Simon Webbe has played to hundreds of thousands of pop fans across the globe as one quarter of boy band Blue.
Now, with two solo albums' worth of songs and after numbing the live show nerves with a host of TV slots and university gigs, the heart-throb is ready to head out on his first UK tour and get pulses racing.
He'll be pulling his tour bus into Norwich's University Of East Anglia on Friday, 25 May, 2007 - and Blue fans will be pleased to hear he's told BBC Norfolk that there could be a few surprise guests along the way.
After the disappointing response to his last single, My Soul Pleads For You, we caught Simon in a charming but honest mood for our interview.
He denied a claim which has surfaced on the web that he's split with his record label, but said after making two albums in a year, it was time for them to release some pressure.
The singer also revealed how gig-goers can expect some rock posturing as well as soulful sounds from his show, and how he's been making a foray into films.
He tells us how he's been starring on the silver screen, has been working on a soundtrack for best friend and James Bond actor Rick Yune's new movie and has also been recording a song for what promises to be a major Hollywood blockbuster.
What does it feel like to be going out on your own tour?
It feels exciting right now. If you'd have asked me a year and a half ago I would have been bricking it, but right now I feel like I'm ready. I've had two albums out and I think there’s enough material out there to do my own show now.
You've done a number of TV appearances, and things like that, how’s the band coming together with the rehearsals?
I've done university tours where I've been doing an hour set and that’s been going down really, really well at all the universities.
As you well know, university crowds are probably the hardest crowds to entertain. Every time I did a show the hall just got more packed and more packed and more packed - which was great for me.
I've read interviews where you've said you can be quite shy. How hard is it to overcome that and perform on stage?
I never take the person on stage off stage, I'm probably more shy off stage. When it comes to being on stage another person comes out. I've noticed that, especially in my latest shows, the shows are getting better and better and better.
I've concentrated more on acoustic shows so I can experiment more with my voice and be more comfortable in that sense, so when the whole band is around it’s going to sound absolutely amazing.
Have you been to Norwich before?
Only to play football and to a few radio stations as well. I went down there when I was playing at Norwich’s training ground. I think I might have been with Aston Villa at the time.
I did float around a lot of professional clubs. When I was 15 I couldn't decide who to go with, so I just floated around.
Pop bands are known for working really hard and you seem to have kept going on in a similar vein because you've released two solo albums in a year. How tough going has that been?
It’s been good. In the beginning there was a lot of pressure to produce a second album because I only had eight weeks to produce an album so, theoretically speaking, I only had four weeks to write it.
How come you had such a short time to get that second album out?
Because of record company demands, you know, and, unfortunately, when you are signed to a major record label sometimes you're not in control of things as much as you would like to be.
I had a lot of people talk me into doing something that I felt was a bit rushed, but the second album, for me, is definitely just as strong as the first album.
It wasn't about the material, it’s just about the timing and, having two albums out, I didn't want to confuse people.
With most bands, you do your album, you go and tour it, then you have two years and you bring out the next one. Maybe it’s because from the background you came from you carried on at that pace.
Exactly, you've hit the nail on the head. I've had to say to the record company, ‘You can't keep pushing me like that. I want to tour, I want to have a rest, I want to be creative.’
The only way you can be creative is when you live a little and unfortunately with the success of the first two albums I've had to travel a lot so I've not had time for myself to be inspired. But then I did The Killers track on a radio show…
On Jo Whiley.
Yeah, on Live Lounge, and it opened another channel in me and I've written about 30 songs in a different genre.
It’s good for me to experiment with these tracks on tour - there's gonna be a little rock section and a little folk section and I'll re-jig some stuff. That’s the whole thing about it being live, you can experiment.
Anyone who went to a Blue show... I think Katie Price said it once... she said that the best concert she’s ever been to was a Blue concert - and she’s been to a lot of concerts. That’s because we sat there and we thought about it and we turned a pop show into a rock show. It was great.
And you're going to try and emulate that again?
Yeah, it’s going to be very energetic. A lot of my tunes are very laidback, but by adding The Killers and adding Oasis tracks and Blue medleys and maybe a couple of other tracks on my next album in the tour, there’s going to be a lot of dynamic to the show which I'm really looking forward to putting into practice in the rehearsals.
Going into the Live Lounge, maybe people wouldn't have expected you to do The Killers track, maybe they would have expected you to do something more R 'n' B, so you're trying to mix all those different genres up?
My first ever demo was a rock demo that I did for the record company, but I suppose they didn't see past it, they wanted to go down the safe route.
They said, 'What else do you listen to,' and I said, 'I'm into Bill Withers as well' - which is pretty old school. I don't want to do R 'n' B because it wouldn't sit well with me being the British answer to Usher.
I wanted to do something that was really original to me. I went, 'You know what? I'm going to write some things in a different genre and see what happens.'
I did a song for a Twentieth Century Fox movie which is going to be out in a couple of months.
Basically I'm doing a Rick Yune Fifth Commandment soundtrack, I'm dealing with that as well, but something else came in, which is like a dream come true, and I can't really say what it is until the film company releases it themselves.
But it's going to be a big film, is it?
Massive.
And they approached you to write the soundtrack?
Not really, because with these companies, because they're so big, everybody wants to get on the soundtrack so what I did was I wrote a song specifically for this film.
They've chosen me over all the American acts that have approached them, and it’s for an American movie, so for them to come to England and choose little old Simon Webbe's track, I'm over the moon.
That’s given me an extra boost to say, 'I'm ready for this concert.'
I've got to start believing in myself because if not it’s really not worth doing what I'm doing. But a million people can't be wrong either.
The thing is that this is going to be the first thing that America hears from me, which is a good thing.
I'm a black guy and I'm doing rock music, and apart from Lenny Kravitz there’s nobody else doing it. A lot of people would expect me to do hip-hop and stuff like that.
I played it to my dad the other day and he didn't even know it was me. I put the movie trailer up and I put the song behind it and my mum was like, 'You don't even know do you? That's your son!' He was like, 'Oh, bloody hell, that don't sound like you!'
He loved it. My dad is proud, he’s here now, he does driving and he does deliveries in the area where I live so he just pops in to see his son.
Going back to getting those two albums out, you write a lot of your own stuff, when did you have a chance to try and write all of those album tracks?
I went away to the south of France, I went to Provence. The record company knew that because of my other businesses, they didn't want me to be distracted so they came up with this bright idea to send me away for six weeks somewhere.
I would have rather stayed in England and done it, but that’s just the way it goes sometimes. So I was like, 'Ok, cool,' so I went over to the south of France with my guitar.
I stayed in this place where there was like 600 acres of land, like two miles to the front gate, and it was like being in the Big Brother house.
I was secluded, so I let the beard grow and my hair and I sort of got in with the vibe of being a bum and then I just wrote these songs like Grace and Coming Around Again and Seventeen, and I wrote the majority of the album out there within four weeks.
It was quite quick but I already had the concept in my head and had some ideas down on paper anyway.
Three heads are better than one and I've got a great writing team, you know, I produce great songs with Matt and Tim. Basically it was a process really. It’s very hard, it was very draining as well.
I remember for Grace we spent two days on one lyric. Being a songwriter, I try not to make the songs about me, I try to make the song looking in as a third person.
I've done two singles, well, theoretically I've done two singles, but my songs didn't connect with radio for some unknown reason and my record company have been going through some changes and I've lost a lot of staff that I've had a long rapport and relationships with over the last eight years - they've all been sacked.
I don't know anyone at the record company and that sort of affected my last single.
I read on Wikipedia, that you’d parted company with Innocent, is that true? What’s happened there?
I've always been with Angel. Innocent changed its name to Angel two years ago, I've been with the same label.
I don't know who's put that out, there was also some rumour that I've been dropped and stuff like that and it was like, 'Where’s all this coming from?'
This is negative energy around me and I felt it and that is why I went away and grabbed the reigns myself and said, 'Right, I'm gonna write a song for this movie.'
If I get this movie, hopefully it’s going to change the perception of Simon Webbe for everybody who’s forgetting me right now- because there’s nothing out there about me right now, so how can people know.
Record companies, as a whole, are going through a tougher time at the moment.
Yeah, they are, they're all merging and it’s people like me who are suffering.
I've still got a lot more to give, this album is just as strong as the first album and I would encourage people to go and download it from iTunes and come and have a sing-song because the show is going to be fantastic, it’s going to be energetic, and it’s nice to have a night out!
So do you think you're suffering because you're not getting the same level of promotion as other acts?
That’s exactly it. I haven't got any adverts on TV, I haven't got any posters up in the right places.
It is about marketing and these are things that I've been addressing, that I'm not happy about, and normally, two years ago, I would never have expressed my feelings.
It’s getting to the point where I've got to speak out because otherwise I'm going to be unhappy and I'm going to want to blame everybody else, you know, 'I could have done this if I’d have said this,' and I don’t want to be one of those people.
You've acted in a couple of films recently and that’s raised your profile. How did you find your way into acting?
Funnily enough, when I was playing football when I was younger, the person who spotted me when I was 10 years old, he saw me do a play when I was 15 in Birmingham Town Hall called Days Of Our Childhood.
My school was picked to do the play and I was the lead role - and he said to me I don't belong on the pitch, I belong on a stage.
I was 15 and Liverpool and teams like that were on my tail, so I was hot property then, and for him to randomly say that after coaching me for five years - he was right.
With some of your own money that you've made from music, you've ploughed that back into the grass roots, so to speak, and started your own label [UK Team] - why did you choose to do that?
Because I come from a deprived area, Moss Side, Manchester, and I could have gone anywhere, I could have been a drug-dealer, or a thief, or whatever, but thankfully I was more afraid of my mum and the police than gangsters.
I strongly believe that when you're in a position to help, you should. I had help getting to the position that I am in today, a lot of it was down to my own determination and not taking no for an answer.
I'm in a position where there are kids who are just as talented or even more talented than I was or I even am now and they won't see the light of day, so I've decided to plough money into helping these kids grow as artists, because you can't just have talent, you've got to be built for this business.
After having three other people to rely on in Blue, how natural does it now feel to be doing all the recording by yourself, stepping out on to stage by yourself, although, of course, you've got the backing band?
When I was doing my first album I was crawling, I'm walking now, I'm running now. I'm very comfortable with my presence on stage now.
And will the Blue boys catch any of the shows? Do you all keep in touch?
I've got some special guests. I've invited people to come along. We don't know which shows it’s going to be but there'll be one or two or three shows where one of the boys might turn up.
Out of all the boys, perhaps people weren't expecting you to be the one to pull through.
I always thought Lee or Duncan would excel to Robbie status, or even Antony, but that’s how it is and I'm very happy to be here and I just want people to come along to the show and have a good time.
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