What was meant to be a joyous reunion for 2000s pop band S Club 7's 25th anniversary reunion tour quickly became a sombre occasion after the singer Paul Cattermole passed away on April 6th.

A founding member of the group, Cattermole sang as a part of the group from 1998 until he rejoined a previous venture, the heavy metal band Skua, in 2002. In 2014, Cattermole participated in Bring It All Back 2015, a S Club 7 reunion for BBC Children in Need.

The other six members included Tina Barrett, Jon Lee, Bradley McIntosh, Jo O'Meara, Hannah Spearritt, and Rachel Stevens.

Following the news of Cattermole's passing, a wave of support came in from fans online as the fate of this year's reunion tour across the UK and Ireland was left uncertain.

A month later, it's now been announced the band has plans to continue with the reunion tour, minus two members: Paul Cattermole, and Hannah Spearritt, who opted out of the tour following Cattermole's death.

On the official S Club 7 page, the five remaining members addressed fans about the current situation, concerning Paul's death and the reunion tour, in a video.

"Hey guys, sorry it's been a while since you've heard from us, but in all honesty we've been in a bit of shock. It's taken a while for us to find the words to describe how we feel about losing our brother Paul," Jon Lee began.

"Just taking the time to process and get our heads around it all," Rachel Stevens continued. "Also taking time to share time together so that we can remember Paul and all the memories we had together."

 

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"It's just... really sad. It's really, really hard to process it right now," Tina added.

Bradley McIntosh carefully took over, adding his own thoughts on the matter.

"We're all in so much disbelief. Paul was a big brother to us, all of us - even you guys out there. Truly was a unique, unique specimen of a human being. No one could ever replace our Paul. But he lives on inside each and every one of us."

"Whenever Paul would walk into the room, you definitely knew that he was there," Jo fondly recalled. "He would just light it up with humour and love. Just a really special person."

"You've probably all noticed," Jon pointed out, "That there's only five of us here today. And although Hannah will always be a part of S Club 7, she won't be joining us on this tour. We wish her all the best for the future.

"However," he continued. "The five of us are really excited and geared up to crack on. It's going to be our tribute to Paul. We're actually renaming the tour The Good Times Tour, which was the song Paul was going to sing."

The video was captioned as "Love, S Club xxx." The tour will take place this upcoming October.

Find tickets to see S Club live, here:

Listen to S Club 7 here: