Ex-Blackpool girl band sensation Stacey McClean dazzles diners with performance at fancy Cheshire restaurant
"She's still got the powerhouse vocals that made her famous.”
Former Blackpool girl band sensation Stacey McClean amazed visitors to an upmarket Cheshire restaurant when she bashed out some of her hits to diners.
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Stacey, from Bispham, was a founder member of noughties favourites S Club Juniors. Today she goes by the name Stacey Franks after her failed marriage to footballer Fraser Franks but she still has the pipes to blast her old hits.
Thirty seven-year-old Stacey was just 12 in 1989, when she successfully auditioned to become a member of S Club Juniors. The group - a spin-off from hitmakers S Club 7 released three singles and an album and guest starred in their parent band's TV series Viva S Club.
After S Club 7 split in 2003, the juniors were renamed S Club 8 and released another three songs and an album as well as appearing in a children's musical series called I Dream. The band broke up in 2005, but Stacey reappeared in the sixth series of X-Factor, making it to the final 25.
Last week's audience at Japanese fusion eatery Gochu in wealthy Poynton, near Stockport, may have been smaller than the S Club days, but the audience was more than appreciative. One diner said: "She's still got the powerhouse vocals that made her famous.”
Stacey - who was dubbed Blackpool's pop princess, told the Gazette in 2017 how her life changed forever when her mum Leanne was diagnosed with epilepsy. She spoke about her family's battle with the condition and became an ambassador for Epilepsy Action.
Stacey, who went to Beacon Hill School - now Unity Academy in North Shore - said her mum had her first seizure in 2014 before being diagnosed at the age of 45. In 2010, Stacey took a job as a receptionist at UK radio station TalkSPORT but continues to sing in her spare time.