Taking Sides: Steps or S Club 7

S Club 7 seems the obvious choice. Hummable tunes, action packed TV spin off series, drugs busts.

Has anyone seen the Steps tour video? And they call Belle & Sebastian twee??

I loved Peter Waterman's sour grapes over Hear'Say, calling them a karaoke group. "I like bands with a bit of attitude," he said, defensively adding "you might think Steps do not have that, but they have all got their own opinions."

Yeah, right.

There was a great interview with Paul S Club in CD:UK Magazine where he talks about being in a rubbish nu-metal band before the 7, writing 'really left wing lyrics'.

Steps are consistent...but theyre too consistent. Whereas I always reckon S Club are a step away from making a really terrific pop single. Some might say "Reach" was it, but not I.

SClub7 have a far more euphonious name, obviously, but (like Rage Against the Machine before them, or the Newfoundland sludge-metal outfit Long Winter's Stare) the name Steps deals with the issues: in this case, that all these fit young things can also dance (as in, turn turn step turn turn step turn). Whenever some halfwit fraud like Roger Scruton or Nick Hornby pronounces on, ooh, Madonna, and announces that actually, they can't sing, it's all production, you want so confront them with this fact: they CAN dance. That's real: so why does it get vanished from the evaluation? Why doesn't it count? It's like a clearly non-negligeable physical achievement, yet someone of no consequence to anyone. Why? How?

Can't imagine why Waterman's moaning: as always happens, the war against this year's manufactured piffle-pop alchemises last year's anathema into unimpeachable pop classicism. That Channel 5 thing wasn't exactly Pilgeresque in its hard-questions journalism, but it did remind you how cretinously reactionary MM/NME reader-think could be, in ref. SAW, and also how great and much-missed eg Mel and Kim were/are.

Oh, and if you're going to call them "the 7", Tom, then you shall face the consequences.

The great thing about Steps is that, just as the occasional serious alterna-type has a shameful pop past (Tori, Alanis) so too it is pleasant to remember that Steps kicked off their career with line- dancing novelty single "5 6 7 8" which at least one reader I know thinks is the best thing they've ever one. And I can see his point. It had very little to do with line dancing, which has to be good.

Steps because I like Lisa, and I think they have the better chunes and dances, the new S-Club7 song isn't that great.

'IT'S ALL DOWN TO WHO YOU FANCY ' - THE BAIRN - HER ONLY REASON FOR LIKING THE STEREOPHONICS - SOD THE MUSIC. WHY 'H' - ISN'T THAT ASKING FOR TROUBLE - WHOAH KEYBOARD DON'T FAIL ME NOW

Faye's lush, Lisa's fit - but there ain't no party like an S Club party !

Also, I kinda respect H after seeing him on that Jo Whiley show when he was a guest with Mary J.Blige and some other misery, who were droneing on about drugs and how they couldn't avoid them, and H said something like "you don't have to take them" and they just laughed at him, which I thought was pretty rude and mean spirited. But, S Club do have Rachael and Hannah...

Don't fancy any of Steps, so on that logic it must be S Club. I can see Alex T rolling his eyes now.

But actually S Club are still (after 3 albums!) at that cant-tell-em- apart stage. Which is quite nice - it makes them more of a unit I suppose.

Steps have a kinda Abba-esque tinge to their music and S Club 7 are a bunch of little smug bastards whenever I see them on T.V. Although Hannah is well fit, I think the girls from Steps are cuter. 'Tragedy' is a good choice of cover. Oh yeah, Steps have better dance moves too especially that hands thingie they do for 'Better the devil you know'. I dont think they were laughing at H on the Jo Whiley show because he said he didnt take drugs, they were laughing at him because he said he had no misfortune in his life to write songs about.

STEPS!!!!

Erm, there are reasons, but I'm not going to go into them in public.

Mind you S Club 7 aren't *that* bad, but too many of them have been in Grange Hill.

And if Lisa Steps's brothers ever get a single released I am renouncing my fan-dom. As I have done with Geri over the 'Raining Men' incident. (And not even the saturation media coverage.)

As I feel somewhat unqualified to answer this I did the decent thing and asked a couple of pop kids for their opinions :

Tom (Aged 8) "Steps are best because they sometimes wear devil costumes" (Could he be confusing them with Killing Joke? ;))

Anna (Aged 6) " S Club 7 are best. One of their songs sounds Egyptian"

Does this help?

Any chance of getting Tom and Anna on the focus group, Dr C.?

Ha ha ha ha ha, Tom. What next, Belle or Sebastian? Anyway, S Club 7 rock hardest so they are best. Actually no, they are best because that song of theirs is really catchy. Steps are too much of a throwback to classic SAW (rather unsurprisingly) to be real pop genius.

S Club, coz they made it in the states, or at least their show made it to the Disney Channel. Reach and Natural are both great singles, also the 2-step remix of Natural is such a goddamn great idea, ruined by cloying production which pitch and timeshifts vocals that were pop and not soul to begin with.

Oh, I should think so, Tom. What do they have to do?

Rate a load of singles out of 10 and make comments. I can send a CD-R and remove the sweary ones, or asterisk them if you fancy rating them yourself. We need to have all points of the demographic covered, after all.

Tom - I've e-mailed you.

Jo, Paul, Rachel, Tina, Jon, Hannah, and Bradley...The wonderful S Club 7!! They have great tunes, awesome dance moves, intriguing personalities, a fun tv show, and they're all v. attractive. In the States, Steps is much lesser known, while S Club is quite popular. Also, S Club does more charity work, such as the Children in Need bit. They seem to really care about their fans, and their work. Ain't no party like an S Club party, and ain't no band like S Club 7!

S CLUB 7!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ofcourse! duh, this is such a stupid question ! S club & has the best moves and more chances and they have more Cd's and more fame and they help a lot too! If you saw there show you would luv them ! I LUB S CLUB ! **They ROCK, Get with the S!**

steps - just that deep emotional void of sorrow they create with "deeper shade of blue" reminds me of gorecki's 3rd symphony or anything by fushitsusha or loren m.

What should I say. Both are CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hate teen pop and all those stupid silly sissy boybands. All I want to do is fuck the girls in S club 7 including the horce face blonde. I will quote Thom Yorke's Exit music: I HOPE THAT YOU CHOKE

but do you hope they choke after you have fucked them? or do you want to fuck their corpses? or do you want to choke them while fucking them?

i like S Club 7 better because they can actually sing. and they have better songwriters. and because except for rachel, they don't look like they have been moulded out of plastic like everyone from steps do. i'm glad steps are over. long live S Club. but paul, please please please lose the mo!

you dont want them to choke while fucking them, imagine trying to explain that to the other 6. that would be some episode for the series.

quite clearly s club 7 are better than steps; reach is just, like, the best pop song ever and somehow makes me feel melancholy. for the best summer ever listen to surf's up by the beach boys, endless summer by fennesz and reach by s club 7. it makes me tingle just recalling the songs in my head.

So did Dr. C's kids ever contribute to the focus group? I like their style.

They were going to, but we somehow never got round to it. Will make best efforts to do the next one whenever that is.

Has to be STEPS to be fair. They have better dance routines, their live shows are FANTASTIC and rivalled by none. They may not have had as many number ones, but that doesn't matter to the ardent fan. Steps are pure class.

Following text from amazon.com's wondrous reader submitted reviews. This dude's good.
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1 of 6 people found the following review helpful: Unison Singing At It's Best!!!, November 30, 2001 Reviewer: crazycoolidge (see more about me) from Singapore

Yes, they have a new album! I was absolutely thrilled when I found out from this wonderful website that S Club 7 is BACK! Day by day, I waited for the release of the album in Singapore. Great hits like "Never had a dream come true", "Two in a million" and the ever so irritatingly uplifting song "Reach" were all in this album. Then, one day it was released in Singapore... Zooom, I made a beeline for my local cd-store and previewed the album... You may call me capricious, but a general malaise befall on me. I was overwhelmed with chagrin! Here's some salient and egregious points that one shouldn't ignore: Track 2: Natural This song really puts me off. The inter-weaving melodies clashes into a turbid imbroglio especially in the chorus, mellifluous is definitely not the word to describe it. And if you didn't realise, there is a tune in the melody that sounds exactly like Gabriel Faure's Pavanne... Track 5: Best Friend One song that really don't fit into the album. The rap is simply plebeian and uncatchy, in my opinion, it's a paragon of charlatan. The ballads in the album: Featuring Track 3, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ,13 After a while, the unison singing supported by a lead singer starts to get really monotonous. I'm sure anyone with a tinge of sagacity will suffer from ennui after hearing it for some time. These are songs that will never mollify you to a reverie. And not to forgetting to comment, the mid-range voices reminds me of Britney Spears... The Upbeat Songs: Featuring Track 1, 4, 7, Unison singing again... They can be pretty galling to one's ears especially with asinine and peurile lyrics. If you really think S Club 7 is good, you should really consider the group, Steps. They sing in parts and all three girls have the vocal power to become solo singers! Well, unless you don't give a damn, and just think their unison singing (like it requires much effort!) is great and prefer to live in oblivion, then be my guest, buy this album, and maybe write a fulsome review. Oh, by the way, I didn't walk out of the store empty-handed... I had another CD in my hands: Buzz by Steps

I'm sure anyone with a tinge of sagacity will suffer from ennui after hearing it for some time. These are songs that will never mollify you to a reverie.

Proof that Steps fans RULE.

I THINK S CLUB 7 ARE THE BEST BAND IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD AND STEPS THEY ARE NOT HAS GOOD AS S CLUB 7 BECAUSE STEPS SPILT UP SO OBVISIOUSLY THEY DIDN'T LIKE THEIR CAREER. SO S CLUB 7 ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!