S Club have spoken together for the first time since bandmate Paul Cattermole’s shock death in April, as the remaining five members debut the new-look group.
To celebrate their 25th anniversary, the UK pop act released the single These Are The Days on Wednesday (Thursday morning Australian time), marking their first new music in 20 years.
The music clip shows current members Bradley McIntosh, Jo O’Meara, Jon Lee, Rachel Stevens and Tina Barrett going through old photos and watching videos from the group’s heyday, featuring Cattermole.
Watch the video above.
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The video has already had more than 25,000 views on YouTube in the hours since its release.
Also missing from the group now is original S Club 7 member Hannah Spearritt, 42, who previously dated Cattermole and quit the group’s comeback plans following his death.
The loss of two people from the line-up prompted the group to drop the number seven from the end of their name.
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While members of S Club each shared tributes to 46-year-old Cattermole on social media following his death, at his Dorset home from natural causes, the group have only now done their first interviews, three months after their loss.
“To have that time together was really special,” Stevens told UK newspaper The Sun.
“We all reconnected again as who we are now. Paul felt part of it. We all felt part of it.”
McIntosh added: “His presence is so strong. It doesn’t feel like he’s gone. It feels like he’s still here. We miss him dearly, though.”
O’Meara says the new music is “a celebration of everything we’ve achieved as a band and looking back on the past, as we move forward”.
The group also renamed their upcoming 15-date arena shows in the UK and Ireland, which they’re continuing ahead with in Cattermole’s memory, from S Club 7 Reunited to S Club: The Good Times Tour – a reference to one of their songs where Cattermole sings lead vocals.
“We were talking to his family quite a lot and we’ve been working very closely with them to make sure everything’s had their OK,” Lee said of the tour.
The group said while the concerts will pay tribute to their fallen friend, it will not be a sad show and will still be uplifting and positive with the pure pop they became famous for.
“He wanted this [comeback] to happen so badly,” Barrett told Metro UK. “We always feel him with us – it’s an odd thing to explain, but he is here with us.”
S Club 7 rose to fame in 1998 with their TV show Miami 7 and hits including Don’t Stop Movin’ and Reach.
The group broke up in April 2003, thought Cattermole left earlier – in 2002, shortly after it became public he was dating fellow member Spearritt.
In 2008, Cattermole played gigs in the UK alongside his former co-stars O’Meara and McIntosh, as S Club 3.
A brief S Club 7 reunion took place in 2014 and the group broke up again in 2015, before announcing this reunion tour for their 25th anniversary earlier this year.
“I think what motivates us now is that life is short and you never know when it’s going to go – so we want to be kind to each other, enjoy what we’re doing, push life as much as [we] can,” Lee said.
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