In 2001, at the height of their fame, S Club 7’s reputation as squeaky clean, child-friendly pop puppets went up in weed smoke. Apparently bored with promoting their future wedding-disco staple Don’t Stop Movin’, the UK band’s three male members – Paul Cattermole, Bradley McIntosh and Jon Lee – were arrested in Covent Garden in London for sharing a joint. The briefest moment of rebellion saw the band rechristened “Spliff Club 7” by the tabloids, while the BBC – which aired S Club’s various spin-off TV shows on which the band would debut shiny, multi-platinum hits such as Bring It All Back, S Club Party and Reach – distanced itself from the controversy. A mooted endorsement deal with cereal brand Sugar Puffs was immediately nixed.
Twenty-three years later and Rachel Stevens, who, like band members Jo O’Meara, Hannah Spearritt and Tina Barrett, wasn’t present during the still-quite-PG-13 drugs bust (for which the three men received a caution), can just about laugh about it. “It’s so funny,” she says. “I mean, it wasn’t funny at the time. We were marketed to a young audience, and we really felt that responsibility. That’s a lot on teenagers who are making mistakes, and we did it publicly.” Did she ever partake? Silence.
