Shaznay Lewis | New Music And Songs | Shaznay Lewis About Shaznay Lewis The driving force behind the hugely popular All Saints, Shaznay Lewis was one of the most successful pop songwriters of the early noughties. Born in Islington, London, in 1975, Lewis grew up listening to Bob Marley and Johnny Mathis. As a teenager, she played three matches for Arsenal Ladies F.C., before she formed All Saints 1.9.7.5. after meeting Mel Blatt and Simone Rainford at a recording studio on All Saints Road in 1993. After Rainford left, the pair recruited sisters Natalie and Nicole Appleton, and dropped the numbers from their name. The group went on to become Spice Girls' main' chart rivals, scoring five chart-topping singles and two number one albums before disbanding in 2001. Three years later, Lewis became the final member to release a solo album, after signing a deal with London Records. Open, which featured the Top Ten single "Never Felt Like This Before," reached number 22.

In 2006, All Saints re-formed for a new studio album, Studio 1. Lewis appeared in the film Bend It Like Beckham, provided guest vocals for the Wideboys' Top 40 hit "Daddy O," and won an Ivor Novello Award in 2001 for "Pure Shores." ~ Jon O'Brien, Rovi Hear more of Shaznay Lewis - News NEWS 5 October 2015 3:01 AM, PDT | National Ledger | See recent National Ledger news » All Saints are set to make a comeback. The 90s girl group are reportedly ''really excited'' about working on new music and all four members - Mel Blatt , Shaznay Lewis , Nicole Appleton and Natalie Appleton - are on board. A source said: ''The girls are really excited but the decision to make new music almost happened by accident. They had a great time supporting the Backstreet Boys on tour last year performing their old hits and thought there would be no harm done if they messed about together in the studio.

''The stuff they came up with sounded so good they thought, 'Shall we just go for it?' The songs are mainly being written with Shaznay as usual, and have the All Saints vibe running through them, but it's still very modern and pop.'' And the insider insists there is no rivalry between the 'Never Ever' hitmakers and the Spice Girls , » 28 May 2015 12:10 AM, PDT | The Hollywood News | See recent The Hollywood News news » We strive to cover as many theatre productions as physically possible here at Thn, and love it when one comes our way that ties into film at the same time. Sure we’ve had some duds over the years, but there are also the gems that come our way too (we’re thinking Dirty Dancing , Billy Elliot and the brilliant Once to name a few). Now in previews but officially opening in a couple of weeks is the stage version of Gurinder Chadha ’s rather brilliant Bend It Like Beckham , which is probably most famous as being Keira Knightley ’s break-out movie.

The production officially opens at the end of June, and we hope to bring you a full review in the weeks leading up to the big opening night on the 24th, but for now here’s a very special, first-look at the cast in the musical. 22 March 2015 2:30 AM, PDT | Digital Spy | See recent Digital Spy - Movie News news » Cast your minds back to 2002 - a time when Pop Idols didn't need to have The X Factor , Fifty Shades of Grey were just colours on a paint sampler chart and David Beckham was a mere international superstar rather than global megastar. Bend It Like Beckham , with a modest estimated budget of £3.7 million, opened that same year and became a critical and commercial success - breaking box office records and scoring BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations, as well as making household names of many of its stars. As the cast continues preparing for the West End stage adaptation of Gurinder Chadha 's screen hit ahead of previews on May 15, find out what the movie's ensemble cast went on to achieve - including who is coming back for the musical...

Parminder Nagra (Jess Bhamra) Nominated for Best Newcomer at the Empire Awards on the back of the movie's success, Parminder went » 17 March 2015 10:00 PM, PDT | Bollyspice | See recent Bollyspice news » Gurinder Chadha and the cast of the West End show Bend It Like Beckham last night revealed the first song ‘UB2’ from the highly anticipated musical. The song is a tribute to Southall (postcode UB2) and features the cast setting the scene for the show.The accompanying video was shot on the streets of Southall before rehearsals began. The cast spent a day singing, dancing and stopping traffic, and took over one of the most iconic streets in west London. Chadha said of the filming and the track: “UB2 is where Jess lives, and where I lived.

We wanted to get people to start to feel the essence and heart of the music, and the best way was to bring it to life here in the heart of the community.” London previews begin for the new British musical Bend It Like Beckham on 15 May 2015 with opening night on 24 June 2015. 13 January 2015 7:00 AM, PST | Bollyspice | See recent Bollyspice news » Gurinder Chadha ’s hit film Bend It Like Beckham is being readied for the West End stage and following a host of auditions and workshops, the cast for the highly anticipated stage version Bend It Like Beckham the Musical has been formally announced. Natalie Dew will play football crazy Jess with Lauren Samuels as Jules, a player with the Harriers, a local women’s football team, and Jamie Campbell Bower as their coach Joe. The three young leads will be supported by some familiar faces, including comedian Ronni Ancona who plays Paula, Jules’s Mum, with Jamal Andréas as Jess’ good friend Tony.

Preeya Kalidas who appeared in the original film as one of the cousins, will take on the role of Pinky, Jess’ sister and Tony Jayawardena andNatasha Jayetileke take on the all important roles of her parents, Mr and Mrs Bhamra. Jess needs extra time. She is facing » - Press Releases When the Saint goes marching on - Telegraph Culture When the Saint goes marching on Shaznay Lewis was the heart and soul of All Saints, writing the songs that made the volatile girl group famous. Now she's launched a new career as an actress, playing the captain of a girls' football team. She talks to William Leith about ball skills, feeling broody and why the band split Girls together: the All Saints experience, says Shaznay, was something she 'endured' William Leith 12:00AM GMT 31 Dec 2001 Dressed in sleek, minimal black and sitting at a restaurant table in Notting Hill, Shaznay Lewis looks less like a member of a girl group and more like what she is - one of the richest self-made women in Britain.

She has her nose stud, of course - a glittering stone jammed into her left nostril - and she's struggling girlishly with the top of a bottle of mineral water. But none of her three tattoos - two on her back and one at the top of her right breast - are on display. (One tattoo is of a dragon annotated with her mother's name, Dolores; another is, she says, 'The Japanese sign for rabbit, or Chinese, which is my sign.') She is 26. Her group, All Saints, has recently split up, amid acrimony and a flurry of lawyers. Shaznay was the one who wrote the songs, so Shaznay is the one who got the lion's share of the money - and the acrimony. She gives up on the bottle of mineral water. She is smaller, slighter, sweeter and more delicately beautiful than I'd anticipated. In photographs she has always looked bolshy; on stage she moves around with an aggressive, butt-jiggling confidence. All Saints were a group full of attitude, a posture which influenced a generation of young female fans, and which eventually tore them apart.

But this girl seems shy; at first she almost simpers. Perhaps this is an act. People, she tells me, say, '"Oh, you're so different to how I expected. I thought you were going to be horrible." Sometimes I think I look sullen. Not that it bothers me. Loads of people come up to me and say, "Cheer up, love." I'm actually fine. I'm a million miles away, but I'm fine.' Lighting a Silk Cut Ultra Mild, Shaznay tells me how much her life has changed. She never particularly liked being a pop star. What she wanted to be, ever since she was a little girl, was a songwriter. 'I was definitely the most extrovert in my family,' she says. To illustrate this, she throws her head back and raises her arms. 'Laaa! Laaa! That was me. But that was just in the family situation. When I went into the music industry, I realised I was quite introvert.

A lot of people were so much more extrovert.' Related Articles 14 February 1998: Why All Saints are in pop heaven 31 Dec 2001 Now she and her partner of four years, a dancer called Christian Storm, have moved from London to a house in the country. It's a huge change, because they didn't even live together before. 'It's like a Tudor. Tudor with the beams. It's like a big Tudor house, a bit like a farmy type of house, surrounded by green. Very quiet. Very quiet indeed.' Now she wants to be an actress, as well as a singer/songwriter, and has taken a small part in Bend It Like Beckham , a very sweet and nicely directed film about a girls' football team, made by Gurinder Chadha, who did Bhaji on the Beach (1993) and What's Cooking? (2000). Acting, says Shaznay, is quite different from being a pop star. She is, she says, interested in the element of escape, of not having to be yourself. 'Yes,' she goes on. 'I would definitely act again.

It's totally different from singing.' At first she didn't like the idea of being in a football film; didn't like the idea of wearing shorts. She had been offered lead roles before, but just wanted to step into it lightly, and this cameo seemed perfect. When she read the script, she says, she just howled. She plays the team captain, delivers about five lines, and looks quite nifty on the ball, having been trained by her friend Mark Bright, the former Crystal Palace and Charlton striker. Was Bright brilliant? 'I don't know,' she says. 'I was just concentrating on my own game.' She orders a lamb casserole, and when it comes she picks at it delicately. She doesn't eat much, and says she hardly drinks alcohol. Was this a problem as a member of a famously hard-partying girl group? 'You'd be lucky if you got me to go out now!' she says. 'In my early twenties I went out like everybody else, had a laugh, but there's only so much laughing you can do. I don't have a very big tolerance to alcohol.

Two glasses of champagne and I'd be unconscious and throw up and have to be taken home.' Even though Shaznay was the heart and soul of All Saints, she always appeared to be the odd one out, different to the other girls. She was black; they were white. She grew up on a council estate; they trained at the Sylvia Young Theatre School. There was Melanie Blatt, who's had a baby with the former bass-player of Jamiroquai, Nicole Appleton, who's had a baby with Liam Gallagher, and Nicole's sister Natalie, who's gone out with Jamie Theakston and Jonny Lee Miller. When I say the words 'the Appletons', there is definitely an atmosphere. As white girls who dressed black - combat trousers, crop tops - Melanie Blatt and the Appleton sisters helped to define the attitude of a generation of young women. They were perfect paparazzi fodder; Shaznay, on the other hand, tended to stay in the studio and write the songs - catchy, glossy pop songs with an R&B influence. They sound as if they are about real, adult emotions, rather than fake girl-group sentiments.

'Never Ever', a haunting lament about being dumped, which Shaznay wrote with the record producers Robert Jazayeri and Sean Mather, was one of the biggest hits of 1998. When, in 1999, the other three girls were off playing parts in Dave Stewart's film Honest , Shaznay wrote ' Pure Shores ' for the band with William Orbit who's produced Madonna, among others. Honest bombed; 'Pure Shores' was the second biggest-selling single of 2000. The All Saints experience, says Shaznay, was something she 'endured'. She describes it as 'five years of good times and a laugh, but there's not much to hold on to.' At one point a friend of the band said, 'Mel and Shaznay can't stand the Appletons.

They think the sisters treat the band like one long glossy magazine photoshoot.' There were catfights and hair-pulling in the studio; once Nicole Appleton hit Shaznay over the head with a microphone and declared, 'All I want for Christmas is a new band.' Perhaps more seriously, Natalie Appleton discovered that her microphone had been switched down to a low level before a performance; she blamed Shaznay. Nicole Appleton told the press, 'Well, if we're gonna have a fight, we'll have a fight. We're not going to say, "Let's go somewhere in private and have a fight." We've had loads of fights.' Shaznay looks at me sideways, her hair, which no longer has blonde streaks in it, falling across her face. She says, 'It's a shame, but, hey, it's a lot stronger to love than hate, and I wish everybody well.' Why did they split up? 'Enough was enough,' she says. 'When there's a vibe, you all know.

And there was a vibe, and it wasn't right.' The Appleton sisters, she says, 'were the ones who were tired enough, or just brave enough, to end it.' She is still friendly with Melanie Blatt. 'It's actually quite strange,' she says. 'Up till now, our relationship has always been about music. We've been friends, but we've always had to be business partners for all those years. So to just concentrate on the friendship - it's beautiful, but it's also quite strange.' And does she still see the Appletons? She looks at me and says, 'No.' She shakes her head slowly. Does she think she'll be seeing them in the future? 'No,' she says again, in a tone which speaks volumes. She takes a ferocious drag on her cigarette and says, 'I'm going to give up smoking soon.' She pauses for a while, then says, 'I'm going to wait till I'm pregnant.' Pregnant? This is a change: she once said, 'A friend told me that when you get broody and you see a kid, you just want one of your own.

I can't imagine that life.' A few years ago, Melanie Blatt told the press that her pregnancy had caused a rift between her and Shaznay; now Shaznay tells me, of her impending pregnancy, 'Oh my God, I can't wait!' Her new, family-friendly house, a 45-minute drive from London, couldn't be more different from the place where she grew up, a council estate off the Caledonian Road in Islington. Her father was a bus driver from Barbados; her mother was a dinner-lady from Jamaica. She has a sister, Elaine, who is 12 years older and works for Islington Council. She says she was happy at school, where she didn't come across any racism, and happy at home, where she spent a lot of time on her own. And this might have been the making of her; she stayed in her bedroom, singing her favourite songs into a tape recorder and playing them back to herself. She didn't watch much telly. Instead, 'I used to pretend to be a radio DJ. I used to record myself, like Foxy or someone, introducing the charts. I was at home on my own, that was how I would entertain myself.

I didn't play with Barbie dolls. I was about nine. I'd interview my dad if he was passing, or my mum. Shit, that's maybe what I want to do - have my own talk show.' She liked Chaka Khan, Tina Turner, Bob Marley and Johnny Mathis. 'I harmonised along to Johnny Mathis,' she tells me, 'and I know that those harmonies were right, because I remember not too long ago, a Johnny Mathis record came on the radio and I automatically sang the way I did as a child.' At school, she said, she was a tomboy. But she got a group of girls together and practised dance routines with them, which they would perform in front of the school. 'Looking back,' she says, 'I was always the leader. Yeah.' When she was 14, her parents divorced. Was this a terrible time? 'Oh no,' she says. 'I absolutely loved it.' Then she says, 'No, I did, in the sense that I saw my mother become more free. For me, it wasn't terrible at all, and I wouldn't have changed the way things turned out for the world.

I saw a different side to my mother - just being able to pay more attention to herself. The generation my mother's from, it's very, "Do things for the husband, make sure his food's on the table". So when they split, she had more time to herself. And I was very happy for her.' Soon after her father left home Shaznay had her nose pierced. 'That was as far as I'd go to be a bit of a rebel teenager,' she says. 'It hurt like hell. I remember screaming, and regretting it, and turning around to the man in the shop, and saying, "No, no, no, I don't want it done!" And he said, "It's already in." I thought he'd just pierced the hole, and then he was going to have to put the thing in. But it was already in. The next day it hurt.

It hurt for a while, because you weren't allowed to have piercings at my school, so every single day I'd have to take it out, and it hurt because the hole would start to close.' After she left school, just around the time that her nose was healing around the stud, she got a job as a session singer in a studio in the All Saints Road, where she met another teenage session singer called Melanie Blatt, and had the idea of forming a band. Now she drives to a studio in London a few days a week, working on a new set of songs. She loves the drive. She works until about eight o clock so she can drive back when the traffic is light. The new songs, she says, are 'The same as what I always wrote about - mainly about love.' She has, she says, only been in love once, with her current boyfriend. So when she wrote 'Never Ever', about an ex who dumped her, she hadn't been in love? 'No,' she says. 'I'd say I was a teenager and thought I was.' Still, even if she doesn't always write about real emotion, she hates the recent trend towards manufactured pop. She loathes it.

'All of it,' she says. 'All of it. It's one big con. You're conning the people who are the most important. Adults don't get taken by it, but children do, and when we're gone, these are the people who are going to have to produce great music, and I don't think that pushing manufactured bands in their face is giving them a chance. They're pulling the wool over children's eyes. When I was a kid, the music I listened to wasn't like that.' And now Shaznay wants a kid of her own. She's nesting. When she's at home with her boyfriend, she says, 'we're always in each other's pockets'. Her broodiness, she says, has become a physical sensation. 'Definitely,' she says. She turns the thought over in her mind. 'Definitely.

Definitely.' She lights another cigarette and says, 'I can't watch a kid go by without staring at it and being scared that its mother thinks you're going to kidnap it or something!' Taking one more fierce, furious drag, she smiles and says, 'You'll know I'm pregnant when I suddenly don't smoke.' 'Bend It Like Beckham' opens on Friday Shaznay Lewis : definition of Shaznay Lewis and synonyms of Shaznay Lewis (English) 5 External links Biography Shaznay Lewis was a member of the popular girl group All Saints (1996–2001 and 2006–2009). Her musical influences include rap and Missy Elliott ; in addition, she grew up listening to Bob Marley and Johnny Mathis . As a teenager Lewis played three matches for Arsenal Ladies , a successful ladies' football team in London, UK. She returned to football in the 2002 hit movie Bend It Like Beckham in the role of the team captain and can be seen playing football in several training and match scenes. Lewis had been entering singing contests since the age of thirteen.

At a party she was introduced to Ben Volpeliere-Pierrot of Curiosity Killed the Cat by her friends who took her to the Metamorphisis recording studios on All Saints Road, London and started doing backing vocals. [2] It was at the Metamorphosis recording studios where she met Melanie Blatt in 1993 and they proceeded to record together. Together with Simone Rainford they formed the group All Saints 1.9.7.5 which was later renamed All Saints . Soon after Rainford left the group and Nicole and Natalie Appleton joined. Lewis was the most active songwriter of the All Saints and was responsible for writing most of their songs including many hits. In 2001 she won the Ivor Novello Award for best songwriting. After the group broke up, Lewis released her debut solo single " Never Felt Like This Before " in July 2004. It reached no. 8 and is taken from the Top 30 album Open . The next single released was " You " which charted at #56 and which featured a romantic video with an image of her husband in the clouds. Lewis has also appeared in several films.

In Bend it like Beckham (2002) she played Mel. She also played a role in Hideous Man (2002). On 14 November 2004 Shaznay was involved in the Band Aid 20 re-recording of " Do They Know It's Christmas ". [3] On 21 August 2004 Lewis married dancer Christian "Storm" Horsfall. They had her first child, a son named Tyler-Xaine, in February 2006. On 24 January 2006 it was announced that All Saints had reformed with a new recording contract and would release a new album, Studio 1 on 13 November 2006. [4] She performed with All Saints on live television for the first time since reforming on the UK light entertainment program, Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway on 21 October 2006. All Saints' comeback began well, with their single, "Rock Steady" , reaching no. 3 in the UK charts. They quickly followed this with the release of their comeback album Studio 1 . The album peaked at no. 40 in the UK album charts.

Parlophone Records then released their second single " Chick Fit ", but this failed to reach the top 200. All Saints then parted with the record label. In January 2008 Lewis featured on the Wideboys track, "Daddy O". [5] The single was released on 5 May 2008. Lewis is currently writing songs for other projects. She's credited as songwriter in Westlife 's track "Reach Out", which was featured on their 2009 album Where We Are , the CocknBullKid track "Distractions" from her 2011 album Adulthood and the Stooshe single " Black Heart ", released as a single in 2012. In November 2009, Lewis and her husband had their second child, a daughter named Tigerlily. Discography See also All Saints or All Saints discography for details of Lewis' releases with All Saints. Albums Shaznay Lewis - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia I am a simple man trying to live a simple life !!!!!!

Shaznay Lewis Birth name Tricia Marie Lewis Genres Soul, R&B, hip hop Labels London Records Movies Bend It Like Beckham Origin London, England Spouse Christian Storm (m. 2004) Children Tyler Xane Born 14 October 1975 (age 40) (1975-10-14) Occupation(s) Singer, songwriter, actress Shaznay lewis never felt like this before Sponsored Links Tricia Marie "Shaznay" Lewis (born 14 October 1975 in Islington, London) is a British singer, songwriter, former member of girl group All Saints. Lewis has co-written most of the group's songs, including number one singles: "Bootie Call", "Pure Shores", "Black Coffee" and international smash hit single "Never Ever". Lewis launched a short solo career in 2004 with her debut solo album, Open, and singles "Never Felt Like This Before" and "You". She currently writes for other artists such as Stooshe, co-writing their hit single "Black Heart" and co-writing for Mutya Keisha Siobhan.

1993-2001: All Saints At a party, Lewis was introduced to Ben Volpeliere-Pierrot of Curiosity Killed the Cat by her friends who took her to the Metamorphisis recording studios on All Saints Road, London, and started doing backing vocals. It was at the Metamorphosis recording studios where she met Melanie Blatt in 1993 and they proceeded to record together. Together with Simone Rainford they formed the group All Saints 1.9.7.5., which was later renamed All Saints. Soon after Rainford left the group and Nicole and Natalie Appleton joined. In 1997, All Saints experienced international success with BRIT Award-winning single "Never Ever", which is co-written by Lewis and topped the charts in the United Kingdom and Australia. The single sold over 1.2 million copies in the United Kingdom, being certified double platinum by the British Phonographic Industry. The same year the group released their debut album All Saints, most of the songs were co-written by Shaznay and the album reached number two in the United Kingdom. It was eventually ceritified platinum five times for sales of 1.5 million copies sold.

In 2000 the group released their fourth number one single "Pure Shores", written by Lewis and William Orbit the single was certified platinum by the BPI for sales of 600,000 copies sold. The group released their fifth number one single "Black Coffee", co-written by Lewis the single was certified silver for sales of 200,000 copies sold. In early 2001 All Saints broke up, and Lewis later explained that the catalyst for the break-up was a disagreement over who would wear a certain jacket for a photoshoot: "I would never in a million years have put money on the group ending over a jacket incident. But when that incident happened, it fired up so strong, it had to be over. And the way I was then, the state we'd got into then, there was no way she was getting that stupid jacket." The same year she won the Ivor Novello Award for best songwriting.

2002-04: Open In 2004, it was reported that Lewis would release her debut solo single "Never Felt Like This Before" on 5 July, which would precede her untitled debut solo album on which she'd worked with numerous writers and producers including: Basement Jaxx, Biz Markie, K-Gee, Bacon and Quarmby and Trevor Jackson. The single reached no. 8 in the United Kingdom. On 19 July she released her debut album Open, and it reached no. 22 in the United Kingdom. Later that year she released new single "You", which peaked at no. 56 in the United Kingdom. Sponsored Links Lewis has also appeared in several films. In Bend It Like Beckham (2002) she played Mel. She also played a role in Hideous Man (2002). On 14 November 2004 Shaznay was involved in the Band Aid 20 re-recording of "Do They Know It's Christmas".

2006-07: All Saints reunion On 24 January 2006, it was announced that All Saints had reformed with a new recording contract and would release a new album, Studio 1 on 13 November 2006. She performed with All Saints on live television for the first time since reforming on the British light entertainment program Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway on 21 October 2006. All Saints' comeback began well, with their single, "Rock Steady", reaching no. 3 in the UK Singles Chart. They followed this with the release of their comeback album Studio 1. It peaked at no. 40 in the UK Albums Chart. Parlophone Records then released their second single "Chick Fit", but this failed to reach the chart. All Saints then parted company with their record label. 2008-present: Songwriting career In January 2008, Lewis featured on the Wideboys track, "Daddy O". The single was released on 5 May 2008. Lewis is currently writing songs for other projects.

She is credited as songwriter in Westlife's track "Reach Out", which was featured on their 2009 album Where We Are, the CocknBullKid track "Distractions" from her 2011 album Adulthood and the Stooshe single "Black Heart", released as a single in 2012. In August 2012, it was reported Lewis was in the studio with original Sugababes line-up Mutya Keisha Siobhan, writing new material for their debut album. Personal life Lewis made three appearances for Arsenal L.F.C. when she was a teenager. On 21 August 2004, Lewis married dancer Christian "Storm" Horsfall. They had their first child, a son named Tyler-Xaine, in February 2006. In November 2009, Lewis and her husband had their second child, a daughter named Tigerlily.

Discography Shaznay Lewis - Listen to Free Music by Shaznay Lewis on Pandora Internet Radio more Shaznay Lewis The driving force behind the hugely popular All Saints , Shaznay Lewis was one of the most successful pop songwriters of the early noughties. Born in Islington, London, in 1975, Lewis grew up listening to Bob Marley and Johnny Mathis . As a teenager, she played three matches for Arsenal Ladies F.C., before she formed All Saints 1.9.7.5. after meeting Mel Blatt and Simone Rainford at a recording studio on All Saints Road in 1993. After Rainford left, the pair recruited sisters Natalie and Nicole Appleton, and dropped the numbers from their name. The group went on to become Spice Girls ' main' chart rivals, scoring five chart-topping singles and two number one albums before disbanding in 2001. Three years later, Lewis became the final member to release a solo album, after signing a deal with London Records. Open, which featured the Top Ten single "Never Felt Like This Before," reached number 22.

In 2006, All Saints re-formed for a new studio album, Studio 1. Lewis appeared in the film Bend It Like Beckham, provided guest vocals for the Wideboys ' Top 40 hit "Daddy O," and won an Ivor Novello Award in 2001 for "Pure Shores." ~ Jon O'Brien AlterDudes: Shaznay Lewis Shaznay Lewis Never Again Three years after All Saints, Shaznay Lewis is returning to the limelight. But what did she learn from the bitter split of one of the decade's most successful girl groups? Fiona Sturges finds out. 03 July 2004 Shaznay Lewis knew from the start that she would always be the outsider in All Saints. Soon after the notoriously volatile band signed their first major label deal with London records, she discovered that the rest of the girls - Mel Blatt and the Canadian sisters Nicole and Natalie Appleton - had presented the label head with a tape of vocal recordings they'd made without her. As it turned out, it was their version of Shaznay's own song "Never Ever" that made him sit up and pay attention.

"He asked who had written it, so then they were forced to come back and get me," she recalls ruefully. "Looking back on it, that was pretty low. I think that's why the whole time I knew that if I didn't write I'd be out on my ear." She's too polite to say it, of course, but Shaznay's had the last laugh. Having been the principal songwriter in the band, she now gets the lion's share of the royalties. She's also the only member of the group to have emerged with any artistic credibility. While her blonde counterparts were willing paparazzi fodder, with their relentless partying and roll-call of celebrity boyfriends, Shaznay remained in the background studiously churning out the hits. "I think that Nic and Nat saw that as a negative thing," she reflects despondently. "They used to make out it was the Shaznay show just because I was the only one that was allowed to write material. There were times when we tried to write songs together but we'd always end up fighting." I find Shaznay sitting on the sun-dappled terrace of a country hotel outside Great Yarmouth feeding chips to some unfeasibly hungry ducks.

The following day she is due to make her live début as a solo artist at the Channel 4-sponsored festival Pop Beach. With rehearsals over, she says she's making the most of the peace and quiet before the madness begins. The off-duty Shaznay is dressed in a black tracksuit with a baseball cap pulled low over her head. Beneath the sporting camouflage is an angelic face with big Bambi eyes and a girlish sprinkling of freckles across her cheeks. Her publicity shots always made her look pouty and serious but in person she is warm and giggly. Her conversation is punctuated with bawdy cackles that are so piercing they send the ducks running for cover. All Saints eventually called it a day in 2001 after an argument over who was going to wear a particular jacket for a photo shoot. The Appletons have since dished the dirt in their autobiography Together. Shaznay says the fight was the last straw for a band, which was already split down the middle, with neither side talking to the other. "Towards the end it became quite clear to me and Mel the difference in the four of us," she explains. "Nic and Nat were very much into the lifestyle.

To see two people not loving [the band] the way you do and not respecting it hurt a lot. That's why at the end there were no more conversations. You're bearing your soul about something you really love to someone who doesn't give a shit." Does she see the Appletons now? "No, I've not seen them for years but I do hope they're all right. I didn't read their book though from what I hear they came across as if they'd been through hell in the group, but, from where I'm standing, I can't see it. I know we had dodgy times, but we had good times too." Unlike the Appletons who've clung to their celebrity status like limpets to a rock, Shaznay's been off the radar for more than three years, save for a small role as the team captain in the hit film Bend It Like Beckham. A year ago she also appeared alongside Saffron Burrows and Emilia Fox in Hideous Man, a short film written and directed by John Malkovich, which was screened at the London Film Festival. How did she find Malkovich? "He was frighteningly intelligent though really quite shy," she replies.

"He wrote me a really nice letter saying 'Thank you', which I've still got up on my kitchen wall. I'll be saving that to show my kids." Happily, Shaznay was spared the humiliation of Honest, Dave Stewart's gangster flick in which the other Saints hoped to launch their film careers. The £4.2m film, which featured the girls indulging in orgies and drug-taking, took just £500 at the box office on its opening weekend. "Yeah, but that was due to Dave Stewart's dodgy writing," Shaznay protests. "What a dirty old man! His motives for casting them were clear though they obviously didn't see it. I think they were misled and ended up taking the shit for his film." These days Shaznay doesn't much care for the showbiz merry-go-round of parties, awards ceremonies and visits to The Ivy. She lives with her boyfriend of six years, Christian, whom she is due to marry later this year, in a large house in the Hertfordshire countryside. She makes regular trips to the studio in London though wherever possible she'll stay at home, taking long walks with her chocolate labrador or just "slobbing around" indoors.

She continues to receive a steady flow of film offers, many of them for leading roles, though she's wary of getting out of her depth. "I'm no fool," she giggles. "I know I'm not ready for any large roles just yet. Music is something that I've always done, but with acting it's different. It would be great to do something completely new but at 28 learning something like that can be hard. Anyway, I'm not killing myself to make it as a film star." Given Shaznay's reluctance to bask in the limelight, it's with more than a little trepidation that she's throwing herself back into the fray with her first solo album, Open, a sunny collection of funk, soul and reggae-inflected pop songs. She assumes, rather optimistically, that her comeback will be ignored by the paparazzi though she admits to feeling vulnerable at putting out an album under her own name - "It wasn't until recently that I thought to myself, 'Oh shit, people are actually going to hear it. What if they don't hear it the way I hear it?'" Her former bandmates were considerably quicker off the mark to get their solo careers off the ground.

Mel Blatt released her first single in the autumn of 2001 while the Appletons emerged with an album last year, to frosty critical reception. "They were a lot more up for it than I was to go back out there," Shaznay says. "I admired that in them actually. I always thought I was quite ballsy, but it made me think that they had a lot more balls than me." In fact, it only took a month for Shaznay to get back in the studio after the band's split. She spent a year recording demos, though at the end she could hear nothing she was prepared to release. "I was frustrated that, for the first time in my life, I didn't have a musical direction. I thought it might be a sign that I shouldn't be doing it anymore, that I should be grateful for what I've already achieved and move aside for someone else to have that same dream. But then my friends just told me not to be so stupid and get on with it." After two and a half years of indecision, Shaznay found her footing with the help of the producer Rick Nowells.

"Once we had written [the first single] 'Never Felt Like This Before' I felt at ease with myself, it was as if I'd found the new me. I realised there was no structure or style I had to adhere to and that I was free to experiment. After that it was very easy to write the rest of the album." Now, with the record finished and the single already playing on the radio, Shaznay must turn her attention to promotional duties. "I know it's part of the job and I'm prepared to do it," she sighs. "If there was a way I could just make the record, put it out and disappear, that would be heaven." Shaznay was born and bred on a council estate off the Caledonian Road in north London at a time "when everyone could leave their doors open." Her parents worked long hours - her mother as a school dinner lady, her father as a bus driver - so she spent a lot of time at neighbours' houses and larking about in the playground across the road. For a while she thought she might become a dancer - she tried tap and ballet but it was a contemporary dance class that finally put her off.

"I can't remember how old I was, but I got this leaflet for a class at the YMCA. I went down by myself and watched everyone contorting their bodies and crawling around the floor. My fascination with dance ended there and then. I was too shy." When she was 14 her parents got divorced although Shaznay claims not to have been damaged by this. "My mum was a toughie and when she ended it I saw a change for the better in her. She was able to look after herself rather than be stuck behind an ironing board or slaving at the cooker. She would put a bit of lipstick on and go out shopping and get her hair done. This was stuff I'd never seen her do before. I was really happy for her." Instead of getting a job when she left school, Shaznay signed on the dole so she could pursue her dream as a songwriter. When she was 18 she met Mel Blatt at the All Saints studio in west London and the pair formed the pop duo All Saints 1975, the figures signifying the year they were born.

They put out a single called "If You Wanna Party" on ZTT and toured the country playing to pissed-up clubbers at two in the morning. But the label proved resistant to their talents and they were dropped a year later. In 1995 Blatt got in contact with a former classmate at drama school called Nicole Appleton and asked if she'd like to join the group. "I was up for it," Shaznay remembers, "but there was no chance that Nic would have got away with being in a band without Nat. It was clear that there was a lot of rivalry there." Nowadays Shaznay needn't worry about difficult bandmates. But watching her in action at Pop Beach the following day, going solo sure looks like a lonely job. For most of the day she retains a wide-eyed, disorientated look as she mingles backstage with ex-Spice Girls, Fame Academy graduates and assorted EastEnders. By now glammed up in a skirt, strappy heels, and pretty green eyeshadow, she valiantly grins her way through the endless photo calls and vox pops.

It's only when she's asked to pose in front of a fake seaside scene holding a beach ball that the smile fades and she declines politely. Eventually, after a last-minute buffing from her stylist, the time comes for her to go on-stage. There, as the crowd scream themselves silly, she performs a faultless version of "Never Felt Like This Before". At last she is in her element, smiling broadly and touching hands with the fans at the front. Then, as quickly as it started, it's all over and it's time to go home. With palpable relief Shaznay climbs into the back of the waiting car, waves through the window and disappears back to the sanctity of her house, her fiancé and her dog. Her work is done, for now at least. The single 'Never Felt Like This Before' (London) is out on Monday. 'Open' is released on 19 July Album: Shaznay Lewis : Open, LONDON By Andy Gill 16 July 2004 Having resisted the temptation to rush into her post-All Saints career, Lewis finally gets around to her solo debut some four years after the group's dissolution.

And it must be acknowledged that, compared with last year's bland, indecisive offering from the Appleton sisters, Open is a considered and assured work, even if there's not, ultimately, much greater depth to it. Lewis has opted for a sound more in keeping with the Motown and reggae she grew up on, with the limber funk-soul of tracks such as "Mr Weatherman" and the ballad stylings of "Never Felt Like This Before" interspersed with mild reggae grooves such as "Now You're Gone", "Heart Made Me a Fool" and "Mr Dawg", a flea in the ear of an unwelcome suitor. The languid fusion stylings of "Don't Know What to Say" evoke the Motown sound on the cusp of its metamorphosis from Sixties soul to Seventies funk, while elsewhere "Butterflies" employs a frisky, updated Meters-style shuffle.

But the most intriguing and individual cut here has to be the self-explanatory "Dance", whose perky groove is not R&B or garage or house or, strictly, funk, but some hugely infectious amalgam of all four, deserving of rather more attention than the few nanoseconds Biz Markie must have expended on devising the most perfunctory rap for it. Posted by Joe el Misterioso at 11:50 AM

Question: Which member of the group All Saints appeared in Bend it like Beckham'? Shaznay Lewis or Nicole Appleton?7
Answer: Shaznay Lewis