Early-noughties girl group The 411 have shared the reason behind their 2005 split as they tease plans to record new music. 

The R&B four-piece scored two consecutive UK Top 5 hits with On My Knees and Dumb before being dropped by Sony following the release of their album ‘Between The Sheets’. 

The record stalled at No. 46 in the charts but, according to original member Carolyn Owlett, there were plans for certain members of the group to continue working together – while ditching the others. 

The singer tells the Right Back At Ya! podcast she and bandmate Suzie Furlonger were offered a new deal by Polydor to create a whole new girl group with one other unnamed former-girl group member; leaving Tisha Martin and Tanya Boniface to fend for themselves.

“The deal that was offered wasn’t for all of The 411,” explains Carolyn. “It was a whole new project, it was a development deal. They wanted to put in another girl and make it a hybrid thing. There was a girl from another band who had been doing OK but not busted in the way that they should’ve done but they had a lot of faith in this girl. 

“I can tell you that it didn’t happen because I was one of them. We never found the sound. It was like they wanted to replicate The 411 but not as The 411 and it just didn’t work. 

“We wrote some songs and nothing was right. The members that were in that band didn’t gel in the way that The 411 did. It was just a sad, sad time.”

Tisha adds: “Obviously we were really sad, me and Tan, but we just felt that whoever got that deal, we want them to carry on. We love each other… but it was really, really hard, definitely.

Having reunited for Mighty Hoopla 2022, the group are now performing as a trio – minus Suzie, who has other commitments as a backing singer – but Tisha is optimistic that the group may hit the studio and record new music. 

“I would actually love to do a new song or maybe a video with the girls because we have grown so much from our early 411 days,” she beams. “And we have so much more to give, in terms of experience. And just how we’d handle a lot of things now, we wouldn’t take so much for granted. 

“We’re more mature now. I think we would enjoy this a lot more and we wouldn’t be as stressed.”