Jon Lee is the second S Club start to start a new career

Despite spending four years in the group, the 21-year-old never once sang a lead vocal on record, and always mimed for TV appearances.

Now he is hoping to prove himself by starring as Marius in Les Miserables from Monday.

"It's going to be tough, there's no doubt about it - it's going to stretch me," Lee, who will be perfoming in eight shows each week, said.

He said of his time in S Club: "We'd only ever sing live when we were doing the concerts - we were miming the whole time we were on TV and whatever. With this I get to sing live every night."

'Not poppy enough'

Lee said he took the occasional lead vocal during concerts, but to most people he was "the blond boy in the back doing the backflips".

"It was weird because they'd let me sing when it was the live concerts. Then they'd put me up at the front and I'd get to do solos," he recalled.

"I could pick whatever song I wanted and do covers and stuff on tour. But they never let me do it on any of the records."

"Maybe they didn't think I was poppy enough," he added.

The group split earlier this year after a series of farewell concerts. After making their chart debut in 1999, they had four number one singles.

They also starred in a number of TV shows for the BBC and ITV.

Last month saw singer Rachel Stevens sign a �1m solo record deal with Polydor and pop mogul Simon Fuller's 19 company, which controlled the group's original career.