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Prefab British dance-pop quintet Steps were assembled in 1997 from the thousands of applicants who responded to an advertisement placed in the magazine The Stage; in the wake of extensive auditions, singers Lisa Scott-Lee, Ian "H" Watkins, Claire Richards, Lee Latchford-Evans, and Faye Tozer all made the final cut. Steps' debut single, "5-6-7-8," soon followed, falling just shy of the U.K. Top Ten and topping the charts in Belgium; a cover of Bananarama's "Last Thing on My Mind" followed in the spring of 1998, reaching number six in Britain. "One for Sorrow" was Steps' biggest hit to date, and led to the release of their debut album, Step One; their Christmas single, the double-sided "Heartbeat"/"Tragedy," became their first U.K. number one in early 1999. The smashes "Love's Got a Hold of My Heart" and "After the Love Has Gone" preceded Steps' sophomore LP, Steptacular. ~ Jason Ankeny