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All Saints: ‘We’re not looking bad given how much we caned it at parties'

Melanie, Nicole, Shaznay and Natalie today, photographed for Stella magazine - Dan Smith
Melanie, Nicole, Shaznay and Natalie today, photographed for Stella magazine - Dan Smith

The first time I interviewed All Saints, in 2001, it was fairly dramatic, ending up with Natalie Appleton crying in a cupboard, just before they split after five years of being the coolest girl group Britain has ever known.

‘Oh my God,’ laughs Melanie Blatt. ‘It’s all coming back to me. That was the worst time.’ ‘We were definitely in a cupboard, right?’ says Natalie with a confused look on her face.

Legend has it that a row between Natalie and founder member Shaznay Lewis, over who got to wear a certain army jacket for a magazine photo shoot, put the final boot into the band – whose hits included Never Ever and Pure Shores, and whose music was the soundtrack of movies including The Beach.

That isn’t exactly correct. Shaznay never even turned up that day. The jacket may well have been the final straw but there were other problems apparent from the moment they arrived for the shoot. You could clearly see how much this old gang of friends had disintegrated in the melting pot of fame.

The atmosphere in the room was enough to curdle milk. Rock’s biggest bad boy of the time, Liam Gallagher, rolled up to spend several hours trying to snog his then girlfriend, Nicole Appleton. Natalie asked if we could go somewhere private. We found a small cupboard where she began crying as she talked about how guilty she felt being away from her little girl, Rachel (nine at the time).

Natalie and Nicole Appleton, Melanie Blatt and Shaznay Lewis  - Getty Images
Natalie and Nicole Appleton, Melanie Blatt and Shaznay Lewis - Getty Images

Two months later, the picture on the Elle cover wasn’t of the band, but of Liam and Nicole instead – the loved-up rock stars of the moment, who had asked the photographer to take what they assumed was a private snap. Lawyers were consulted and a few weeks later the band announced they were calling it a day.

Today we are in a spookily similar photographic studio in west London, all bare brick walls and Crittall windows. Since we last met, 17 years ago, there have been three weddings (Natalie married Liam Howlett from The Prodigy in 2002, Shaznay married dancer Christian Horsfall in 2004, and Nicole finally married Liam in 2008); one divorce (Nicole divorced Liam in 2014 after discovering he had fathered a child by American journalist Liza Ghorbani); one separation (Melanie split from Jamiroquai bassist Stuart Zender, the father of her 19-year-old daughter, Lilyella, in 2006), and four more All Saints children (Gene Gallagher is now 17, Ace Howlett is 14, Shaznay’s son, Tyler-Xaine, is 12, and her daughter, Tigerlily, is nine).

Since reforming with the critically acclaimed album, Red Flag in 2016, they have now finished their ‘second album of this time around’, Testament.

We never turned down a party. There were many times where I’d go to a show like The Big Breakfast, having been up all night

Quite possibly their strongest work yet, Testament has seen them reunite with the producer William Orbit, who was responsible for those hypnotic harmonies on Pure Shores. Unlike Red Flag, which was inspired by Nicole’s heartbreak during her ugly split from Liam, ‘There’s not a single theme, it’s just about things we’ve learnt along the way,’ says Shaznay, who remains the songwriter for the band. ‘Forever Love was written for my son who was worrying about changing school. It was to say to him that the most important thing to know in life is to never worry about taking his own path.’

On the surface, they look pretty much the same as they did last time we met. But they now talk less about what they wear and more about what they eat – Nicole is vegan, Melanie is a ‘getting there’ vegan/vegetarian. All of them are into organic food, and fitness.

‘I think we spend a lot of time in sweatpants,’ says Nicole. They look good. And these were girls who partied hard at infamous haunts like The Met Bar in Mayfair. ‘We’re not looking bad given how much we caned it,’ says Nicole. ‘We never turned down a party. There were many times where I’d go straight to a show like The Big Breakfast having been up all night. I’m lucky not to look like Keith Richards. But I don’t regret any of that. I loved it.’

Nicole and Liam Gallagher on the cover of Elle  - Elle UK
Nicole and Liam Gallagher on the cover of Elle - Elle UK

They look like a group of women who could smash any beauty campaign. Natalie, 45, has retained her angel-faced tomboy looks; Melanie, 43, her Gauloise cool (her mother is French and she was brought up in London and France); Shaznay, 42, that edgy sass; while Nicole remains the sexy girl (now woman) next door. None of them looks Botoxed or has fallen victim to middle-aged spread.

‘I don’t think any of us are concerned with looking young, we’ve just been lucky,’ says Nicole.

‘I stay out of the sun and Shaz and I box three times a week,’ says Natalie.

‘I go to the gym and do a lot of running,’ adds Nicole.

‘I’m rubbish. I go in the sun and, apart from walking, I don’t do anything,’ says Melanie. ‘I think I have decent genes.’

All of them can still fit into the old cargo pants that were their trademark. ‘That’s because they were so huge,’ says Nicole.

The biggest difference with these women is now they laugh a lot. When lunch arrives, it’s Natalie fussing over Shaznay’s food (she’s allergic to dairy and fish). Mel has moved in with Nicole in her house in north London (‘I have a place in Ibiza, so when we’re working I live with Nic’), which effectively means she spends half her year in London and half in Ibiza.

Their kids all hang out together and even the coolest teenagers, Gene and Ace, approve of their mums’ band. ‘Except Gene hates any hint of me trying to be sexy,’ says Nicole. ‘He can’t stand our song Booty Call, he just goes, “Oh, Mum,” and cringes.’ ‘My kids think it’s actually called Beauty Call,’ laughs Shaznay. ‘They love seeing me on stage. It’s taken me a while to get a handle on being a mum and back on the road.’ She pauses and looks at Natalie. ‘I don’t know how you did it back then. It was so crazy. I never appreciated how hard you had it as a mum. I’m so sorry about that.’

Shaznay with Christian Horsfall - Getty Images
Shaznay with Christian Horsfall - Getty Images

And now we are talking about what went right and what went wrong for All Saints. Melanie – a former Sylvia Young Theatre School kid – met Shaznay Lewis, the daughter of a Barbadian-born bus driver and a British Jamaican dinner-lady, in a recording studio in London’s All Saints Road in 1993 when they were teenagers. Shaznay, who grew up on a council estate in Islington, initially had no interest in the middle-class, confident girl until they started talking about music.

They formed a band, got picked up and dropped by a record label. Three years later, Melanie suggested they get her old best friend Nicole on board along with her sister, Natalie. They had spent their lives living between Toronto, New York and London with their Canadian-born businessman father and British-born mother.

Melanie with Stuart Zender - Getty Images
Melanie with Stuart Zender - Getty Images

In 1996 – when the Spice Girls were ruling the charts – the group signed a deal with London Records, and in 1997 they released their first, eponymous album, which went on to become the third bestselling girl-group album of all time in the UK. Except, they were clear to point out right from the start, that they weren’t a ‘put-together group’.

‘We were a band. We got together on our own, we wrote our own music. We were never in it for the money and the fame,’ says Natalie, who then had a child by a Dreamboy dancer, Carl Robinson, who she had met, married and split from (the marriage was annulled) by the age of 20. They were the Rolling Stones to the Spice Girls’ Beatles: angrier, edgier and more unpredictable.

I don’t think any of us are concerned with looking young, we’ve just been lucky

They partied hard and eschewed sequins and skirts for cargo pants, army jackets and trainers, turning flat, toned midriffs into the new erogenous zone.

The blonde, beautiful Appleton girls were catnip to the 1990s celebrity scene, with Nicole first getting engaged to Robbie Williams, then dumping him for his arch enemy, Liam Gallagher. Natalie dated Jamie Theakston and Jonny Lee Miller before meeting Liam Howlett at the V Festival in 2000. Melanie, meanwhile, hooked up with Jamiroquai’s Stuart Zender. ‘That was a tough time,’ she says. ‘But I wasn’t with the right person. It wasn’t working.’ All of the girls admit to having ‘very hazy memories’ of their crazy five-year ride.

Natalie and Liam Howlett  - Getty Images
Natalie and Liam Howlett - Getty Images

‘I remember in 1998 we were asked to play at the G8 Summit in Birmingham in front of Bill Clinton and all these world leaders, performing with Chris Rea,’ says Nicole. ‘And I remember shaking Bill Clinton’s hand, which was very large.’ Natalie recalls being at a party where Whitney Houston smiled at her. ‘And I remember arriving at Donatella Versace’s house in Miami for a party and then feeling completely out of place. I made the taxi take me back to the hotel,’ says Shaznay.

Therein lay the problem. While the Appletons took to fame like ducks to water (‘I loved all the mad Smash Hits tours and interviews,’ says Nicole), and Melanie could hold her own on the celebrity front, Shaznay found the whole process traumatic. ‘I come from a very down-to-earth family, and then I was in this world where people were so fake. I was shy, naturally very shy, and I was made to feel you couldn’t be like that.’

They were not, however, made to feel they had to diet, wear heels or behave in a certain way. ‘We were so bloody lucky,’ says Nicole. ‘There was no social media, there were no people with camera phones – thank God – our record company accepted we just wanted to be ourselves. And there was money in the music industry so we lived very well.’

All Saints on the cover of Stella magazine this Sunday - Dan Smith
All Saints on the cover of Stella magazine this Sunday - Dan Smith

In retrospect, says Melanie, being friends made the transition from wannabes to celebrities more difficult. ‘We knew each other too well,’ she said. ‘We spent all our time together when we were working and when we weren’t. And I’d tell any other band never to do that.’

‘It started with stupid little things which just built up,’ nods Natalie. ‘And then communication broke down. We all had different struggles. I had a young child and I wasn’t around for her. No one else understood what it was like not to do the school run, not to be there. I get now why they didn’t, but it used to tear me apart.’

When they split in 2001, there were two clear sides – the Appletons versus Melanie and Shaznay. The two divisions stopped speaking. ‘I found it really tough,’ says Melanie, ‘because Nicole had been my best friend since I was 11 and Shaznay was my teenage friend, and everything had changed. It was the worst and best time, I pushed myself to do things I never would have done, I moved to Ibiza, I was a mum.’

The band performing at Camp Bestival  - Getty Images
The band performing at Camp Bestival - Getty Images

They each recorded their own albums without a huge amount of success, Melanie and Nicole did a bit of TV presenting (shows like The Hot Desk and The F Word). Shaznay did two movies (Bend It Like Beckham and John Malkovich’s Hideous Man), and for Natalie a short stint in I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!

‘But mainly,’ says Nicole. ‘We were mums. For me I actually loved the transition. I loved being at home, being a mum, doing the occasional telly thing. Just having a life.’

It was five more years before they reunited. Natalie remembers texting Shaznay. ‘I was drunk. I just wanted to say: “Hey. I love you. I miss you.” I didn’t have her number, but I remembered the pattern of the numbers on the phone. When I woke up in the morning there was no reply. Turned out she thought it was a crank text.’ Then in the south of France, where she was on holiday, Nicole was sunbathing when Melanie’s head loomed over her. ‘Hello Nicole Appleton,’ she said.

Liam Gallagher with son Gene - Getty Images
Liam Gallagher with son Gene - Getty Images

‘That was it,’ says Melanie. ‘We just started talking and laughing,’ adds Nicole. ‘We began to spend time together and forgot all the old tensions.’ In 2006, they got together and released an album – Studio 1 – but it was a desultory experience, not done, Melanie later confessed, for the right reasons.

All Saints – who were signed back in the day when the music industry was a licence to print money – had all made enough (each earning an estimated £4 million, with songwriter Shaznay making an estimated £10 million from the band) to buy homes and lead a comfortable lifestyle.

We knew each other too well. We spent all our time together when we were working and when we weren’t

Red Flag happened organically after they performed on stage with the Backstreet Boys in 2014, getting the buzz of being in front of an audience all singing back to their songs. But what really reignited the band were the hours they spent talking, supporting each other, helping Nicole through the pain of finding out Liam had cheated on her. Two years on it is very clear how important her bandmates – along with her return to performing – have been to her healing process.

Ask her if she still sees Robbie Williams and she nods: ‘If we bump into each other it’s always lovely.’ Ask her about Liam and her smile drops. ‘He sees our son,’ she says.

Melanie instinctively moves the subject on. ‘We’ve both been through difficult breakups and in the end it’s good friends you need around you.’ Both Natalie and Shaznay got the happy-ever-after ending with partners they clearly adore. And Shaznay is possibly the most changed of all.

‘I’m so much more confident,’ she says. ‘More open. Being a mother, living a normal life, has been massive for me. The one thing I really hated when we started touring was not being able to do my daughter’s hair every morning, but now my husband has learnt to plait it and I’ve learnt not to be so stressed.’

Nicole looks at Melanie across the table and grins. ‘And I’ve found my perfect partner again because I’ve got my best mate living in my house.’ Their audiences these days are women in their 40s, fans from the first time around who turn up at the tours and know every word to every song. ‘It’s so much more relaxed,’ says Nicole. ‘We will never have that crazy success again, but people turn up to our shows and we really appreciate their support.’

‘And there are still quite a few cargo pants out there,’ adds Natalie. ‘That just makes me smile and think: “Yes!”’

The single ‘Love Lasts Forever’ is out now; new album ‘Testament’ is released on 13 July

Newsletter promo - Stella - End of article
Newsletter promo - Stella - End of article
Copy of More from Stella Magazine 13 April 2018
Copy of More from Stella Magazine 13 April 2018