ALL SAINTS (BAND)

'All Saints' was an English Pop girl band that released their debut self-titled album in 1997. The band consists of founding members Melanie Blatt and Shaznay Lewis, and siblings Nicole and Natalie Appleton.

Contents

Biography

All Saints

Reunion

Discography

Albums

Singles

Other releases

References

See also

External links

Biography

Both Melanie and Shaznay started their career by singing backing vocals at Sarm West Studios, the ZTT recording studios near All Saints Road, London. In 1993, Mel, Shaznay, and the original third member Simone Rainford decided to record together. According to Simone, they thought of Spice as a name of their group, but they decided that it wasn't good enough,^[1] and decided to call themselves All Saints 1.9.7.5. after the street where they met and their year of birth. They were signed to ZTT Records.
In 1994, All Saints 1.9.7.5. performed for their first time at the ''Touch'' Magazine stage at the Notting Hill Carnival.^[2] They recorded three songs together, but they were not successful. Additionally, Rainford and Blatt had conflicting visions of the bands musical direction which caused tensions in the band.
In the summer of 1995, Rainford left the band and ZTT Records dropped the band from their label. Regardless, Blatt and Lewis set out to find a replacement for Rainford. Conducting many auditions, Blatt's father met Nicole Appleton whom Blatt knew from her days at the Sylvia Young Theatre School. Lewis encouraged Appleton to join the band. Her sister Natalie Appleton was reluctant to join the band, since she had given birth to her daughter Rachel two years prior and did not want to abandon motherhood. However, Nicole and Natalie's parents offered to help raise the baby, enabling Natalie to pursue a career as a popstar.

All Saints

After being united as a newly formed group in May 1996, the four met with Karl Gordon, a former band member of Outlaw Posse, who recorded a demo for "I Know Where It's At". The next task was searching for a new record deal, but most record labels wanted to turn them into a Spice Girls duplicate. Fortunately, the demo made its way to London Records, where John Benson finalised the recording deal in November 1996.^[3]
In 1997, ''I Know Where It's At'', their debut single, went to #4 on the UK Single Charts. The next single, "Never Ever", launched their career as stars, selling a million copies in the UK. The song won them two BRIT Awards in 1998, for ''Best Single'' and ''Best Video''. Many others included: ''Breakthrough Artist'' at the MTV Europe Music Awards and "Pure Shores", their chart-topping collaboration with William Orbit from the Leonardo DiCaprio feature film ''The Beach'', becoming the second best-selling single of 2000.
A low point for Melanie, Nicole and Natalie was their performance in the universally panned film, ''Honest'', directed by former Eurythmics member Dave Stewart, which featured nude scenes by both Appleton sisters.^[4]
In their five year career, the band scored a total of five #1 singles. They split acrimoniously in 2001 after much speculation and rumour. Nicole and Natalie went on to form duo Appleton, whilst Melanie and Shaznay enjoyed a modicum of solo success.

Reunion

On January 24, 2006 it was announced that the band had reformed. All Saints signed a deal with Parlophone,^[5] and they released their third studio album titled ''Studio 1''^[6] on November 13, 2006. ^[7]
The first single, ''Rock Steady''^[8] was released on November 6, 2006. The song was given its first ever radio airplay on The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1 on 21 September 2006.^[9]NME announced that the newly re-formed band will be launching an extensive UK wide tour in 2007, to promote their new album.^[10]
For their first performance since splitting up, the group performed the song ''Rock Steady'' on ITV's reformed , Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway on 21 October, 2006. They also participated in Mobile Phone company 3's "3FrontRoom", a series of intimate gigs with well-known bands.


Following the #3 charting of ''Rock Steady'', it had been hoped that the album would follow suit and it was widely thought that it would make the Top 10. However, upon its release it only just made it into the Top 40 (at #40), before falling to #74. The second single from the album, ''Chick Fit'', was scheduled to be released on February 26, but it was soon revealed that the release would be download-only. It failed to make the top 200.^[11] It was subsequently confirmed that All Saints and Parlophone Records had parted ways.
Nevertheless they say they'll continue to remain together as group and they're looking for a new record deal^[12]

Discography

Main articles: All Saints discography

Albums

Release date	Title	Chart positions
		U.K[13]	U.S.	AUS	NZ	IRE	SWI
November 24, 1997	''All Saints''	2	40[14]	4	-	-	3
December 29, 1998	''The Remix Album''	104	-	27	-	-	-
October 14, 2000	''Saints & Sinners''	1		20	8	2	-
November 5, 2001	''All Hits''	18	-	-	24	38	-
November 13, 2006	''Studio 1''	40	-	-	-	-	73

Singles

{| class="wikitable"
! width="3" rowspan="2"| 'Year'
! width="370" rowspan="2"| 'Title'
! colspan="8"| 'Chart positions'
! width="287" rowspan="2"| 'Album'
|-
! width="36"| UK
! width="36"| IRE
! width="36"| U.S.
! width="36"| AUS
! width="36"| NZ
! width="36"| CAN
! width="36"| FR
! width="36"| GER
|-
| rowspan="2"|1995
| "Silver Shadow" ''Performed as "All Saints 1.9.7.5"''
| -
| -
| -
| -
| -
| -
| -
| -
| rowspan="2"|
|-
| "Let's Get Started" ''Performed as "All Saints 1.9.7.5"''
| -
| -
| -
| -
| -
| -
| -
| -
|-
| rowspan="2"|1997
| "I Know Where It's At"
| 4
| 19
| 36
| 12
| -
| 2
| 20
| 26
| rowspan="5"|''All Saints''
|-
| "Never Ever"
| '1'
| 2
| 4
| '1'
| -
| 4
| 4
| 4
|-
| rowspan="3"|1998
| "Under the Bridge / Lady Marmalade"
| '1'
| 3
| -
| 5
| -
| 30
| 28
| 11
|-
| "Bootie Call"
| '1'
| 9
| -
| -
| -
| -
| -
| 22
|-
| "War of Nerves"
| 7
| 21
| -
| -
| 50
| -
| -
| -
|-
| rowspan="2"|2000
| "Pure Shores"
| '1'
| '1'
| -
| 4
| 2
| 35
| 6
| 11
| rowspan="3"|''Saints & Sinners''
|-
| "Black Coffee"
| '1'
| 6
| -
| 20
| 7
| -
| 33
| 18
|-
| rowspan="1"|2001
| "All Hooked Up"
| 7
| 18
| -
| -
| 50
| -
| -
| 63
|-
| rowspan="1"|2006
| "Rock Steady"
| 3
| 15
| -
| 98
| 38
| -
| -
| 40
| rowspan="2"|''Studio 1''
|-

Other releases

★ ''All Saints - The Video''

★ ''Honest (soundtrack)''

★ ''Maximum All Saints'' (2001) - Unauthorised biography consisting of interviews

References

1. All Saints, The Story Accessed Dec 31, 2005
2. Montreal Mirror Accessed Dec 31, 2005
3. Jam Music Accessed Dec 31, 2005
4. Celebrity nudity database: Honest
5. Contact music: All Saints confirm reunion
6. uk.news.launch.com "All Saints: Back", September 20, 2006 03:07 PM (Retrieved: September 20, 2006)
7. hmv.co.uk Product details ''Studio 1''. Accessed October 19, 2006
8. Culture DeLuxe song description Rock Steady Accessed Sept 1, 2006
9. BBC, Chris Moyles Show, 21 September 2006 Accessed Sept 21, 2006
10. NME, NME.com, 20 September 2006 Accessed Sept 23, 2006
11. http://www.video-c.co.uk/newmicrosites/microsite_home.asp?vidref=alls002
12. [1]
13. EveryHit.com UK Top 40 database Accessed October 15, 2006
14. Billboard.com All Saints album chart history. Accessed October 15, 2006

See also

★ Appleton

★ Melanie Blatt

★ Shaznay Lewis

External links

★ Official site

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