S Club 7's Paul Cattermole died earlier this year, just weeks after the band announced they were reuniting and going on tour.
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Loading audio...S Club's Rachel Stevens, Jo O’Meara, Bradley McIntosh, Jon Lee and Tina Barrett have opened up about the heartbreaking moment they were told about the death of their friend and bandmate Paul Cattermole.
Paul, who was 46-years-old when he passed, died of natural causes at his home in Dorset on the 6th April 2023.
The tragic death came just seven weeks after the popular 90s/00s band announced they were reuniting and heading back out on tour to perform their hits Reach, Have You Ever, Don't Stop Movin' and Bring It All Back.
Now, the band have opened up about the passing of their friend in an interview with The Sun, recalling the moment they were first told about Paul's death.
S Club shared that they had all become concerned about Paul after they were unable to contact him on the phone.
Jon, 41, recalled: “We’d done a Zoom call with him, all of us, on the Monday. Then our management had messaged him a few times and it hadn’t shown that it’d been read on WhatsApp.
“So it was like, ‘Is he all right?’ But then it was like, ‘Yeah it’s Paul. You know, sometimes he doesn’t answer his phone’.
“Then the next day I phoned him and messaged him. Everyone was trying to get hold of him...and no one could."
Speaking of the moment she found out Paul had died, Joe, 44, said: “Our management called. Me and Jon were the first to hear. It was about half past nine on the Thursday night."
“I think I just went completely silent at first. It was awful."
Jon added: “It was like someone had punched me in the stomach."
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S Club release statement confirming re-named reunion tour
Tina, 46, went on to say: “I was at home with my son, we were just watching TV and I picked up the call. At first I was just like, ‘This isn’t real...it can’t be real. You’ve made a mistake’."
She added: “I still can’t believe it’s real.”
The band have now released a new song, These Are The Days, a tribute to Paul, with the music video including footage of their memories of him.
View this post on InstagramHannah Spearitt, 42, pulled out of the reunion tour following the death of Paul, who she previously had a romantic relationship with; the pair dated from 2001 to 2006 and rekindled their romance for a short time in 2015.
Speaking to The Sun back in April of this year, Hannah said: “I don’t quite believe that it’s real. I still can’t believe I will never see him again.
“It’s all the more tragic because he was looking forward to the tour the most out of all of us. He just wanted to have fun and enjoy it.”
Read more:
- S Club 7 star Paul Cattermole's cause of death confirmed as natural causes
- S Club 7 confirm tour will go ahead without Hannah Spearritt following Paul Cattermole's death
- S Club 7's Jo O'Meara "devastated" over death of bandmate Paul Cattermole
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