All Saints (group) location of formation London
History
1993–1996: Formation and line-up changes
Melanie Blatt and Shaznay Lewis started their career by singing backing vocals at Sarm West Studios, the ZTT recording studios near All Saints Road, London. In 1993, Blatt, Lewis and Simone Rainford were signed to ZTT Records, and Sugababes music manager Ron Tom decided the trio should become a group. "One of the names was Spice, but we didn't think it was good enough" admitted Simone. Some of the others names they considered included Slinky and Shifty, but ended up calling themselves All Saints 1.9.7.5. after the recording studio and the year of their births. They were launched as a trio for their first time at the Touch Magazine stage at the Notting Hill Carnival. But the problems started when the trio could not decide on what kind of music they wanted to make. They released their first single in 1994, "Silver Shadow", but it only peaked in the lower regions of the charts. Additionally, Rainford was not getting along very well with the other girls, and subsequently left the group in 1995. After one more release, the remaining duo was dropped by ZTT Records.Regardless, Blatt and Lewis set out to find a replacement for Rainford. Conducting many auditions, Blatt's father, a taxi driver at the time, met Nicole Appleton in May 1996 whom Blatt knew from her days at the Sylvia Young Theatre School. However, Blatt was too embarrassed to ask Appleton to join the band, so she left it to the normally shy Lewis to ask her. "We gave her the low-down on everything and played her some demos, which she loved", she said. "She sang to me in the bathroom of a restaurant and we knew right away she'd be perfect. I was like, 'Cool! She can join!' And that was that". Nicole's older sister, Natalie Appleton, at first pondered with the idea of becoming the band's manager. However, it seemed natural that she should be a part of it, according to Lewis. Natalie had to be persuaded to join the band, because she did not want to leave her daughter Rachel whilst she was overseas, but her parents stepped in and offered to look after their granddaughter for her.
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