All Saints have revealed the sexism they faced as an all-girl group in the late 1990s, including being pressured to go topless on Top of the Pops.
The group, who recently reformed after a decade apart, said they were told if they did not remove their tops, they would be cut from the popular BBC programme.
In an interview with the BBC, the group – made up of Shaznay Lewis, Melanie Blatt and sisters Natalie and Nicole Appleton – said producers wanted to shoot the band from the shoulders up to create the illusion they were performing naked.
“They were filming images of us to use as a backdrop and they wanted us to take our tops off,” said Lewis.
Natalie Appleton said the band “did not want that vision” of nudity but were given no choice.
“The girl that worked with us was in tears because she was trying to fight our corner. We ended up having to compromise with the producers. We dropped our tops to here [armpits] so it would look like we were topless.”
Her sister added: “Because it was such a huge show, we were told: ‘If you don’t do it, you don’t get to go on the show’.”
The quartet emphasised how little autonomy they had been given as women in the male-dominated music industry, and were regularly expected to take part in provocative stunts and photoshoots. Blatt said their resistance had meant they were described as “stroppy” or “difficult”, labels that were never given to their male counterparts.
“A lot of [male] Britpop groups at the time would act very arrogantly and very stroppy, but that was never seen as a negative thing,” she said.
“We weren’t half as bad – but if we didn’t want to smile one day, or we weren’t really interested in doing an interview, we’d be labelled as stroppy cows.”
All Saints first formed in London in 1993, and in 1997 released their acclaimed debut album, which went to number two in the charts. Their second album went platinum around the world, but they split up the following year after discord in the band. They reunited briefly in 2009 to record their third album, Studio 1, but it flopped and barely entered the Top 40.
The group announced their latest return at the beginning of 2016, releasing their fourth studio album Red Flag this week. It has been favourably received, with the Guardian describing it as “a sassy and soulful return to form”.
