CityLife

The frustrations of pop's forgotten man Shayne

STRIVING FOR FURTHER SUCCESS: Shayne

THAT we care about Shayne Ward more than most of the other reality TV “whatever-happened-tos” has everything to do with the fact that the series two winner was our X Factor champion.

He was plucked from working as a shoe sales assistant in New Look and the pub circuit in Manchester and chosen by the people to record an automatic Christmas number one back in 2005.

His debut self-titled album followed it into the shops in April 2006 and has to date sold almost 1m copies.

Its follow-up, Breathless, came out on November 2007, and was also certified platinum with sales of 450,000, making him the most successful winner of the show in terms of UK album sales.

Yet frustratingly, those who haven’t switched loyalties to Leona Lewis will have to wait even longer for Shayne’s third album.

Destined for release firstly this summer, then in time to coincide with the new series of The X Factor, it was then shunted back for release maybe in time for Christmas, and now, won’t be heard until February or March of next year.

Spending a weekend at the Droylsden house he bought his mum with his X Factor booty back in 2006, it’s clear that Shayne, 24, shares our frustration, if not our concern that there will be another X Factor winner to contend with by the time his next CD gets a release.

“Am I concerned? Not really no,” says Shayne, who, contrary to popular belief, is still hanging on to his Sony BMG contract.

“I remember having this talk with Leon Jackson, who unfortunately got dropped. Once you’ve won the show, you know that there is going to be another show straight away and that all the focus from the public is going to be on the new show.

"That’s why you have to use your time to prove why the people voted for you.

“I’ve done that now with two successful albums and two tours. And the third album is 100 per cent unbelievable. It’s going to be coming out.”

But he admits to having worried that his third LP might simply drift slowly away.

“I feel that completely,” he concedes. “But because I’m involved in it, I know it’s not going to drift away. I’m creating all these fantastic tracks and I can’t wait for the fans to hear them. I’m itching to get back.”

In fairness, Shayne, 24, hasn’t actually been away from his public for that long.

He followed the release of Breathless with a month-long tour of Asia and Europe, and has spent most of this year writing and recording.

Work started on his third album in January with what he described as a “writing camp”, with producers and lyricists invited to present their ideas to the young singer over the course of a few weeks in Laguna Beach, south of Los Angeles.

He’s also spent time recording in Sweden, Denmark and London and with some of the biggest current names in the business, including RedOne, the producer who worked with Lady GaGa on Just Dance.

“It’s been just like, one hell of a long process,” he says. “Every time a great song is made, I’m like ‘let’s go and do it, let’s go and do it. let’s release the album now’. But I totally understand that we want to make this album right. That’s because they believe that there is that killer song that could still come in.

Big break

“Even though we’ve got those killer songs which could still be number ones, which could be really good songs, we still believe that that one song could come in and we don’t want to just finish off the album just in case it comes in, that takes me to a higher level as an artist, and also provides a big break for the album too.”

Could it also be the case a certain Mr Cowell has been dragging his Cuban heels over Shayne’s next release?

Shayne’s manager Louis Walsh certainly thinks so, tackling Cowell publicly about the way he had (mis)managed the young Mancunian’s career. Sensibly, Shayne chooses to keep out of it.

“That’s between Louis and Simon,” he adds. “They are the best of friends and at the same time you can see the way they behave towards each other on The X Factor.

“I leave that behind closed doors for those two to decide. As long as I get my third album out and a big career ahead of me, that’s all that matters.”

Whatever becomes of Shayne’s elusive third album, he’s had quite a journey since winning The X Factor in 2005. He was even rumoured as a possible replacement for Take That’s Jason Orange, who, at one point, didn’t seem certain of joining the band’s hugely successful comeback.

He was flattered by the suggestion – confirmed in Gary Barlow’s biography – but says it wouldn’t have been right for him or the man band.

He’s still seeing Faye, his girlfriend of six years, and says that she understands the unique job he does.

“She knows that when I have the time, I’m up and that when she has the time, she comes down. That’s the way we’ve worked it,” he says

“Without a shadow of a doubt there will come a time when me and Faye want to live under the same roof and it could be in the next couple of years. But Faye is acting now and for us both, it’s making sure that if we do decide to do it, we’ve got to be stable.”

Nor do his family allow him to be a pop star when he’s back home.

“If I ever got beyond myself, I think I’d knock myself down, and my family would be the same,” he adds.

“The good thing is that I’ve got a family of seven, and we’re all exactly the same. Even when there’s karaoke on, my brother Martin will get up singing and then it’s like a competition all over again – he’s like ‘beat that one’.”

But success has allowed him to indulge himself in ways that would have seemed totally unrealistic only a few years ago.

He’s just passed his driving test and has been test-driving a number of luxury cars, the latest being a 3-series BMW.

And the Manchester United fan says that there was one prize at a charity auction which he just had to have – Sir Alex Ferguson’s office chair.

“It was between me and another guy – Alex was going wild and he said that the chair would go to the next bid. I think I paid something like £6,700 for it. Six years ago I could have only paid £6.

“People say ‘you are sick for getting that chair’, but I say that you’ve got to understand the decisions which have been made in that chair and the fact that he has signed it to me.

“Alex Ferguson was looking at me – I was on his radar!”

And hopefully, Shayne, the same still goes for everyone else.