Music
Assembling five faded popstars from former bands on a mission to recapture their glory, Upper Street comprised of Dane Bowers (Another Level), Danny Wood (New Kids On The Block), Bradley McIntosh (S Club 7), Jimmy Constable (911) and - until the rest booted him out - Lee Latchford-Evans from Steps notoriety.
Whilst setting off on the comeback trail a few weeks ago, we caught up with Jimmy Constable for a quick chat before everything started to go a bit Pete Tong for the lads...
How have you found the reaction to your debut single 'The One'?
"The reaction's surprisingly been really good - well, not surprisingly, but it's more that obviously we weren't really sure how people were going to take the whole project. But obviously we wrote a lot of songs on the series, and we played the songs to different people beforehand - friends and family - and since the release It's gone down fantastically well! TV and radio all wanna play it, TVs are asking us to come onto their shows and do a performance, so hopefully it's all gone down well with everyone."
Have you made plans for a follow-up single?
"Well, the actual project, the TV side of things, was based around the cameras following us while we were writing the song and releasing the single. The project is based around one single, but during the writing period we had we wrote the album, so it's all going to be based on how the public [feel]. if they like the TV, really like what we do, want to hear some more stuff - you know, if people want to hear more stuff we've got an album ready and waiting to go, really."
If you had to choose one song from your previous band to play as Upper Street, what would it be and why?
"Funnily enough, we're obviously doing PAs at the moment to get the songs out there - specially 'The One', but we actually, during our set, do one of our old songs. They like stuff from New Kids On The Block, Dane does 'Freak Me' from Another Level, Bradley does 'Don't Stop Movin'' and I do 'Bodyshaking'. So we actually do it on our PAs and it seems to go really well. Everyone remembers the words!"
Do you have any gigs lined up at the moment?
"We've got a lot of gigs lined up. We're doing one in Bradford University tonight, we did one in Guildford University the other night. We did a couple of Mardi Gras', so we've got a few under our belt. We actually feel the single, as well as our old stuff, has gone down really well, but it's a lot to do with the fact that the age group we perform our songs to remember them the first time around. The single we're doing is going down really well."
Have you spoken to any of your ex-bandmates about the Totally Boyband project, and if so, what do they think?
"I spoke to Spike a couple of days ago - Lee actually got married a week and a half ago, so I haven't spoken...not regularly, but I have spoken to the guys. Spike was actually watching the show the other night, and he rang up to say he really enjoyed it and was really into it. Danny didn't really tell anybody when he left Miami, cos obviously they're not going to be able to see it anyway, and if it all goes pearshaped he can go home anyway and not have to worry about it, but I think everybody else has been in touch. Dane's spoken to one of his bandmates called Wayne a while ago - everyone's been great."
If your first few releases perform well, do you see Upper Street being around in a few years time?
"We've had this discussion, obviously. Since we've been together for ten weeks we've decided we are officially a band now, and our intentions are to do the single, do the album, we haven't really put a timescale on it. I can see that the four of us basically want to be together and do as many albums as we can do. We're actually enjoying it this time around, because we learnt our lesson from the music business the first time around. We now can actually sit back and enjoy the whole period."
Your combined age is over 120. Do you think being labelled as a boyband is a bit strange?
"It's always going to be strange, cos whoever came up with the term in the first place - it doesn't help that the title of the programme is called Totally Boyband! Unfortunately that wasn't down to us, that was MTV's decision. You see the likes of Take That coming back, the age they are - around our age, and they're doing really well, so there isn't any pop music out there at the moment that people can get on with, and since Take That have come back it's been outstanding. So, there are people crying out for a bit of a change, from their rock and indie stuff, really."
During recording, is there an agreement made in division of the vocal duties for your songs?
"We sat down at the beginning of this and said that there is no lead singer in the band, everybody contributes exactly the same. We all sing during the PA sets we do, for instance if I sing 'Bodyshaking', I don't just sing it cos it's my song, we all share it. Dane actually sings the second verse of 'Bodyshaking', I sing the second verse of Danny's New Kids, we all harmonise together and do the same amount of work."
Can you explain the circumstances surrounding Lee's departure?
"Yeah, basically when we initially sat down to do this project, we all thought we were going to be totally honest because we don't want to go around just playing games and mindgames. We got into the studio and started working on all the material, and Lee wasn't really contributing anything whatsoever, I don't think he's a writer, I don't think he does it. He wasn't comfortable with the music we were doing, and also in the vocal room when he was singing it was a bit...he couldn't step up and do the job he had to do. If he had to do a lead vocal it would be a hell of a struggle for him, and unfortunately we decided that this time around we're not carrying any dead weight. It also means that everyone else would be working harder than Lee was, and it doesn't seem fair that obviously when it comes down to publishing and writing and earning your money, and when it comes down to splitting the money that somebody's not doing their fair share of work like everybody else is doing. So in the end we made this joint decision that it was time for him to go. He was fired the second week in."
Have any of you had any contact with him since?
"We've not had any personal contact with him. Obviously, you hear on the grapevine - he tried to ring one of the newspapers and say that he walked out of the band, and then they found out the real story, so it kind of backfired on him. We've not actually had any contact with him."
If you could've replaced Lee with someone from another band, who would it be and why?
"In all honesty, the question's been asked ever since we asked Lee to leave, and people have asked along the way. I don't think any of us actually want to have somebody else in the band, because we all lived together, we gelled together from day one. We wouldn't replace him with anybody else, but I would, so long as they were hard working and they could do lead vocals and do as much as anybody else was."
If Totally Boyband hadn't come along, what would you have been doing now?
"We were all in the same circumstances, really. When the project came along, it wasn't given to us and we all jumped on it, we all had our own things going on. I had a solo album which was in the planning stages of being released. Danny's already released two solo albums of his own, Dane has an album out and he's working on writing projects of his own, and Bradley's been writing and recording for his own solo career as well. It wasn't as if people were sitting down in a McDonald's when the telephone call came. We had to sit back and say 'let's think about this' because you're giving a lot up to do it. Obviously this time around we've got families and more responsibilities so it wasn't like a day thing where we thought about it, we had to spend a lot of time working it out."
Did any of you watch the Totally Scott Lee programme and if so, are you concerned that the show might be edited to take the mickey out of you?
"I didn't watch it - obviously I'd heard about it, but this is one of the restraints that we discussed in the beginning - we'd obviously heard there had been issues with previous programmes, but if you watch the programme you'll see this is after the watershed, this is four guys - or five guys in the beginning - about our honesty. We say the things we say and we do the things we do. We've already seen episodes already that people haven't seen. The way it's edited is in a funny way, people will want to watch it because there's so much going on. In any particular episode we've seen, making us look silly is not going to happen, because obviously MTV want to make the best programme they can, because they want to keep the option of following us when we record the album, do the next programme. They can't afford to make us look silly, really."
Thanks for chatting, Jimmy!
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