Darkness Frontman Blasts ‘Pop Idol’ Singers

The Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins tells The Sunday Mirror he’s delighted that the Pop Idol 12, who were the odds on choice to top the Christmas singles chart battle with their cover of the John Lennon classic ‘Merry Christmas (War Is Over)’, now doesn’t stand a chance. “The Pop Idol lot are the most talentless and characterless people in the country. The novelty is clearly starting to wear off,” Justin said. “With Pop Idol you have all these little sh**s in the chart, but the public doesn’t like being told what to listen to. This might sound harsh, but fu** Will Young and Gareth Gates. Where are the Kate Bush and Princes of today? Record companies won’t touch them because they are scared of people like that.”

The full story at sundaymirror.co.uk has since been removed.

Will Young Mistaken For Chauffeur

December 20, 2003 - The Mirror reports Heart 106.2 DJ Harriet Scott was spotted by a source flagging down a silver Mercedes at the West London building, believing there was a chauffeur inside coming to pick her up. Instead, behind the blacked out windows, was Will Young. “It was hilarious,” the insider said. “Harriet thought it was her car and once she explained to Will why she did it he was hysterical.”

The Spirit Of Good Will

December 13, 2003 - Dominic Mohan of The Sun writes, “Will Young is seen as a manufactured pop puppet, his strings seemingly controlled by perma-tanned Svengali Simon Fuller, a man more orange than Belfast in marching season. But this week, nigh on two years after his Pop Idol victory, the Young man is nestling at the top of the album and singles charts and, er, wait for it, this isn’t easy for me you know, but I, um, think I owe him, yes, I owe him an apology. A fierce critic of processed musical spam I may be, but in Will I can now recognize a true talent.”

The entire story at thesun.co.uk has since been removed.

Gorgeous Girls Leave Gareth Gates Terrified

December 7, 2003 - The Sunday Mirror reports that after recently losing his virginity to Jordan, ‘Pop Idol’ runner-up Gareth Gates went all coy at a UB40 gig at Wembley. A spy revealed, “Four gorgeous girls were telling him to get up and dance. He begged his record person to get him a seat elsewhere. He looked terrified.”

Will Young Talks About ‘Friday’s Child’

December 6, 2003 - Will caught up with Capital FM to talk about shedding his pop image to be more soulful on his new album ‘Friday’s Child’. Asked about the title, the Pop Idol champ responded, “I was trying to think of titles and originally I wanted to do like a separate title. Because I went with one producer, Steve Lipson, and I wanted it to be a real unified body of work. So I picked a song from the album and ‘Friday’s Child’ I think does embody the album because it’s nine minutes long - which is a long song - it’s a soul track, it’s got a lot of space in it and it’s about letting the music breathe and I think that’s what the whole album is about.” Audio at capitalfm.com has since been removed.