FHM – 1998

Magazine Source: FHM

Timeframe: 1998

The youngest Step at just 21, blonde Claire feels an old hand at the music business, having already almost made it with another band called TSD. “We could have been quite famous,” she muses. “Except we had crap songs! We had one called ‘Weekend’ which was pretty dire – lots of trumpets and things.”

Despite Steps’ success, the hard cash that everyone thinks comes with the job has been pretty slow rolling in. To date, the most lavish thing Claire has splashed out on has to be half a bed. “My mum and Dad bought the other half for Christmas,” she explains.

Still, it is nothing compared to the hardships the band endured when they first started. “We did all the dodgy B&Bs,” Claire laughs. “We had no money whatsoever, so we used to steal food from breakfast rooms to keep us going. One time we were in Cuba for a week filming our second video, and every morning we’d walk out the hotel with platefuls of bread and cakes because we were so skint.”

Now close pals with pop impresario Pete Waterman – who worked with the band on their debut album – Claire, rather disappointingly, claims she has never ribbed him about two of his former proteges, Sonia and Rick Astley. But just like Waterman’s erstwhile chart-busting buddies, Steps have become Top Of The Pops regulars and have hung out with everyone from the Spice Girls to Lenny Kravitz. Which is why Claire didn’t get too excited when Robbie Williams burst in on them backstage and started singing.

But did he get to “entertain” the girls afterwards? “No,” Claire says with a grin. “He didn’t!”

Read more classic STEPS interviews in our Interviews & Reports section here.