My child was in a S Club Juniors, ask me anything

[BeEagerEagle]

In 2001, my child auditioned for a CBBC show called ‘S Club Search’ and got a place in a child pop group who initially were meant to support S Club 7 on a one time support gig basis. This band was called S Club Juniors, later known as S Club 8.

The band ended up taking off and we basically had to sign or children away to Simon Fuller’s management to release a single. The kids were given tutors and chaperones, and spent most of their time in hotels (the ones London based stayed either their parents) or on the road. After that, they went on tour and I only saw my child once every couple of months. It was brutal but I knew that’s what they wanted to do.

they released two albums and the second one didn’t do that well, Simon Fuller tried them on a TV show called I Dream, however that also tanked. My child will admit that themselves. They all got dropped when aged 14-17. He said they had grown out of their roles a bit.

Now they are in their late thirties and trying to get back into the entertainment industry fully but it’s difficult. They’ve never quite got over their time in the band. They released music but it never really went anywhere. They would never say so, but it doesn’t help them that two of their fellow band members went on to become big stars, both were in a chart topping girl band and now are TV presenters.

their band (minus the two still-successful members) were meant to reunite for a TV show a long while ago, but for various reasons it didn’t happen. When S Club reunited, S Club juniors didn’t get asked to reunite as there was ‘no call’ for it and only a few were up for reuniting. (My child, and another boy and girl member)

they are still acquaintances with S club 7 and went to Paul Cattermoles funeral.

I know my (now adult) child doesn’t regret the choices they made as a child, but feels sad as an adult.

AMA- child (now adult) is also here to answer questions too and is happy to answer questions about specific members and music!

Hey. My child saw it on a TV advert and thought it would be good for experience as their auditions for other stuff had dried up a bit. Truthfully we both thought they wouldn’t go further than the first couple of rounds.

Did any of the kids regret having S Club Juniors as their big break?

Not to say they regretted the experience, as it seems clear they don't. But you only get one chance to debut in the entertainment industry. It's much harder to rebrand when the public already have an image of you in their minds as a little kid. The band being so in the shadow of S Club 7 can't have helped either. Once the gimmick of them being S Club kids ran its course, they were basically condemned to either be one hit wonders, or to have to take a long break and start fresh as adults. (I remember The Saturdays, and the S Club connection was very downplayed. It didn't fit the adult, sexy pop girl image they were going for. The Saturdays obviously wanted to be Girls Aloud, not S Club 7.)

Do any of the kids wish they'd waited, and tried to establish themselves as serious artists when they were a bit older? Do they feel the S Club Juniors image held them back in the end?

I would say 2/3 are still very proud of their s club roots and do mention it from time to time.

Another moved quickly to America soon after the band was over to try and reinvent themselves

one changed their surname and this wasn’t because they were married it was just to get rid of the connotations when attending adult auditions. That’s what they say.

Frankie and Rochelle downplayed their connection to the band for the reasons you say; but nobody blamed them

none have shame per say

Just to say I am out for the weekend but will pop in and out to answer stuff. Some of the members have read this and have smiled at a lot of the questions!

OMG can you ask them if they think my little sister and I smashed the school talent show with Automatic High or do they agree, as I have steadfastly done so for the last 23 years, that she was out of time on the second bridge?

Ahh, fair enough, I think I misinterpreted what you meant by ‘adult’ clothes!

Still, must’ve been very difficult as a parent being forced to ‘step back’ in a way.

Do you feel you missed out on a significant part of their lives? They’re very informative years for young people.

You mentioned the parents had control of the money and could decide how much was doled out to the kids or saved for them?
Did all the kids get what they were owed at 18? You hear a lot about parents in this industry swindling their kids out of their earned money

I do, I really missed them. I think parents struggled more than the children. Missing a lot of the “firsts”.

All the kids got access to the full money at seventeen however some of the money for a couple of kids was tied up in stocks.

I have loved reading this post today OP, thank you for starting it and thanks to your son / daughter for answering questions with you!

I loved Sclub Juniors / 8 and was about 11 when they came around. They were living every young teens dream but their songs were actually really good too!

Id have loved to have seen them on The Big Reunion! Shame that didn’t happen.

My guesses are you are either Aaron or Daisy’s Mum. Just my guess 😅 You should be insanely proud of whoever they are! Hope you continue to answer questions!

RE your second question, I know there is one member who wished they’d waited as it turns out being a recording artist wasn’t actually what they wanted to do as an adult

How much of their average day was ‘working’ and how much was education?
Do they feel they missed out on their education as a result? Did they sit exams?

I’d love to know how many more YouTube/Spotify hits the band has had since this thread 😂

I never knew the band were around for four years!

Thanks for starting this thread, it’s easily the best AMA ever.

Tutoring was minimum 3 hours a day. “Working” including rehearsal time, photoshoots, performances was no more than 4 hours a day. An average day could really vary depending on if they had weekend performances booked. Work usually came first with tutoring in the afternoon.

Near the end, one of them had to travel back and forth from school to ‘work’ (sometimes they were in two different countries)as they had their exams which could be a hassle. Exams had to be done in their home town at their local school or a college.

I forgot about the CBBC show I dream until this thread. I loved the song Dreaming with Frankie and Calvin

the two of them released and performed “dreaming” together and I remember a lot of the other members were shocked that C+F were asked to perform but none of the rest of them had been included. It definitely caused some bad feelings which they admit even now.

I feel like this was mentioned on the interviews Jay did a couple years ago. I want to say it was on Rochelle’s one

I actually haven’t watched any of them (shameful I know!!)

Sounds like there was generally a lot of bad feeling amongst both the children and the parents if any of the children got what they perceived as ‘more attention’ than the others. I guess in reality it’s always going to be the case that some are more popular than the others and therefore they’ll be pushed to the front a bit more.

The ones I saw her good .It was actually Aaron’s interview I was thinking of. He spoke about the kids finding a list left around of all their names and how much each should be used

I've found this thread really fascinating!! my daughter was a huge fan of s club juniors s club 8 I remember buying her the cds magazines ect I told her about this thread and she's eager to have her questions answered (now 36)

She asked, what is Daisy like as a person?
How come she didn't pursue singing after from above? had she had enough or just wanted to settle down with a family?

she also said "Almost felt like Stacey and Daisy were the ones that shined the most and were the most captivating. They both had amazing voices, personality, and charisma, which, in terms are what star qualities are so it's really frustrating not seeing them get those opportunities. I know Daisy had from above after and Stacey did really well on X factor but they should have been given support after the band and helped the members pursue whatever else they dreamed of. If they were good enough to be in the juniors and perform like that with the work load at a very young age imagine their capabilities as adults? They all had what it takes, even Stacey and Daisy as presenters??? They're far more fascinating as people (no shade to frankie or Rochelle)
I know it's not about who gets what but that was always frustrating to me to see Daisy and Stacey not get what they deserved! for example the rare performance of big fun on youtube stacey and daisy literally stand out as in all!
I hope this gets back to them as I hope they don't ever look back and think they didn't have it they were just robbed.

Also I have to ask after all these years there was a rumour about calvin and daisy and you mentioned they did like each other at one point did they ever act on it or date?? DYING TO KNOW it was always a rumour in the fanbase you can put my 11 year old head to rest haha!

also did frankie and calvin have to keep it from the rest of the group about their single dreaming? if they were all mates how did the rest of the band not find out? the rest of the group have mentioned they were shocked seeing it? or had they been broken up long enough that they'd drifted contact? always wondered that!

also find it mate they ended the group when they did they could have gone on many more years they had a huge fan base and every member had their own stamp!

also you mentioned about the skirt thing on the performances! that never stood correct with me either. the camera man is defininetly not protecting their privacy in certain performances. Did they girls feel the skirts were too short? I feel like watching some performances they girls holdback slightly when wearing them is that because they know?

LASTLY sorry I was a huge fan in the performance of sundown on des and mel what is daisy laughing at while stacey and calvin do their duet part? "

Sorry for the long message my daughter heard about this and wanted in! Hopefully she gets the answers thanks!

Love this and your daughter is so right!

I wonder if (and feel free to ask your DD this) it's partly to do with the fact that R and F seemed more agreeable, more mouldable perhaps? Let's be fair the early 00's weren't great for women, let alone spirited and confident ones like Daisy and Stacey.
R and F were maybe more like those cool but slightly aloof popular girls at school.

@OP - I've just a look at Wiki and it says Rylan auditioned- is that true and if so how did he do?

I'm with my daughter now and she seems to think that that's probably the case

"at the same Daisy and Stacey were cool so it must have been based off what they thought the public liked as it definitely wasn't on voices as Stacey had the best vocals alongside Daisy and the most interesting voices. Also I'm a fan of a metal band called we are sovereign from the UK I was laughing after this thread it reminded me vocalist laura russell was interviewed on a podcast recently I think it was I heart radio in america or something on a radio in denmark (I'll have to find it) but they ask her who her first celebrity crush was and she laughs and is like it was actually an s club junior if you remember them then the interviewer says something like well that's obvious ... frankie then and laura's like noooooooo daisy fucking evans and she still is, the way she says it is hilarious. I just thought it was funny after everybody is always going on about rochelle and frankie and also funny because if you look up laura and what she looks like you'd never even expect it. I also saw her tag about it somewhere. so I guess you just never know what the public think. anyway I feel the band should have carried on they had so much potential after don't tell me your sorry release"

Daisy getting turned down from X factor, being dropped by Matthew Knowles and hearing what the judges said about her really did a number on her confidence I think. She enjoys being an MUA and a lot of people book in purely to talk about SCJ too. And you’re right she has a lot of children to concentrate on especially with her partners job.

Stacey was actually considered by David and Carrie Grant to have the best voice in the group. However she didn’t live in London while F and R did. There were a lot more opportunities in London.

So my child says there was no “dating” or funny business in the band really, the chaperones stamped out anything and made sure boys and girls all slept in different rooms. It was rare that two members would be left alone together at any given time. Not just because they were so young but out of worry that if any sort of breakup happened one would want to leave. C + D’s crush on each other didn’t really last- Calvin was a bit of an (innocent) flirt with a lot of the girl fans and had a more “serious” crush on one of the adult background dancers.

Calvin and Frankie were told to keep the live performances of ‘dreaming’ private (and the fact it was being released as a standalone single) although the other members knew it had been recorded to be the theme song and would be on the album.

Simon fuller said (to my child anyway) that they were all starting to age out of their roles- it was intended to be a bubblegum kiddie pop group. Truthfully the second (sundown) and third (I dream) album just didn’t do very well in terms of numbers, nor did the TV show.

I asked in the group and during that performance it was a very small stage and Daisy had to be moved out of the way so Stacey could get through. There was a couple of oops moments on other shows too.