Darius World

Scot idol

By Jon Perks, What's On
IC Birmingham/IC Coventry 21 May 2003

Famously ridiculed for his Britney rendition on Popstars, Darius Danesh is now having the last laugh. All the way to the bank.

A platinum album with debut Dive In and a number one single with Colourblind (that kept his idols Coldplay off the top spot) which was also voted fourth place in 2002's Record of the Year show has given Darius the chance for a little payback on some of his critics - like Pop Idol judge Simon Cowell:

"It was great fun at Record of the Year, sitting having champagne together - me and Ronan, the Atomic Kitten girls, Will and Gareth sat on the couch down to the final five," Darius recalls with a chuckle.

"Gareth ended up winning over Will which was funny, then at the end of the night Simon Cowell came up to me and said: "Oh Darius, that must hurt - losing again...' - he had a cheeky smile on his face.

"I looked at him and smiled and said: 'Do you know what? I don't feel like a loser 'cos funnily enough Colourblind came fourth, but it was in the top five and the others were all covers'

"He said 'ah well, yeah okay, you're right' and he felt kind of nervous and awkward and walked off!"

It's hard to equate the Darius now with the denim clad, goatee beard boy who first appeared at the auditions for Popstars - a show Danesh fails to mention once in our chat, as if he's now consigned that to the past and that's where it'll stay.

No quitter, however, despite the rejection on the show, he famously returned to try out for Pop Idol (which he happily namechecks), made it into the last ten and eventually came third behind Messrs Gates and Young.

The rest, as he says, is history.

"If you don't believe in the music and the songs that you write then no-one else will," says Darius.

"And if you're not enthusiastic about something, nobody else is going to carry you, and if you don't put effort into what you do then you're not going to borrow it from anyone else - 'cos everyone is looking out for themselves.

"I question myself and doubt myself but I've always gone on my gut instinct and made decisions and been passionate about stuff I do and just run with it, and if I make a mistake and fall flat on my face fine; I get up dust myself down and onto the next thing."

Penning his own songs, Danesh, 22, has gone on to play alongside the likes of Enrique Iglesias at last year's Party In The Park and support Shakira on the European dates of her World Tour.

"Imagine me, a Glasgow boy with a guitar, being invited to support Shakira, worldwide superstar?" he laughs.

"I was having a ball, I really couldn't believe it was happening - it was just a wonderful point in my life when I had to slap myself - forget just pinching yourself: 'Is this really happening?'

"The funny thing is BMG ended up offering me a very similar record deal anyway, despite the fact that I came third," he adds.

"I turned that down, because I wanted to do something on my own terms - I didn't want to be at the mercy of a marketing executive who's going to tell me what to wear, what to say, what to do, what to be, what to sing - I only had one chance at doing it on my own and giving it my best shot.

"Since I was 13 and first picked up the guitar, wrote my first song I've been wanting to be a singer-songwriter," says Darius.

"There was no programme called Singer Songwriter Idol or Singer Songwriter Star, though; if there had been I'd have auditioned for it, but there wasn't.

"I wanted the experience and knew I'd find my way somehow - the path maybe wasn't a conventional one."

Conventional or not, there's no denying Darius has made a star of himself the hard way, with his own material doing things his way - and with his own UK tour currently underway, confesses right now life couldn't be sweeter:

"There's nothing better than waking up in a new city and thinking 'wow' - it's just mad," he beams.

"I've got nothing to complain about... now if you get me on one of my complaining days, oh woe betide the man that crosses my path," he adds.

"If there's something I'm pissed off about you'd never hear the end of it."

So what annoys the seemingly perma-grin star?

"Oh queues - I just can't stand queues," he chirps.

"Queuing for tickets on the underground when you're at Victoria; there's no excuse for it, they've got enough of the bloody machines - and half of them are broken.

"And whenever you go to a restaurant and they're really moody with you," he adds.

"I've waited tables - I've served in an Italian restaurant, Indian restaurant, in Pizza Hut, worked in a fish and chip shop, I've even done silver service and in every one I've done I've tried to approach it the same way and be friendly - it's nice to see a smile before you eat!

"I find half the time in posh restaurants they're really moody with you, I go out a lot when the record company treat you out, but I'm all for going into Pizza Express - that's about as posh as I get; the waitresses are invariably pretty and normally have a smile, it's a safe bet."

Sadly for the girls at Pizza Express, however, Darius reveals he and the band already have other plans when they come to Birmingham:

"We're going for a balti, I can't wait," he says. "Carl my drummer is from your end; he's been talking about it, getting us all excited - every time we go out we might go for a Chinese or whatever but we're holding off going for a balti because you really kick ass on that kind of stuff."