Geordie singer Aaron Bayley briefly tasted stardom when he reached the final line-up of Pop Idol in 2001. Now a surprise invitation has come his way, says Viv Hardwick.

DESPITE helping to create the monsters of TV entertainment like The X Factor, Geordie singer Aaron Bayley confesses he wishes he’d never entered the ground-breaking, phone-voting world of Pop Idol in 2001.

“No, I wouldn’t be tempted again. But if I had a pound for every time I’ve considered that question, I wouldn’t need to,” he says with a laugh.

Ten years on, and having survived a few bitter experiences to launch a career as a wedding singer, Bayley was surprised to receive a phone call inviting him to become a cast member of the Glee tribute touring show G*Mania.

“I got a phone call last August and it was a good eight or nine years since I’d had a call like it. I was sitting at my mam and dad’s house and it was one of the producers and I was told I was one of the first people that the G*Mania team had called. It was quite nice, after so long, that I was remembered by somebody,” says the 35- year-old from Forest Hall, Newcastle.

“It’s interesting because we all strove to be something individual in genres that we were keen to be in. G*Mania isn’t like that, but so far everybody gets on with no bitchiness, which is great,” explains Bayley. He is one of 11 “asseen- on-TV” cast members in the show, which includes Shaun Smith from Britain’s Got Talent, Andy Scott Lee from Pop Idol, Emma Beard from Pop Stars – The Rivals and Stacey McClean of S Club Juniors and The X Factor.

“For the past five or six years I’ve been working with a band, and I love doing that, but it’s nice to do something with fresh new people and fresh new voices,” says Bayley. “We’re learning the routines as we speak and we’re learning choreography, songs and recording the songs, so there’s a lot on. We’re working to a really tight schedule and, although I was a bit sceptical at first, it’s going really well.”

THE performance of G*Mania at Newcastle Theatre Royal is only the second date on the touring list and Bayley admits he would have preferred to land in home territory at the halfway mark “when we were less rusty and had the whole thing nailed”.

Asked to look back at that famous Pop Idol contest, where Will Young eventually defeated the ultra-shy Gareth Gates, Bayley says: “You look at X Factor these days and it’s not so much a talent show, it’s more a TV entertainment piece. The likes of Wagner and Jedward would never have got to those final stages in Pop Idol.”

Bayley feels this year’s winner Matt Cardell deserved the title, but is unhappy that people who could actually sing were voted off in favour of novelty acts. “It must be so disheartening for good singers to be voted off because the public are having a joke with the judges,” he says.

“The clever thing that Simon Fuller of Pop Idol and ITV came up with was ‘let’s give the public the vote’. That’s the clincher,” says the singer who admits he’s never voted in any reality TV contest.

Bayley does making the interesting point that the public should take a little of the blame for South Shields The X Factor winner Joe McElderry failing to clinch the Christmas No One spot in 2009.

“I’ve got sympathy for Joe, particularly as my sax player was his teacher at school, because he was made to wait so long to release something after his Christmas single. To leave it until the next X Factor comes along means that nobody is interested. They’re interested in the new TV contest. When you think about it, Rage Against The Machine sold about 750,000 copies, but 19m people watched The X Factor. If more than half those people voted for Joe, where were those people when it came to buying his single? That didn’t happen. It makes you wonder whether the people who voted are interested in the final product or not… or whether the voting figures are a complete lie. Perhaps the people who voted for Joe were fewer than a million.”

Bayley remembers how much pressure he felt under to use his top ten finish in Pop Idol.

“One of the problems is that after somebody wins, they don’t want all the others releasing singles at the same time. There were a lot of missed opportunities, particularly because I was one of few to come away from the show with a signature tune (Walking In Memphis, originally a hit for Marc Cohn and Cher). But they gave the song to somebody else and it was really disheartening,” says Bayley who struggled with the “have you signed a deal yet?” expectations of having appeared on TV.

“I’m at the point in my career, where I’ve been through the mill a bit, and I can get involved in a project and if anything comes out of it then it’s a bonus,” he says.

As he currently makes a living as a wedding singer, I wonder if he’s considering taking the plunge into matrimony with girlfriend Carly.

“The whole thing is that I was never a big fan of the social club circuit. With weddings, the money is good, so are the clients and the venues can be castles and mansions. I love it.

I will get married one day but, unlike my two sisters, it’s not a burning ambition.”

G*Mania dates

Sunday, January 30, Newcastle Theatre Royal, 5pm and 8pm

Box Office: 08448 112121 theatreroyal.co.uk

Friday, February 4, Scarborough Futurist Theatre, 7.30pm

Box Office: 01723 374500 futuristtheatre.co.uk

Tuesday, March 22 to Saturday, March 26, Darlington Civic Theatre, 7.30pm, matinee Saturday at 2.30pm

Box Office: 01325 486555 darlington.gov.uk/culture/arts