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Reviews of Sink or Swim

Nice and cheesy does it

How many pop stars close their first book with one of American literature's greatest quotes? Tucked away at the back of Darius Sink or Swim: My Story is a picture of the reality television anti-hero walking over what looks like a motorway bridge.

Superimposed on the picture are the closing lines from Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, that final passage about how we are all boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

It is an obvious line from an obvious book, but it is a sign that Darius Danesh wants to do things differently.

But then it could also be taken as an example of Darius' big weakness - he takes himself far too seriously.

But let's start with the positive stuff. It appears that Sink or Swim has actually been written by Darius. Not only that, he's done a good job - it is readable, entertaining and sensitively written.

Even someone not familiar with Darius's work can be impressed by his description of how he beat the school bullies by forming a band and playing music.

He describes his infamous rendition of the Britney Spears classic Baby One More Time that had many of us cringing on our sofas.

He admits it was "over the top" but you can't help admire his guts in standing up to the judges and telling them he would have a number one as a solo artist one day - a prophecy that came true earlier this year.

And he is also good on the gap between the reality that he experienced and the way he and his fellow Pop Idol and Popstars contestants were portrayed on television.

Darius tells a good story and his struggles with the concept of being famous are revealing.

But there is also lots of stuff that doesn't quite seem to make sense. He seems very against the Popstars format - constantly arguing with television bosses about not being allowed to perform his own material - but goes back for more in Pop Idol, even getting to the final.

At one point he is asked out for dinner by a woman but later twigs she is a journalist.

Darius convinces himself that the woman is trying to set him up, gets furious and rings the restaurant where they are due to meet saying that he can't make it but he hopes she chokes. It seems a rather emotional reaction based on scant evidence.

Later in the book he describes the hysteria that broke out when his fellow Popstars contestants learn that he has not got into the band that would become Hear'Say. He says the whole room broke down in tears.

There are some unforgivable clichés. Darius tells us that life stretched before him like a "vast, glittering ocean" and adds: "As I stood on the shore, little did I know that the wind was picking up and somewhere in the distance a storm was brewing."

Oh dear! Scott Fitzgerald certainly wouldn't approve but what Darius lacks in literary talent he certainly makes up for in self belief.

Darius Sink Or Swim: My Story by Darius Danesh (Headline, £14.99)

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Hotstars Sink or Swim review

Idol thoughts

The unforgettable singer with "so much love to give" brings us a dramatic view of his life illustrated with several suave shots of himself posing in the sunset. But you have to hand it to the Scottish singer - undeterred from his reality-show rejection, he's risen pheonix-like from the ashes of Popstars and, minus the ponytail, is now something of a sex symbol with a couple of hit singles under his belt. Full of typically self-assured quotes and amusingly deep at times, you'll come to like Daz, despite having his ridiculous rendition of Britney's Hit Me Baby One More Time etched permanently on your memory. He relays the truth behind cruel press claims and tells a particularly fab tale of the undercover hack who asked him out on a date. Upon discovering her true identity Darius left her this note: "Dinner's on me. Hope you choke." Revenge is a dish best served cold!

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Teletext Sink or Swim review

Darius Sink or Swim

Putting his English lit degree to full use, Big D has penned a book about the chapters in his life we wanna nosey deep into.

Going way back to his bulling ordeal at school, Darius explains how he shaped an interest in music - and how a mate pushed him into the Poapstars audition without his knowledge

Darius's first book is stuffed with goss 'bout Popstars and Pop Idol. He 'fesses up what went on behind the camera and how Nicky Chapman tried to dissuade him from auditioning for the show that landed him his record deal.

He also says The Matrix had Sk8er Boi and Complicated written when he went to work with them. Before Avril... Oooh!

Top read all round - a must buy!

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Heat Review of Sink or Swim

The Unlikely Lad

Who'd have thought that shaving off your goatee could have such a dramatic effect on a person's career?

Take Darius "can you feel the love in this room?" Danesh for example. One trip to the barber's and he went from national embarrassment to Britain's favourite comeback kid. He may only be 23, but Darius reckons he's got a story to tell about his rollercoaster ride to fame on the Popstars/Pop Idol bandwagon. Highlights include the reason for that Britney audition (apparently a dodgy tummy affected his artistic judgement), falling out with Nasty Nigel and getting spat at on stage at G-A-Y. What's missing are colourful anecdotes about characters we know and love - the book's bereft of tales of backstage bitchiness between Will and Gareth, rock 'n' roll antics and an explanation of the phenomenon that is Simon Cowell's waistband. Instead, he sets the record straight on those bizarre tabloid headlines (our favourite: "Darius is like cult leader David Koresh"). He comes across as a likeable character but, a bit like the D man himself, there's an inescapable whiff of cheese about the writing. Get ready to cringe w

Then he talks about "organic" music and motivational "positive phrases". Fans will love it, but a few more years of life experience might have made a better story. *** Leila Billing

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UK-fusion Review of Sink or Swim

Pop Idol's bonafide sch-winging hips Darius Danesh is next to dive onto the autobiography bandwagon and if you have an ounce of curiosity left, you won't need long to get through this. Let's face it, he's hardly achieved major celebrity status and in the music world, has yet to annihilate the charts and wow audiences worldwide. A harsh reality but so true lately of the herd of young wannabes desperate to cash in on their instant fame.

Unfortunately, Darius doesn't really tell us much that we don't know already, but merely straightens out a few loose ends left dangling by the media that weren't necessarily true. My Story has a better place as a coffee table art book with lavish studio and location photographs, some with text superimposed over the top. I would say it's a bit premature, but in some ways to him he has achieved his main goal in life, and his eagerness to carry on should, in theory, prove his credibility as an individual artist.

The book is very sentimental; he openly talks about his bullying experiences at school and how this has built him up for the future. Music is his passion and after his first group disbanded, he was trying any way imaginable to be noticed. It goes through the Pop Stars and Pop Idol scenarios too and of course no Darius book would be complete without mentioning the Britney 'Hit Me Baby One More Time' escapade and about feeling the love in the room.

A tad predictable but what else has he done? I'm flummoxed though as to how this man can afford a Gibson guitar even before he got his recording contract - the words not and fair spring to mind!

In a way you feel sympathy towards him at the way he was supposedly treated and not taken seriously, but any accomplished artist has to come up against some media firewall at some point in their career. I don't think Darius wants you to feel sorry. His story is more positive and says that if you know you are good at something then you must pursue it and grab any opportunity by the horns. Nice presentation, but overall a bit of a rip-off for so early on in his career.

(3/5)

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Daily Mirror Review of Sink or Swim

Call me a pendant, but when it comes to writing your life story there's one thing you really need to have had before you start Chapter One - a life. Which is why dear old Winston Churchill, arguably the greatest Briton ever, held on 'till he was 56 before reaching for his pen. Gareth and Darius aren't even old enough to rent a car, yet here they are.

Remarkably, this is Gareth's second autiobiographical volume. As you'd expect, it's anorexically thin, cynically cobbled together piece of old tat. In an industry where the artists have a the shelf life of semi-skimmed milk, you can't have a go at someone who is only trying to milk it while he can.

Even so, Gareth's fans desreve something more than reheated leftover's from Smash Hits interviews. The problem is that a book can only be as interesting as its subject, and Gareth is as complex as a boiled sweet. The only interesting thing he's done, apart from come second in Pop Idol, was to mount the south face of Jordan without oxygen, but that's not mentioned. All we get is some guff about his stammer, the fun he had dooing a film with S Club 7, and the fact that he sends a lot of texts. Oh, and he and Will Young once complained that their hotel rooms "weren't very nice". Phew! Rock 'n' roll, or what!

Compared to this, Darius's book reads like Socrates. In fact it's surprisingly good. In fact I enjoyed it more than Unless, the Booker Prize-nominated novel by Carol Shields, which I read last week.

For a start, Darius appears to have written it himself and his story contains everything Gareth's lacks - good anecdotes, a sense of perspective and passion.

It's quite a story. He went from being the most mocked person in the country to a No1 artist who is in danger of being taken almost as seriouly by the music industry as he is by himself. As pop svengali Simon Fuller tells him, it's the greatest PR turnaround since David beckham got sent off in the 1998 World Cup. And he did it all by himself.

His self-belief is astounding. he gets beaten up, spat at during gigs, and humiliated on national TV, but he still says "no" when Pete Waterman and Simon Cowell dangle juicy deals in front of him. They wanted him to do cover versions. He wanted to do his own stuff.

The key issue about Dazza and Gazza is whether they, or the Pop Idol process is whether that spawned them, are A Good Thing or A Bad Thing for the future of pop.

At this point I should declare an interest. In my book, Flop Idol, I try tried to answer this question by seeing if someone without looks, talent or youth (me) on their side could top the charts. The answer was "No", but my band almost won the Eurovision Song Contest, I got to No 98 in the Irish Charts, and the book was a Bestseller.

Gazza doesn't even touch on this, but Dazza - bless him - realises that what the wiseacres have been saying all along is true. Simon Cowell and co are good to music what daylight is to vampires. And for that alone, he deserves your attention.