Jo O'Meara Biography

Full name: Joanne Valda O'Meara
Birthdate: April 29th, 1979
Born: Romford, Essex
Star Sign: Taurus
Height: 5ft 4in
Eye colour: Blue
Hair colour: Brown (although Jo is more famous for her old platinum blond locks!)
Shoe size: (UK) 4
Family: dad, Dave; mum, Babs; sister, Julie and brother, Shane
Likes: Onion rings, West Ham, buying bottles of perfume, Bingo and gambling, keeping Bradley in order!
Dislikes: Being grumpy in the morning, her habit of picking her mascara off her eyelashes, and not getting the winning line at Bingo.

Fave Things!

CD: Michael Jackson's HIStory album.
Food: Chinese, Farmhouse pizzas, and a good old Sunday roast.
Movie: Grease.
Clothing: Jeans and trainers.

All about Jo - from the Beginning

Jo's earliest childhood memory was at the age of one! 'We were on holiday in Malta and I really fancied this boy. He was one as well, and I was sitting in the sand, with my little hat on and my facor fifty, playing around. I've got pictures of it and everything.

'Apparently, I was a very sickly baby, but also quite good when it came to sleeping and would sleep all the way through the night. But as a toddler I was quite naughty and always being found in places that I shouldn't be.'
Jo grew up close to her family and loved spending time with them but, sadly her school days were far from happy as she was bullied from a young age.

'I was quiet at school and I didn't have a lot of confidence as a kid, probably because the bullying started when I was about seven and went on for years. My brother and sister are quite a bit older than me so I didn't have anyone at school to protect me from the bullies, and I tried to deal with it myself by ignoring them. It was really hard. I was treated as a bit of a freak so I went completely into my shell.

During the hard times, music became Jo's main comfort. Little did she know that it would play such a massive part in her later life.

'I enjoyed quite a lot of my subjects at school, especially history and English, but the school didn't concentrate on music very heavily, so I would do that in my spare time. It was a huge comfort to me. Somehow just being around music made me feel better.'

Jo had her first boyfriend at the age of ten - a guy called Danny, who she went out with for two years. 'I thought he was the love of my life and I was going to marry him. We got on really well, but then he cheated on me with another girl and broke my heart.'

It was in her early teens that realised that despite initially wanting to be an air hostess, what she really wanted was a career in music.

'Up until then I'd been too shy to even get up on a karaoke machine. But something inside me decided that singing was for me.'

After leaving school, Jo worked in a pet shop and the local Spar before she had her first taste of musical success as a backing singer.

'It was a family friend called Annette who really inspired me to go for it with the singing. She's got the most unbelievable voice and she really helped me out with contacts and stuff. She was amazing.'
Soon Jo found herself working in a county-and-western style pub called Wild Jack Henry's, where she got to sing onstage every night
.
'Our hours were six in the evening until midnight, so I got to sleep all day and then sing and have a good time in the evening. It was the perfect job!'

And it was while she was doing the hoedown that she was spotted by someone from S Club 7's management company, 19, who just happened to have popped in for dinner. But it wasn't until two years later that Jo got a phone call from 19 asking her to go along to the S Club 7 auditions.

'I was really nervous going to the auditions because I still wasn't very confident, but I was so, so happy when I got the phone call to say that I'd got into the band. I think at that point, one of the reasons I really wanted to make it as a singer was to show everyone who had given me a hard time over the years. I know a few of the people who bullied me at school have got kids now, so it gives me real satisfaction to think that those kids are probably going up to them and asking for an S Club 7 CD!'

'I've changed so much since being in S Club. I'm really confident and these days I'm doing this for me. The band has given me a whole new lease of life.'

(extracted from the S Club 7 Book - 7 Heaven)

S Club and Beyond

After S Club disbanded in 2003, Jo took time out to rest the painful back condition that hampered many of her final days in the band. She hit the studio in early 2004 after a gentleman's agreement with ex-S Club boss Simon Fuller to record and release a solo single and an album. The original track entitled, 'The Meaning of Love', was due for release as Jo's original first solo single but due to complications its release never materialised. Jo ended up cutting all ties with Fuller to persue a career in which she would have more control over.

After her first real solo public appearance in October 2004 (a charity day at Old MacDonalds Farm in Brentwood) Jo confirmed that she had been in the studio working on her own material and with carefully selected people she wished to work with, including producer, Brain Rawling and song writers Paul Meehan, Andy Haymen, Stef Olssen and Cliff Masterson - all of whom Jo spent a considerable amount of time co-writing songs with. Coupled with the recording contract with Sanctuary Records Jo was all set to make her way back into the limelight.

The beginning of May (2005) saw Jo embark on a nationwide promotional tour for her first single, which was originally going to be 'Let's Love', taken from the Relentless album. The gigs began at Egham University in Surrey, following by numerous other dates at places including Staffordshire University, Keele and Cambridge to name but a few.

The summer and the roadshows began and so did Jo's appearance toll - performing at all the regional roadshows including, Stoke, Plymouth, Bristol, Edinburgh, Cardiff - amongst hundreds of others. During this time it was decided that the original plans to release 'Let's Love' were to be scrapped and it was now set that an autumn release of 'What Hurts The Most' was going ahead... so that meant even more promotion.

All these roadshows meant Jo was coming into regular contact with old friends she had made during her time in S Club, and she became particulary close to Ben Adams (formerally of boyband, A1) who Jo went on to date for a few months, before they went their seperate ways - although they did part on amicable ground.

More to come soon.