The big Blue
November 2002, The Big Issue
What do Britain’s most eligible bachelors get up to on tour? Given Blue’s tabloid reputation as the UK’s premier pop lotharios the answer is, perhaps, not what you’d expect… By andrew losowsky
It’s 6pm and the video shoot has a long way to go. A gaggle of shivering female dancers stand patiently while Blue mime to camera. The band’s latest song, a duet with Elton John, plays over and over on the studio’s loudspeakers as they dance in front of what looks like a wall of lights.
When the director shouts ‘cut’, the foursome immediately run to a monitor.
Antony Costa, 21 and part Greek-Cypriot, arrives first and sits close to the screen. Duncan James, 23, stands a short distance away, chatting to the choreographer as the playback begins.
“Ooh look mum, I’m on the telly!” squeals Lee Ryan - at 19 the youngest in the band - as he leans on Antony’s shoulder.
Simon Webbe, 23, a former model and Attitude magazine’s Face of 1998, stands silently at the back. While the others soon feel satisfied enough to walk away, he remains until the very last frame.
It’s the start of a busy month for Blue. One Love, their second album, came out a couple of weeks ago (entering the charts at Number One) and they begin their first headlining tour of the UK next week, taking in – and selling out – some of the country’s largest venues.
Filming breaks for an hour and Duncan and Antony sit down and relax while Simon and Lee get changed. Talk immediately turns to their collaboration with Elton John, Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word, a strong contender to top the Christmas charts.
Antony would be delighted with a Christmas Number One but knows the track will face some stiff opposition from the two acts from ITV’s Popstars: The Rivals, both of whom are releasing singles simultaneously.
“I’ve been following it a bit. I find it horrible that people try to live out their dreams, only to be told they’re not good enough in front of millions of people.
“And as for the public vote – it should be down to talent, not what they look like,” he continues. “Look at Hear’Say. They were the biggest band since the Beatles and now they’re like… Whigfield. Or Upside Down.”
“You’re playing with dreams and aspirations,” adds Duncan. “That first song is the biggest song they’ll ever have in their career. They’ll sell a million copies in their first week. But they will never, ever repeat that feat. We’re lucky - we started at the bottom so we’ve still got a chance to prove ourselves. I’m really glad I’m doing it this way. But I tell you what, if I wasn’t in Blue then I probably would have entered Popstars.”
“Oh I would,” says Antony, nodding vigorously. “I completely agree with Dunc. It’s just another audition.”
Blue have been described as “the black one, the Greek one, the mad one and Duncan”. It’s not hard to see why: he may speak in a mockney accent (he’s actually from Dorset) but Duncan is everything that Jamie Oliver is not. He’s presentable, fanciable, easily recognised and – crucially - provides plenty of coverage in the tabloids about his female companions. But Simon Cowell’s laboratory would be hard-pressed to clone a foursome that compliments each other as well as Blue. All the more remarkable then is that they aren’t a manufactured band.
“I saw Ant in a karaoke bar when he was 16,” remembers Duncan. “We used to sing together sometimes. My mates always used to say to me, ‘Don’t talk to him, he’s really sad’. My whole school life was like that. I was always pressured by kids I used to hang around with.”
But the friendship lasted. They studied drama (both “definitely want to return to acting” when the Blue bubble bursts) and while on the audition circuit they came across Lee, a joker with a strong singing voice. When they asked him to join their band, he brought along his housemate, Simon.
A few a capella tapes later and they had an agent and a record deal.
“We get on really well,” says Antony. “And I love the guys to bits. But if we shared a house, I’d murder them. We’d have split up before we started – the thing is, I hate untidiness and Lee and Duncan are just the worst.”
This is echoed in their punctuality. When the band is on tour, Antony is always the first to arrive, and at the other end of the day, Antony is always the first to leave the party.
“Some nights you go to bed first though,” he protests to Duncan.
“Yeah,” replies one of Britain’s more eligible young bachelors with a grin. “But I’ll just be up in my hotel room flicking on porn and having a good wank before I go to sleep. Gotta be done, dunnit?”
“You prick,” laughs Antony.
“Well what else is there to do? Hotels are so boring. Mind you, my mobile phone bills - a grand a month I’m spending when we’re away.”
A boy band discussing musical integrity might seem like fluff contemplating the navel, but when the talk changes to their music, both Duncan and Antony become noticeably more animated.
“Writing for us is a big love,” says Antony. “A lot of bands won’t get involved in that side until their third or forth album, but that’s not what we want to do. We’ve each got a song of our own on this one.”
Smart enough not to realise it is unlikely that a British boy band will ever make it big in America, they also understand that their tabloid fame ensures, over here at least, they - and Duncan most of all - stay in people’s minds for a while yet.
“I still can’t get used to it,” he says, shaking his head and fiddling with his watch. “People have such a warped idea of what fame is. I did – before I was in Blue I thought fame was a great thing to have. But to be quite honest it can be lonely and it can be paranoid and it can be insecure. It’s a complete head-fuck.
“First of all it was exciting, being noticed. But now I go into a pub and feel like some weird thing standing in the corner. You feel that you’ve got something wrong with you. People come up to you and give you shit. You get girls going completely over the top and then their blokes go ‘Fucking wanker’. It’s very weird. It’s not all champagne and skittles.”
But because they’re not a record label’s invention, Blue have no fear in breaking the rules. Elton John worked with them on the new single because they marched up to him at an industry event and asked him personally (his agent had already said no). Their first single, All Rise, was sent out with no picture or information about them. They say what’s on their minds and they talk thoughtfully and surprisingly intelligently – there’s a great deal more to Blue than their contemporaries.
“The nicest quality,” says Duncan after a pause, “is that we haven’t come from a TV show. We haven’t been built up for an overnight success. It won’t last forever, we know that. But it’s nice that we’ve achieved this much without having to be just a marketing ploy.”
[ends]