Simon Webbe Spills The Beans About Life In Blue!
Casting your mind back, we'll just do a quick run through of your career. Going back right from the very start, can you remember your very first impressions meeting the other lads?
My very first impression of meeting the other lads was actually back in '99 when I met Lee and Duncan at an audition, we were down to the last 11 in for a boy band. I walked in to a room, to my left I clocked Lee playing pool, and he was being loud and trying to have a laugh and all that. What I remember about going to an audition is that people don't speak to each other. They just look at each other, like trying to suss each other out, seeing if they have a good voice or the right look. Lee was kind of loud and a bit small and a bit plumpish as well at the time! I looked at him and he came straight over to me and said "Alright mate, how's things?" I was like, yeah! I didn't expect it, he was like really forward and he was like shaking my hand. I remember seeing Duncan with his legs crossed and he had his head down and someone was talking to him and they were just acknowledging what they were saying. My first impression was I thought 'he's a cool dude', I like him already and I haven't even spoken to him yet! That's when I met those two and then I met Anthony a couple of years later and it was just a mutual handshake. He was going through some bad stuff with his girlfriend at the time and I remember saying to him, 'Never let a girl come between you and your family, man' and he was like 'yeah man, nice one bruv'. From the first handshake the respect was there and we have got on ever since.
Do you think you have been emotionally supportive of each other or is it just lads having a laugh? Has it gone a bit deeper than that?
Yeah, most definitely because over the four years, when we first started it was kind of like, when we cast our minds back I think one of the best times that we had was when nobody knew who we were. People knew when we were out on the town that we were a boy band then no one really cared. We were out in nightclubs, having a laugh, 3 or 4 girls with us and stuff like that. Then when the band starting rising the pressure starting piling on and then it was a bit surreal for us then, it was like 'whooah'! We are getting stopped in the street now and you have got to watch what you say and just be a bit more courteous because whether I say something, it's going to reflect on the band. From then I was always the quiet one and I was classed as the moody token black boy so to speak. That wasn't actually the case because we were actually mates and we looked at each other and said 'look man, we've got the right image let's give it a go.' Luckily for us Five had split at the time and we were possibly the only boy band around with a bit of edge. It was just Westlife when 'All Rise' went in at No.4, 'Too Close' No.1, 'Come Back' No.1, 'Flyby' No. 6, album went straight to No. 1 from No. 20 which was amazing.
You make it sound so easy, that there was this band and it was just us. But it's very competitive industry.
Yes, it is very competitive, but we tend really not to look at anyone else because we are doing what we're doing. If other bands want to look at us and want to say something about us… oh actually A1, we had a little bit of a feud but that was about it.
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About Petrol Records
About Petrol Records
