Friendship has always been really important to me. Because I’m an only child, my friends are my extended family. The idea of letting Richard down like that was terrible, and Antony and Lee felt the same. Funnily enough, we weren’t so bothered about Spencer – he’d been a cocky time bomb waiting to go off, and we’d already had a word with the manager about him. But Richard’s abrupt exit made us feel awkward. However, at that point, you’re also feeling so grateful that it’s not you they’ve cast away, that they want you, not somebody else, that you just think about yourself, horrible as it is.
LEE
I know what you’re thinking: if somebody being too cocky was the problem here, why was I still in the band? Well, I have to be honest, I think wearing a cap saved me. Bear with me …
I used to wear caps all the time I was at school, and one thing I learned pretty fast was, when you’re in trouble, put your head down and shut up. I knew those two guys, Spencer particularly, were overstepping the mark. One day, Hugh Goldsmith walked into a meeting with us, and they started talking over him, and I saw his face change, and I just knew. I thought, ‘That’s it, it’s all over,’ and I pulled my cap down, put my hands in my pockets and just shut up. Which proved to be the right decision, because almost the very next day they were out. (Perhaps I should have made sure I was wearing a cap the day we were interviewed by The Sun about 9/11, but that’s another story … And the whole time I was in the Celebrity Big Brother house, come to think of it, but that’s another story, too.)
DUNCAN
So we signed with our hearts in our mouths, and set about trying to find a fourth member. But it proved to be more difficult than we’d thought; we just couldn’t find anyone that fitted. We had auditions at Pineapple Studios in Covent Garden, with loads of people coming in from everywhere. It was like The X Factor and we were the judges. We got the giggles frequently, with Lee disappearing beneath the table sometimes, but laughs aside, we started to run out of ideas. And then Lee remembered his housemate. One day, he walked in and told us, ‘Simon needs to be in the band, he’s great.’
SIMON
I’d first met Lee at an audition for another band, ages before, and Duncan had actually been there, too. The very first time I walked into a room with them in, Lee was playing pool and being loud and boisterous. ‘He looks like trouble,’ I thought. (Sorry, Lee!) And Duncan was sitting on the floor, legs crossed, with floppy hair covering his face – the whole Brad Pitt-a-like thing going on. And then he started singing, and I noticed his husky voice, and then it was Lee’s turn and I thought, ‘Wow, I want to be in a band with you!’ Nothing came out of that day, but Lee and I stayed in touch.
LEE
Simon stood out straight away because he was very good-looking. It was no surprise for us to learn he was also a model. His body was ridiculously toned, and he had this bleached blond hair. You just knew when you met him that he had this star quality about him. He still has it, but we’re a bit more used to it now.
SIMON
I was at a bit of a crossroads in my life that day. Back in Manchester, the year before, I’d won a modelling competition for Pride magazine, which meant I had a contract, but I had to move to London to be able to start work. I had a girlfriend back home at the time, so I was torn between the two. I’ve always been independent, and one day a friend said to me, ‘Sometimes you have to be selfish to be kind to yourself. You have to be prepared to move on.’ And that was exactly what I ended up doing. But it was hard.
However, I didn’t join the music industry on that particular day, but I made friends with Lee – who, as I discovered, wears his heart on his sleeve, is very generous and impulsive, but sometimes doesn’t have a very good memory. I’d just lost my grandfather and was back in Manchester licking my wounds when he called to see how I was doing. I told him I needed to get to London, but I couldn’t work out how I was going to pay for it. Next thing I heard was, ‘Just move in with me. My sister’s moved out, you can have her room.’ ‘What will your mum say?’ I asked. He said she’d be fine, and I remember saying, ‘Oh, will she? We’ll see.’
LEE
Yes, I forgot to mention it to my mum until I got a call from Simon a couple of days later to say he’d got to Charing Cross and would be catching the next bus to Kidbrooke. So, at that point, I thought I’d better say something.
SIMON
Much later, over a cup of tea, Lee’s mum told me her version of events, which was that he’d said to her, ‘Remember that guy from Manchester you used to speak to on the phone? Well, I’ve told him he can move in.’ She said, ‘What do you mean, for how long?’ And Lee said, ‘He said, he’ll see.’ She must have thought she had a right cheeky one on her hands. But we got on very well – I kept my room nice, and Lee’s mum is one of those special people who puts into action her belief that when you’re in a position to help people, you should. We became a cosy little unit, and I ended up staying for six months before I’d saved up enough to move into my own place. I got a job on Scrubs Lane, right across on the other side of London, so my travelling started at six in the morning. I like my sleep, and I was 10 minutes late every single day. But I was also writing songs in my head – during that time I wrote ‘Bounce’, which ended up on the first album [All Rise], and ‘Flexin’ which appeared on the second [One Love]. I had a job, I was living in London, I’d started my new adventure, and so I was pretty happy.
Then Lee got a call from his mate Duncan about auditions for a brand new band, and he asked me if I wanted to come along too. I was worried, and asked him, ‘What if I get in and you don’t? I’ll feel really bad because you’ve helped me out so much already.’ His mum was listening to our conversation, and later she said to me, ‘Thank you for not jumping on that, like so many people would, you’re a true friend to my son.’ And I was, as he was to me.
It turned out no one needed to worry about split loyalties. Lee was straight in as soon as he started singing, but I didn’t get along with Daniel Glatman the way the others did. He was a great bloke, but we just didn’t gel. He was only a couple of years older than me, and I still had a lot of Moss Side attitude. I found it really difficult to even listen to what he was saying, let alone follow his instructions.
So that was that, Lee was off with the rest of them, and I sat back to lick my wounds until a few weeks later, he came home to say the line-up had changed and now it was just him, Antony and Duncan, while they looked for a fourth. He tried to persuade me to go again, but I told him, ‘I don’t think so, man, that’s not going to work. I’ve already burned that bridge, sorry.’
LEE
They tried out all sorts of different people, including one bloke who was perfectly nice, but he was even younger than me, and I just kept thinking Simon would be better. I admit a part of me was thinking, ‘Hang on, I want to be the baby.’ But I knew Simon would be great – he wanted to be in a band, he was always writing songs and asking me for techniques on how to improve. Whenever we practised together, I could hear he had this amazing tone; there was real natural talent there, he just sounded unique. I heard it and, young as I was myself, I could tell there was something special there that could be developed if he had the right people around him. So I was crossing my fingers.
SIMON
I’d made some other friends in London by then, and I was hanging out with a girl called Ruth – just friends, but very close. And a couple of days after my chat with Lee, she called me. She said, ‘A friend of mine is a producer, and he’s working for this new band at Virgin. They’ve already got three guys, and they’re looking for a fourth. I’ve suggested you – would you be interested?’
She had no idea I was living with Lee. These were two completely different pathways that led to the same place. Of course, when Lee heard that, he thought the stars had aligned and it was all meant to be and I must admit, I was pretty persuaded by it myself. So, I headed off for another meeting with their manager, Daniel, and the first thing I did when I arrived was to apologise to him for getting off on the wrong foot.
He