Simone Rainford

Part of the 1990s wave of British girl groups, they peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart with debut album All Saints (1997), which became the UK's third-best-selling girl group album of all time to date.

The album contained three UK number-one singles: "Never Ever", "Under the Bridge"/"Lady Marmalade" and "Bootie Call".

"Never Ever" is the third-best-selling girl-group single in the UK, behind the Spice Girls' "Wannabe" and "Shout Out to My Ex" by Little Mix.

It also won two Brit Awards: Best British Single and Best British Video, and the group were nominated for Best British Breakthrough Act.

The group's influence on British fashion in the late 1990s has been noted, particularly their signature style of cargo pants in promotional imagery and live appearances.

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.

All Saints are an English girl group formed in London in 1993.

They were founded as All Saints 1.9.7.5 by music manager Ron Tom.

with members Melanie Blatt, Shaznay Lewis, and Simone Rainford.

The group struggled to find commercial success upon being signed to ZTT Records and were dropped by the label shortly after Rainford left the group.

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.

In 1996, the group were joined by Canadian sisters Nicole and Natalie Appleton and signed to London Records under their shortened name.

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.

After forming a new group in May 1996, the four singers met with Karl "K-Gee" Gordon, a former band member of Outlaw Posse.

The band began looking for a new record deal, but most record labels wanted to model them after the Spice Girls, who had become an international sensation by that time.

The group relocated to London Records, where John Benson finalised the recording deal in November 1996.

All Saints recorded their debut album, All Saints, with producers including Gordon, Cameron McVey, Magnus Fiennes, John Benson, Johnny Douglas, and Nellee Hooper.

Their second album, Saints & Sinners (2000), became their first UK number-one album and achieved multi-platinum success.

It included the UK number-one singles "Pure Shores" and "Black Coffee".

Amid in-fighting among the group members, All Saints split the following year.

The group later reformed after signing to Parlophone Records to release their third album, Studio 1 (2006).

However, the album bowed at number 40 in the United Kingdom and All Saints were dropped by their label shortly afterwards.

Following a second split in 2009, the group reunited in 2014 for a series of live performances, prompting the group to release of Red Flag (2016), and Testament (2018).

As of January 2016, All Saints have sold 12 million records.

Musicians including Jessy Lanza and Charli XCX have cited All Saints as an influence on their work.