Sunshine, the third album by S Club 7, was released 15 years ago today on 26th November 2001.
Sunshine, complete with the classic ‘Don’t Stop Movin” on it, from a time when dropping the ‘g’ was cool, which was the seventh best selling single of 2001 – everyone in the band thought it was their best song, with Paul Cattermole saying it was their ‘best song by miles’. When it first came out, it was at number three in the UK Albums Charts, selling more in its first week than any of their other albums did, (136,000 copies), and later was made 2x Platinum when it sold over 600,000 copies. It was number thirteen in New Zealand and number five on the UK year-end chart for 2001.
They won Record of the Year for ‘Don’t Stop Movin” and their second BRIT Award for ‘Best British Single’. Before the album came out they wanted to tour, but didn’t have enough time to – before Sunshine was released they went on tour, drawing around 10,000 people every night. They also had a TV show, Hollywood 7, filmed in LA, but they struggled to cope with the intense schedules, and early starts which led to the band breaking up. They were also involved with a CBBC reality show, S Club Search, where they tried to form a younger version of the band – which led to S Club Juniors, a band who would go on to have six top ten UK songs.
In January 2002 they toured again, stylising their songs to make them fit with a carnival theme. It was well received by children’s media, but broadsheets said it was like Eurovision for toddlers. Other media sources were more kind, however, calling it a slick and a good value show. After their next single ‘You’ reached number two in the charts, Cattermole left, and eventually the rest of the band split. He wanted to go back to his rock roots, from when he was in a nu-metal band, yet he stayed for four of the thirteen episodes of their final TVseries, Viva S Club, and his final concert was Party at the Palace as part of Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee.
Relive your childhood and listen to one of their hit singles:
