Steps biography - Here you can find info on the stars of STEPS!!! - Music - http://maxpages.com/chartmusic/Steps

'CLAIRE'
Claire Richards was born on the 17th of August 1977 in Hillingdon, Middlesex at 1.30 in the morning. At school she was a bit of a goody two-shoes, managing to stay out of trouble. Although she was once caught out at lunch time without her lunch pass when she went to buy some chips. It may not have been all that bad, but the matter was made worse by the fact it was the first time she had done it and she got caught while her friends did it everyday and got off scot-free! Her favourite lesson at school was P.E., and she also liked pottery class, while she considers the least fun lesson to be R.E. The first ever item of clothing that Claire bought herself was a super-baggy pair of trousers which she got on a shopping trip to London with her Mum. Clearly the fashion sense has stayed with her to this day as Claire is always dressed in the coolest clothes, and refuses to leave home without a pair of trainers!

Claire's career was sparked off after she was nominated to be the lead in her school musical, which was 'The Sound Of Music'. This gave her a taste for singing and led to prizes being won in Karaoke contests. She was so good at Karaoke that she not only got barred from the local pub for winning too often but also won an inter-brewery competition! The first record Claire bought was "Into The Groove" by pop legend Madonna. Destined for fame, it wasn't long before Claire met her first celebrity, comedian Frank Carson when she went along to the local theatre to see his comedy act, as well as meeting Michael Barrymore later at an audition to his show. Rick Astley was her first celebrity crush because of his good looks and lovely voice. However it wasn't long before she got over him and fell in love with New Kids On The Block front man, Jordan Knight. From an early age Claire knew she wanted to be in the entertainment industry as initially the Stepper wanted to be in musicals. Although other thoughts were to be a chef or beautician! Luckily for us she chose the correct route, her biggest triumph, STEPS!

Food wise you wouldn't expect Claire's favourite meal to be hamburgers and junk food, but she can't get enough of the stuff! She says that if she could, her main diet would consist of take aways. Would you also believe that she used to eat crackerbread with sugar on, and toast with Branston pickle? A bizarre combination to say the least! Luckily this is as daring with food as Claire will be as she dislikes all fish and spicy foods, and simply will not eat food such as pigeons and veal, and who could blame her, eurgh! One other little thing you should know is that Claire's favourite sweets are fizzy red laces and the candy that pops in your mouth. She used to buy packets of them in their tens.

She may be a member of the busiest and hardest working band around, but claire still finds time to branch out into other areas of entertainment. After doing such a remarkable job at presenting the programs 'Electric Circus' and 'CD:UK', she is going on to work along side band mate H on a new program called 'STEPS To The Stars'. The two popstrels will present the program, which is an entertainment show, with competitors showing off their talents in a bid to be one of the lucky finalists who will appear on the popular Saturday morning show 'Live & Kicking' for the finale. 'STEPS To The Stars' is due to air at the start of the new millenium, with a run of 7 shows. To make the whole event even more Steptacular the whole bunch of Steppers will be popping into the studio to round off the show with a different STEPS song at the end of each episode. The whole package makes for un-missable viewing.

'FAYE'
On the 14th of November 1975 at 5.30am in the town of Northampton Faye Tozer was born. At school Faye was a bit of a trouble maker, and was once caught scaling the walls of a toilet cubicle! The headmistress made her and her friends clean down the walls after the mess they made. Her favourite lessons at school were art and drama, but she disliked History and Geography. She started school a year early so later in her academic career was held back at the age of eight. Up until then her best friend was Jenny Swain, and after she changed years she became close friends to Lisa Valentine.

As a street-wise individual Faye spent time with her friends anywhere that she could get away with it. Her first item of clothing that she bought herself was a simple pair of jeans when she was 14 years old. She has developed a good taste in clothing as she can always be found in the most fashionable gear around. She is very adventurous with her look and changes her hair style more often than the band's colour scheme! This always pays off though, as every new do looks fab, who can forget those wicked dreadlocks that were simply the best! Although you wouldn't guess it now she was never allowed to pierce her ears until the age of 16, always the rebel she didn't hold back and got three piercings on each ear as well as having her belly button pierced, ouch!

Faye's first ever showbiz experience was when she was at the very young age of six. This was when she performed her first song and dance to a rabbit on stage, it was the song by Michael Jackson, "Ben". The first celebrity who Faye met was a member of the massive 60's band The Monkees, Davy Jones. They met when she joined the cast of a pantomime, which incidentaly was the first pantomime she did at the age of 6. He gave every member of the cast a Christmas present which consisted of some bubble bath, a little picture of a cat and a signed photo of himself. Her first crush was on 80's pop star, Adam Ant, she thought he was gorgeous. She always wanted to go into the dancing profession, and would have become a ballerina if she hadn't been told that she wasn't the right shape. Now she has had those early dreams realised by becoming a member of undoubtably the biggest dancing sensation in the world, and effectively contributing to what is a new genre of dance.

There are a few things that Faye simply cannot live without whenever she goes on tour with the band. In her bag she always carries her lip balm, mascara, purse, her mobile phone and the one item that the fashion conscious can't be seen without...sunglasses! Lucky for Faye she doesn't require much sleep, with only six hours of snoozing she can be up and fresh the next day, which is bound to come in handy with all those overnight trips when travelling the world. The highlight of going on tour for Faye is that she gets the chance to get out there in front of all the fans and prove to the world that STEPS can actually sing live. While on stage Faye says that the most fun song to perform was the revamped version of "5-6-7-8". She loved the fact that they could take the mickey out of themselves by putting on total hoedown, and she had a great laugh doing so. Before going on stage she likes to do a bit of group bonding by doing somthing really silly like making jokes or saying something completely ridiculous to each other like "You rooooock!". She does get a little nervous about going on stage but considers this to be a healthy way of preparing as it focus' her mind on the performance ahead. One embarrasing moment was when she tripped over her shoe lace live on stage when the band played a gig at Nottingham. Always the professional, she stopped herself just before hitting the floor and pretended it was part of the dance routine!

So what lies ahead for Faye? Well she will be meeting up with the rest of the Stepsters on the CBBC program 'STEPS To The Stars' which is presented by H and Claire. The whole band will be performing a different STEPS song on each episode, thats a total of seven poptastic tracks! Faye isn't new to a bit of presenting either as she has done a truly Steptacular job of filling in for regular presenter Kat Deeley on 'SMTV Live', joining H to present 'MTV Select', and teaming up with Lee to present the Pepsi Chart. Plus you can catch Faye on tour with the guys in May 2000 as well as finishing off the current record breaking 33 date Next Step arena tour. And don't forget to tune into the various TV shows in the run up to Christmas as she will be showing off her naughty side when she puts on her devil horns and performs the new double A-side single "Better The Devil You Know" and "Say You'll Be Mine" with the band.

'H'
Ian Watkins, was born on May 8th 1976 although at what time he has no idea. If you hadn't already realised from seeing him on TV he is completely hyper-active! Which of course is where he got his nickname from, H. Thats not to say he doesn't have a serious side, it's just that he doesn't let it show very often! He grew up in Llwyniphia in Rhondda, Wales and retains that lovely welsh accent. As a child H was exactly how you would expect him to be, up to lots of naughty tricks! One of the most notable things he got up to in his spare time was buying a terrapin and letting it lose amongst a tank full of tiger fish and barb sharks. The outcome was inevitable, the terrapin ate the lot and drove his mum up the wall in the process!

The first ever item of clothing that he bought himself was a rather fetching pair of jeans with Fred Flintstone on one leg and Barny Rubble on the other. Luckily for him (and us!) his taste in clothing has certainly improved over the years, although he still maintains the cartoon on clothes theme, with the top he made famous, the monkey T-shirt!

He got his first taste for showbiz when he was only nine years old, as he always enjoyed being on stage. The first celebrity he met was a Welsh guy called Max Boyce, who used to sing with giant leeks. He also claims to have met Super Ted, but we can assume that this was at one of his more hyper-active moments! The first record that H bought was by Rick Astley (who is also band mate Claire's first celebrity crush) called "Never Gonna Give You Up". The first celebrities that he fell for were Tiffany and Debbie Gibson. H thinks that STEPS' US tour buddy, the gorgeous Britney Spears is like the new Debbie Gibson. The lovely Britney was also the last person H fancied. As with the rest of the band, H always wanted to go into entertainment. Although when he was younger he also wanted to become a vet. His house was said to be like a zoo, jam-packed with a vast array of animals ranging from Boris the pet tarantula, Ben the dog, his terrapin, and the fish that were left over after it had got to them, and a big fluffy lop-eared rabbit!

Getting to number one with the song "Tragedy" is H's biggest triumph in life so far, and this opinion is shared among the rest of the fab five. His biggest regret was haveing to give up playing the guitar, and advises everyone who plays an instrument to stick with it. So far, the most expensive thing H has bought is his own house in London. Decorating has just been finished on it and he loves it loads. He gets on well with the whole group but has a special bond with Lisa as they both met early on and both come from Wales. The two of them are constantly messing about on and off stage and are always rolling around with laughter. This can cause problems on TV interviews as H is always trying to put Lisa off by pulling faces at her behind the interviewer's back!

If you simply can't get enough of H you will be overjoyed to hear that he is teaming up with fellow Stepper, Claire for an all new entertainment program on CBBC in January of the new millenium called 'STEPS To The Stars'. The rest of the band will be joining the other two at the end of each episode to perform a different STEPS song to round off the program. Bringing you a total of 7 performances of your favorite pop songs as well as seven weeks of Stepping heaven. Ahead of this and afterwards you will of course be able to find H with the rest of STEPS as they perform their songs on TV and radio. He isn't new to presenting, as he joined Faye recently to present an episode of the most popular MTV show, 'MTV Select'. They put together a truly unique experience with the both of them proving they cannot only sing and dance but entertain too, with a hilarious two hours of presenting. This wasn't the first time he got to present a top music show though, he joined Lisa, Claire, Lee and Faye on the hit music program CD:UK for an Easter special, winning over yet more fans in the process.

'LEE'
On the 28th of January 1975 in Chester at exactly 5.25 in the morning a member of STEPS was born. Infact Lee Latchford Evans was born at precisely the same time as his sister with the only difference being that she was born in the evening. As with the other four members of the band Lee managed to get into trouble when he was younger. Although he didn't actually do anything really bad he did break a few windows whenever he was playing football! At school he really enjoyed his CDT lessons because he got the chance to make all sorts of things like video cabinets. He didn't mind school as long as he never had to do anything really boring!

Instead of having one really close friend, Lee had a gang of mates who always used to hang around Seymour Drive which was where he lived at the time. From the age of 14 onwards however a guy called Simon Grisdale became a close friend of his. Lee and his friends could always be found on the football pitch having a kick around. And every Saturday night his parents would go out and leave his friends to watch videos and generally have a good time. They wisely left bin bags around for rubbish so the house didn't look like a bomb site when they got back in!

The first time Lee got into showbiz was when he was at infant school. He played King Herod in the Nativity play. He wasn't all to happy about playing the baddie though, and went home crying to his mum because he didn't want to be the one that killed Jesus! Lee always knew how to attract attention as he proved to pop star Danni Minogue at one roadshow. Despite the crowd being told that they must be deadly silent because the show was to go out on air live, he took no notice. Just as everyone had settled down ready for the performance and were all quiet, he jumped up shouting "Daaaaaniiiii!". Luckily the celebrity didn't mind and blew him a kiss and waved to him, something that has remained in his heart ever since! The first records Lee bought were pop anthem "Karma Chameleon" by Culture Club and "Pass The Dutchie" by Musical Youth. His first crush was on Helena Christiansen, and his latest was on actress Salma Hayek.

When he was younger Lee wanted to become a professional footballer, and came very close to achieveing that goal (did you get it?). Still, he may not be a footballer but he is a member of STEPS and he loves it. It is his biggest triumph in life as he had always wanted to leave his mark on the world and now he has. He does feel that he didn't push himself enough when he was younger and believes that he missed out on a lot of things because of it. His favourite TV program is the comedy Friends, he also loves funny movies and will laugh until he cries if someone tickles him!

Lee has presented numerous shows on TV including the Pepsi Chart twice, doing a magnificent job. He has also presented CD:UK with the rest of the band for a Steptastic Easter special earlier this year. You will be able to see more of Lee in the coming months as he and the other four Steppers will be leaving the millenium with the biggest party known to man on their 33 date record breaking tour. On which Lee performs a song written by himself. And if that isn't enough for you, the band will be hitting the road again in May 2000. He will also be joining the rest of STEPS on the new series of TV shows starting in January 2000 on CBBC, 'STEPS To The Stars'. You will be able to catch him on a different episode each week in a run of seven shows.

'LISA'
Lisa Scott-Lee was born on bonfire night, November 5th 1975 in the smallest city in the UK, St. Asaph in Wales at precisely 8.20 in the morning. At school Lisa was always up to the usual tricks, and once was given a note by her headmaster to summon a boy called Barry to his office. Knowing she couldn't keep the rest of the class in the dark about what was on the note she went to the bin when the headmaster had left the room, picked out the note and read out what was on it to her friends. As you can expect she was caught as the headmaster returned. He shouted at her so much that she almost cried...almost!

Her favourite subject at school was performing arts, as she always liked to entertain people. Her least favourite was history because she found it so boring. Her best friend was Louise Jones who even went along with Lisa to give her moral support at the auditions for STEPS. When it came to hanging out with friends she had a more scenic location than the other Steppers as she always went to Rhuddan castle in Wales. They used to explore the dungeons and old stair cases. It is an amazing memory for her.

As a member of the band that is most up to date with the latest trends and fashions, Lisa had to start her good sense of style at an early age. The first item of clothing she bought herself was a pair of jeans. The make-up she always wears are Bourgeois, MAC and Clinique and simply can't live without eyeliner and mascara. Lisa's top tip for make-up is to always cleanse and moisturise, and to treat your skin well - so you know what to do! As far as clothes go she doesn't think that it is neccesary to spend huge amounts of cash on one item, and prefers to go out and buy lots of clothes than blow all her money on just one big thing. Out of all the fabulous STEPS' costumes the least popular amongst the girls was for "5-6-7-8", Lisa really hated her red lycra dress. One night she was out on the town with Claire and they lost it (by accident of course!) which was a huge relief for her. She says that her biggest fashion mistake was when she permed her hair. It wasn't so bad when she was younger, but when it was done last year she felt it just didn't suit her. To stay in shape Lisa likes to do the usual routine of sit-ups and a lot of swimming and also dancing, which is handy considering her job description!

Her first celebrity experience was with the boxer Barry Mcguigan when she was 16. She told him then that she too was going to be famous and she was right! From an early age Lisa knew what she wanted from life, fame and fortune. This attitude and determination has payed off as she is now part of a band known worldwide, STEPS. She only has one regret which was having to give up playing the piano. But shes putting that mistake right now by having piano lessons, and can play a cool rendition of ABBA's "The Winner Takes It All". Her biggest triumph so far has been reaching her ambitions. Lisa's first crush was on the lead singer from INXS, Michael Hutchence, she was really upset when he sadly died. The last person she fancied was the pop sensation Robbie Williams, although she has gone off him a bit now. The first record she bought was the fantastic single by Billy Joel "Uptown Girl". Like the millions of viewers that tune into it every week her favourite TV program is the soap Eastenders. The most expensive thing she has bought so far was her Suzuki jeep which she bought from her brother.

Recently Lisa showed everyone that she could stand up to the big boys when she joined the set of celebrity contestants on the comedy quiz show 'Never Mind The Buzzcocks'. She proved that there was more to this Stepper than just singing and dancing as she got the whole audience rolling with laughter with her answers to questions. In the future Lisa is going to be busy with all things STEPS. They are still on their record breaking tour and will be touring again in May 2000, so catch Lisa live at one of the band's gigs. You will also be able to see Lisa singing all the latest songs with the rest of your fave band on TV shows and on the radio as they perform the new single. And keep an eye open for L.

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Page Updated Fri Apr 19, 2002 4:55pm EDT