The next big thing in the pop world is destined to be V, about to burst into the charts complete with Tynesiders Kevin McDaid and Mark Harle. The duo talked to Viv Hardwick about life in a boyband.

THE latest manufactured pop band, V, is hoping to hit top spot in the charts with a large vocal contribution from Geordies Mark Harle and Kevin McDaid.

The two 20-year-olds both auditioned successfully in Newcastle 15 months ago to become the next hit-makers from the same stable as Busted and McFly.

Now everything rests on their debut release, called Blood, Sweat and Tears, which is released on Monday by Universal-Island records.

Not that V's Prestige Management company are leaving much to chance. It has shot a publicity video in Miami, toured V with Busted and McFly and followed up a Blue Peter TV slot with appearances on MTV and BBC's Top Of The Pops on Saturday.

McDaid from Burn Road, North Shields, is the most exotic of the band's line-up, having spent his childhood switching between Nigeria, Tyneside and Carlisle before joining a horse display team called Chariots Of Fire and then ditching A-level studies for performing arts.

He says: "I just didn't go to college at all because I hated it and I wasn't quite sure what to do next, but opted for performing arts at North Tynesde."

Talking about his unusual upbringing, he explains he was born in North Shields and his father had a company in Nigeria "so I was living between the two places until I was ten," he says.

"I was at boarding school in Scotland for a couple of years and then in Carlisle and then back to Newcastle. I'm currently in London living with the rest of the band" - Harle, Londoner Aaron Buckingham, 20, Leon Pisani, 18 from Cardiff and Leicester-born Antony Brant, 21 - "so I feel like the littlest hobo."

With regard to the Chariots Of Fire display team based in Lockerbie, he explains: "That came through an interest in horses when we had a farm near Carlisle. There were horses and hoops of fire and stuff like that. I wasn't personally doing all the crazy stuff, I was more of an assistant."

The jump from horses to music followed the family's move back to North Shields, when McDaid became involved in Tyneside club acts - forming a band called Back-to-Back - and started auditioning for potential boybands.

How does he cope with the finger being pointed at V for its manufactured nature based on good looks rather than talent?

"I know we have this to face, but we do sing live and some of us can play instruments, we just don't at the moment. We helping to write an album to follow up the single release. We're a boyband, but we're not a bad one and we can all sing," replies McDaid.

Mark adds: ''There are so many bands that claim that they're not a boyband to be cool. But that just makes us cool for admitting that we are. We know what we auditioned for - a boyband, and we're not a bad one.''

The band has been together 15 months and has recorded 70 songs in the hunt for a style to suit V's image. While happy to admit the intention was always to create a straightforward boyband, McDaid is delighted with the edgy guitar rock sound of V.

He feels that all five currently have an equal say in the way the band is developing, although the playing skills of Harle, from Chapeltown, on drums, piano and guitar are a major asset for the future.

McDaid says: "I'm dying to go back to the North-East and I reckon after the single comes out there may be a chance to visit. My mum's my biggest promoter in the North-East and my nana goes around North Shields and talks about me constantly."

His mum Angela has remarried and still lives in the North-East but his dad is now based in Cambridge.

Fortunately, McDaid can invite both sets of families - he has an older brother and younger sister - to performances without it causing any difficulties.

"But I don't get my singing voice from any of them," he jokes.

The band will play a series of summer roadshows and are hoping to include Stockton's Riverside Festival in August.

McDaid admits he never thought he'd make the final line-up because nerves hit his singing voice and he was thrown in the deep end during a dance audition.

"Instead of showing me some steps to do they just put the music on and said 'dance'... how embarrassing was that? But I must have done something right."

He and Harle are keen to be the headline act at Newcastle's MetroRadio Arena, having had a taste of performing in front of thousands of fanatical fans when they opened for Busted at the venue earlier this year.

McDaid says: "I don't think there's much rivalry between ourselves and Busted and we're hoping that their fans will like us as well. Everything's just flying along at the minute and because I'm in it I can't step outside to see what's happening."

He's nervous about the expectations placed on V to clinch a debut No 1 and Harle comments: "Busted didn't - they initially got to third spot, and moved their way up. Obviously if we go in at number 164, I'll be really depressed.''

* V's single Blood, Sweat And Tears is released on Monday. For band news go to www.vofficial.com

Published: 20/05/2004