SIMON'S GUN FIGHT
REAL STORIES THE FORMER BLUE SINGER TALKS ABOUT GROWING UP ON A TOUGH ESTATE - AND WHY HE'S CAMPAIGNING AGAINST KNIFE AND GUN CRIME
14/06/2007
HEARTTHROB Simon Webbe was once a part of huge boyband Blue. Now, 28, the single star lives in Essex and is on a mission to improve the lives of teens growing up with the same problems he faced.
'WITH a hammer held menacingly above my knee, a boy wearing a balaclava leant in and shouted: "Where are the drugs!?" There were five guys, who'd kneecap me if I lied to them.
They had burst through the door of the music studio I was working in and seemed convinced that I was hiding some pot. "There are no drugs!" I said. All I could see were their eyes through their masks.
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I won't pretend that I wasn't scared. Who wouldn't be? I had loads of things going through my head. Any of them could pull a gun out at any moment. I could see the blade of one of their knives. What would they do to me?
Thankfully, they eventually realised there were no drugs and left. Apparently, there was a rumour someone was dealing in the area but they'd gone to the wrong place. It was the scariest 20 minutes of my life.
It sounds dramatic - these boys would go to such lengths just to get some pot - but that's what it's like.
I was only 19 but I'd already seen plenty of violence on Manchester's Moss Side estate.
Unfortunately, you have two choices when you're growing up there - either join a gang or stay off the streets. I didn't join a gang...
But I was lucky. I had two different lives. I was raised in Birmingham by my mum. There, I played football, built tree houses and played kiss-chase.
But I went back to Manchester in the school summer holidays to stay with my grandparents. Then I would spend weeks on the estate, kicking a football against the wall and hearing random gunfire.
I saw stuff there. I don't want to go into too much detail but I saw people shooting people.
There was one time I saw a guy drive through the estate. He had his sound system on - "boom, boom, boom!" But when he drove out the other end he had bullet holes in his car. It was just random fire - there was no reason for it. It was just something to do.
When I was growing up, there was one road separating two gangs and you stuck to your side of the road. It was like "you don't come over here and we don't go over there". That's how it was.
I didn't feel any pressure to be part of a gang. Yeah, you want to fit in but I didn't want to be shot at or forced to carry a gun.
What they're doing now is getting replica guns and then people coming out of the army, who know what to do, turn them into real guns by drilling holes in them to make a proper bullet go through them. It's scary. They're just teenagers.
Sometimes, I'd wake in the morning to the sound of police helicopters above us. Or the sound of sirens. I didn't know what was happening - I was just glad that I was in my bed.
I've never taken drugs. No one would even have offered them to me. I hated them - even just the smell of them.
I was on the school football team so the people I hung out with wanted to be healthy.
I'd see people on Es, with their eyes rolling to the back of their heads, and it was disgusting.
My mum always taught me never to get involved in that. She used to say things like "if you ever think about doing drugs then don't expect me to visit you in jail". The way she said it was really cold, like she meant it. I was more scared of my mum than of any gangster. I was scared of disappointing her.
I was 14 when my friend committed suicide. He was 18 or 19 and he got depression and paranoia, I think caused by taking drugs like Ecstasy. That was Manchester for me. In Birmingham, I saw another problem - alcoholism. There were lots of teenagers standing in bus stops with brown paper bags drinking Diamond White and Thunderbird, smoking cigarettes at 14, girls having sex with older guys who drove cars. Trying to grow up too quickly.
At one point, I woke up and I was like: "I can't be doing with this any more. I've got to find another life. Even though these guys are my mates, this isn't the life I want to lead."
It's frustrating for me to know that, in places like Moss Side, kids these days think their only hope of getting out is music or becoming an athlete. No one's empowered to be a trader or a politician, doctor or mechanic. You might get the odd few but most think that the only way out is by becoming famous.
You can't tell someone who's young that that's not true. In the ghetto, your eyes are wide shut.
I was 19 when a woman spotted me lifting weights in the gym. She said that I should try modelling and I whined: "I don't want to be no poxy model."
But she entered me for the Pride Face Of 98 competition anyway - and I won! I got a campaign for JJB Sports on the back of it.
I ended up on posters on bus stops all around Manchester, so I was like a ghetto celebrity. Everyone was like "he's a model", so they left me alone. But I really wanted to get into music.
It wasn't like I was waking up every morning thinking "I need money and I need to make it", it was "I need to get out of here and make something of my life".
By this time I had a little girl from a failed relationship when I was 17. And I thought: "I don't want her to have a dad in jail".
So I teamed up with a producer friend and started recording some music. I was 20 when I received the call that would change my life - I was given a contract to be in the boy band Blue! It was November 8.
I will always remember that date. It was the best day of my life. It was at that point I thought that maybe I could make a difference.
We went on to become one of the biggest boy bands in the world. I even got to sing for the Queen. But throughout all of it I've tried to stay on the straight and narrow. I don't want to be seen falling out of clubs drunk. I don't want to disappoint people.
I'm now a solo artist and believe that if you're in a position to help you should. So I've set up my own label, UK Team, and I've signed up two young kids from Manchester - Lyrican and Hood Man. My plan is that once they're famous, they'll have kids in their area they can help and it will have a domino effect.
I can't change the world but if I can change two or three people's lives, I'm happy. I've done my job.
I also have plans to set up a sports academy school. I'm trying to raise half the money at the moment and once I've got enough in the bank I'll go to the government. I know it really wants to help so there are some funds there.
I want the academy to be another option, so that if kids don't make it on a team first time around, they still have an opportunity to play football or tennis on a daily basis and also get tuition.
I think I could preach all day long to these kids but, at 14, they're not going to listen.
But if I can get to them early, I can influence them. Moss Side is still a tough place. My 16-year-old sister was friends with Jessie James - the 15-year-old boy shot dead on the estate last year while riding his BMX bike.
She still lives there and I do worry about her but she's a good girl.
I consider myself blessed and I try to make a difference. At the end of the day, money can't buy you happiness.
I've seen a lot of celebs going in and out of rehab and they're millionaires. Happiness comes from within.
I just want to do my bit. And then I'll go to my grave happy."
Simon's new single Grace/Ride The Storm, from the film Fantastic 4: Rise Of The Silver Surfer, is released on June 18.
pas trop le temps de faire une traduc en gros fin façon c tellement long
pour moi que j'ai meme pas tout lu 
ça parle de sa vie il me semble ... 
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