The future of All Saints looks uncertain as Melanie Blatt admits she “almost never want to go back on stage” with the group.
The band – also starring Shaznay Lewis, and Natalie and Nicole Appleton – enjoyed a run of chart-topping hits such as Never Ever, Black Coffee and Pure Shores in the late 1990s and early 2000s, before returning in 2016 with ‘Red Flag’ and ‘Testament’ (2018).
In a new interview, the singer opened up about her fears of reuniting with the group on stage after being diagnosed with Scoliosis – a curvature of the spine or back bone – and having three metal rods inserted into her back.
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 elaborated: “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 living with the condition, 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.”