Post by xxxabigailxxx on Jan 4, 2005 12:33:39 GMT
this is my fave interview, its pretty old but its great ;D
The Guardian
The kids are all right
Pushy parents, no friends, leering adults - the world of the child pop star can be a living hell. So what chance do S Club Juniors have? Peter Robinson went behind the scenes to find out
In April, the greatness of S Club Juniors' debut single One Step Closer was overshadowed not just by the Sugababes, who pipped the octet to No 1, but by a wave of Daily Mail-style outrage. Though most of the 11- to 14-year-olds were already veterans of stage and screen, the critics, in between puff pieces for the next Harry Potter movie, roared that they'd been plucked from happy homes to be exploited for the benefit of Simon Fuller's satanic S Club brand - robbed of their childhood, paraded for the benefit of Jonathan King and forced to sing rubbish pop music.
The first blow for the cynics came when it turned out that last month's single, New Direction, their third, was very unrubbish indeed. But do the other points still stand? If one were, hypothetically, to spend two days with the band, would one really witness eight lonely children wedged up the pop chimney?
Wednesday, October 2
10am We arrive at the Juniors' north London abode. This is where Calvin, Stacey, Aaron and Hannah live with the band's two full-time chaperones, Pat and Mary, and where the other, local Juniors stay when there's an early start. Pat and Mary also keep note of the time - the Juniors can't work over four hours a day without permission from each member's local council, and this all has to be juggled with 15 school hours per week. Which is where they are now, behind closed doors with their personal tutor, Jo.
11.30 The tutoring finishes and eight hellos are chirped. Rochelle's is slightly less happy - she's sporting an eye patch, having had a lump removed. "Rochelle mings!" Aaron sensitively exclaims.
12.20 Stacey is sent to tidy her room. When we inspect her progress she's jumping around on the bed with Hannah.
1pm The Juniors are on their way to TV Centre to appear on CBBC's Xchange. "Do you have a CD player?" Calvin innocently asks the driver. As he hands over his Stamford Amp single, chaperone Mary lets out a world-weary sigh. It's been the soundtrack of the house for the past week.
1.05 Calvin and Aaron have agreed that the Stamford Amp b-side isn't up to much and demand track one again. Calvin perks up when Mary reveals builders near the house "have left another pallet in the skip". He's desperate for a coffee table in the living room, and a stack of pallets may fit the bill.
3.05 We arrive at TV Centre. Aaron, high on the excitement of spotting Jennifer Saunders, runs off in the direction of an ice-cream stall.
3.15 Make-up. Jay is sprawled on the sofa kicking his legs on the air, trilling "Rochelle mings! Rochelle mings," as Mary attempts to regain order. She turns to us. "I'll tell you what, when you're with them day after day... " Aaron lands on her stomach. "OOF!"
3.18 "We were on the news last night!" Aaron suddenly recalls. "They said we stole Hear'say's fans!" He lets out a demonic cackle.
3.20 Aaron emerges from a water fight with his trousers soaked, permitting Frankie to announce, in time-honoured fashion: "Look, everyone, Aaron's wet himself."
4.12 "Owww!!" howls Mary. "My boobs!" Calvin is hanging from her neck as Jay launches himself, from a chair, onto her shoulders.
4.45 Xchange rehearsals. Frankie is gargling with water, Stacey is throwing handkerchiefs around and Daisy is a human bingo machine. The boys are reviewing the video games, which seems rather more dignified.
5.00 We're backstage at Xchange. "nuts," mutters Rochelle - the much-fancied Blazin' Squad are heading her way and she's lumbered with an embarrassing eye patch. "What happened to your eye?" asks a Squaddie. "I had to have a lump removed," replies a mortified Rochelle. The silence is pierced when one of the boys unhelpfully reveals that his kid brother likes S Club Juniors.
5.50 Xchange is live on air. As the Juniors wait in the wings, someone farts. "Smell Stacey's bum!" yells Frankie. "Go on then!" challenges a furious Stacey. "Smell my bum!" The culprit is never located.
6.30 Xchange is over and S Club Juniors are recording the link for a Saturday Show competition. "Do I have to do the dance at the end?" moans Calvin. "And I don't want to do the spin." Aaron breaks the tension by showing off his freaky elbow, and day one of our S Club Juniors experience is over.
Thursday, October 3
7.30am A Soho entryphone crackles with screeches and whoops. Our hosts for the day have taken control of the Popworld intercom. In the green room, we find Jay sporting a rubber monkey mask and Calvin, headphones in place, nodding silently on a chair. He's still listening to Stamford Amp. The plan is to record a performance of New Direction for Popworld before scooting off to the studio to catch up on tutoring and record Sleigh Ride as a festive b-side.
7.40 Aaron debates the injustice of not being invited to the MOBOs. "Atomic Kitten?" he wails, waving a tabloid. "What were they doing there?" Assurance of an invite to the Disney Awards doesn't help.
8.30 Amy, their stylist, explains the problems of dressing the Juniors. Far from stripping the kids for the dirty mac brigade, her biggest task is covering them up. "We have no midriffs or low-cut tops," she says, "even though it's what they actually want to wear." On cue, Jay unveils his new T-shirt. The slogan, "Satisfaction guaranteed", prompts squeals of approval from the others.
9.10 The boys are holding court by the gents. "Someone," splutters Calvin, "has done a really big smell!"
9.50 The S Club entourage is being introduced to the camera crew. "I'm the PR," says the PR. "Well done," says a jaded cameraman.
10.00 New Direction run-through for Popworld. Aaron smiles broadly, Jay looks a bit baffled, Calvin just looks bored. Aaron slips over mid-routine and the Juniors' collective laughter sounds like gerbils in a tumble dryer.
10.15 Stacey is challenged by one of the production crew to lick a discoloured banana, for a quid.
10.16 Stacey deposits a shiny £1 in her pocket as the band record a good luck message for the kids' Stars In Their Eyes final.
2pm We're at The Depot, where production aces Jewels & Stone are perfecting the Juniors' version of Sleigh Ride. Between sessions in the vocal booth (the lyric sheet reads simply, "Ring-a-ling-a-ling-a-ding-dong-ding") the band endure a group RE session with tutor Jo. Festive clangs from the next room prove to be distracting.
Jo: "You're not working your best today."
Jay: (Brandishing his homework) "Jay is working his best!"
Jo: "Jay, do not answer me back. Stacey, where do your religious beliefs come from?"
Stacey: "Blackpool."
Rochelle: "My religion is called Discothequism and the god of that religion is... me!"
Daisy: "Hannah's just put paper in my drink!"
Jo: "Aaron, what have you called your religion?"
Aaron: "Nothing."
Jo: "It has to have a name."
Aaron: "But it's the religion of nothing, so it's called Nothing."
Jo: "Can you think of anything better, Aaron?"
Aaron: (After long pause) "Nothingism?"
3.20 The hymn for Jay's religion will be Half A Heart by H & Claire. "The remix," he clarifies. He finds a picture of a pirate on his worksheet. "Look!" he howls, "it's Rochelle!" Rochelle kicks a giggling Calvin under the table.
4.00 Time for a PSE lesson. This week: how to deal with your mum when you've had a bad report. "Tie her up!" squeals Stacey.
4.12 Jay returns after a lengthy absence. "Why have you been so long?" asks Jo. "Because," Jay states triumphantly, "I went for a poo."
On which note, we leave a band who, behind the high spirits, farting, ringtones and water fights, really aren't the bratty stagekids you'll see on TV. They're less naive than many musicians twice their age and, if anything, the more articulate members seem to dumb down for the cameras.
"People say we're losing our childhood," Aaron reckons, "but all I do when I'm at home is muck around and play with my friends, and that's what I do in S Club Juniors." Or, as Jay puts it: "People don't need to worry - we're teenagers! We're not SEVEN!"
The Guardian
The kids are all right
Pushy parents, no friends, leering adults - the world of the child pop star can be a living hell. So what chance do S Club Juniors have? Peter Robinson went behind the scenes to find out
In April, the greatness of S Club Juniors' debut single One Step Closer was overshadowed not just by the Sugababes, who pipped the octet to No 1, but by a wave of Daily Mail-style outrage. Though most of the 11- to 14-year-olds were already veterans of stage and screen, the critics, in between puff pieces for the next Harry Potter movie, roared that they'd been plucked from happy homes to be exploited for the benefit of Simon Fuller's satanic S Club brand - robbed of their childhood, paraded for the benefit of Jonathan King and forced to sing rubbish pop music.
The first blow for the cynics came when it turned out that last month's single, New Direction, their third, was very unrubbish indeed. But do the other points still stand? If one were, hypothetically, to spend two days with the band, would one really witness eight lonely children wedged up the pop chimney?
Wednesday, October 2
10am We arrive at the Juniors' north London abode. This is where Calvin, Stacey, Aaron and Hannah live with the band's two full-time chaperones, Pat and Mary, and where the other, local Juniors stay when there's an early start. Pat and Mary also keep note of the time - the Juniors can't work over four hours a day without permission from each member's local council, and this all has to be juggled with 15 school hours per week. Which is where they are now, behind closed doors with their personal tutor, Jo.
11.30 The tutoring finishes and eight hellos are chirped. Rochelle's is slightly less happy - she's sporting an eye patch, having had a lump removed. "Rochelle mings!" Aaron sensitively exclaims.
12.20 Stacey is sent to tidy her room. When we inspect her progress she's jumping around on the bed with Hannah.
1pm The Juniors are on their way to TV Centre to appear on CBBC's Xchange. "Do you have a CD player?" Calvin innocently asks the driver. As he hands over his Stamford Amp single, chaperone Mary lets out a world-weary sigh. It's been the soundtrack of the house for the past week.
1.05 Calvin and Aaron have agreed that the Stamford Amp b-side isn't up to much and demand track one again. Calvin perks up when Mary reveals builders near the house "have left another pallet in the skip". He's desperate for a coffee table in the living room, and a stack of pallets may fit the bill.
3.05 We arrive at TV Centre. Aaron, high on the excitement of spotting Jennifer Saunders, runs off in the direction of an ice-cream stall.
3.15 Make-up. Jay is sprawled on the sofa kicking his legs on the air, trilling "Rochelle mings! Rochelle mings," as Mary attempts to regain order. She turns to us. "I'll tell you what, when you're with them day after day... " Aaron lands on her stomach. "OOF!"
3.18 "We were on the news last night!" Aaron suddenly recalls. "They said we stole Hear'say's fans!" He lets out a demonic cackle.
3.20 Aaron emerges from a water fight with his trousers soaked, permitting Frankie to announce, in time-honoured fashion: "Look, everyone, Aaron's wet himself."
4.12 "Owww!!" howls Mary. "My boobs!" Calvin is hanging from her neck as Jay launches himself, from a chair, onto her shoulders.
4.45 Xchange rehearsals. Frankie is gargling with water, Stacey is throwing handkerchiefs around and Daisy is a human bingo machine. The boys are reviewing the video games, which seems rather more dignified.
5.00 We're backstage at Xchange. "nuts," mutters Rochelle - the much-fancied Blazin' Squad are heading her way and she's lumbered with an embarrassing eye patch. "What happened to your eye?" asks a Squaddie. "I had to have a lump removed," replies a mortified Rochelle. The silence is pierced when one of the boys unhelpfully reveals that his kid brother likes S Club Juniors.
5.50 Xchange is live on air. As the Juniors wait in the wings, someone farts. "Smell Stacey's bum!" yells Frankie. "Go on then!" challenges a furious Stacey. "Smell my bum!" The culprit is never located.
6.30 Xchange is over and S Club Juniors are recording the link for a Saturday Show competition. "Do I have to do the dance at the end?" moans Calvin. "And I don't want to do the spin." Aaron breaks the tension by showing off his freaky elbow, and day one of our S Club Juniors experience is over.
Thursday, October 3
7.30am A Soho entryphone crackles with screeches and whoops. Our hosts for the day have taken control of the Popworld intercom. In the green room, we find Jay sporting a rubber monkey mask and Calvin, headphones in place, nodding silently on a chair. He's still listening to Stamford Amp. The plan is to record a performance of New Direction for Popworld before scooting off to the studio to catch up on tutoring and record Sleigh Ride as a festive b-side.
7.40 Aaron debates the injustice of not being invited to the MOBOs. "Atomic Kitten?" he wails, waving a tabloid. "What were they doing there?" Assurance of an invite to the Disney Awards doesn't help.
8.30 Amy, their stylist, explains the problems of dressing the Juniors. Far from stripping the kids for the dirty mac brigade, her biggest task is covering them up. "We have no midriffs or low-cut tops," she says, "even though it's what they actually want to wear." On cue, Jay unveils his new T-shirt. The slogan, "Satisfaction guaranteed", prompts squeals of approval from the others.
9.10 The boys are holding court by the gents. "Someone," splutters Calvin, "has done a really big smell!"
9.50 The S Club entourage is being introduced to the camera crew. "I'm the PR," says the PR. "Well done," says a jaded cameraman.
10.00 New Direction run-through for Popworld. Aaron smiles broadly, Jay looks a bit baffled, Calvin just looks bored. Aaron slips over mid-routine and the Juniors' collective laughter sounds like gerbils in a tumble dryer.
10.15 Stacey is challenged by one of the production crew to lick a discoloured banana, for a quid.
10.16 Stacey deposits a shiny £1 in her pocket as the band record a good luck message for the kids' Stars In Their Eyes final.
2pm We're at The Depot, where production aces Jewels & Stone are perfecting the Juniors' version of Sleigh Ride. Between sessions in the vocal booth (the lyric sheet reads simply, "Ring-a-ling-a-ling-a-ding-dong-ding") the band endure a group RE session with tutor Jo. Festive clangs from the next room prove to be distracting.
Jo: "You're not working your best today."
Jay: (Brandishing his homework) "Jay is working his best!"
Jo: "Jay, do not answer me back. Stacey, where do your religious beliefs come from?"
Stacey: "Blackpool."
Rochelle: "My religion is called Discothequism and the god of that religion is... me!"
Daisy: "Hannah's just put paper in my drink!"
Jo: "Aaron, what have you called your religion?"
Aaron: "Nothing."
Jo: "It has to have a name."
Aaron: "But it's the religion of nothing, so it's called Nothing."
Jo: "Can you think of anything better, Aaron?"
Aaron: (After long pause) "Nothingism?"
3.20 The hymn for Jay's religion will be Half A Heart by H & Claire. "The remix," he clarifies. He finds a picture of a pirate on his worksheet. "Look!" he howls, "it's Rochelle!" Rochelle kicks a giggling Calvin under the table.
4.00 Time for a PSE lesson. This week: how to deal with your mum when you've had a bad report. "Tie her up!" squeals Stacey.
4.12 Jay returns after a lengthy absence. "Why have you been so long?" asks Jo. "Because," Jay states triumphantly, "I went for a poo."
On which note, we leave a band who, behind the high spirits, farting, ringtones and water fights, really aren't the bratty stagekids you'll see on TV. They're less naive than many musicians twice their age and, if anything, the more articulate members seem to dumb down for the cameras.
"People say we're losing our childhood," Aaron reckons, "but all I do when I'm at home is muck around and play with my friends, and that's what I do in S Club Juniors." Or, as Jay puts it: "People don't need to worry - we're teenagers! We're not SEVEN!"
, if i were her id hit him 
