Three and easy

Imagine her then rejoining the band in ten years' time and seamlessly continuing to churn out hit records. Imagine her still touring to packed houses of adoring fans in the year 2025.

It sounds far-fetched - but it's exactly what has happened to Helen Scott-Leggins in her career with the Three Degrees, and how she sees the group soldiering on.

The singer has been part of the all-girl group's phenomenal success story since the early days.

She first met fellow singer Valerie Christie in the mid 1960s when the pair were still teenagers. They are still together now as the Three Degrees, with Cynthia Garrison making up the trio.

But the remarkable thing about Helen's career is that she had a decade away from the group at their height of their popularity.

"I took quite a bit of a break to have a family and waited until they were pretty well into school years before I went back into the group," she said.

"I was so pleased to be able to come back into the same group that I originally started in."

Helen says she might never have returned to singing had it not been for the chance to rejoin the Three Degrees, who are best known for hits like When Will I See You Again.

"I didn't have any inclination to go back. Once I became a mum that was going to be it for me. I never had any desire to go back into music," she said.

"There were no other groups I was interested in joining apart from the Three Degrees. When the opportunity came to come back with the girls I had known so well it was perfect."

The threesome are currently touring with The Sounds of the Supremes and Baccara and are due to appear at St George's Hall in Bradford on Tuesday.

Even after all these years, Helen still finds being on the road a gruelling experience.

"We've just been moving about so much. For the first part of the tour we were based in London so we were returning there every night which was pretty good," she said.

"For the past couple of days we've been moving around to different hotels which is more tiring. It's a big tour but we're all getting on really well and I'm enjoying it.

"I'd actually met Kathy from the Supremes group before but really didn't have the chance to know the others. We were obviously always passing each other on our own tours whereas now we have joined together."

Staying in shape while living out of a suitcase can be a problem - but Helen admits she and the rest of the Three Degrees are not always the most disciplined.

"We were all asking for a hotel with a gym and Kathy was the only one who got up and went! The rest of us were all so tired," she said.

"There's no better form of exercise than being a mum. You go up and down stairs all day, you are bending and stooping and lifting."

Touring a small country like Britain ought to seem easy to Americans but Helen says the travelling is still exhausting. "I don't think it has anything to do with whether you're British or American," she said.

"It has to do with the fact that you're constantly mobile. You arrive somewhere, do the show, go to the hotel and then get back on the bus. You are in perpetual motion.

"Over the years you find great ways of packing and great ways of organising yourself so you're able to jump off at a moment's notice but it doesn't do very much for the wear and tear on your body."

The Three Degrees have always had a huge following in the UK and famously played at Prince Charles's 30th birthday party.

"We were happy in the US doing our thing, you know the big clubs and the commercial stuff. But when we saw the fuss our music was making over here we knew that this was our big 'in'," said Helen.

"We've been trying to go back over to the American side of Atlantic for years. We've had such tremendous success over in Europe that every time we had management or recording problems we just forgot about them by returning to Europe to perform."

After more than three decades of success, Helen can't imagine retiring - as long as people still want to see them perform.

"I guess they're going to have to push us off stage because I don't see any way in which we're going to stop" she said.

"You've got to change and adapt as the music does. If you don't you'll stagnate until even the most diehard fan isn't interested any more.

"When we started at 15 or 16 we didn't think about being popular or having number one records or international travel or any of the other things that have happened to us. We all did it because of our love of singing.

"I have had a wonderful life. Some people never see outside their own neighbourhood so to do something that you absolutely love is amazing. I complain about having to get out of bed some mornings but for the most part I love my job."

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