Within months the girls had signed to Innocent, a subsidary group of Virgin Records and the same label as the Spice Girls, launched their first single Right Now and joined the Smash Hits tour.
Atomic Kitten quickly inspired a following, and a string of hits followed, including 'See Ya', 'I Want Your Love', 'Follow Me' and 'Whole Again'.
"People started to recognise us walking about in Liverpool, right from the early days, more there than anywhere," says Liz. "I think people in Liverpool were proud of us, they get behind people from their own town and we were always in the Liverpool ECHO."
And then Kerry announced she was pregnant - and everything changed.
Says Andy: "I remember Martin phoned me up and he said: 'You're not going to believe this. Kerry's downing tools; she's leaving.'
"We got in the car and drove to Peterborough where the girls were appearing in a schools tour, and sat in a pub and discussed it all.
"It was quite a surreal scene. Kerry was sitting there in a mood saying: 'You can't talk me out of it, I'm leaving.' We were trying to persuade her to stay and she was saying: 'Alright, but I don't want to sit in a Chrysler van any more and I certainly don't want to go to Japan again!'
"At the same time Natasha was shouting: 'I don't care, you replaced Heidi with me so we can carry on. I'm not giving up yet.' And Liz was just sitting there crying into her hankie!"
The band knew that they would have to recruit another member. The question was, who would it be?
So Good, So Far: The Official Story is published by Carlton Books and priced at £7.99.
* A DONATION for exclusive publication of book extracts has been made, at the request of Atomic Kitten, to a fund cancer sufferer Robyn Brooks, four, who needs to raise £500,000 to fly to America for treatment.
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