I was quite shocked a week or so ago when I got an e-mail from MTV UK saying that I had won their award at the UK Online Music Awards 2001 for the best UK Fansite! Well as you know the event took place last night so I can now spill the beans and announce that we won. If you don’t believe me then check out http://www.ukonlinemusicawards.com and there you have it there also! A Huge thank you to MTV for the award and the people at the UK Online Music Awards. Also a big thank you to everyone who voted for us. We’ve had awards in the past and been mentioned in various magazines and newspapers but this by far is the biggest award we’ve won to date! So thanks to everyone who did vote for us :o) From Ananova: Steps star Lisa Scott Lee says she’s glad she refused to bare all for a magazine. She says she received a “very generous” offer to strip off. But she told Now magazine she has no regrets about turning it down. “I got an offer through our management,” said Lisa. “It was a very generous offer but I’d have to live with it for the rest of my life.” She said she would have been worried about who might have laid their eyes on her body. “There are things you should keep for your boyfriend.” Lisa said. “I couldn’t bear to think of my family and old school friends seeing it.” Amazon UK have posted a review of the forthcoming greatest hits album: Countless tribute and sound-a-like bands have had various stabs at mimicking the magic of ABBA. Of the bunch, Steps have been the most successful in their attempts to nurture a similar ABBA-esque musical style and image. It comes as no surprise that Steps should call their “best of” anthology Gold, just like the bestselling “best of” from their Swedish heroes. The ABBA influences can be heard right from their earliest material–“One For Sorrow” to “After The Love Has Gone” (October 1999), through to newer compositions such as “Baby Don’t Dance” (an updated version of “Voulez-Vous?”). Released at the peak of the line-dancing craze in the UK, their thigh-slapping debut “5,6,7,8” thus sounds remarkably out of place. Proving that they’re no puppets of Mr Waterman, the Euro-pop style “Only In My Dreams” is the first song written by Steps as a group. Their cover of Diana Ross’s 1986 number one “Chain Reaction” looks destined, along with “Tragedy” and the 70s disco inspired hit “Stomp”, to become the songs which future generations will best remember Claire, Faye, Lisa, H and Lee for. –John Galilee