the public eye, because growing up in the noughties, we were everywhere, right?” she says of her time with S Club 7.

The group is now renamed S Club, after the death of member Paul Cattermole, and subsequent departure of member Hannah Spearritt in 2023, before the 25th anniversary tour later that year. “I’ve always found that… a conflict, basically,” Stevens says of life in the spotlight. “So doing the book was such a wonderful opportunity to share my story. I’m so grateful I’ve had the opportunity to do it. But it was a big decision also, because I wanted it to be… you know, the title is Finding My Voice, it’s gotta be really honest and really true. I found that quite hard, to be that vulnerable publicly.”

We discuss how when you write honestly about your life, the overriding sense can be one of connecting with others, who may see their own experience in yours.

“When I decided to go public that I was getting divorced, I wrote on my stories (on Instagram). I shared that, and I just remember all the messages I got of love, such lovely gorgeous messages, but also so many people going, ‘Oh my god I’m going through this, thank you for sharing that.’ We don’t realise that when we’re sharing our truth, or talking about things we’ve gone through, there’s always going to be people out there who can relate. Sharing is really special I think.”

Stevens was scouted for the band that became S Club 7, a pop group formed in 1998 by Simon Fuller after he was fired from the Spice Girls, when she was in her late teens. At the time, she was interested in fashion, not music, and just happened to be in the Sony building having lunch with her brother. “I had just finished fashion college. I’d been to the London College of Fashion, did a business course there, wasn’t sure where my career path was gonna go, and I just wanted to get out and work, start earning money, and start finding my feet in the fashion world. Although I didn’t know where that was going. So I started working for some PR companies. I ended up getting a job in a film production company,” she says.

She was having lunch with her brother at Sony Records when she was approached by two producers, “who asked me if I could sing, interested in me for another project they were working on. Cutting a very, very long story short, that’s kind of how I got into the S Club world.” Life in the band was “full on”, she smiles. There was a CBBC children’s TV show, radio promo, touring, albums. “So yeah, it was insane. And when you’re that age, you just kind of go, and you have this energy and it’s different. I’ve always actually had a really strong work ethic,” she adds. “From my first job, I was always very career driven, always knew that you had to work really hard to get the success. And it kind of gave me that buzz. I was someone, especially at that time, who needed to be busy and working and creating and doing stuff. But there were times when — we were talking about it a couple of weeks ago, the girls — how we would actually cry getting out of bed in the morning because we were just so exhausted. We’d finish a late night TV show and then be on Saturday morning kids shows, hormonal and tired. But you know, you have to work hard to get where we got. And we did.”

The band won a Brit award for British Breakthrough Act in 2000, and in 2002 for British Single of the Year, had four UK number 1s, and released four albums before splitting in 2004. After the demise of the band, Stevens launched her solo music career for a time, relocated to Los Angeles where she dated actor Stephen Dorff, then married her childhood friend Alex Bourne in 2009 (they have two daughters, and divorced in 2022), came second in Strictly Come Dancing in 2008, appeared on Celebrity Masterchef and as a judge on The Voice of Ireland, presented on Heart Radio, and appeared on Dancing on Ice in 2022. She met her current partner Brendyn Hatfield, when they performed together on the show.

In 2014, she was voted sexiest woman of all time by readers of FHM. I wonder what she makes now of the lads mag culture, and whether she thinks the current climate is easier on women. “I don’t think it is now to lots of degrees, really (easy on women),” she says. “But I think, you know, back in the day, it was of that moment. Everything changes and moves and evolves. At that time people weren’t talking about mental health, no one talked about this kind of thing. I think we’ve obviously come so far, even from 10, 15 years ago, but there’s still I think a long way to go, in so many ways.”

Leaving the protection and predictability of the band was difficult, she recalls. “Yeah, it was hard actually. Mid-twenties, post S Club, I went straight into doing my solo albums, so I just kept going, going, going. And then the industry was changing, and I was just starting to think: ‘Where do I go from here? What do I want?’ I was actually really lost. I found it very, very difficult to create structure, because it was always something that had been created for me from the age of 18 to 24, 25. So I found that really, really difficult. And it’s something I even still find difficult. I mean I’ve got my girls now, my kids, so obviously there’s structure, but in terms of work structure, I crave that. And I think we all need that, to some degree, don’t we? We all need to have a plan and a structure.”

She describes the challenge of balancing work and parenting.

“It’s just so difficult. My girls, as they get older, I hope will really see that I’m working hard, and I’m a career woman and all of that. They’re like, ‘What do you actually do?’ I mean they saw me on tour. And then when I’m not on tour — my youngest is 10 and my eldest is 13 — I think it’s hard for them to understand what I do in between, they see me doing so many different things. I’ll go to a photoshoot here, and then I’ll record for Heart, and then I’ll go and do an interview. But yeah, the juggle is crazy, isn’t it?”

She is entering the teenage phase of parenting. “And boy do I know it,” Stevens smiles. “It literally happened overnight. It is full on, the hormones, and the whole thing. They need you all the time, don’t they? It’s more emotional attention.”

She has spoken in the past about how becoming famous so young impacted her confidence, something she has felt solidifying in the last few years.

“It’s been lots of… god how do I answer that? It’s such an individual… journey for everyone,” she says slowly, the slight discomfort at talking about herself obvious. “For me, it’s been a long process of… I find it hard to answer the question without going all the way back to the beginning almost, d’you know what I mean?” she smiles.

“I’ve done a lot of work myself, a lot of therapy over the years,” she laughs, “and a lot of putting the puzzle pieces back together. From childhood. From growing up feeling like… I do think it was a generational thing — not to generalise, but I think children of our day had a tendency to be seen and not heard. Whereas now it’s a totally different thing. We wanna talk to our kids about how they’re feeling, and their opinions on things. And I didn’t grow up that way,” says Stevens, whose parents divorced when she was a teenager.

“And then getting into the band. It has taken me a long time to be able to really open up and feel freer. And I mean, I can still feel myself censoring, or going in my head. Because I’m a very deep thinker, and a worrier, and a lot of things have been in my head. But it is very empowering to actually just speak your truth. And I think that’s all it is, just saying how you feel, what you want, and what you need, and doing it in your own way.”

She has always struggled with anxiety. “Ever since I was young. So it’s always something that I’ve had to manage, and that has evolved.” Routine helps keep it at bay, she explains, although that can be tricky as the hormonal changes of a 40-year-old woman need to be contended with.

“You have kids, you have a busy life, diet, all of those things play a part in our energy levels, our moods. You just don’t know where the hormones start and finish type thing. So I’m now starting that journey of looking into what’s going to be best for me in terms of managing perimenopause and all of that going forward. Because my energy levels are so low at the moment. And my sleep. But it’s so lovely talking to women of our age, isn’t it? Again, talking, I think it’s the most important thing. And sharing. Sharing things that work for each other. And it’s finding our own way within that.”

Our interview has come about through Stevens’ role as an ambassador for Activia yoghurts and its push to highlight the importance of gut health to overall wellbeing. She features in the Good Gut Guide series available on the brand’s Instagram. Stevens is an advocate for wellbeing — but not in a pressured way. She was out with friends the night before we speak and describes a conversation in which they commiserated and comforted each other over the amount of information coming at women to improve, to do better.

“I’m trying at the moment to get up early, which I’m struggling with, because my sleep patterns have been really bad recently. I think there’s so many things coming at us all the time: beauty products, exercise products. All these things that people say we should be doing for a healthier life. We were just saying even if you can do five minutes a day, getting outside, or a couple of minutes of meditation; healthy patterns and habits. Doing what is achievable for you. We all know the things we need to do to live as best we can.

“To look after ourselves as best we can, because life goes 100 miles an hour.”

Rachel Stevens is an ambassador for leading gut health yoghurt brand Activia.

Rachel has sat down with The Sun following the release of her autobiography “Finding My Voice“.

Exactly two years since her 13-year marriage ended, Rachel Stevens has entered Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin “dream divorce” territory.

On the day we meet, the S Club star and her ex-husband Alex Bourne – dad to her two daughters, Amelie, 13, and 10-year-old Minnie – are meeting up, accompanied by their respective partners, for their first double dinner date.

“Do you know what? I’m feeling good about it,” says Rachel, 46, who split from estate agent Alex – star of Netflix’s new reality show Buying London – in July 2022.

Only months earlier, she had met her current partner, US pro-skater Brendyn Hatfield when she was partnered with him on Dancing On Ice. Alex, too, now has a new partner.

“We’re going to talk about the kids, because parenting a teenager can be challenging and all parents need to set boundaries, and we just want to align on some things.

“Obviously, we’ve got two different homes, but we need to come together on certain things.

“[Alex and Brendyn] really get on. They’re both good people,” she says.

It’s an admirable and enviable display of sensible adulting, a set-up that mirrors the respect exhibited by Gwynnie and Coldplay star Chris after their 2014 “conscious uncoupling”. But Rachel admits it’s taken time to reach their happy place.

Rachel lays bare the truth about the unravelling of their marriage in her brand-new memoir Finding My Voice – specifically how her feelings grew for Brendyn, 38, soon after their DOI journey ended in February 2022.

She describes wanting “to get to know him” more, after being the third contestant voted off the show, and how they spent weeks communicating “constantly” over WhatsApp – “long, in-depth, emotional messages about what was happening in our lives and how we were dealing with our fractured relationships”, which resulted in them forming “an even deeper connection”.

In the book she writes: “All I knew was that I couldn’t help the feelings that were developing.

“There was no stopping it now. I’d never felt this way about anyone, and after all these years of searching, there was no way I was going to let it slip through my fingers.”

At the time, she and Alex were having marriage problems, but were still living together.

They went public with plans to split in July 2022 after a one-week trial separation.

Today, she admits: “It was messy, I’m not going to lie. I knew for a long time what I needed to do. I knew that we were growing… that I was growing apart, but I was in turmoil, because, first of all, my kids.

“I couldn’t think straight,” says Rachel, who insists she was honest with Alex, 47, about her feelings for Brendyn from the start.

“It was really scary, because I knew as soon as I said that, that was it – because with honesty comes change and [then] everything changed.”

But, look at them now. As divorces go, this one seems to be as good as it gets.

”I know how lucky I am,” nods Rachel.

“Of course, it’s a work in progress and we’re navigating it, but we’ve always had the goal of wanting to be age-appropriately honest with the girls.

“Kids think life is a fairy tale. I think it’s good to show them that this is real life and we’re all learning.”

Baring the story of her life in a memoir was no mean feat. Joining S Club 7 aged 19, Rachel became painfully conscious of how others perceived her and she suppressed her true self – a continuation of her childhood in north London, where she felt she had to be seen and not heard.

She struggled with committing to paper some of her innermost feelings, specifically about her marriage breakdown.

“I wanted to be really honest and open, and that was one of the things that scared me the most,” she says.

Insecurity, anxiety and imposter syndrome have been long-standing issues for Rachel, who’s “been in and out of therapy” since childhood.

When she was nine, her mum arranged counselling to try to resolve her anxiety, which manifested in emetophobia, an extreme fear of being sick (an issue she still struggles with).

These days, as well as regular dance training and walking to keep herself physically fit, Rachel has weekly therapy sessions and, clearly, self-development is working.

Walking through the door of our studio in a stunning Mint Velvet leopard-print two-piece, Rachel declines her publicist’s offer to sit in on today’s interview, before confidently handling most questions with ease.

She confirms: “I don’t feel like I have to be as protective any more. Even though I still have insecure moments or feel imposter syndrome, it’s getting less and less and it doesn’t last as long.”

One emotional struggle Rachel could never have anticipated came after she was violently mugged in June 2009, in her north London flat, by three men who followed her in, grabbed her by the throat and stole jewellery.

Fifteen years on, Rachel still lives with a fear of violent crime.

“I don’t always feel safe, like getting in cabs that I don’t know or when I’m walking on my own anywhere.

“Even if it’s light on the street, I sometimes feel very vulnerable, like someone could just jump out and grab me. I have feelings that something could happen in a split second. Something aggressive,” she explains.

Something else that rocked her to the core was last October’s terrorist attack in Israel, in which around 1,200 people were murdered – the worst loss of Jewish life in a single day since the Holocaust.

Raised within a Jewish family – although Rachel doesn’t observe all the faith’s traditions – she is proud of her identity and her daughters attend Jewish schools, where police have been on guard daily since the attack.

“As parents of Jewish kids at school, it was scary,” says Rachel, who was away on the S Club 25th-anniversary reunion tour when the atrocities began.

“Minnie was like: ‘Are you anywhere near Israel?’ She was worried about me and so emotional. When [the girls] went to school the next day, a lot of the kids were affected.

“They had family in Israel, people had lost loved ones. It was so frightening and the rise in anti-semitism is insane. It’s heartbreaking.”

Rachel uses the same word when talk turns to Paul Cattermole, her S Club bandmate who died last April at the age of 46 from an underlying heart condition, less than two months after the band’s 11-date reunion tour was announced.

“I couldn’t believe it. I was in shock. I was heartbroken,” Rachel says.

“I remember going to bed that night and I couldn’t get him out of my head. It was my birthday a couple of days later and it felt weird celebrating, so Brendyn and I left London.

“Being away, just me and him, was perfect because I could feel how I felt. Then the band shared memories and we were there for each other. It brought us closer together.”

Of course, that’s only partly true.

Following Paul’s death, fellow S Clubber Hannah Spearritt, 43, pulled out of the band’s reunion – their first since 2015 – before signing up to Dancing On Ice.

She later revealed in an interview that “everything changed” after losing Paul – her ex-partner – and she had struggled with panic attacks, stress and crippling vertigo.

During the tour, although the band paid tribute to Paul, Hannah’s name was conspicuously absent.

“We’ve evolved, we’ve moved on and you just have to respect people’s decisions,” says Rachel, adding that she’s had no contact with Hannah since she quit.

Formed by former Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller in 1998, during the band’s five years together they achieved 11 UK Top 10 singles, as well as global success.

Is she saddened by Hannah’s decision to pull out?

“I wish her really well whatever she does, from a human perspective, but I don’t feel sad about it,” says Rachel.

“She’s going through her stuff. Everyone has their individual journeys. I just hope she’s OK.”

Rachel is no stranger to rejection. She was 15 when her relationship with her father Michael, crumbled after he quit the family home following an affair with a younger woman.

Her mum Linda shut everyone out as she mourned the breakdown of her marriage.

But thanks to years of working on herself and learning not to carry the pain of her past, Rachel has patched up relationships with both parents.

Earlier this year, after totting up 21 points for speeding and receiving a driving ban, Rachel made the best of a bad situation by inviting Michael to become her temporary driver.

“It’s lovely,” smiles Rachel. “There is sadness [over the lost years], but I don’t carry the feelings I carried before. I’m more confident in who I am, so when I’m with my dad, I can feel compassion now.”

In the past, while chasing the love and connection she craved after her dad left, Rachel says she often clung on too long to unsuitable boyfriends, namely her former Holby City actor ex, Jeremy Edwards, with whom she describes having a “volatile” and “toxic” relationship. But those days are behind her.

“He’s a beautiful human and I really love him,” beams Rachel, when conversation returns to Brendyn.

Have they discussed getting hitched?

”I don’t know. Look at me getting all special. Oh my god!” she shrieks, becoming hilariously tongue-tied.

“Has there been marriage talk? There’s been… Not with me and him. We’re just… Erm… I’m going teenagery!”

Since moving into their new north London home just before the S Club tour, Rachel and Brendyn have been finding their way as a blended family. As well as Rachel’s girls, Brendyn – who was previously married – has a two-year-old son.

“Life is 100 million miles an hour and there’s so much you need to be on top of as a parent – the WhatsApp groups, making sure they’ve got this and that for school, that they’re doing their homework…

“Sometimes we can beat ourselves up when we’re not on top of everything, but I’m learning now to just give myself a break.”

The same applies to her career. Beyond ongoing S Club commitments with bandmates Jon Lee, Jo O’Meara, Bradley McIntosh and Tina Barrett, including some festivals, Rachel says she will only take on projects that feel true to her heart.

Last month, she performed at London’s Mighty Hoopla festival, and is looking to try new things.

“I’m really driven by building my business and working with fashion, lifestyle and wellness brands that I admire and align with,” she smiles. “Where I’m at in my life, [I just want to] create something that’s mine.”

You can pick up a copy of Rachel’s book ‘Finding My Voice’ everywhere books are sold.
You can pick up Rachel’s interview in ‘The Sun’ tomorrow 23 June 2024.

S Club star Rachel Stevens looks back on her year, bringing the iconic pop band back, and how the finer details – and priorities – of her life have altered drastically in the last decade.

Rachel Stevens has had a bit of a bumper year – for a number of reasons. The main change for her is that S Club returned in a big way throughout 2023, playing some of their biggest venues in the process.

Included in this run of shows was a couple of gigs at London’s O2 Arena, where their comeback reached its apex, placing them in front of 20,000 people and relaying some of their biggest songs to date once again.

For one, Stevens has two grown-up children to contend with in her household now. And, as a result, she exclusively tells Express.co.uk over Zoom, she’s forced to think about some of the more mundane things in life – like… keeping her glasses safe. Yeah, this probably isn’t something you’d expect a BRIT Award-winning pop star to be worrying about, but it’s a very real problem she thinks about.

“Obviously, glasses in itself are expensive,” Stevens explained, getting real. “And we want to look after them.” As a result, the S Club Party singer has teamed up with Vision Express to help promote their hugely generous Breakage and Loss Protection Cover, which “replaces and repairs broken designer glasses with 75 percent off as well as offering 50 percent off the replacement of glasses that have been lost”.

“I just think it’s such a brilliant thing which will help so many people,” she grinned through the phone. “I mean, because they’re expensive, aren’t they? So any help, and that kind of thing, it’s such a great thing to be involved with.”

Stevens also confessed that having children changed her touring life, as well. “I think, for me, initially it was just logistics,” she explained. “Because the last time I obviously in the band, I didn’t have children and it was it was different. This time around. I think we were all kind of, you know, working out the diaries of kids in the mix and all of that kind of thing. And you know, the thought of leaving them for go on the road was daunting.” She added: “But so wonderful to be back together… We were all so excited.”

That wasn’t the only massive change to hit the band, though. On April 6, 2023, S Club member Paul Cattermole was found dead at his home. As a result, the band rebranded from S Club 7 to S Club, and carried out their following shows in tribute to him.

“That was a really special thing to be able to do,” Stevens sombrely said of the comeback. “It was a mix of emotions, really – a real mix of emotions. It does feel like we all – I think we all would say the same – we all just fit back together again. We’ve got so much history and all this sort of banter and fun and just doing it a different stage of our life.”

Stevens continued: “And also bringing that nostalgia for our fans and people who are all grown up now who were like five and six who would come up to us before the show and say you were our childhood. It was really special to hear their stories and share them with our own. Yeah, it was a mix of everything.”

Thankfully, it sounds like this isn’t the last we’ll see or hear of S Club in the near future.

Stevens revealed: “Yeah, no, we are looking to carry on. We’ve got some festivals coming up in the summer, which is really exciting.”

“We are potentially working on new music,” she added, without elaboration. “So lots of talk about that.”

Rachel Stevens has partnered with Vision Express to highlight the benefits of its Breakage and Loss Protection Cover. Vision Express will replace and repair broken designer glasses with 75 percent off as well as offering 50 percent off the replacement of glasses that have been lost. Book an appointment for an eye test here.

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S Club are planning their year and the first of hopefully many events has finally been announced.

Fresh off the heels of ‘The Good Times Tour’ (set to debut in North America next month) and Rachel’s performance at Mighty Hoopla, it has been announced that S Club will be bringing their S Club party to Shropshire on Saturday 06 July 2024.

You can find out about other headliners and how to get tickets on their website by clicking here.

It has been announced that S Club are scheduled to perform at Capital FM’s Jingle Bell Ball on 10 December 2023.

This will mark the bands first televised performance since the inception of their reunion earlier this year.

Details on the setlist are non-existent but we think they are sure to perform their beloved “Never Had A Dream Come True” which was released in 2000 as the Children In Need single.

Speaking of ‘Never Had A Dream Come True’ the song will be released on streaming on 17 November 2023 along with the long sought after “Spiritual Love” and “Stand By You”.

You can purchase tickets for Capital FM’s Jingle Bell Ball by clicking here.

Following the abrupt cancellation of her 2023 appearance at ‘Mighty Hoopla’ Rachel has made good on her promise to “make it up” as she has been announced to appear at the festival on Sunday, 02 June 2024.

Rachel will appear along side Jessie Ware, Rita Ora, Delta Goodrem, Louise, and The Veronicas (to name a few).

This event will follow the rescheduled US dates for “The Good Times Tour” which now take place in February of 2024. The band has hinted at “exciting plans” for next year, with a promise of new music, but with all of those exciting plans, it is nice to see that S Clubbers will still be focusing on solo endeavors (even if it is just a one-off).

The festival will take place at Brockwell Park in London and tickets are now available.

Worlds collide as Lance Bass (*NSYNC) features the S Club girls in his latest episode of his podcast Frosted Tips where the band reminisce on the early days of S Club and divulge information on the upcoming tour which is set to launch in Manchester on the 12th!

You can check out the Podcast at any of the distributors listed below!

Check out some items you may have missed!!

Purchase tickets to the “Good Times Tour”

Shop the S Club Shop (To include 12″ Vinyls)

Stream “Don’t Stop Movin'”

Stream “Don’t Stop Movin'”

Chat with S Club while re-watching “S Club Party Live” (10 October 2023 1:30 EST)