All the rumours are true – S Club 7 are back, and they’re heading out on a massive arena tour of the UK and Ireland later this year.
Fans were absolutely overcome with excitement after reports emerged and rumours began circulating earlier this year that S Club 7 were set for a “massive reunion tour” – but now, after months of speculation, it’s finally been confirmed that the iconic 90s pop group is returning for a reunion tour in celebration of their 25-year legacy.
Unlike some previous reunions of fellow 90s and 00s pop groups in recent years, the S Club 7 Reunited tour will actually see all seven members – Bradley, Hannah, Jo, Jon, Paul, Rachel, and Tina – come together for an 11-date arena tour across the UK and Ireland.
The group says the reunion tour is an opportunity for S Club 7 fans of every generation to come together and re-experience the hits that soundtracked the British charts for five years.
We can't wait to be reunited with you all this October 🇬🇧
Sign up before 5pm GMT tomorrow to gain access to PRE-SALE TICKETS via the link in our bio. PRE-SALE opens Wednesday 15th Feb, 10am GMT. GENERAL SALE opens Friday 17th Feb, 10am GMT 🎊 #SClub7Reunitedpic.twitter.com/wBS2MbdiSK
Formed all the way back in 1998 by Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller, S Club 7 quickly rose to prominence, and went on to become one of the most successful British groups of all time by dominate the world of pop music.
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In their five short years together, the group had four UK number one singles, one UK number one album, and a string of hits, including ‘Reach’, ‘Bring It All Back, ‘Don’t Stop Movin’, ‘S Club Party’, and ‘Never Had a Dream Come True’.
They had four studio albums, released 11 singles, and sold 10 million albums worldwide.
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S Club 7 announces massive 25th anniversary reunion tour of UK & Ireland / Credit: S Club 7
In 2002, the group sadly began to fracture and success started dwindling after Paul Cattermole left due to “creative differences”, which left the remaining members having to fight and deny a raft of rumours presuming they were about to split up – until they finally announced in April 2003 on stage during a live performance that they were calling it quits.
But now, with a string of multi-platinum selling albums, and international hit singles to their name, S Club 7 are “a household name once again ready to rise”.
🆕 // JUST ANNOUNCED
♫ There ain't no party like an S Club party… ♪
🤩 @SClub7 will 'Bring It All Back' with a 25th Anniversary Tour, stopping by @AOArena, 21 October 2023!
📲 Set your ticket reminders for 10am, Friday 17 February 2023.
“After eight years, it feels amazing to announce that we’re reuniting and performing together again,” the band said ahead of the tour.
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“We’re so excited to bring the S Club Party back to our fans across the country to celebrate 25 years of S Club 7. We can’t even believe it’s been so long! Music and friendship have always been at the core of everything that we’ve ever done.
S Club 7 will play a massive headline show at the AO Arena in Manchester as part of the UK tour on 21 October 2023, with tickets set to go on sale this Friday 17 February at 10am.
Featured Image – Supplied (via Tim Roney/Getty Images)
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Madness announce huge Manchester gig on upcoming UK tour
Daisy Jackson
Madness are heading back out on a tour of the UK with their Hits Parade tour, including a stop in Manchester.
The beloved British band, famed for hits like Baggy Trousers, House of Fun, and One Step Beyond, are heading to the AO Arena this winter.
Madness will be kicking the tour off in Sheffield on 4 December, before heading across a 13-date-strong arena tour.
They’ll be joined by Squeeze on all dates, who were huge throughout the 1990s, and again since reuniting in 2007.
The tour has been announced to celebrate their biggest hits of their career, which spans almost five decades.
In 2023, Madness achiever their first-ever UK number one studio album, with Theatre of the Absurd Presents C’est La Vie – though before that, they already had an impressive 10 top 10 albums.
Madness also have multiple awards, including an Ivor Novello, and performed as part of Queen Elizabeth II’s Jubilee celebrations.
The show promises to be ‘live, loud, and full of heart’.
Speaking on the new tour, Madness said: “We are going to be parading through your town soon… bearing glittering hits of all shapes and sizes, everyone welcome.”
The Wombats at AO Arena, Manchester – the noughties indie disco never REALLY died
Daisy Jackson
If at some point in your life you sported an extreme side-swept fringe, knee-high socks, and a battered leather jacket you scoured the vintage shops for for months, you know what it means to have a noughties indie disco come to town – and that indie disco is courtesy of one of the genre’s greats, The Wombats.
The Liverpool three-piece were at the AO Arena in Manchester on Saturday evening, in support of their sixth studio album Oh! The Ocean.
The hair’s calmed down a lot (they were the MASTERS of whipping their ‘do all the way back from the crown of their head to their eyebrows) but the energy of The Wombats has done the opposite.
For a relatively chill indie band they’ve got a reputation for causing widespread mosh pits, and Manchester delivers them in spades.
It’s not just your regular elbow-to-the-face, lose-your-mates-for-a-bit, risk-your-ribcage moshpits either. At one point hundreds of people sit on the floor and pretend to row a giant, grimy boat. At another point there’s a confusing moment where three pits all congregate and everyone stares at each other for a split second before letting loose again.
They’ve got a lot of music to get through in the two decades they’ve been together, but it’s the debut stuff that has a weird effect on all the 30-somethings in the crowd.
Kill The Director, Moving to New York and Let’s Dance to Joy Division are all the sort of songs that transcend grimy basement nightclub all the way to the UK’s best arena with the same frenetic energy.
The Wombats have also pulled together one of the strongest support line-ups seen in recent years, which in turn pulls in one of the busiest standing sections I’ve ever seen, from the minute the doors open.
First is Red Rum Club, our pals from across the way in Liverpool, with their signature indie sound elevated by trumpet player Joe the Blow.
Then it’s over to local lads Everything Everything, in their matching acid-washed denim and art rock hits.
As for The Wombats – it’s not every artist who can get the goosebumps going within the first two songs – but chucking in Moving To New York as your second song will do just that.
Say what you want about the scousers but their comedic timing is unmatched too, whether it’s ribbing each other on stage or stressing that the lyrics of their song are ‘getting college girl drunk, not college girls drunk – a very important difference’.
There are, including vocals, eight instruments between three of them. Most would summon some sessions musicians, but not The Wombats.
They’re rock solid as a trio, but the whole show is carried along by their urge for playfulness – from the stage invasion by wombat mascots carrying confetti cannons, to dropping giant colourful balloons from the sky as they wrap up the night with Greek Tragedy.
There’s something pretty memorable about the sight of people determinedly carrying a gigantic pink balloon overhead onto the tram.
Emily Sergeant -
14th February 2023 
