Melanie Blatt has dashed hopes of an All Saints reunion – as she fears stepping on stage again.
The 49-year-old singer has a condition called Scoliosis – which essentially refers to a curvature of the spine or back bone – and had three metal rods inserted into her back, and she admits her body is “wonky” as a result, and the thought of performing and having a fall fills her with anxiety.
She told the Daily Star: “I’ll never say never, but right now we’re all doing our own thing. When we came back in 2014, we did two new albums.
“We were on top pretty much for eight years, so, you know, we’ve done it all. Shaz [Shaznay Lewis] is also releasing solo stuff, and it’s just amazing. So I’m here to support her at the moment, that’s my main focus.
“Also, I almost never want to go back on stage because I haven’t fallen, and I haven’t had a wardrobe malfunction. I’m scared if ever I go back, it’s bound to happen at some point.”
She said: “I’m a very wonky person. I have just come back from visiting my daughter, and I was staying at her husband’s aunt’s house.
“Unfortunately, the bathroom was covered in huge mirrors. I’ve never spent so much time looking at my back and my bum and the back of me, and it wasn’t nice.
“So, I’d never noticed how wonky I actually am. Like one shoulder was up, one hip up, like even, like my bum cheeks, they’re not the same, I’m very wonky everywhere.”
On learning to accept her body, Melanie concluded: “I’ve learned when you live with something like that, usually it just becomes the norm. So you don’t really see it as anything extra. I was really lucky, my mum found an amazing doctor, and it didn’t hinder me in any way.”
In June, Shaznay, 48, ruled out a reunion with the ‘Never Ever’ group – which also featured sisters Natalie and Nicole Appleton, 51, and 49, respectively.
The girls enjoyed plenty of chart success throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.
However, they haven’t released any new music since the 2018 album ‘Testament’, and Shaznay reaffirmed she doesn’t see All Saints in her future after realising “there were so many other things [she’d] like to do.”
Speaking to the Metro’s 60 Seconds column, she said: “When you’re in a group, it’s such a specific thing, whether that’s a boy band, girl band, even a rock band.
“I got to the point where I realised that, as a writer, there were so many other things I’d like to do – scores for films or TV series. To be creative in many different spaces.
“I want to be daring enough to put those desires into practise, so that’s what I’m doing now. I’m writing for film, which is a new experience.”
Although she has not performed with the group since a string of festive shows in December 2021, the singer insisted the band was “still as tight as ever”.