CityLife

Interview: Will Young

Will Young

EVER since he publicly rebuked Simon Cowell after he branded his performance on Pop Idol “distinctly average” in 2001, Will Young has parlayed his expected five minutes into a career of some longevity, transforming himself into one of Britain’s most unlikely pop stars.

A resolutely middle-class, privately educated politics graduate, he’s made unusual, esoteric choices that might have wrong-footed lesser acts. On screen, he’s appeared opposite Dame Judi Dench; on stage, he’s played the tormented young musician Nicky Lancaster in Noël Coward’s The Vortex at Manchester’s Royal Exchange; and – in an industry where previous talent show winners such as Girls Aloud are more au fait with grinding up and down poles than influencing polls – he silenced critics when he appeared on Question Time, sending ratings skyrocketing.

As he prepares to unleash his greatest hits compilation, the stats speak for themselves: four number ones, nine top 10 singles and two Brit awards.

“You know, it’s like looking through a photo album,” he muses at his home in London. “It’s been quite emotional thinking back to everything that’s happened.”

‘Emotional’ is a word that crops up a lot with Young. To the outside world, he looked like he was living an uncomplicated life. His sole brush with controversy came in a jump-before-you’re-pushed Sunday newspaper front page where he announced, ‘I’m gay’ (to which folk blithely shrugged, ‘and....?’). After that, it seemed he had no skeletons in the closet.

His circumspect interview style, politeness and swelling mumsy fanbase made him look safe and sterile: Cliff Richard for the Noughties.

Yet behind the myriad awards for (among others) Rear Of The Year and Best Hair, his life was unravelling.

Surprise winner

“If I could go back and change one thing, I’d definitely get therapy earlier on,” he says. “Definitely. To deal with the whole craziness of it.

“I resisted it for so long. And I think people do. You’re ashamed of admitting you can’t cope on your own. But you know, you can’t lead a horse to water.”

Four years of therapy have made Young refreshingly open about his life. “I just got stuck,” he admits. “And I think people do get stuck in their lives, and helps to talk to someone and get an objective view of your life.

“I’m a big advocate of therapy. I think everyone should do it – it’s like going to see a mechanic when your car breaks down.”

He’s only recently started to get his head around his overnight rise to fame. He was the surprise winner of Pop Idol, the precursor to The X-Factor, with pundits expecting teen Gareth Gates to triumph.

“It took me probably about five years to fully cope with the fame,” he muses.

“For the last few years I’ve been in a good place and able to limit the weirdness in terms of how it can damage you personally.

“You know, I can get on a train now or I can get on a bus and not feel overly conscious or have a panic attack.”

Crisis of confidence

Nothing, he points out, can prepare you for the level of zealous fan interest. “Oh God,” he sighs, “they were breaking into my flat. I had to move apartment blocks.

“I remember people following the tour bus for days. You know, constantly ringing up your hotel room. People thinking I was talking to them through the TV screen.

“I mean, it was definitely shocking to be open to that world of fanaticism.”

Having turned 30 this year, Young is good company – witty, engaging, but tremendously self-critical.

Pay him a compliment and he’ll dismiss it, so it’s tricky to believe that by his own reckoning, four years ago, he was “acting like a rude **** to everyone”.

His debut single, Evergreen (a Westlife cover he hasn’t sung live for four years) stormed into the record books as the fastest-selling British debut ever, while his sophomore album, 2003’s
Friday’s Child, brought critical acclaim. For three years, he “didn’t have a social life”, working solidly. “I didn’t want to be the one turning up to the opening of an envelope and people thinking ‘who does he think he is?’”, he notes.

In 2005, he suffered a crisis of confidence. “I had a patch of about four months where I thought I was quite special, but to be honest it was probably when I was at my most unhappiest at work so it wasn’t really worth it,” he laughs dryly. “Most of the time, when people are rude, they’re not normally very happy. I suddenly thought ‘this isn’t me, I need to sort it out’. So I took a break and luckily I got it back together and didn’t become a complete idiot.”

Underlying all of this was Young’s struggle to grapple with the mental health problems of his twin brother, Rupert, who he is 10 minutes older than.

The pair had always been close, yet while Rupert was seen playing the doting sibling on Pop Idol, secretly he was coping with alcoholism and dysthamia (a depressive disorder sparked by trauma). There were also multiple suicide attempts.

'Turning point'

Now, Rupert has turned his life around and established the Mood Foundation, a charity that offers free, one-on-one treatment to anyone over 18 diagnosed with depression or anxiety.

“What happened with Rupert over the years and now he’s got his charity and he’s been sober for three-and-a-half years, he’s an inspiration to other people,” says Young proudly. “When you’ve seen something like that with someone so close to you, you realise that happiness is the most important thing in life.

“Really. I’m not going to sit on my deathbed and go, ‘I wish I sold one more record...’.”

When he “fell out of love with what I was doing,” Young moved to Manchester and spent four months in Noel Coward’s 1924 play The Vortex, at the Royal Exchange – to mixed reviews.

“It was the turning point in a way, because I’d started to feel like a hamster in a cage, on a wheel,” Will says. “I didn’t want to feel like I was in a process plant, so it was important to try different things.”

Subsequent acting roles have included a Bafta-nominated part in Mrs Henderson Presents, and he will soon be seen playing a teacher in E4’s Skins and in ITV1’s Miss Marple drama, The Mirror Crack’d From Side To Side.

When he appeared on Question Time, meanwhile, the show recorded its hitherto highest ever ratings – it took the appearance of Nick Griffin to break that record.

What did Young make of the BBC’s controversial decision to allow the BNP leader a platform?

“I think the BBC were stuck between a rock and a hard place really,” he considers.

“I think his faults as a leader and his faults in his very odious statements over the years were shown up and that’s a good thing.”

'Different style'

Age seems to suit Young. For someone who had his first proper relationship at 25 and found his emotional development stymied by living a life in the public eye, he’s making up for lost time; retreating to weekends at his Cornish bolthole spent surfing and “partying more than I ever have... I think I’ve become more juvenile with age, actually,” he laughs.

“What I do is showing off, basically,” he chuckles. “I’ve been guilty in the past of taking myself too seriously but I don’t do that now. I’m not under any illusion that I’m saving lives.”

This is reflected in his forthcoming studio album, due out next summer. Whereas his last effort, Let It Go, represents his “break up record”, now he’s in “happy party time”, having collaborated with the likes of Groove Armada after becoming fascinated with remixes
around the end of 2003.

“You know, it’s not an attempt to be cool or anything,” he disclaims. “It’s just an attempt to do really good pop songs in a different style.”

Apart from that, he assisted Cheryl Cole in picking her charges for The X Factor (“I couldn’t audition for that show now. I was wonderfully naive back in 2001”). So what is next for the cultural Zelig?

“Oh gosh,” he responds... “surprises,” before concluding: “The surprises are the best. Well,” he pauses. “Most of the time.”

Will Young plays the Apollo on November 15 and 16, 2009. His Greatest Hits album, The Hits, is out on November 16.