WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Appleton

The Appleton sisters had a fantasy they were going to break out of All Saints. Don’t worry, it happened…

Canadian born sisters Natalie (b.1973) and Nicole (b.1974) Appleton joined forces with Melanie Blatt and Shaznay Lewis to form the group All Saints in 1993, eventually achieving fame and success with the singles “Never Ever” (1997) and “Pure Shores” (2000) as well as their self-titled, multi Platinum debut album. But when the quartet decided to put things on hold in the early 00’s, the Appleton sisters continued to write and record as a sister act under the name of Appleton. Their debut single, “Fantasy”, was released in September 2002 and peaked at No.2 in the UK and No.56 in Australia.

The girls worked with the likes of Marius De Vries (Madonna) and Ash Howes (Kylie) on their album during 2002 and into 2003 with a follow up, “Don’t Worry”, coming in February 2003. “Don’t Worry” made No.5 in the UK and gave them a sound footing for the release of the album, titled “Everything’s Eventual”, a few weeks later. It would chart at No.9 in the UK and go on to gain a Silver disc for sales of 60,000 plus copies. But after the release of the title track as the third single (UK No.38), that was it for the pair as they left Polydor Records and signed with Concept Music in 2004. But this, with hindsight, was perhaps not the best move as the sisters failed to record or release any more material together, to date that is!

Instead, All Saints reformed in 2006 and recorded the album “Studio 1”, which featured their comeback single, “Rock Steady” (UK No.3). Natalie and Nicole both endured very public relationship attention from the media with Natalie marrying The Prodigy’s Liam Howlett in 2002 and Nicole marrying Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher in 2004. The couple divorced in 2014. All Saints returned in 2016 with the album “Red Flag” and with “Testament” in 2018, but to date, the Appleton sisters have refrained from recording as a duo any further.