In May 2001, a new band named Blue released their debut single. The next year saw the band achieve a meteoric rise to fame, becoming the hottest new act to emerge from the UK in years. 

Comprising of London based lads Duncan James (24), Anthony Costa (21), Lee Ryan (19) and Simon Webbe (24), Blue released their first single in May 2001, the anthemic “All Rise”, which entered the UK chart at No. 4 and stayed in the top ten for five weeks.  

The next two singles “Too Close” and “If You Come Back” went on to be even bigger hits, both crashing into the chart at No.1 and selling in excess of 200,000 copies each.

The boys followed this massive success with their eagerly anticipated debut album “All Rise”, which has now sold over 1.2 million copies in the UK alone, reaching No.1 in the album charts after a phenomenal 23 weeks.

Numerous awards followed in end of year polls including “Best Newcomer” at the Smash Hits Awards, “Best Newcomer” in The Sun’s Bizarre poll, “Best Band” in the Daily Star’s Hot poll and “Best Newcomer” in the Pepsi Chart People’s Choice Awards.

In March 2002, Blue picked up three awards at the Capital FM Awards: Best Single for “If You Come Back”, Best Newcomer and Best Pop Act. They also released their fourth single, “Fly By II”, a brand new version of the track which appears on the album. Reworked and remixed, “Fly By II” proved to be a massive airplay hit, reaching No.1 in the official airplay chart. It also provided the band with their fourth consecutive top ten hit in a row.

After spending the summer touring the globe, November 2002 saw Blue unleash their second album “One Love”, a confident collection of classic r'n'b/pop tracks, featuring some of the best songwriters and producers around. The album entered the UK album charts at No.1.

The lead single from the album, title track “One Love”, shot straight into the UK Top 3 and provided Blue with their second consecutive No.1 airplay hit. This was quickly followed by another single, a duet with international superstar Elton John on a poignant cover of his 1976 hit ‘Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word’. Released in December 2002 the track entered the UK chart at No.1 and became another massive airplay hit for the band.

The collaboration came about when Lee had the idea for Blue to cover the track as it is one of his all time favourite songs. Approaches were made to Elton to ascertain his interest in recording the song and Blue were delighted when Elton agreed to the idea. 

Following the “One Love” album release Simon, Antony, Lee and Duncan embarked on their first ever tour - a mammoth Arena tour of the UK and Ireland, taking in Sheffield, Cardiff, Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow, Manchester and London’s Wembley Arena. The spectacular tour was a sell-out success, with the guys earning rave reviews wherever they played across the country.

Blue ended 2002 on a massive high by picking up another batch of awards including “Best Pop Act” at the TOTP Awards 2002, and “Best UK Band”  and “Best Live Act” at the Smash Hits Awards 2002. Blue were also named “Best Band” in the Heat Magazine, Hot Stars Magazine and Daily Star’s ‘End Of Year’ polls. 

In addition to all this, Blue’s success is not limited UK soil. To date the band have scored big hits in New Zealand, Australia, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Demark, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand and Ireland.

This February the band walked away with another prestigious award at the 2003 BRIT Awards, this time for “Best Pop Act”. The boys also stole the show with an amazing performance of album track “Riders. With a new single “U Make Me Wanna” due for release on 17 March, and another UK Arena tour planned for the winter, 2003 is shaping up to be another massive year in the Blue success story.

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