heat pop favourites Steps celebrate their 20th anniversary with a chart-topping single, a reunion tour and this fabulous tell-all interview
Dust off your red PVC trousers and devil horns – Steps are back! Jordan Paramor caught up with the happiest band in pop
G od, it’s annoying when people say, “We knew them before they were famous.” But in the case of Steps, we really did! Yes, heat has a long, rich history with the BRIT award-winning ’90s band, whose annoyingly-easy-to-learn dance moves are still displayed at drunken weddings across the land to this day (Tragedy head wave, anyone?)
They all went their separate ways following their acrimonious split in 2001, reformed in 2011 to make the revealing four-part documentary Steps: Reunion, and now it’s third time lucky for the fivesome. With their new single Scared Of The Dark flying high in the charts (yes, there is a dance routine) and their upcoming 20date tour rapidly selling out, they can confidently call this rebirth a success.
But, aside from four of them becoming parents, has much changed? If today’s interview is anything to go by, no. The banter is the same, H still says inappropriate things and then regrets it, Lee still has his amazing six-pack and the girls look like they’ve been frozen in time. Ahhh, how we’ve missed them…
How long have you secretly been working on the comeback? Claire: We’ve been talking about this for two years now. H, zip it! [H is chattering away to Lisa in the background.] Lisa: But really we’ve been working on it for ten years. C: We were going to come back
sooner, but as it got closer to the 20-year anniversary, we decided to save it until then. It’s better, because we’ve really taken the time to make sure it’s all done properly. Lisa: We talked about everything, and we all wanted to do something new to make it special, not just churn out the old hits and do another tour. H: I think it’s hilarious that, out of our era, we were the ones that were slated and who nobody admitted to liking and now, after 20 years, we’re the only ones who’ve properly come back.
Let’s talk about Scared Of The Dark, which is classic Steps…
Lisa: We didn’t have any expectations for it, but it was very well received and reached No1 on itunes. It really defines the album. It’s the Steps sound, but it’s really current and it’s been brought into 2017.
C: This is going to sound really negative…
Lisa: Don’t say it! C: But I also say, “Expect the worst, but hope for the best.” And this is the best thing ever.
Faye: We went to Concrete in London’s Shoreditch and did some Djing on Saturday night. We played the single, and it was amazing to see everyone on the dance floor singing the words. It was incredible. It hasn’t all been plain sailing for Steps. Your break-up in 2001 was pretty acrimonious, and you spoke about it at length on the Sky documentary Steps: Reunion… Lisa: It was good doing the documentary, because we talked
about it, and we all appreciated each other’s honesty. We all had questions and we needed to know the answers in order to move on.
C: I think people forget that we got back together in 2011.
H: We didn’t mean to just kind of stop dead. We meant to carry on, but life got in the way. In our eyes, we never split up. Is your Party On The Dancefloor tour going to be all-singing and alldancing like the old days? C: Maybe not quite as all-dancing. We feel like we want to do a bit less dancing this time. We want to dance, but we also want to be able to sing everything live and make it sound as good as it can.
F: So, maybe a bit less jumping up and down. Are there any songs you’re not keen on performing? Lisa: [Immediately] 5,6,7,8. H: Every band or artist probably has a song that makes them cringe when they hear it. I’m sure Kylie has nightmares about I Should be So Lucky. Lisa: Nightmares? [All laugh.] Lee: We know the fans like it, so of course we’ll perform it. F: But we’ll find ways to do if differently. C: We once had a hoe down routine with a fight scene, and we had a live fiddle on the first tour. H: I like a nice fiddle. Please say the Better The
Devil red PVC outfits will be making a comeback? Lee: Maybe. F: It’s not really a quick costume change, though. Too much talc? [Lisa nods.] Lee: I think red cloaks could be an option. F: And horns. Who was the biggest party animal back in the day? Lisa: It was and probably still is [points to her and Faye]. H: Saying that, I did give you a run for your money last Saturday night.
Lisa: I don’t think so. We went on to an after-show party. H: I didn’t know that! F: Yes, we went to a house party.
Lisa: Until the sun came up. H: I was excluded from that. F: You excluded yourself, babe…
Lisa: …by getting drunk and falling into a cab.
H: I took some of the chocolate buttons from the dressing room to eat on the way home and I woke up in bed covered in them the following morning. They’d melted all over me.
Lee: Can I just say, I wasn’t there that night, because I’m not like that. I don’t throw up and fall into taxis. Is it different being in Steps now that all of you except Lee are parents? C: Yes. Going to work is like a holiday now.
H: That’s so true. My boys are a year old now. Our schedules have been jam-packed recently and we’ve been doing 18-hour days, but it’s easy compared to being a parent.
H, you’ve got twin boys, Macsen and Cybi [with partner Craig Ryder]. Are you loving it?
H: Oh, I absolutely love it. The boys are thriving and I feel incredibly lucky.
Lisa: It is hard, and we do miss being with our families sometimes. My two children are in Dubai [where Lisa is based now] and there’s a four-hour time difference, so it’s hard to Skype, and it is a massive sacrifice. There are days when you just want to cry, but this is all for them. Do your kids like Steps? Do they think you’re cool? Lisa: My little girl is absolutely mad about Steps. She thinks we’re the best band in the world and she’s so pleased we’re back together. She can’t wait to come on the tour bus. What outrageous rider demands are you going to make on tour? H: Nappies. F: When we realised we’d be paying for it, we were like, “We’ll just have a towel and some water.”
H: We just want Prosecco, water and snacks.
‘If you like us, join in and have fun. If you don’t, piss off’ Lee
C: And a kettle and some honey and lemon. I remember, on the first arena tour, I always used to have a bottle of asti spumante, and I’d drink it in my room before I went down to the after-show bar.
H: We weren’t very glamorous, were we? On a scale of mild cheddar to full-on Stilton, how cheesy will the tour be? F: It won’t be cheesy, it will be camp and fabulous! H: Cheese matures with age. Lisa: Shame you didn’t. Do you think you’ll always have “From Steps” attached to your surnames?
H: Always. However much we’ve tried to have our own identities over the years, we’ll always be “…from Steps”. I use my full name Ian H Watkins, but I’ll still always be “H from Steps”.
Lee: It’s also about owning the Steps name for us now, because people did love or hate us the first time around. But now we can look back at all the success and all the achievements we’ve had, and how hard we’ve worked, and we’re proud of it. If you like us, join in and have fun. If you don’t, piss off!
How the hell do you all still look so good? Have you been sleeping in oxygen tents?
C: People do keep saying that, but I think if they looked at pictures from back then and now, we do look different. We’ve done alright, though.
Lee: I think it helps that we look half decent for the comeback. If we looked old and haggard, it wouldn’t have the same effect.
H: You can say that, because you haven’t changed a bit. I haven’t slept for a year.
Lisa: We all stay in good physical shape, too.
C: Now we do. Maybe not five years ago... How do you do that? H: Twins. F: We go down the gym. And working in musical theatre [Faye is a bona fide West End star], you move around a lot – running up and down stairs and doing costume changes.
Lisa: I dance every day with my academy [Lisa and her husband, professional dancer Johnny, run the Dubai Performing Arts Academy]. I’m very active.
H: We’ve got something to aim towards now with the tour.
Lee: We keep fit and active, and try and eat as healthily as possible.
H: I have just eaten a rhubarb tart for lunch, though.
C: I walk a lot, but I need to start doing proper exercise. Walking is great and I love it. I can easily do 10k in one go. I just stick my headphones in and go, but I need to do something else too. [To Lee, who is a qualified personal trainer] I was going to ask you if you’ll do me an exercise programme.
H: Lee’s going to give me a personal-training session, too.
F: We need to get really fit for the tour. Lee’s going to get us all ready! Finally, are you getting your heads around being thrust back in the public eye? F: Kind of. We went up to Manchester to do some interviews and, as we walked into the BBC, there were loads of people. Lee: We were all like, “Ooh, somebody famous must be here.” F: And then we realised they were there for us. That was weird. n Steps new album Tears On The
Dancefloor is out 21 April. Tickets for their Party On The Dancefloor tour are on sale now