Scooch

Bubblegum pop group Scooch came together in 1998 after Mike Stock and Matt Aitken, the two members of the hitmaking production team behind Kylie Minogue, Rick Astley, and Jason Donovan, sought to launch a fresh boy/girl act capable of challenging their ex-partner Pete Waterman’s successful Steps project. Selected from hundreds of hopefuls, the lineup featured Natalie Powers from Sutton Coldfield, Russ Spencer from Bournemouth, Caroline Barnes from Leeds, and David Ducasse from South Shields. Following their signing to EMI’s Accolade imprint, the quartet issued their first single, “When My Baby,” late in 1999. After serving as openers on U.K. tours by B*Witched and Five, they climbed to number five with the next release, “More Than I Needed to Know,” and introduced their debut album Welcome to Planet Pop in Japan before bringing it to Britain under the revised title Four Sure. Poor sales prompted EMI to drop the act by mid-2000. Powers briefly pursued solo work, while Spencer joined the gender-swapped reality series Boys Will Be Girls on E4 in an attempt to pass as a member of a girl group. The foursome resurfaced unexpectedly in 2007 when their cheeky, suggestive song “Flying the Flag” was selected, ahead of submissions from the Darkness’ Justin Hawkins and East 17’s Brian Harvey, to represent the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Although the entry placed twenty-third out of twenty-four nations, it became the band’s second top-five single and the United Kingdom’s strongest Eurovision result since 1997. Scooch have continued performing together without issuing further recordings, maintaining a steady presence on the gay club circuit.