Duncan James returns to TV presenting duties with a second series of Scream If You Know The Answer this week. But the singer has reunited with the rest of the Blue boys to take on the rest of Europe in the Eurovision Song Contest.
I caught up with him to talk about the new show, being back with Blue and what we can expect from their new studio album.
- Scream If You Know The Answer is back for a second series so for anyone who didn’t see the show first time around can you tell me a bit about it?
The show is set in a theme park with lots of different celebrities and a contestant fighting against each other, not fighting, but battling it round trying to answer simple general knowledge questions - the only problem is they are doing it while they are being flung, swung and turned upside down at Thorpe Park. It’s entertaining to watch lets put it that way.
- It’s unlike any other game show so what did you think of the idea when it was first proposed to you?
I just thought it was brilliant - I’m a big fan of the rollercoaster. As you say there is nothing like it on TV. What I actually liked about it is it reminded me of the old game shows that we had back in the day - it’s a good Sunday evening family game-show that I was brought up on.
I just thought that it was a fantastic idea and I enjoyed it more making it, it was such good fun, and when they asked me to do a second series I jumped at the chance.
- Well you have touched on my next question really is it as fun to film as it looks?
Oh it’s brilliant! It’s such a good show to be a part of. The contestants have made it really special as well and made it really fun for me. This we have had Janice Dickenson, who is just so entertaining, Jack Osbourne, who is a great guy. And we have also had Jason gardener, Louis Spence, Tamzin Outhwaite, and Denise Van Outen - just some really good names.
- Obviously you kicked off you career in music so how have you found the transition into TV presenting?
I have been doing TV presenting for years now, when I was in Blue I use to present Party In The Park, I have done a lot of shows from The National Lottery to Scream If You Know The Answer - so I have done a varied arrange of different time of stuff.
But I have been very lucky over the last six years that I haven’t been in Blue to work which has been a fantastic thing in this day and age.
- You went from being surrounded by he Blue boys to being yourself was that something that you had difficulty adjusting to or was it a welcome break?
I think at the time it was a welcome break if I am honest because being in the same people’s pocket for five years was a long time and I think, for all of us, we all needed to go off and have time to grow and have an opportunity to do other things that we wanted to do. For me it was a needed break but I’m excited to be back in Blue now - it’s like we have never been away.
- But you and the rest of Blue are back together so what was it that made this the right time to get back into the studio?
We always said that we would get back together on our tenth anniversary and do another album - this year is our tenth anniversary and the Eurovision Song Contest is being held on the 14th May and the first time we released All Rise was 21st May 2001; so it’s going to be exactly ten years and one week to the day of us releasing All Rise we will be doing Eurovision how weird is that?
It has been a great ten years I have had the opportunity to do so many things whether it be filming a game-show in Thorpe Park for two weeks or singing with people like Elton John and Stevie Wonder.
I have been very lucky in my career that I have a) kept working and b) I have had an opportunity to do some wonderful things. I think in this business people pigeon hole you into only being able to only do one thing but I have been lucky that I have done musical theatre, singing, TV acting so I have done lots of different things.
Coming black to Blue now it just feels like it’s complete again for me and I’m really happy to be back with the boys.
- I read that you have worked with Bruno Mars on the album so how did that collaboration come about?
We haven’t worked with him. Basically Lee has worked with him on some writing - they did some writing together and Lee had written a couple of songs with him that wants to put forward with the Blue album.
- And can you give us any hints as to what we can expect from the album?
I have got to say that it’s the best album that we have ever done! I have been listening to some of the songs now for the now couple of months and I think people are going to be extremely shocked, not only are all four of us singers but our harmonies and the sound that we make together is just amazing.
I don’t think that there is another boy band out there that can get the harmonies that we can, obviously people like Boyz to Men are amazing, it’s very rare to get four singers in a band, you normally only get one or two, but all four of us are strong singers and we are very good at our harmonies and our blends.
And we were always very proud to say that we were a vocal harmony band and that’s why we attracted the likes of Stevie Wonder and Elton John to work with us. So I think with this album people are going to be very shocked when they hear the stuff that we are doing. It’s Blue but ten years on it’s grown up pop and it’s going to blow people away.
- As you mentioned earlier you are all set to represent the UK at the Eurovision song Contest so how much are you looking forward to it?
For us coming back after six years it’s always hard getting back into this industry again because people move on quite quickly - of course we have been saturated by X-factor for the last six years so every year we are churning out two or three big acts. So people forget that we were around six years ago because everyone has moved onto the next thing.
The same thing happens in Europe where we were a very successful band but I think coming back after six years of being away it’s hard to go ‘hey we are back’ - take That have done it in a fantastic way but no other band has been able to do that and I don’t think anyone ever will.
So you have got to look at other ways to make a comeback and, for us, the Eurovision is a platform that reaches out to over 120 million people in Europe - we were a big band that sold lots of albums in Europe - so this a great platform for us to let people in Europe know that Blue are back.
- Since the band took time out back in 2004 the likes of JLS and The Wanted have come along so what do think of these acts and what music are you enjoying at the moment?
First of all JLS are a top band, we know Marvin really well because Marvin use to be in a band that Simon managed back in the day, so JLS are wicked.
I love The Wanted as well. And what is so refreshing about them, much like us, they didn’t come from The X-Factor or those kind of shows so to make it as a successful group you have got to be really great and pull out all of the stops - and The Wanted have done that.
And it was something that we had to do because when we were starting out we had Hearsay and all those bands starting out with Pop Stars.
We were a band that didn’t come from any of those TV shows either so we know how hard it is - with X-Factor you do have a massive platform to lunch yourselves - The Wanted didn’t have that and they have done a fantastic job doing it themselves.
- Finally what’s next for you?
Up next is the Eurovision Song Contest, which is the 14th May, so my promotion for that is pretty much full on - I’m doing stuff with Blue pretty much every day and we have been touring round Europe.
It’s been really interesting going in and out of these countries and seeing how seriously they take the Eurovision Song Contest - to them it’s a really big deal. So we have just been doing a lot of promotion in Europe which has been fab.
Scream If You Know The Answer! is on Sundays at 7pm from Sunday 8th May on Watch
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Duncan James returns to TV presenting duties with a second series of Scream If You Know The Answer this week. But the singer has reunited with the rest of the Blue boys to take on the rest of Europe in the Eurovision Song Contest.
I caught up with him to talk about the new show, being back with Blue and what we can expect from their new studio album.
- Scream If You Know The Answer is back for a second series so for anyone who didn’t see the show first time around can you tell me a bit about it?
The show is set in a theme park with lots of different celebrities and a contestant fighting against each other, not fighting, but battling it round trying to answer simple general knowledge questions - the only problem is they are doing it while they are being flung, swung and turned upside down at Thorpe Park. It’s entertaining to watch lets put it that way.
- It’s unlike any other game show so what did you think of the idea when it was first proposed to you?
I just thought it was brilliant - I’m a big fan of the rollercoaster. As you say there is nothing like it on TV. What I actually liked about it is it reminded me of the old game shows that we had back in the day - it’s a good Sunday evening family game-show that I was brought up on.
I just thought that it was a fantastic idea and I enjoyed it more making it, it was such good fun, and when they asked me to do a second series I jumped at the chance.
- Well you have touched on my next question really is it as fun to film as it looks?
Oh it’s brilliant! It’s such a good show to be a part of. The contestants have made it really special as well and made it really fun for me. This we have had Janice Dickenson, who is just so entertaining, Jack Osbourne, who is a great guy. And we have also had Jason gardener, Louis Spence, Tamzin Outhwaite, and Denise Van Outen - just some really good names.
- Obviously you kicked off you career in music so how have you found the transition into TV presenting?
I have been doing TV presenting for years now, when I was in Blue I use to present Party In The Park, I have done a lot of shows from The National Lottery to Scream If You Know The Answer - so I have done a varied arrange of different time of stuff.
But I have been very lucky over the last six years that I haven’t been in Blue to work which has been a fantastic thing in this day and age.
- You went from being surrounded by he Blue boys to being yourself was that something that you had difficulty adjusting to or was it a welcome break?
I think at the time it was a welcome break if I am honest because being in the same people’s pocket for five years was a long time and I think, for all of us, we all needed to go off and have time to grow and have an opportunity to do other things that we wanted to do. For me it was a needed break but I’m excited to be back in Blue now - it’s like we have never been away.
- But you and the rest of Blue are back together so what was it that made this the right time to get back into the studio?
We always said that we would get back together on our tenth anniversary and do another album - this year is our tenth anniversary and the Eurovision Song Contest is being held on the 14th May and the first time we released All Rise was 21st May 2001; so it’s going to be exactly ten years and one week to the day of us releasing All Rise we will be doing Eurovision how weird is that?
It has been a great ten years I have had the opportunity to do so many things whether it be filming a game-show in Thorpe Park for two weeks or singing with people like Elton John and Stevie Wonder.
I have been very lucky in my career that I have a) kept working and b) I have had an opportunity to do some wonderful things. I think in this business people pigeon hole you into only being able to only do one thing but I have been lucky that I have done musical theatre, singing, TV acting so I have done lots of different things.
Coming black to Blue now it just feels like it’s complete again for me and I’m really happy to be back with the boys.
Tagged in Duncan James