All Saints are mourning the death of their ex-manager John Benson.

All Saints

All Saints

The girls - Melanie Blatt, Shaznay Lewis and Nicole and Natalie Appleton, who are returning with a new album this year - found out that music industry figure Benson, known as JB, had passed away on Sunday (31.01.16) after losing his battle with cancer.

Benson was responsible for signing the quarter to London Records in November 1996 and masterminded their hit-filled career until January 1999 when he was sacked as their manager amidst claims he had fallen out with Nicole, who briefly quit the band in December 1998 only to rejoin when Benson had been dismissed.

Upon discovering the tragic news, the band were quick to pay tribute to him.

Melanie posted on Twitter: "RIP John Benson, a huge part of All Saints' history and success. Sending love and strength to your family."

While Shaznay uploaded a photo of her with JB onto the social networking site and wrote: "He was a huge part of our success. I will truly miss you John, your smile and your enthusiasm for music. God bless."

Natalie shared a black and white photo of her with Benson on Twitter, which she captioned "rest in peace JB", and her younger sibling Nicole retweeted her post.

All Saints announced recently announced their comeback album 'Red Flag' - which comes 10 years after 2006's 'Studio 1' - will be released on April 8 and it will be preceded by single 'One Strike', which will drop on February 26.

The track was written by Shaznay and is inspired by Nicole's painful split from ex-husband Liam Gallagher in August 2013.

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