FHM Interview 2000
Magazine Source: FHM
Timeframe: somewhere between April – August 2000
The flaxen hair damsel in distress will always be able to worm her way into the cold, chiselled heart of the common man. Who amongst us hasn’t succumbed to the melting smile of a dewy-eyed lady, or the plaintive cries of an outrageously drunken Geordie lass who’s misplaced her cab fare home? Sometimes, however, the clever gent is all too aware that the forlorn female is best avoided – who knows when the duplicitous wolf-crying hag might suddenly turn on you, slit your windpipe and make off with your perpetually undernourished wallet?
Luckily there’s no such menace about the Steps girls – and despite the fiendish nature of out ‘scary’ photoshoot, they aren’t actually looking for to be rescued by a beefy man-mountain in tight trousers. In fact, Claire Richards (22), Faye Tozer (24), and Lisa Scott-Lee (23) have just about everything they could wish for right now. Except hard cash. Much has been written about the bands allegedly ‘undergenerous’ deal with their record label and management company, with some reports suggesting that they earn less then the average weekly wage: slim pickings for a band who have earned their record companya reputed £40 million – a figure comparable to the annual military budget of Albania.
Unfortuneately for the girls in Steps, they are a ‘manufactured’ band, coming together from an advert in showbiz trade rag The Stage. So now they’re looking for a bigger slice of the cake being wolfed down by their mentor, Pete Waterman, by writing songs of their own. Whether they’ll appear on the next album remains to be seen.
“I can’t believe it when people ask us how much money we have in the bank,” says Lisa, putting a premature end to any debate on matters financial. “That’s such a rude question. What gives people the right to ask us that?” Thus warned, the FHM interview is a prickly affair, with a woman from the bands management company eavesdropping just in case things get a little too hairy. Well bugger that. We’ll ask them what we want!
Steps on …Bondage 
In the video for the new single Deeper Shade of Blue, the girls can be seen wearing some startlingly uncharacteristic costumes that are best described as..rubbery.
Lisa: We had a good giggle about them. But I didn’t find it sexy at all. Rubber looks great on, but it doesn’t feel nice.
Faye: I’m not sure if i’m up for having my thighs in rubber all the time. It was very uncomfortable to wear – I’ve got the scars to prove it.
Steps on …nudity
Annoying blonde Steps bloke ‘H’ recently whipped off his kit for a gay mag. Amazingly the girls haven’t received offers to follow suit.
Lisa: Well, not as far as I know. If some one asked me to get my boobies out then I wouldn’t necessarliy be insulted; I’d probably be flattered. But whether or not I’d do it is another story – and you’ve got to make some real money out of it if you do something like that. I’m not going to do it for free – not for the public anyway.
Steps on …booze
Claire: All we did when we supported Britney Spears in America was drink on the tour bus. We’d drive all night and stock up on booze at petrol stations, filling up this ice box we had with beer and wine. One night in New Orleans we stayed up and went on a bar crawl, and they wouldn’t let us in because they thought that Lee (Steps warbler) was too young. We saw quite a few wierdos and lots of strip bars and stuff. I heard about this thing that the girls do at the Mardi Gras in the summer – the guys throw these beads to the women and the women lift their tops up and flash their boobs. Did anyone throw beads at us? No! It was winter!
What’s the most stupid thing the Steps ladies do when hammered?
Faye: Can’t remember. But I’m hideous when I’m drunk. Falling over…breaking shoes – but I’m a very happy drunk, very chatty.
And any party tricks?
Lisa: I’ve got one (before giving FHM a demonstration). I can do the splits three different ways. I’ve been told it’s quite an impressive trick.
And does it help in the sack?
Lisa: It does. Being versatile and supple can never be a bad thing can it?
Steps on …boys
Claire: I’m not very good around boys. I remember when I was 18 and I’d never really had a proper boyfriend, there was this guy I met one weekend and the next thing he bought me an engagement ring and wanted to propose to me. I kept the ring though!
A year ago, Faye told FHM that the Steps girls were all dying for a shag. Has it been a good year on the rumpty front?
Faye: A very good year, thankyou!
But how did Lisa react to a tabloid story in which a former boyfriend described her as a red-hot lover?
Lisa: Well, I wasn’t pissed off. I rang my mum and we talked about the piece and she said ‘ Well, you obviously take after me!’ It could have been worse. It could have said I was crap in bed. I would have cried my eyes out.
Steps on …fighting
Lisa: I had a fight on Japanese TV once. I was on this wacky show where they had a panel on each week. I was up against this guy, one-on-one, answering questions. Anyway, he came over and did a karate chop on my arm – on live TV! I thought, I’m not having that, so I took a step back and did this massive karate kick to his face. He thought he’d go one better and did a roundhouse and nearly knocked me out. In the end I just got down on the floor and did the splits and went, ‘Da-na’ So I won.
Claire: I was in America and we’d just done a showcase for all the TV networks in Hollywood. I’m famous for all the bikini tops and hipsters I wear onstage and for three years I’d never had an incident. But this one night, after performing, we went out to speak to all these important industry people and as I was stood talking to this guy I want to untwist my bikini strap and it went “ping” and the whoel thing flew off! I went, “Agrh!” ran off, locked myself and cried my eyes out because I was so embarrassed.
Steps on …sex
So when do the girls feel most sexy?
Lisa: Well, I’m not afraid of my feelings or my sexuality – or feeling sexy. I think it’s good to feel sexy. It’s good to be postitive about who you are and what you look like. I feel sexy when I’m wearing sexy clothes – but I don’t like anything tarty and I don’t like to show too much because it’s more sexy when you don’t.
Claire: The journalists in Germany are the worst when it comes to sex questions. There’s no holds barred and they’ll ask us what’s the strangest place we’ve had sex or what the first time was like. We’re like, “WE can’t answer that!” People would never ask us stuff like that here.
Indeed. But just for the record, what’s the strangets place you’ve ever had sex?
Mind your own business!
Read more classic STEPS interviews in our Interviews & Reports section here.