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Steps narrowly missed out on Glastonbury legends slot for devastating reason
For almost 30 years, Ian Watkins has been affectionately known as 'H', an acronym for Hyperactive – his energetic character being an instrumental part of Steps' success when personalities in pop weren't just all the rage, they were essential.
It's a moniker which is a lot to live up to, though, particularly when you're in a band as exposed as Steps were. If they weren't playing to a sell-out arena, they were rarely off television, almost on SM:TV as much as Ant and Dec.
In 1997, 5,6,7,8 was unleashed on the world to moderate success in the charts, but ruled school discos. It was a steady rise to the top of the charts for Steps when their fourth single, a cover of The Bee Gees' hit Tragedy, and a B Side of ballad Heartbeat got to number one in such an extraordinary fashion.
It's sold more than 1.2million copies in the UK alone, a remarkable feat for any pop act from the Smash Hits era, and almost got them a spot on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury when it was saturated with nothing but guitar bands and 90s house DJs.
'The Bee Gees asked us to join them on stage,' Ian tells Metro. 'But it was a really late request, and we literally couldn't get it all together in time. Of course, some of them have passed away now, so that will never happen again. But that's another little jewel in the Steps crown.'
With their own critically acclaimed musical, Here and Now, about to tour the UK and eventually make it to the West End, there are few things left on the Steps bucket list to tick off but they're not deterred from one day getting on that coveted Glastonbury bill, either in the Legends slot or the festival's first pop-friendly stage, Avalon.
'We're the only ones, really, from that era that have all the original members and are still going, so it feels like we've earned our stripes by now.'
More than earning their stripes, Steps are still headlining festivals and breaking records. In 2022, they joined an exclusive club of bands to score a number one album across four decades. But now Watkins is on stage and topping charts as his true, authentic self.
He has nothing to hide anymore – it's not the 90s when, if you were a good-looking male, the press was frothing to uncover secrets about your sex life. For Ian, there was always an underlying fear that they would discover he was gay when the press had a field day outing gay pop stars like Will Young and Stephen Gately.
During one holiday with his then-boyfriend, Ian got the call he'd been dreading.
'They knew where I was, who I was with, and why I was there – I had a boyfriend. Immediately, I flew back from holiday, told my loved ones, told my family, told my parents, and then the next day, they didn't run the story, because I didn't give them quotes.
'But they threatened me for many years, and I felt like my coming out story was taken from me; my power was taken away, so it was a really emotional, dark time for me.'
He wasn't alone, though. There were several pop stars gathered in the same closet, cautiously able to give solace to one another.
Ian became particularly close with Lance Bass of N'SYNC and Boyzone's Gateley, but concedes: 'If the press knew you were gay, it was a really tricky thing to be seen together or to even admit that you were friends with another closeted gay person.'
Instead, he clung to his closest straight women. His bandmate Lisa Scott-Lee, the girls from Liberty X and S Club… and Britney Spears.
'All of her dancers were gay anyway,' he says. 'People thought I was dating Brittany a long time ago, but that obviously wasn't the case – that was strange.'
Ian is about to turn 50. Hyperactivity is no longer the personality he's defined by. His life is calmer, albeit busy with running his two children to school, walking the dogs, building a home, and organising his local annual Pride with his partner.
'Since having children, I've realised that education starts really early on, and it drowns out the bigotry,' he says.
'I go to all of the local schools and talk about how being different is something to be celebrated. My partner and I organise Cowbridge Pride, which is in its fifth year now.
'Cowbridge used to be the most conservative, laidback town, but now we have 2000 people marching every year, and we raise money for all of the schools to have LGBT resources in all of their libraries.'
Ian is exactly where he's meant to be in life, and with Steps on a hiatus, he's finally managed to turn his passion project into a reality – a children's book, Pride and The Rainbow Warriors, educating children (and some parents) about LGBTQ+ history.
All of the main characters represent a different colour in the original Pride flag, and all have traits corresponding to the original meaning. More importantly, Ian is finally cool to his children. 'Two of them are named after my kids – it's lush,' he grins.
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For those of us old enough to remember sneakily watching Queer As Folk with the volume turned down to one and one eye on the bedroom door in case anyone walked in, a children's book about LGBTQ+ was inconceivable. More Trending
Now, with shows like Heartstopper becoming so hugely popular and a plethora of openly LGBTQ+ popstars ruling the charts, the world feels unrecognisable compared to just a few years ago. How children look at and look up to LGBTQ+ people is completely different today.
'It's something that I felt we needed, because there's a real lack of resources for children of all ages, also parents to be educated too,' he says. 'It's all about celebrating your superpower, and being different is an amazing thing.
'I was bullied terribly growing up because I was different, and I didn't know at that time what that different was. Luckily, I had an amazing art teacher, Mr. Owen, who is still one of my dear friends today, but if it wasn't for that man, who knows where I would have ended up.'
Pride and The Rainbow Warriors is available in paperback now .
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