BIOGRAPHY,PART 1& 2
The All Saints story began in 1993, when a certain Melanie Blatt and Shaznay Lewis fused together a friendship that worked so well they formed a band and soon found a third member, Simone Rainford. No sooner than later the girls had signed a record deal with ZTT Records and a name "All Saints 1.9.7.5", All Saints coming from the name of the street where the studio was located in Ladbroke Grove London, "All Saints Road" ,unfortunatly for the girls their singles did not take off, "Silver Shadow" and "If You Wanna Party" nose dived out of the charts as quick as they went in. Shortly afterwards Simone Rainford left the group and the record deal with ZTT was terminated. Just as hope looked like it was lost, Nicole Appleton bumped into Mel's dad in a London restaurant, Mel's dad informed Nic of what Mel was now doing, and Nic got in contact with her old school pal, who was then introduced to Shaznay, who like what she heard. Nic was the perfect addition for a third member. As things started to develop, Nic's older siter Natalie began to hear of what was happening, and originally became interested in managing the band!!!! But it was soon discovered that Nat was the missing piece of the puzzle, after lots of tiresome hard work, the girls signed up to a major record label,
London Records This was an exciting time for the girls and they decided to stick to the name "All Saints" dropping the "1.9.7.5" part, there was better things to come!!!On August 17th 1997 their first single as the new group was released "I Know Where It's At". A funky upbeat summer track was welcomed by the public as a breath of fresh air. Altough some critics were dubbing them as the new Spice Girls, I DON’T THINK SO!!! Things went a bit quite after the first single release, the girls featured in a few magazine and T.V. appearances, and we wondered if that was it. Then during the month of November in 1997 the general public were spellbound when their second single "Never Ever" exploded onto the scenes, everywhere you went people would be singing or humming this now addictive tune, and with a super sexy video, and haunting lyrics it rocketed straight to number 1 in the UK charts, now people were beginning to realise the name "ALL SAINTS". The girls had well and truly made their mark, they had landed!!!
After the huge success of "Never Ever" their much anticipated debut album was released in the same month, and in no time at all it went five times platinum!!!, the world had gone All Saints crazy. More success was to follow for the girls as they won two Brit Awards for best single and best video (Both Never Ever!!!), the girls accepted their awards and became very emotional and they won all this whilst the Spice Girls watched on in shock!!!
An emotional Shaznay, gives out heartfelt thanks, for making it all possible, as the girls accept one of their two awards!!!
Smiles all round as the girls put the audience in a trance with a haunting performance of "Never Ever"
The girls celebrate with one of the trophies on a double winning evening!!!
PART 2.
As millions watched on T.V it was official that All Saints were now the queens of pop, rock, soul, r&b and the rest!!! And the next day the tabloids were full of pics and reports of this stunning new girl group.Believe it or not it was to get even better. Just months later the girls released their third single in the spring of 1998, a double A side of two classic cover versions, "Under The Bridge" (Red Hot Chili Peppers) and "Lady Marmalade" (La Belle), with two spectacular videos for each song, Mel, Nic, Nat and Shaz, secured their second consecutive number 1, and then just four months later, they made history in the month of August and did it again!!!. A raunchy song and a HOT video rocketed "Bootie Call" to that sacred number 1 spot once again, the Spice Girls had competition. During the summer of 1998 it was announced that Mel was pregnant, but she carried on filming new videos and making T.V appearances, and it seemed everywhere you looked, All Saints were on T.V, in the papers and the magazines, the public couldn’t get enough. It seemed that these supposed "Spice Girl wannabe's" had exceeded all expectations, they were mature, unique and had there own sound, and that's what the public liked. If you ask me this is what has made most other "girl groups" struggle to keep up with, as All Saints have their own unique style. Later that year Nic, Nat and Shaz, were on hand in Milan, for the prestigious MTV European Music Awards, Mel could not attend as she was in the latter stages of her pregnancy, anyway the three girls did their thing in front of a strong crowd with a super sexy version of Lady Marmalade, and then scooped another award for best new breakthrough act,in the space of a couple of months they had conquered the UK and now Europe!!! They were like some football team who had won their domestic double before going on to win Europe!!!
The girls celebrate with another trophy!!!
Just months later a fifth single was released, the last off of the five times platinum selling album, it was called "War Of Nerves", a very slow haunting ballad but only reached number 7 in the UK charts, by now Mel was now heavily pregnant. Before the 1998 was out Mel had given birth to a beautiful baby girl, "Liyella", it had been quite an amazing year for them.
Melanie and Liyella partying at Cannes.
There were to be no releases from the girls in 1999, altough they didn’t stop to rest, they were heavily involved in their first UK tour which resulted in a record breaking sell outs across the country throughout the months of April, and June, of which was a two legged tour!!! Mel, Nic and Nat were also making their acting debuts as they were starring in a movie directed by Dave Stewart, "Honest" where they play three sisters who cross dress and go robbing in 1960`s London, at that time Shaznay was in New York laying down some new tracks for the new album, and the girls won another award this time the "Elle Style Award" for best look, altough no material was released, filming commenced for their next single on December 19th of 1999 due to be released in early 2000 which would feature in the new Leonardo Di Caprio Film, "The Beach" after a two year gap could All Saints repeat the success of previous singles??? Silly question.
The Girls, performing one of their sell-out concert dates of 1999.
The Girls Display their Elle Award For Best Look!!!
On the 14th of Feburary 2000 the two year wait was over, at last "Pure Shores" was released and once again went straight to number 1, and held that spot for two weeks making it the best selling single of the new millennium, selling 250,000 copies in it`s first week!!! All Saints were back. Once more they were on T.V, and all over the press. These were exciting times as we had the film to come as well (Honest) and confirmation that the much anticipated new album provisionally called "I need The Mic" is to be released in the autumn of this year, and the girls announcing several dates in the summer for music festivals and outdoor concerts. With the prospect of two more singles to be released in the summer months, cant wait!!!, and just for good measure the girls scooped another award during the month of May, at the "Loaded Magazine Awards" Natalie accepted another trophy for best single of the year, "Pure Shores". Not bad for just under three years work huh?
Natalie holds another trophy at the "Loaded Awards" for best single.
"Pure" Magic….for "Shore".
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© Copyright: All Saints Planet By Clinton Davey-2000