Everyone has to start somewhere. And long before Steps were a twinkle in Pete Waterman’s eyes, vocal powerhouse Claire Richards was trying to make her mark on the music industry in a 90s girlband called TSD.
The band, which comprised of Claire, and two other gals Cozi Costi and Bonnie Rachanski, launched themselves in 1996 with a very 90s sounding dance tune called Heart And Soul. Although incredibly catchy with a powerful and euphoric chorus, the tune sadly poked its twitchy little nose into the charts at an embarrassingly low No. 69, probably because you can’t make out Claire’s sensational and unique voice in the mix.
The girls, whose name came from picking three random letters out of a Scrabble bag, didn’t give up, bless ’em, and tried for a second attempt at chart domination with an awful cover of old tune Baby I Love You. Sadly topping the charts escaped them, faring only slightly better than their first single, peaking at No. 64.
Several months later, Claire had ditched the gals and before you could chant 5,6,7,8, was dandy dancing in Steps. And the rest, as they say is history!
Here’s Claire in the video for Heart And Soul where the poor love looks like she nipped out for lunch from her job on reception to shoot the vid.
And are the TSD girls in the video for their awful follow-up Baby I Love You, which features Tony Blackburn announcing their single No.1. Er, wishful thinking, girls!
This is how she reacted to seeing the videos years later…
And here’s our Claire doing what we love her for best in Steps!
Fingers crossed our Claire is announced as our Eurovision hopeful in February!