The Boys On Drugs, Sex And Fame


Jon

Embarrassed Jon Lee has spoken for the first time about being caught smoking cannabis - and has vowed never to touch drugs again. The 19-year-old says: "It was a one-off. I don't think cannabis should be legalised and I won't ever be having it again.

"We know we made a mistake but we apologised straight away and I think people respected that. "Our fans really stuck by us and we got a lot of support from them. "We never arrived and said, 'Hello we're S Club 7, we're squeaky clean.' This image was bestowed on us because that is what we looked like. We are seven normal kids. "But we know we did wrong and we regret it."

Despite his tender age, Jon certainly takes the job seriously - and has even turned down relationships because of it. He claims: "I don't have a love life. I'm so busy at the moment - I haven't had a relationship the whole time I have been in S Club. "I feel I don't have enough time to think about myself and my family, let alone someone else."

Jon always knew he would be famous. From the age of four he was the star of all the plays at his Devon school. By the time he was 11 he was appearing as Oliver on the London stage. He then attended the Sylvia Young stage school where he was in the year above the new Mrs Evans, Billie Piper, and the year below Scott from Five. Jon even appeared in EastEnders as Josh Haye, the son of Julie, who Nigel Bates moved to Scotland with.

The singer says he takes being a member of the band very seriously. "To me it is not a joke, it is my profession," he stresses. "I am very sensible with my money - I watch it carefully. "I love what I do and the day I stop enjoying being in S Club 7 is the day I leave. Kids see us having fun and they want to be part of it."

But he is already thinking about a non-S Club 7 future and has laid down tracks for an album with Paul and Bradley. Jon says: "After S Club I would like a solo career. I'd also really love to go back to musical theatre."

Yet despite this old head on young shoulders Jon admits to being the band's biggest mummy's boy. He has bought a three-bedroom cottage, which is five minutes from his parents' Kent home. He says: "My parents have been brilliant - even over the drugs thing - and I really miss them when I don't see them every day."


Bradley

Bradley McIntosh always dreamed of appearing on Top Of The Pops - the way his parents did in the mid Eighties. But not even mum and dad Lorraine and Steve, stars of London soul band Cool Notes, imagined how successful their son would become. Bradley, from South London, says: "From the first time I picked up drum sticks when aged four I was hooked on music. And while mum and dad never pushed me into the business I always thought, 'This is what I want to do'."

But the 19-year-old sex symbol admits he nearly came unstuck with his womanising ways. He said: "After leaving school, I worked at Pizza Hut in the theme park Chessington World Of Adventure. "I had stupidly taken it for granted that because my parents were in the music business it would be easy for me.

"I saw it as perfect to ogle the ladies and thought it was one long holiday. I was spending more time chatting to the girls than making pizzas and so it came as no surprise when they sacked me." But Pizza Hut's loss was S Club 7's gain and within weeks he'd been signed up by the band's mastermind, Simon Fuller.

And now he's met a girl who, he claims, has put him on the straight and narrow. He says: "I don't want to say too much about her because it's early days but she's called Laura and she's good for me. "I was living life to the full for a long time but meeting her has made me realise there's more to life than clubbing every night. "And to be honest we're working so hard now on the new tour I don't think I'd manage to make it past 10pm now, so she's come along at just the right time."

Being in the band is everything to him and the drugs incident left him shocked. He said: "I really regret the drugs episode. It really taught us a lesson."

In the future, Bradley hopes to write more material and move into management. He says: "I love my job. We have made lots of fans happy with our music and that's what we will continue to do. "There is no other business I want to be in. For now, S Club 7 is my life."


Paul

Paul Cattermole looked out into the swaying audience packed with screaming kids and there she was, the woman of his dreams. Yet it was no teenage girl fan who had caught his eye - it was a 30-year-old mother. Paul says: "I seem to be the member of the band who attracts the older fans and, to be honest, I can't get enough of it. "Though I love our young fans, if there's one thing I could change it would be so we appealed to women aged 28 rather than eight.

"What 24-year-old single bloke in their right mind wouldn't want the attention of gorgeous women between 25 and 30? "Sadly though, most of those women that seem to find me attractive are married with kids and I'm too young to be taking on children just yet."

But Paul admits he would make one exception to that rule if Aussie supermodel Elle MacPherson knocked on his dressing room door. The singer, who went to the same drama school as Spice Girl Emma Bunton, says: "She really does it for me. I would certainly consider Elle - or Jennifer Lopez."

But Paul, who split from his long-term girlfriend last year, is in no rush to fall in love again, despite enjoying a couple of casual flings. They included one that he admits could have developed into something more serious had he not ruined it. He met the girl in a pub in his home town of St Albans, Herts, where he still lives. Paul dated her a few times but then lost his mobile with all her numbers on it and hasn't been able to track her down since. He says: "Her name was Miranda and she was really cute. So if she's reading this I ask her to get in touch. I lost your number, truthfully."

Paul adds: "I split up from my last proper girlfriend because the pressure of being on the road for so long took its toll. "Being away for up to three months was too much. While it was hard to break up with somebody you've been with for four years, it was for the best. Now I'm looking to the future."

But Paul, who trained as an actor at Barnet College and then went on to study drama at Mountview Art College in North London, nearly went for a career in rock rather than pop. After leaving college he fronted two heavy rock bands. But a call from Simon Fuller changed all that. Paul says: "I was initially very dubious and thought I was selling out a bit. But looking back, it was the best thing I could have done."


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