Melody Maker Interview

HELLES BELLES - THE SAINTS GUIDE TO ON-THE-ROAD MAYHEM

Have you ever trashed a hotel room?

Nic: "We did it in the beginning. We're just naughty and stupid."

Mel: "Nat and Shaznay are incredibly untidy. You always feel sorry fort heir maid. They trash their rooms all the time. Shaznay broke into K Gee's (All Saints' producer, Karl Gordon) room and did it over. Took off his mattress, everything. We took ages persuading him he hadn't been burgled. He came and found me in a panic and he wanted to phone the police, it was the best trashed room ever. We only persuaded him that he hadn't been burgled because his wallet was still there."

Who's the dirtiest stop-out?

Mel: "Its usually Shaznay."

Shaznay: "No it isn’t, it was always you."

Nat: "None of us ever have any will power." Mel: "Especially if its a free bar, we can never say no to a free drink."What's your poison?

Nat: "Mine's champagne."

Nic: "Oh no, that's just her starting drink. She uses that to get to the level where she can start on the tequilas."

Nat: "Buts champagne is my ruin because it's that which makes me want the tequila."

Nic: "I'm a beer girl. There's nothing better when you come offstage than having a nice cold beer. Drinking beer when you are really hot, that rocks."

Mel: "Me and Shaznay like a sweet Martini and lemonade. It tastes very sweet and doesn't give you terrible hangovers."

Who's the best drinker?

Nic: "Shaznay doesn't show it at all when she is drunk and she drinks alot. She puts the rest of us to shame. After two drinks I am staggering andslurring. Mel just falls asleep. When Shaznay finally gets drunk it's veryfunny, it's just her eyes, they go funny and she has to crawl off andhide."

Ever had any Gallacher-style onstage bust-ups?

Nic: We're blatantly the best band at rock 'n' roll tantrums. Nat being the best, she doesnt let pressure build up."

Nat: "I hate everyone around me."

Mel: "We have massive arguments between the four of us all the time we'retogether, always in public so its in the papers the next day - we neverlearn."

Nic: "It hasn't got physical, yet."

Shaznay: "Yeah, no one's hit anyone else, but the empahsis is on the 'yet."

Nic: "We all know Mel would win. She's the tallest, the strongest, thefastest and the fittest. She'd beat the crap out of us."

What's on your rider?

Nic: "Hot curry and laxatives. We all like to have diarrhoea while we areworking."

Mel: "How do you think we keep so thin?"

Nat: "No, its spaghetti bolognese, cereal, lasagne, cheese sandiches,McDonald's and alcohol. Oh, and (joking) drugs, heroin, crack, cocain andchampagne."Nic: Enough for everyone. And some mirrored tables...."

What in the hell is going on with All Saints? Are they on the brink of splitting up, or just the most rock 'n' roll band on the planet?

"When did you last take crack?" the nurse asks the internationally famous pop star who has just arrived at a central London hospital's emergency ward in an ambulance, wearing an oxygen mask. A pop star who is being rushed for medical attention having just collapsed in a Jack Daniel's T-shirt,sporting leather trousers and flicking the finger. It might sound like a sensible, process-of-elimination, nurse-type question were this one of the pantheon of snort-anything indie rock hell raisers who grace the pages of Melody Maker every week. But the pop star lying on the A&E room trolley is actually Natalie Appleton. From All Saints. And as Melanie Blatt correctly notes: "This is perhaps taking rock 'n' roll a bit too far" All Saints are about to embark on their "low-key" debut British tour. The jaunt will take them around some on the nation's rockier venues (Shepherd's Bush Empire, as opposed to Dockland's arena), so it seemed a good idea forthe four Saints to wear their favourite rock clobber and to tell us how much on-the-road mayhem they intended to fit into the next few weeks. Nat, Mel, Shaznay Lewis and Nicole Appleton are in high spirits when wemeet in their Covent Garden rehearsal studio. They're strutting around looking stunning in an assortment of black outfits. Nat's trying to blag tickets for tomorrow's Kiss gig ("Double Platinum' is my favourite album of all time!"), Shaznay's arguing with Mel that she doesnt look like LeAnn Rimes in her cowboy hat and they're working their way through Silk Cuts, in their strictly non-smoking studio, as if Gordon Brown had just announced that fags were tax-deductable. All pretty rock 'n' roll, so far. Then, while posing for some rock-shape photo's, Nat becomes short of breath. She's taken into the dressing room where she collapses and an ambulance is called. Sure, we wanted rock 'n' roll, but emergency hospital visits and hard-drug inquisitions? Mel's right- this is taking things too far.

We meet up again 48 hours later, and with an apologetic Nat back to full strength. She tells us she had been suffering breathing difficulties, brought on by anxiety and the band's rigorous rehearsing. And not, it seems by crack? "I couldn't believe the nurse asked me that," Nat begins. It's out of order. I told her to take it back, but I suppose they have to ask."

"I reckon they only asked because she'd recognised Nat as a famous pop star," explains Mel, "and thats obviously what we're all up to." Bloody hell. Have hospital visits and your lack of crack habits put you off, or do you still think being a rock 'n' roll band is a good idea? "Well, we wear pretty dumpy clothes, so we'd be ready to mosh," Mel says,"and we hate having hair and make-up done, so we'd have loved that side of it."

"We live like slobby rock 'n' rollers. You should see my bedroom." Nic adds. "Plus I really like that rock chick look."

"Yeah, I really liked the oxygen mask look Nat sported later on," Mel laughs. And those name tag's on her wrists, they were so cool, Nic continues, getting a ha-f***ing-ha glance from her sister. Shaznay shakes her head, "I think you have to be into the music to live the life and Nat's the only one who really likes loud rock music." Nic disagrees, "I think we certainly live the lifestyle of a rock 'n' roll band."

"Yeah. we'd make a really good rock 'n' roll band," Mel reckons. "No" Nic bellos, fist aloft.... "We'd be the best f***ing rock 'n' rollband on this planet!" Thats some claim. Later as a little test of Nic's rock bravado, the Maker asks each All Saint, individually, what their personal, most outrageous, rock 'n' roll ancedote is.

First, Mel: I've stayed up every night and not slept for the last few months... But that's having a baby for you. "Anything else? "For the first six months of our success I was really like that, I would party, drink, stay out all night for night after night. I was going pretty mad, but you had to stop, you just get bored.

Then Nic: "Oh. there's so many stories. Afterwards, I always think things I've done were rock 'n' roll. I've partied for days and days, so done pretty much the obvious, she winks. "I've gone on tage drunk a couple of times and really f***ed up big time! Shaznay got really upset with me."

"You were just embarassing," Shaznay adds, as she walks past. Nic looks at Shaznay and asks us, "Did she mention Vienna?" Erm, no. We haven't asked her yet. "Oh never mind then," Nic concludes, arousing our curiosity.

Next Shaznay: "I can't tell you all the details, it involves me, Nic, Nat and a hotel in Vienna. And some male models. It was very rock 'n' roll. Go on, tell us more. "No, I can't."

And last up Nat: "I can't really say, I'll get into trouble. and I'm not just going to say something lame that I've done, because I'm not lame. I've dome some hardcore things, too explicit to recall, involving drink, drugs, men and hotels." Oh, this'll be the Vienna story again then... "They told you?" Erm, yeah... "Oh, all I can remember is I had one guy puking outside my bedroom and I had two inside and I had to choose between them." Cool. As if further proof were needed, the long-running, lurid tabloid stories on the All Saints leave surely no doubt that they are the planet's most rock 'n' roll band. Daily tales of partying, splits, celebrity court cases, engagements, fights, plastic surgery, stacks of cash... the list goes on,way beyond that of those reticent Gallagher brothers. If you believe the tabloids....

"Oh, those stories are nothing yet, that's just started," Mel smiles. "Yeah the stories about how rock 'n' roll we actually are haven't even begun..." Nic continues. "As long as we have the clipping to remember this all by when we're older."

"Then we'll be able to look back...that's when I became an addict... that was the film career...thats when I fell over in the street," Mel adds with more than a pinch of sarcasm, a teaspoon of cynicism and a heaped tablespoon off pissed off-ness.All Saints' relationship with Britain's tabloids is frosty at best, With Mel feeling particularly aggrieved. "I realised the other day, we've never, ever, she says with no pun intended, "done an interview with the press as the All Saints and that is why we get so much shit. Every other band plays the game. They've asked us thousands of times, we always say no, so they pick up on every tiny scrap about us, every little piece of s*** and f*** us over. They promise if you do interviews for them, they'll make sure you get good press from then on. I'm still glad we've done that. I'd never do it."Since the birth of her daughter Lilyella, Mel has been hounded by the paparazzi, even doing this morning's shopping. "It's been really hard keeping her out of the papers. They want the picture of me and Lilytogether, so I have to make sure we're separate when we go out. That has to piss you off." Nic continues: "its real people's lives, real relationships they're messing with. The situation with me and Robbie is stupid, it really is a joke. All the speculation, we haven't decided anything definite yet for ourselves. We're just trying to get on with our lives."

"It's nearly all lies," adds Nat. "They said I had my boobs done - I didn't. Plus I didn't slap Jamie Theakston. I'm not that kind of person, I'd never slap anyone. I punched him."

"There are so many blatant lies, plus they just quote you when you haven't spoken to them." Mel grimaces "But, you cant let it ruin your life, when it comes down to it there are so manty things that are more important."

Do you think the tabloids are trying to split you up?

"I think they'd love to," Mel says. "they want to feel like they have power over you" Nic agrees, "They tried to cause loads of hassle between us and the Spice Girls, now they're trying to cause hassle between us." "I f***ing hope they don't succeed, if one of their campains managed to split us up, that's be a disaster," Mel states defiantly. Spending a few hours with All Saints, they appear as close to each other and as defiant in the face of the tabloids as ever. But of all the rumours surrounding them, it's the one of an All Saints plit that refuses to die down. When they called a press conference on February 8 to announce their arena tour, the industry gossip-lines were smoking with stories that they were going to announce their demise: a rumour trail that started at the end of last year when Nic was reported as having left the band."I just needed to go away for a bit. There's only so much s*** you can take," Nic explains. "I was never going to quit, I just wanted a holiday, we didn't have one coming and weren't going to get one soon. I'm not a robot, I needed more than I was being given back. We needed a break from each other at the end of last year. So we could go away, think about things, come back and discuss the situation, talk things through."

How difficult had life as All Saints become?

"At the end of last year, things had started to stagnate and nothing moved," Mel recounts. "We decided how we wanted to carry on, we got rid of everyone, our lawyers, our manager, everything, and started 1999 as a new year. "Could you have carried on as things were? "No," Shaznay joins in. "I've been doing it since '94. I appreciate what I have, but it became a bit of a let-down. Achievements don't affect you the way they did, the stress and the hard work doesn't leave you time to react. It pisses me off that I can't really enjoy this, I dont have the time and space. I know I'll look back in years to come and regret not having enjoyed being in All Saints more."

"From the moment we even started seeing success, I knew this was a horrible, nasty buiness," Mel continues. "I was bloody lucky, I never reached the stage Nic did, because of my pregnancy. Getting time out was a life-saver, I needed it, it does you the world of good. Plus all the morals, values and principles I had before Lily have changed. Nothing - the work, the hassle, going out or the press - matter as much as me and Lily being happy."

"Mel has changed a lot," Nat nods. "She's so much nicer now. She went through a real mouthy stage."

"She used to be awful scary," Nic concurs,"but now she's a mum, she's softened."

"I still have opinions, and a lot of opinions the rest won't like. I just keep them to myself," Mel tells them.

Did any of you worry the band might not carry on?

"I can only speak for me," Nic begins. "I never thought it would come to that, but I didn't know what everyone else was thinking, what goes on in their minds."The rumours continue that Shaznay is going to go solo. "We keep hearing these rumours that Shaznay is rehearsing separately," Nic sighs. "This all comes from the fact that we all arrive separarely and so some things separately. None of us live together, and Shaznay went away to America to write some new songs. We all know about all that. We have been rehearsing together. It's just people stirring up trouble."

"I just went to New York, as its an opportunity to work with some songwriters and producers who live there. And I'm really pleased with it," Shaznay smiles.With Mel B, Mel C, Graham Coxon et al releasing solo stuff while still in their band.

Are there any solo songs for you?

Shaznay: "I wouldn't worry about it, it's what everyone else is doing. Sometimes there are songs that I think would work better for me solo, some songs I write I think would work better for another artist, it's not a problem."The four girls look bored at having to talk about something that is clearly a non-issue in their eyes.

Mel says in conclusion: "After the end of last year, everyone now knows that we've wiped the slate clean. It's all up to us now. We've got this tour and this album to do, we have a small schedule, at the moment that's it. Its great at the moment. We're really excited."They all smile in agreement.

Finally, we return to the subject of the forthcoming tour - All Saints' first ever live gigs and an adventure into the traditional heartland of big indie bands. Why are you playing smaller venues? "We havent done any live gigs at all yet, so it'll be a thrill for us," Nat says. "And we're quite glad to start here, it'll be more frightening when we do the bigger shows."As a first tour, we hope you're doing it the proper way. Transit van, bed and breakfasts, humping your own gear around? "It's not going to be too rock 'n' roll like that for me." Mel laughs. "I'll have my babe and my mum with me. The two of them will stop me drinking too much and staying up. But we've got a proper rock 'n' roll tour bus. I've also got a car, the bus will be no place for a baby."

"I'm taking Christmas lights!" Nic continues excitedly. "We're going to create a disco area with lights on the floor of the bus, big speakers, then we don't have to go clubbing, we can just go into the back of the bus and dance." Will the show be as glamorous and glitzy as the tour bus? "No, it's small scale, Shaznay explains, "just us and four male dancers, thats pretty much it." "We'll keep the big ideas for the arenas - not that they're big ideas, maybe there'll be a change of lights, we'd like to keep it quitesimple.

"Any new material to look out for?

"Er, well there'll be no new singles...there'll be some bits that aren't on the album but..." Nic grins widely, "well, we'll be dancing different." "And we've got canes!" Mel laughs. Which is the cue for Melody Maker to be treated to an impromptu personal rendition of this rather raunchy dance routine (with canes!), sending us home sweatier and more in need of a quick lie down than any mosh pit at the Camden Falcon. All Saints. Probably the best f***ing rock 'n' roll band on the planet. And this tour doesn't even go to Vienna.

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