August 23, 20177 yr Author 26. NEVER FELT LIKE THIS BEFORE- SHAZNAY LEWIS (54,000) PEAK POSITION: 8 WKS ON CHART: 10 YEAR: 2004 Always being viewed as the talented one in All Saints (she co-wrote most of the All Saints hits) had its own expectations, and Lewis was thought to be a shoo in for a string of hits. Her first release was co-written and produced by Rick Nowels himself no stranger to a big hit and was a reasonably big single by 2004 standards but she failed to ignite as a major popstar. She’s gone back to writing for others since including “Black Heart” for StooShe. qXNPvF6v_VU
August 23, 20177 yr Nathan Sykes - and indeed The Wanted - were classic examples of knowing the right people and being signed to the right people over talent (i.e. your label owning shares in the Capital network and the TV company that produces The X Factor). I completely forgot about Mikey Graham's one, sweet if inoffensive Bryan Adams type ditty. I do remember now what you said Gezza that there was a lot of initial hype in so far as Stephen Gately's single 'New Beginning' (which I imagine we'll be meeting shortly) was being released the same week and they were hyping it as the 'Chart Battle of Boyzone' a la Geri Halliwell and Emma Bunton the previous year. Alas Sonique and S Club 7 had the top 2 on lockdown for pretty much all of June so there was no chance of that happening! Love Shaznay's album. 'Never Felt Like This Before' is I'd say probably the least indicative of what was on there but most accessible to be a first single - in fact a lot of the tracks on it almost acted like a blueprint for what All Saints would explore on their 'Studio 1' album two years after this. Immensely talented writer though, and very sweet lady - she was really chatty when I met All Saints on their comeback tour last year.
August 23, 20177 yr Shaznay has the only decent song so far in this list . Edited August 23, 20177 yr by vibe
August 24, 20177 yr Got a lot to get through firstly did not know that Shane Filan went solo, never heard that song before and didn't miss much, kinda dull and boring, basically just like Westlife, if he started his solo career sooner say about 2007 or '08, then he might have stood a chance. Nicola Roberts = love that song and still do, it deserved to be massive and it's much better than any of the solo output on Cheryl Cole's last 3 albums. Aston Merrygold = Another surprise, didn't know he went solo either and can see why that didn't take off, talk about a discount Bruno Mars, everything about it was just so forgettable, and again he should have went solo sooner, and doubt his upcoming appearance on Strictly Come Dancing will do anything for his solo career, not in this day and age. Alesha Dixon = Really liked 'Lipstick' at the time, and wow those sales were low, thought it sold a lot more than that. Even her follow up 'Knock You Down' was a load of fun, glad she had another chance at a solo career, coz 'The Boy Does Nothing' is still awesome, as is 'Breathe Slow' & 'Let's Get Excited', both very much of their time, but both are banging tunes.
August 24, 20177 yr Kelle Bryan = 'Higher Than Heaven' was nice enough, but her voice was just too weak in opinion and a little out of her range, I also remember the Bardot version and they did a pretty solid job of it. Shame her album 'Breakfast In Bed' got scrapped, it would have been interesting to see how that would have fared, and do remember her scrapped follow up single 'I Wanna Know' which I doubt would have done anything chart wise if it did get released. Nathan Sykes = I liked The Wanted, they did have some really cracking tunes 'Glad U Came', 'All Time Low' & 'Chasing The Sun' all of which are amazing. But never connected with his solo stuff 'Kiss Me Quick' was just boring and doesn't go anywhere, even his further releases didn't do anything for me. To be honest I doubt his career will get past the 2nd album. Mikey Graham = Yet again another surprise that totally passed me by, coz I do remember Stephen Gately's solo single, but don't remember this at all, despite the fact it was released the same week. Another forgettable song that lacks that special something. Shaznay Lewis = Highly underrated, shame she never took off as 'Never Felt Like This Before' was a really good song and had reasonable success on the UK charts, and her album was really decent, but releasing 'You' as the 2nd single was a huge mistake, even though it was decent and really moving, I just found it way too soon and should have released something more upbeat like 'Nasty Boy' or 'Mr Dawg' , instead of releasing 2 downtempo songs in a row, they could have showed a different side to the album and peaked more interest. But sadly 'You' tanked and her solo career came to an end before it even got really started.
August 24, 20177 yr It's all been pretty awful so far bar Matt Willis and Nicola Roberts To a lesser extent, Astin
August 25, 20177 yr Author 25. ARMY OF LOVERS- LEE RYAN (64,000) PEAK POSITION: 3 WKS ON CHART: 9 YEAR: 2005 A spot of acting in Eastenders has revived his career after a Blue comeback was a middling success (11th in Eurovision) and a top 20 single but way back in 2005 Ryan got a decent start with this. His comments about Whales in the wake of 9/11 may have cost the group a US contract but that was all forgotten and the single even went to No 1………..in Italy. 9GrJUtkO17o
August 25, 20177 yr Author 24. WORD UP- MEL G (78,000) http://www.vinyl-minded.com/images/7/752827.jpg PEAK POSITION: 14 WKS ON CHART: 8 YEAR: 1999 If only she hadn’t credited Missy Elliott then of course Mel B or G (as she was) would be much higher with “I Want You Back” but instead her first solo single was this Cameo cover. It featured on the soundtrack to “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me” but even that didn’t save it from ending up the lowest debut solo single from the spices. lObn93soI90
August 25, 20177 yr Mel B easily had my least favourite output of the solo Spices! I loved at least one single from the other four but sadly none of her stuff clicked with me in a major way.
August 25, 20177 yr 26. NEVER FELT LIKE THIS BEFORE- SHAZNAY LEWIS (54,000) PEAK POSITION: 8 WKS ON CHART: 10 YEAR: 2004 Always being viewed as the talented one in All Saints (she co-wrote most of the All Saints hits) had its own expectations, and Lewis was thought to be a shoo in for a string of hits. Her first release was co-written and produced by Rick Nowels himself no stranger to a big hit and was a reasonably big single by 2004 standards but she failed to ignite as a major popstar. She’s gone back to writing for others since including “Black Heart” for StooShe. qXNPvF6v_VU Great song. She needed to release a better 2nd single and build from there though. Also love that Mrl B cover and THAT VIDEO :wub:
August 26, 20177 yr Lee Ryan = I remember when the critics were praising the hell out of his solo stuff back in the day, talk about overrated, I simply just found his stuff boring 'Army Of Lovers' just didn't do anything for me, and to be honest I'd totally forgotten all about it until now. Thought a #3 hit would have sold more than 64,000, wow that's low, if I remember correctly none of his follow up songs went top 10, they must have sold miserably, I remember when he got dropped, which I thought was a tad harsh considering he had 3 top 20 hits and a top 10 album. But with those sales I can see why. Mel G or B = Or whatever the hell she was calling herself, I totally agree I never liked any of her songs apart from 'Feels So Good', I actually bought her debut album back in the day (coz I was MASSIVE Spice Girls fan) and had to have everything they brought out, and remembering that her album was dreadful, can't remember a single song on it apart from the singles and they weren't up to much. Didn't she have a follow up album that went to #256 or something, coz I remember the lead single 'Today' and that was the biggest piece of trash I'd ever heard.
August 26, 20177 yr I enjoyed Mel B version of word up . The video slayed too. I can remember at the time of release when it was underperforming she would ring capital fm and complain that they wasn't playing the track .
August 28, 20177 yr Author 23. SHUT UP (AND FORGET ABOUT IT)- DANE BOWERS (82,000) PEAK POSITION: 9 WKS ON CHART: 5 YEAR: 2001 Equally famous for being in Another Level and dating Jordan, Bowers had featured on two tracks before he got brave and went solo. This is apparently about his relationship with Jordan if you believe the rumour of the time. XTA9H4jNIXQ
August 28, 20177 yr Author 22. NOT SUCH AN INNOCENT GIRL- VICTORIA BECKHAM (88,000) PEAK POSITION: 6 WKS ON CHART: 11 YEAR: 2001 Anyone who was around the week this was released will recall the daily updates on “The Big Breakfast” with sales of this single and Kylie’s “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head”, naturally it soon became apparent that this wasn’t going anywhere No 1 and it eventually went in at No 6 after selling 36,000 copies. By Co-incidence Rob Davies (former guitarist with 70s group Mud) wrote both the Kylie track and the Spiller record which had denied her first “feature” hit “Out Of Your Mind” the previous year! Dl15xG3cHd4
August 28, 20177 yr Author 21. WHAT YOU GOT- ABS (96,000) PEAK POSITION: 4 WKS ON CHART: 11 YEAR: 2002 Sean Conlon’s mysterious “Illness” in the summer of 2001 signaled the beginning of the end for Five who couldn’t really continue without the requisite number of members (and in the times before the Sugababes established the principle of just hiring a new member), so the group called it a day later that year which gave Abs the perfect opportunity of aiming for a summer hit. The “Uptown Top Ranking” sampling single “What You Got” saw him land a top 5 single, another couple of hit followed before the album tanked and he was released. o8EG12aDrk0
August 28, 20177 yr Dane Bowers = Wow that song was dreadful, talk about no rhythm whatsoever, surprised it even got as high as #9, even the dance routine was embarrassing. Victoria Beckham = I actually bought her debut album the day it came out and it wasn't half bad, okay she didn't have the strongest singing voice, but she had the star quality and 'Not Such An Innocent Girl' is a campy bop. Even the follow up single was okay enough 'A Mind Of It's Own', her voice sounded really good on that, but it shouldn't have been the 2nd single though, I think she should have went with 'Like That' or 'Midnight Fantasy'. Shame she didn't release her 2nd album as some of the leaked tracks were pretty decent, and really enjoyed the lead singles 'This Groove/Let Your Head Go', they were awesome. Plus I do remember the chart battle between her and Kylie, it was everywhere and couldn't escape it, of course Kylie was gonna win, there was no competition really. Abs = Yeah 'What You Got' was a pretty fun bop for it's time, but the follow up 'Stop Sign' was miles better and highly underrated.
August 29, 20177 yr 22. NOT SUCH AN INNOCENT GIRL- VICTORIA BECKHAM (88,000) PEAK POSITION: 6 WKS ON CHART: 11 YEAR: 2001 Anyone who was around the week this was released will recall the daily updates on “The Big Breakfast” with sales of this single and Kylie’s “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head”, naturally it soon became apparent that this wasn’t going anywhere No 1 and it eventually went in at No 6 after selling 36,000 copies. By Co-incidence Rob Davies (former guitarist with 70s group Mud) wrote both the Kylie track and the Spiller record which had denied her first “feature” hit “Out Of Your Mind” the previous year! Dl15xG3cHd4 :wub: :wub: One of my fave songs of ALL TIME!! Sheeple sidn't buy it as thw Sun etc poisoned them against her and so they bought Kylie instead. Pathetic.
August 29, 20177 yr :wub: :wub: One of my fave songs of ALL TIME!! Sheeple sidn't buy it as thw Sun etc poisoned them against her and so they bought Kylie instead. Pathetic. Erm she debuted at 6 so you can't blame the kylie track B-)
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