I'm a Pop Star! Pop Life

SCREAMING AND CHEERING

Forget the boy bands standing there prettily in a row.

Who needs girl groups and their synchronised swaying?

Isn't pop in its purest form all about the solo star?

Those objects of our obsession, fantasy and desire.

Men and women who often don't need a surname

but who always need to be seen and heard.

I'm egotistical, I'm vain and you have to be vain to be a pop star.

Ego is essential. I think to do anything, ego is essential.

You can't really impose yourself on other people

unless you think what you've got is worth offering.

'Just amazing experience when you're on stage,

'16,000 people going crazy, and even though the band's behind you,'

you know they're not really there for the band, they've all come to see you.

SCREAMING

'All performers are needy. They're lying if they say they're not.'

It's "love me", you know. It's Sally Field at the Oscars.

You know, "You like me, you really like me!" It's that...

That's what every performer wants, you know.

# Talk about pop music

# Talk about pop music

-# Shoobie-doobie do-wop

-# It's all around you

-# Pop-pop shoo-wop

-# I wanna surround you

-# Shoobie-doobie do-wop

-# It's all around you

-# Pop-pop shoo-wop

-# Hey!

# New York, London, Paris, Munich

# Everybody talk about pop music! #

SCREAMING

MUSIC: "I Can't Get You Out Of My Head" by Kylie Minogue

This time it's all about the men and women who go it alone armed with just a microphone,

some songs and an unquenchable desire to be pop top dog.

Their fans may scream and swoon but that's not enough for pop's leading lights.

You know it's new number one time now...

OK, he's number one again!

Still at number one for the third week running,

it's Cliff and We Don't Talk Any More.

For many, a career in pop is a constant unashamed search

for concrete proof that they are the best loved,

the most listened to, in short, the number one.

# Used to think that life was sweet

# Used to think we were so complete

# I can't believe you'd throw it away... #

'If you make records, the only reason is to be number one. That's what you aim at.'

I've never heard of anybody that's made a record that's thinking,

"I just want to get to number 30." It's a waste of time, don't do it!

If you have a number seven, you're kind of on the periphery

and kind of like, "Who's that? Hmm. Whatever."

If you have a number one, it's just different.

You become...the double-page spread in The Sun, you see.

'My first single that I put out in the UK went to number 87.'

And that didn't feel so good! Didn't feel very good at all!

It was only my second single that went, you know, much higher,

went to number one but you know, 87 sucked!

'I know I'm achieving. When you're number one in the charts, no-one can actually tell you anything.'

At that time, you're dominating things right now,

and three in a row, your album, come on.

# Cos, baby, it's you... #

So where does it comes from,

this brazen desire to be the centre of attention?

To be feted as something special. To be a bigger big noise than all the other big noises.

Is it something a pop star picks up on the job

or is this craving for attention a trait they are born with?

Pay attention, everyone, please.

# We are young

# We run green

# Keep our teeth nice and clean... #

And from a young age, I'd say about six.

Five or six is when I knew what I wanted to do was sing and perform.

'I remember a talent show in the community centre'

when I was very young and me and my friend,

we did body-popping or breakdancing and it was terrible.

I did a lot of that. I was always chancing my arm, trying to get myself out there.

I was always a bit of a show-off. I did like to be the centre of attention.

I was in the Carp Drama Group in Ipswich.

They're still talking about my Tweedledum.

I got the bug to perform the very, very, very first time

I heard a Michael Jackson track.

I knew that moment at six years old that I was going to be on stage.

MUSIC: "Smooth Criminal" by Michael Jackson

But it's not just born show-offs that are lured to the limelight.

The need to be the centre of attention can stem from something deeper.

I wasn't academically as bright as some of the other boys.

Self-esteem was low.

Soon as I got a ukulele in my hand,

and soon as I started singing to people, I felt good.

# She ran underneath the table You could see she was unable... #

My mum and dad divorced when I was very young and that had quite an effect on me in terms of,

"Where am I going to get the attention from?" Who and how and the rest of it.

And I think that kind of...

blossomed into being an egomaniac wanting to be on a stage.

# By the look in your eye... #

And for some, being centre-stage is about proving something.

'I was shy because I had a stutter'

that was so bad I used to have time off of junior school

to go to therapy.

# Don't you know that

# I'm the type of man

# Who is always on the roam... #

'And I think part of me being a musician'

was almost...

"I've got to beat this."

# That's my home... #

'Instead of hiding away from it,'

I'm going to get up on the stage and, erm...

..and go, "Look at me," instead of hiding behind people...

# Yeah, that's my home... #

..to conquer that fear.

APPLAUSE

-What an actor, our Tommy.

-Oh, they were all good!

MUSIC: "Crazy In Love" by Beyonce

But whatever might be driving their dream,

in the pop pantheon, there is a definite pecking order

and broadly speaking, you can divide pop stars into two categories.

I think there's two types of pop stars. You have the generals...

..Beyonce, Kylie.

Often generals are female, interestingly enough.

The people who seem to be in charge.

And they know what they're about.

# O-oh, o-oh, o-oh, oh-no-no

# O-oh, o-oh, o-oh, oh-no-no... #

And then there's kind of the footsoldiers...

The sort of journeymen, perfectly nice.

Give them a nice song, they'll sing it brilliantly. That's fabulous.

MUSIC: "Sweet Dreams" by Eurythmics

Not every pop star can be a Kylie or a Beyonce plotting their next moves

with the ice-cool instincts of a chess grandmaster.

Many humbler souls are content for someone else

to drive their career trajectory towards the heights.

Usually that means finding a man with a plan, a Brian Epstein,

an Andrew Loog Oldham, a Larry Palms.

A kind of surrogate father figure with the nous and experience

to turn cute but raw talent into something that will sell.

But that means a grooming process,

the smoothing of rough edges. Accentuation of good points,

air-brushing of bad ones.

And behind the scenes driving it all are these arch manipulators,

creating and controlling their product,

turning pop pipe dreams into reality.

Nowadays, we see the star-making process,

played out for our entertainment on prime-time TV.

Fantastic! You are a big, big star!

# Bend me, shake me

# Anyway you want me

# You got the power to turn on the light... #

Morning, PWL?

But the pop puppet-masters were once far more elusive figures,

going about their business squirreled away in self-styled hit factories.

Like this '80s hit-making trio in day-glo day-wear,

whose public face was an outspoken ex-DJ from the Midlands

with a pragmatic pop philosophy.

Pop music is manufactured.

It's manufactured by people that make money from it.

Whether it be Frank Sinatra,

whether it be Led Zeppelin,

whether it be the Beatles or anybody,

somebody has to market it and put it together.

Nobody walks into a record company with a guitar and says,

"Here, cop this, give us a million pounds!"

Sorry, it don't work like that!

Somebody's got to say, "Hey, play me that song again. Good little song, that.

"Nip in here, just sign this contract,

"put tight jeans on, get your hair cut.

"Let's nip out and sell a few million records."

One of Pete Waterman's first pop proteges didn't walk in off the street.

He was already working there...

as a tea boy.

It was like a mini Motown, if you like.

Unfortunately, without Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder and the rest!

But the idea that, you know, they wrote, produced in-house,

same people making those records day in, day out,

it was a style, it was a thing, and we as the artist,

I don't think we were artists, if I'm honest. I don't think we were.

But when it came to making an actual record,

sometimes they did it at lightning speed.

Joining Rick on the production line was a blonde surfer boy off the telly

whose wholesome Aussie charm made him perfect teen-idol material.

Everybody thought they knew Jason Donovan.

You watched him as you had your tea every day.

I think the natural progression was, can you sing?

Great, let's put out a song.

You were literally booked into a studio in an afternoon.

You would go in, late morning.

They usually hadn't got the song together.

There was some chord progressions.

We're out of that key into another key.

They would hum you the melody,

give you some lyrics that they'd been working on,

and literally you'd go in and do the chorus,

then you'd probably go and wait in the room outside,

and they would work on a verse.

Come back in, 10 minutes later, and there's your song.

# Too many broken hearts in the world

# There's too many dreams can be broken in two... #

It just was perfect, perfect.

Teenage Jason Donovan, you know.

Then they put him on a horse in the sunshine in Australia, with a guitar.

It was like, ker-ching, thank you very much. All over.

There's almost complete disregard for artistry, which I quite like.

It's quite blatant, going, here's a singer, here's a song,

sing it, clear off.

And it's number one.

# Too many broken hearts in the world. #

Harnessing Jason's special kind of ordinariness worked a treat,

and four UK number ones followed.

The boy from Ramsey Street had become a young pop god,

and the girls couldn't get enough of him.

I think the funniest thing from a public thing was Rick Sky,

who was the Daily Mirror entertainment show business correspondent,

said, "Would you blow into this jar?",

and we're talking air here of course.

And he captured my breath.

That was a sort of a competition to win my breath,

and that went down huge.

It's quite a smart idea, because you could just duplicate it,

run around and get some air and put "Jason's Breath" on it,

and away you go.

OK, come and get it, it's Oh Boy!

But Stock, Aitken and Waterman didn't invent the idea of the all-controlling Svengali.

Rewind three decades to the end of the '50s,

and British pop's Year Zero.

Calling the pop shots then was Jack Good.

A TV producer who mapped out the moves of the boy wonders

on his Saturday night TV screen fest,

with a forensic attention to detail.

He moulded every one of us.

He was like a director of a movie.

He was a big help to me.

He said, "Look, I want you on the show,

"but you have to cut your sideburns off.

"You've got to get rid of that guitar. You look a bit like Elvis,

"and I don't think that's good.

"Elvis is Elvis, you've got to be you."

# Turn me loose

# Turn me loose, I say

# This is the first time I ever felt this way..."

My natural performance was just to stand, and every now and then,

try to be like Elvis, and go, "Uh-huh-huh."

# So turn me loose. #

On certain lines he would say,

"When you sing this line, you're going to look up at the camera."

# Turn me loose, turn me loose... #

"OK, then you turn, turn round, and grab your arm like this."

He kind of knew, better than I did really,

what it was that would turn people on,

and he was absolutely right,

and I've been doing this for the rest of my life.

Obediently carrying out a skilfully drawn up plan worked for Cliff,

but can the desire to please go too far?

When kids' TV was king,

plugging a record often involved some prime time public humiliation.

My record company will kill me. I've got my album here, my new single.

-You look a lot younger on that.

-Oh, shut up!

This game is called "Pin the sting on the bee".

Here comes the bee.

I'm not playing this game! Forget it. I came here to promote my record.

But is the price a pop star has to pay sometimes too much?

The fantastic Gary Numan!

Oh, God!

If I could have dug a hole and put myself in it, I would have done it.

I hated that. I was so glad when that side of it was finished.

Which is the best football team?

-My best what?

-Football team.

I don't like football really, but I used to go and see Chelsea.

Oh...

It was rubbish. Utterly rubbish.

One of pop's officer class, Adam Ant,

was a man with 20-20 career vision, and for him the maths were clear.

If sacrificing dignity meant more records sold, that was a fair swap.

If you wanted to sell a record and get in the charts,

then you had to go on kids' shows.

Thank you for coming in to see us. Oh no, the Flinger!

This is terrible. It's supposed to be Christmas, goodwill to men.

You can't do that to Adam!

So I thought, well, don't have any snobbery about it,

so I basically just went for broke.

I've never met this chap before.

This is Gordon. He's a great fan of yours. He has his plaster on.

Yeah, I like Gordon, he's all right.

He's one of the most interesting people I've met lately.

-Oh, thanks a lot!

-No, I'm sorry.

No, we all know that. We all know where we stand, Adam.

I remember putting on a chicken suit on the Big Breakfast back in the day.

That was probably the most ridiculous thing I've ever done.

It was pretty embarrassing!

But whether a pop star is just following orders,

or in control of their destiny,

there won't be any TV invitations to dress like a chicken, or chat with a talking sock

unless there is a fantastic song to perform at the end of it.

But what makes a great pop song great?

It's got to be really sexy, subversive, stylish and humorous.

It has to be a little feisty.

I think all big pop songs have a little sass with them.

It needs to be able to be whistled by the window cleaner.

You want something that makes a good ring tone.

Hello?

But if many aspects of a star's career can be plotted out

with meticulous efficiency,

what about the all-important song?

Can that be manufactured to order?

A good pop song has to have intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus.

Verse, pre-chorus, chorus.

Verse, pre-chorus, chorus, chorus.

Verse, bridge, chorus or verse, B section, whatever.

Guitar solo, middle eight.

A verse, a bridge.

The bit that tells you the chorus is coming,

gets you a little bit more excited.

The verse is just as catchy as the chorus.

You do it all again.

And pretty much every popular song now is in that formula.

Can it really be as simple as that?

Or is there a kind of synergy that happens with a truly great pop song?

A mysterious alchemy, creating something special and unquantifiable.

THUNDER

MUSIC: "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson

There's just something about the magic of three and a half minutes.

MUSIC: "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" by Kylie Minogue

It feels like someone is telling you what's wrong with your life or good about it,

and so you get very close to it very quickly.

MUSIC: "Baby One More Time" by Britney Spears

You know where you are, what you've been thinking,

there's an emotional journey.

MUSIC: "Faith" by George Michael

One song can actually shift or change

the way somebody actually feels or thinks.

That's incredible.

MUSIC: "Millennium" by Robbie Williams

When you get a good performance and a magical song,

and you put them together,

and you have something that did not exist before,

it's absolutely magical.

MUSIC: "Millennium" by Robbie Williams

-Wasn't that a delightful tune?

-Yes.

I enjoyed it more than anything I've heard for a long time.

Brilliant, catchy songs are a massive part of the story.

But not the whole story.

A great pop star doesn't just seduce the ear.

MUSIC: "U Got The Look" by Prince

Image is vital.

You need decent songs, as well, but every pop icon has a look.

It's the thing that marks you out and identifies you,

it gives what you do an immediacy.

MUSIC: "Physical (You're So)" by Adam & The Ants

Getting the image right did the trick for Adam Ant,

propelling him from also-ran punk footsoldier to global star.

And it all stemmed from advice received from

one of music's greatest svengalis.

When I met Malcolm McLaren,

he basically said, "This cult thing's fine,

"but you look all right and you've got muscles.

"Now get on with it, and it's got to be your face on the cover."

That was a big help.

With a new-found belief in the importance of image,

like a punk ugly duckling,

Adam set about turning himself into a pop swan.

This was a star bursting with ideas.

He had complete control of his image.

He dictated it, he invented it.

He basically brought in a kind of dress-up aesthetic.

# Well I'm standing here looking at you... #

Adam's first visual volley across the bows of the charts

was the dragoon/Apache.

I think when people saw me

on Top Of The Pops with the stripe

and all of the military costumes, they would have assumed that

I just dreamt that up and put it on, and I didn't.

# So try another flavour

# Antmusic

# Antmusic... #

There's really the Apache war stripe,

cos I was declaring war on everybody,

cos I thought that everyone had been...

I mean, they hated Adam and the Ants, everyone hated us.

We couldn't get arrested. And we were good.

# Stand and deliver! #

New for spring 1981 came Adam's yodelling Dick Turpin.

# I'm the dandy highwayman who you're too scared to mention

# I spend my cash on looking flash and grabbing your attention... #

It was a great example, I guess, of being able to market a pop star

with just a few signifiers that everyone could copy and be part of.

One, and...go.

Money!

Great.

-Bit of a transformation from yesterday.

-It is.

Hard on the heels of the dandy highwayman

came a flit into the world of the fairy tale,

and a new image that came complete with its own dance.

1, 2, 3, 4,

5, 6, 7, 8...

I wanted to come out with a dance craze called the Prince Charming.

# Don't you ever

# Don't you ever

# Lower yourself... #

I literally sat down and thought, "What haven't I done that I can do?

"I wonder what they'll fall for next?"

And they did.

# Prince Charming

# Prince Charming

# Ridicule is nothing to be scared of

# Prince Charming... #

It's one of the great pop truths.

Getting the image right can take a star to another level.

Think of Bowie's red flash,

Jackson's white glove,

Kylie's hot pants.

But these days, finding the defining look needn't be about dressing up.

On the day of the video shoot they styled me, and I said,

"Can I take my shirt off for one of the shots?"

"Well, it doesn't really, it's not really the kind of thing that we do,

"but, you know, whatever."

I said, "Please?"

# Girl, when I look at you

# Oh, I fall in love... #

"We didn't know you worked out."

I was like, "Yeah. I want to do

"what Jean Claude Van Damme does, but do it in music."

# Oh-h-h, mysterious girl... #

I had abs to die for at that time!

They're not like that now.

But I had proper abs. And that was it, and that became my signature.

# My love says the sweetest things

# Everyone who knows him tells me that he brings me true loving... #

For Dagenham diva Sandie Shaw,

a pop star from perhaps a more innocent age,

the visual gimmick was to expose another body part.

In my first record session, I just naturally took my shoes off

when I was singing, because that's what you do at home,

and I felt comfortable like that.

And somebody up there in the box listening said,

"She sounds much better with her shoes off.

"It's something to do with the carpet on the floor."

So they encouraged me to continue singing like that.

# How can you tell if somebody loves you?

# How do you know they mean it? #

And I can't see very well.

When I started going on telly,

I knew I'd fall off the end of the rostrum

if I couldn't actually feel my way with my feet.

And then other things built in on it.

Like, Italians sort of called me the Barefoot Contessa,

because it fitted into their image of sexy women in the kitchen,

and also the Cinderella thing, you know,

rags to riches and all that stuff.

And it just captured people's thoughts.

Sometimes elements of a star's image can arrive by happy accident.

When Gary Numan crash-landed into the late '70s charts,

this pallid, po-faced android seemed like a new kind of pop star,

one whose image was adroitly fashioned as a response

to late 20th century alienation,

reflecting the blank despair of post-industrial Britain.

Well, actually, no.

The make-up thing was a little bit of my bad skin at the time,

so when I did TV for the first time,

they put loads of panstick on it to cover it up.

# Here in my car I feel safest of all

# I can lock all my doors

# It's the only way to live

# In cars... #

I thought, "That looks all right." But it made my eyes look pasty,

so I put loads of eye make-up on as well to make them stand out.

# It keeps me stable for days in cars... #

The not-smiling thing, I didn't smile to start with,

because I was conscious of my teeth.

And you read reviews of your Top Of The Pops performance,

and they're talking about this

"non-smiling android" sort of person.

You read this and you think,

"Well, that's...it's working, in a way that I didn't expect it to."

Even if Gary Numan may have stumbled on part of his look,

he was a star who came to the pop table with a game plan

for both music and image.

But what happens when a likeable but less image-conscious

pop foot soldier is left to his own devices, sartorially speaking?

Hi, I'm Rick Astley. I've come to go on Top Of The Pops.

I wish somebody had styled me. I wish they had, believe me.

That was the other crazy thing - the day I found out

I was going to be on Top Of The Pops -

believe me, in my day, Top Of The Pops was it.

You get this call saying,

"You have to come back to London tomorrow.

"They're shooting Top Of The Pops and you're on it."

I'm like, "Surely this doesn't happen like this.

"Surely someone says, 'We're going to have a meeting.

"'What's this fella going to wear on Top Of The Pops?

"'How are we going to do it?'"

and I'm going...

"Right. Should I go to Manchester on the way down?

"Cos at least I know some of the shops in Manchester."

And that's what I did.

I bought myself a jacket and went to Top Of The Pops.

"Off you go, then, son. There's the mic.

"You shuffle about like a good 'un."

And that's what I did.

# Never going to give you up

# Never going to let you down

# Never going to run around and desert you... #

Inadvertent it may have been,

but Rick Astley's anti-image image worked.

He topped the charts in 25 countries

and even made it big in America,

which makes him walking proof in an off-the-peg blazer

that chart-topping popstars don't have to be

otherworldly beings beamed down from Planet Weirdo.

Sometimes, the boy next door can win the spoils.

He seemed so sweet and, yeah,

a little bit, sort of, rubbishly dressed.

He obviously didn't have a stylist,

and looked like he picked his own clothes out, and everyone thought,

"Oh, I'd like to pick your clothes out for you, Rick.

"I'll take you shopping. And then for tea,

"and then see where it leads after that!"

Rick followed his instincts

without an army of stylists with mood boards and meetings.

Can you just wait a minute?

There are special things for each of you.

But long before The X Factor, some stars were happy to be

a blank canvas for the ideas of others.

The record company,

because I was completely clueless,

employ the services of a stylist, and you think,

"OK, so this stylist must know what they're doing,

"cos they're being paid huge quantities of money

"by the record company. They know what they're doing,

"therefore, I must look great!"

# Wouldn't it be good to be in your shoes? #

'In my fingerless gloves and ridiculous neck garment. You know?'

I must look absolutely the business.

# Wouldn't it be good if we could wish ourselves away? #

'You're surrounded by people'

who just think they know better about everything.

# Wouldn't it be good to be on your side? #

The image is in place, even if it is Luke Skywalker meets Albert Steptoe.

The signature song has been written, and pop magic happens.

A new star has been born and sits in state on top of the pop pile.

But sometimes,

that magical topping-the-charts moment doesn't quite happen

the way it had done in the new star's dreams.

When my record first went to number one,

I was in a pub in Richmond.

I had been told it was going to chart

and I didn't really know where it was going to fall.

So we went to the barmaid and we said,

"Please could you turn on the radio?

"I'm a musician and I've got a song and it's going to be on Radio 1

"and I really need to hear what's going on.

"Can you turn on the radio?"

She was like, "No.

"The clients in here don't like listening to the radio."

I was like, "OK, fine."

So a friend of mine managed to buy a radio.

We plugged it in at our table and listened quietly.

Finally it got to my song,

and we turned it up, and we blasted it.

And they'd said, "And this week's number one is Mika,

"and it was with Grace Kelly, and here's the song."

# I could be brown, I could be blue

# I could be violet sky

# I could be hurtful, I could be purple

# I could be anything you like... #

And we just started screaming like maniacs.

Our beers went all over the floor. I jumped on the table.

It was literally like something from a movie.

# I could be brown, I could be blue

# I could be violet sky

# I could be hurtful, I could be purple

# I could be anything you like

# Gotta be green, gotta be mean

# Gotta be everything more... #

The barmaid walks up and she goes, "Right, you lot, out."

We were chucked out within 30 seconds.

Radio in hand.

It was such an anti-climax.

Humphrey, we're leaving.

Ker-ching!

Savouring that special moment can be harder than it looks...

MUSIC: "Friends Are Electric" by Gary Numan

..especially if a debut hit makes a lightning ascent to the top.

'I done absolutely nothing',

I had a tiny little label,

then, within two weeks after that,

two or three weeks, I was number one...everywhere.

I used to describe it as such

that if you were standing in the train station,

waiting for your train to come through,

and then this huge monster great express train comes through

and you put your hand out and you grab it and you hang on...

And you're whisked off and everything's a blur and frightening,

scary, you got no idea what's going on,

and you're on the outside and you can see in.

You can see people walking about.

You can't really get to them or touch them

and you're just hanging on and hanging on

and you know you're going to fall off and then you do...

SCREAMING

..you find yourself in the middle of nowhere.

And it's been unbelievably exciting...

and the most scary thing that's ever happened in your life.

But reaching the top doesn't have to be so traumatic.

For others, scaling the pop summit is the moment

their life has been building towards.

SCREAMING

You're top of the charts. Everyone, you're the top, top.

No-one can, you're looking down, from the top.

The smile, on my face... It was, I tried to be cool.

But this was like a Cheshire cat. I could not stop smiling.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Having my first number one was probably up there

in one of the great days of my life.

Having not had a number one for 25, 30 years,

I know how special that moment is now.

It's great, sitting in the back of a cab and I can say, "Here's my number one album.

"My number one song". It's great.

THUNDER CLAP

The combination of fabulous popstar and stupendous song is a heady mix,

producing a kind of perfect storm.

At its epicentre, the popstar, glowing from its core,

cocooned in a special, magical world.

# If you are what you say you are, a superstar...#

'You have to not get too caught up in the hype of it'

and believe too much in it, because what happens is that you think

you're the hottest thing out there.

The women being into you, definitely good for the ego. I'm not going to lie.

It makes you feel like you're on the top of the world.

'It was girls, girls and girls and I admit that', you know,

back in the late '90s. I was terrible.

Dad never wanted me to get in the industry,

and Mum, they said, "It's very bad, it's sex, drugs and rock and roll."

I said, "Dad, I don't like rock and roll and I don't like drugs."

'You definitely lose your perspective',

because you don't live a normal life, you never pay for anything.

I've been in thousands of hotels all around the world,

eaten in some of the best restaurants in the world and never even seen the bill.

# And the sexy lady next to you, you come too...#

The one thing being a popstar did give me was cash.

And there is a currency with fame

that allows you to walk through doors that... It's a club.

The walk through doors that not many other people can walk through.

When a megastar takes up residence in the exclusive popstar bubble,

the rules that govern the rest of us no longer apply.

And previously closed doors swing open.

'I get a call from Kanye West and he says to me'

that we're going to go and see some art.

So I went and we get into this little van - me, him and one other guy

and we go to the Southbank

and we get into the back side of the Tate Modern.

They had opened the Tate Modern for an extra hour

for him to walk around.

Me and one other person, just to look at some of the exhibitions.

# We are not what you think we are

# We are golden, we are golden... #

This is like a joke. You get to see the Tate Modern on your own.

And things like that, to me, are, are pretty amazing.

# Does that make me crazy...? #

But can the pampered popstar start to lose perspective,

in a world without rules and where everything's free?

# Does that make me crazy...? #

In the rock'n'roll sphere, the traditional reaction is to

go on a wrecking spree and forget the consequences.

But in the pop world, the folks are a bit more polite.

You've got a little vibe going on here, haven't you?! Right...

If you're a rock star, you can let off steam

by throwing tellies out of windows or going on drug binges -

there's a lot of options open to you.

Whereas for popstars, you just look like a toddler having a tantrum.

They can't behave as rock stars, they can't do the things they do,

and I think that frustrates them to a great degree.

I used to do things like, I'd tear the curtains down in a hotel room.

And I'd spend the rest of the night trying to put them back up.

I've kicked the absolute shit out of my own luggage.

BANGING

I've kicked the shit out of it,

at times when I've got into a hotel room...

..rather than kick the hotel room, cos I'd have to pay for that.

They've had the hit. They've enjoyed the perks.

They've even done a little DIY on the way.

But it's now that a terrifying beast awaits.

It's time for a star to meet their public.

An unpredictable and volatile horde,

desperate to show its love of its new favourite by...

SCREAMING

..drowning them out completely.

It was really unbelievable. I couldn't begin to

understand how this was happening.

I found it terrifying. To the point that I couldn't

look at audiences in the eye.

There were these people standing screaming at me, saying things like,

"Will you marry me?"

And I was offended, and I was like,

"Why aren't these people sitting quietly

"and listening to me?!"

It could sometimes get in the way of what you were trying to achieve,

cos you wanted to be heard!

And they never heard you. Maybe it was a good thing, in a way.

But a star can get used to the adulation.

How are you feeling out there?!

SCREAMING

The more they scream, the more I think I'm just Mick Jagger on stage.

I feel like wherever I point, lightning bolts

are going to come out of my fingertips, and it's just... the greatest natural high.

# Me with the floorshow, kickin' with your torso

# Boys gettin' high and the girls even more so

# Wave your hands if you're not with the man, can I kick it...? #

There's part of you going, "What's the point, what's the point?"

And there's another part of me going, "I must be...

"I'm sex on legs. I must be really special,

"cos all these young women are screaming at me."

# ..can I get a witness, every girl, every man... #

My fans still scream, but only once.

You know, like when I come on, they go "Aaaagh!"

Then I can make them scream if I do something that I know they'll like.

# I don't wanna rock, DJ... #

You grab your arm like this...

I'm going to pretend I'm the most amazing sex god in the world

by doing all these winks and little smiles, and they swoon for it,

they go absolutely crazy for it.

SCREAMING

It was all about this...

Teenage girls scream at popstars

because it's hard to articulate what they're really thinking -

"I really want to have sex with you, but I don't quite know what sex is

"and it's a bit scary and dangerous, so..."

SCREAMING

# Pussycat, pussycat, I've got flowers... #

It's not just compliments, marriage proposals and decibels.

Pop audiences want to show their love in other ways...

Ever since I saw them throwing knickers on Tom Jones's stage,

I realised that when it happened to me for the first time

that was another sign I'd made it.

First pair of knickers came up on stage, I thought,

"OK. Now I know what's going on."

I made the mistake early on, I used to get interviewed by Smash Hits -

"What's your favourite colour, what's your favourite this..."

and at one point I made the mistake of saying I liked rhubarb yoghurt,

and Marmite.

The rhubarb yoghurt wasn't so bad - it made a bit of a mess

when it hit you...

But the Marmite, which came in the jar, that was just dangerous.

The odd bras, the odd pants, Y-fronts...

You know. Chupa Chups, that was the weirdest one.

I did a festival once, and people threw Chupa Chups.

I think that was maybe just because they didn't like the performance!

When fan love reaches such an intense pitch

that it takes groceries to express it fully,

a timeless truth becomes clear. A popstar can run,

but they can't hide.

Once the fans are on the rampage...

it's like an unstoppable force of nature.

It takes a steely nerve to meet them head on.

It might be a signing session, or a simple stroll down the street.

But however it happens, one thing's for sure.

The combination of popstar and fan

produces a chemical reaction that can send a teenage nervous system into meltdown.

What are you so upset about?

I wanted to see him. They said he was coming round the back,

I've been waiting for ages to see him.

-Why are you so upset?

-He's smashing!

-Are you a Shayne Ward fan?

-Yes.

-What did you think of his performance tonight?

-I loved it.

-What was good about it?

-Everything!

-What do you like about him?

-His looks...

I came out of the arena with my tour manager, and I always used to sign the autographs.

I saw a little group of girls crying and...

I mean, obviously they were behind a fence,

just in case they ate me alive...

A touch of the hand, a hug, a kiss... They were going hysterical.

-I kissed him hand!

-I kissed his hand!

-I kissed his hand.

I went, oh... Oh, he's lovely!

SCREAMING

CHANTING: We want David! We want David!

When you meet someone one-on-one and they are an absolute fan...

I have definitely found that in the past, especially when it was really bonkers.

I found that really difficult.

-Can I have a kiss before I go?

-You certainly can.

I'd kind of say to them, "Let's calm down. Let's have a cup of tea."

He just sends you mad. He's so good-looking, it's not true.

You get people that will faint... Or even wet themselves.

Cos they love you so much. That you've never met.

CHANTING: Paul Young! Paul Young!

-We love Paul Young.

-He has a good body.

I'd gone from having no minders to one minder to two minders.

And then the two minders were ex-SAS, because it was getting...

it was quite difficult to get out of gigs and into hotels.

It gets a bit scary when they lift up the car you're in.

Two reasons - one, because they can get hurt,

and secondly because it's terrifying.

We couldn't go into shopping centres.

WILL!

We couldn't walk down high streets on the tour. I remember being stuck

in the frozen food section of M&S. It was terribly uncomfortable.

Having fans is great. It's fantastic.

But what's it like when fantastic turns to fanatical?

That hand touched Jason Donovan.

I did have a Belgian woman once

who I think stayed outside my house for about four years,

and filmed me, every day, walking in and out of my house...

When I first started off, I remember

I'd be turning up at different hotels,

but this woman would always turn up with her guitar - the whole straw hat kind of vibe,

looked a little bit like a female version of Worzel Gummidge,

and she'd just always be there sitting playing one of my songs.

It was weird cos she never really spoke to me,

she'd just be singing...and then she'd walk off with the guitar

and I'd just be like, "This is really bizarre."

I just did a show, and I went back to my bedroom in the hotel,

and I went into the shower and I was getting ready,

and I walk out of the shower and there's this guy kind of trembling

on the bed, who worked in the hotel and he'd managed to get himself in.

And he was obviously really high on crystal meth or something, and he was just out of control.

The next day I'd be in Edinburgh or Glasgow for a show - who's there at the hotel?

She'd just always be there, sitting playing one of my songs.

# We were making love by Wednesday... #

I'm like, "This is crazy."

I'm in my towel, I run out of my hotel room into the hallway, and I run into the elevator.

Of course - I run into the elevator, and he follows me in,

so I've gone from being in the bedroom with this guy

to being in the elevator in my towel and we're just looking at each other.

As we're going down to the ground floor! How did I get myself into an even worse situation?!

I burst into the lobby,

and I'm frantically in this towel with this guy literally trying to

hold on to me, but he's half foaming at the mouth.

When it got really weird is when I went to Amsterdam and she turned up in Amsterdam,

and was there at the hotel playing that little guitar.

Like, "You know what? This is crazy."

Then I think she got into Usher or someone else, I don't know.

The best part of it was that they upgraded my room

because it was the hotel's fault,

and I didn't have to pay for a three-day stay!

So I wish things like that would happen more often.

But fans who love not wisely but too well

can be the least of a pop star's problems.

I've had people that come up and tell you they DON'T like you.

I think just because they are...

That's their personality, they're volatile,

and they get a kick out of saying, "I think your records are crap."

Of course you've got to have your fair share of people

that don't like what you do. But a lot are just attention seekers

who are jealous cos their girlfriend likes you.

How many people can tell you that you're a wanker in one day? Quite a few, actually!

In my experience. Quite a few.

# Don't

# Don't you want me...? #

People just go at you, just with bats, with their words.

Especially nowadays with Facebook and all the social network things.

People can be very cruel,

and I think that if you really love what you're doing, which I do,

you've really got to be willing to sacrifice some of that, and really got to just be able to brush it off.

If you say, for example, on Twitter,

one thing that people don't like...

I've woken up one morning

and received 10,000 or 15,000 people

telling you they hate you.

That can... Sometimes when it's that full-on, you can be, like... SHE GASPS

# Do you really want to hurt me...? #

Thousands professing their hatred in the virtual universe is one thing.

But that is nothing compared with what can happen in the real world

when an anti-fan with a grudge gets a pop star in their sights...

literally.

I've had a couple of death threats this year.

I didn't have any last year, I had another one the year before that.

But that's an occupational hazard.

I had somebody send me a live bullet in the post,

when I did three nights at Wembley.

I got this live bullet - which are not easy to get,

so they obviously had access to this sort of thing.

Saying, "I was going to shoot you at Wembley,

"but I was enjoying myself so much I thought I'd do it another time"!

Oh, fair enough, mate. Yeah. That makes sense to me. Why would you?

And these people are out there, walking about.

When all you've done is written a song

that a few people liked. You think, where does that all come from?

# So when you're near me, darling can't you hear me, SOS... #

Part of what makes pop great is the way things never stay the same.

The pop scene is transient. The audience fickle.

And if a star falls foul of this changeable landscape,

the slide down to ground level can be a painful one.

Being a pop star's is like being a boxer.

You've got to be able to take 10,000 punches in the face.

And you're one hit away from complete success, or disaster.

And because it's pop, people think, "Oh, light" - and it ain't.

I think it's really important to have a thick skin when you're in the music industry

because you're working with a lot of sharks,

and you're working with a lot of ruthless people

that will drop you like you're a penny. They won't care. It's a business.

# When you're gone, how can I even try to go on...? #

It's very fickle, it's very hard.

I think like in any job, any industry, it can be very fickle.

The minute you run into a sort of dip, which you have to,

because any artist has dips, then the knives come out.

Everyone's after you, they're waiting for you to make a mistake. Then suddenly the only way is down.

MUSIC: "Bitter Sweet Symphony" by The Verve.

He'd been Britain's biggest popstar in the early '80s.

He'd gone on to have hits in America.

But Adam Ant ended up on a pop road to nowhere,

and life on the music business treadmill

was threatening to destroy him.

We had to produce one album, four singles, four videos,

world tours in one year, every year.

Now, that is a road to destruction.

For an overstretched and exhausted Adam, something had to give.

-REPORTER:

-'Police visited the 47-year-old's home in Primrose Hill on Monday evening

'after receiving a call expressing concern for his welfare.

'He was eventually found near Camden Lock and admitted to the Royal Free Hospital.'

I had, like, 11 days off in five, six years.

You know, I ended up in the lunatic asylum as a result of it,

so my health and my family suffered cos I couldn't provide for them.

When people who have this more sort of artistic, sensitive disposition

are placed under a great deal of pressure to create,

to come up with something better than they did last time,

sometimes you do become quite damaged.

-REPORTER:

-Having been sectioned under the Mental Health Act and admitted to the Secure Alice Ward

at the Royal Free Hospital, doctors are now entitled to detain Adam Ant

for a total of 28 days whilst they assess his condition.

For Adam Ant, the fall from grace was a dramatic, headline-grabbing affair.

But more often, the demise of a pop career is painfully slow and drawn-out,

and without so much as a by-line in the local rag.

In '92, I was... I was...barren.

I had no ideas. In a terrible state.

I put out an album in '92 but it was rubbish, you know.

I'll have to be honest. But it was all I had.

'I thought I was dead and buried. Couldn't give it away,

'couldn't give tickets away and nobody was interested.'

I would've even welcomed some hostile press cos there wasn't any.

When a once adored star starts craving a press hatchet job

just to know someone's listening, the writing is on the wall.

This is not going to end well.

'When the career started to slide, I listened to advice, which is a kiss of death...'

I stopped being obsessively arrogant and I started to think...

All of my obsessive arrogance, I'm failing.

'You only actually think about it when you're on the way down,

'when nobody's buying your records.

'You start looking back at the old records and think, "What was it about those records that people loved?"'

And you start trying to change what you're doing at that moment,

to sort of fit in with that, and that's a bad thing to do.

MUSIC: "Vogue" by Madonna

Very few among the mass popstar ranks will eke out

a really long career.

But there are some who seem to postpone the pop sell-by date

indefinitely.

# Look around Everywhere you turn is heartache

# It's everywhere that you go... #

The really successful, enduring popstars are the ones

where you actually believe that they can reinvent themselves.

There's this idea that the average pop life-span

is like that of a fruit fly

but actually, there is a way of making it work.

# I know a place where you can get away... #

Madonna is a great example.

We've watched her evolve and different people connect to her at different times of her life.

But SHE'S on a journey and you're kind of moving with her.

# Hey, hey, hey, come on, vogue... #

It's incredible to watch.

# Let your body go with the flow... #

'I think you have to be really clever in this business to change with the times'

but you also have to be clever and find your style, find your sound,

and grow, you know, and change.

# I closed my eyes

# Drew back the curtain... #

But growth and change are tricky things to get right.

Hit factory footsoldier Jason Donovan seemed to have carried off

his own homespun kind of reinvention

by swapping teen heart-throb status for musical theatre star.

But Jason wanted more.

'I was Joseph at The Palladium'

on a huge wage with a big record, a hit show...

# And the world was waking

# Any dream will do... #

..and I wanted to be Kurt Cobain from Nirvana.

# With the lights out It's less dangerous

# Here we are now

# Entertain us... #

I did. That's what I wanted to be.

I looked at myself in a loincloth in the mirror and thought,

"What the hell are you doing?"

# A mulatto An albino

# A mosquito... #

The affable Aussie made a fatal mistake -

to chase some rock 'n' roll cred,

casting aside the loincloth in favour of some leather trousers...

and an insatiable Coke habit.

-NEWSREADER:

-Donovan collapsed in this Bondi delicatessen.

Witnesses called an ambulance, officers had to give him oxygen as he lay on the floor of the shop.

Once stabilised, Donovan was taken to the Prince Of Wales Hospital.

I thought that by being, you know,

out of it and being cool and stuff was...

That that would create another character

that probably would have hits

and I'd turn into Liam Gallagher from Oasis and off I'd go again

and you know...

Sitting in the back of an ambulance having collapsed from cocaine

is a particular moment in my life I feel I'm not proud of.

Pfff, that's life,

you know?

I'm through it and that's never going to happen again.

MUSIC: "Stayin' Alive" by The Bee Gees

Touching though individual stories might be, is this actually

just the Darwinian reality of the pop world -

that only the special few survive

while the majority fall by the wayside?

I think it's really hard to define when you stop becoming a popstar.

We think of pop music and youth, you know, they kind of go hand-in-hand.

At the age of 53, I wouldn't want to be considered a popstar.

Ex-popstar, maybe. That's all right.

You can't be an old popstar.

I think that should be... written down somewhere.

Probably IS written down somewhere!

# Ha, ha, stayin' alive... #

I think there's an age limit to being a popstar

unless you're someone like Tom Jones.

Tom Jones rocks it, man.

Tom Jones is one of a select few to buck the pop law of the jungle.

To defy chart extinction by sticking it out so long, that questions

of being in and out of fashion are no longer the point.

Well into his fifth decade, the boy from the valleys stopped being

just a popstar and became a musical elder statesman.

A pop icon.

I think that when a pop performer reaches a certain age,

they start gunning for icon status.

They're like, "Right, where can I go? Icon now."

And at some point in your career if you're around long enough,

you become an icon and as an icon you just don't know, it's...

The public take over. It's in their imagination

and they've created you.

# Don't let the sun go down on me, yeah... #

Whether they are long players coolly remaining in command

of their career until icon status is achieved,

or three-minute wonders whose star illuminates the pop landscape intensely but briefly,

whatever mistakes they may have made along the way,

whatever they go on to do afterwards,

they have served us well.

# Oooohhhh

# But losing everything

# Is like the sun going down on me. #

They see us as being some kind of form of escapism.

But you've got to have those things, those sparkly things that make life worth living.

# Don't let the sun... #

They give their fantasies over to you

and you play with them nicely and give them back.

# It's always someone else I see... #

I think a popstar is a hero or a heroine.

You want to look like them, you want to sound like them

and it's not a bad thing. You need heroes. I think you need heroes.

They brighten our days, making the world a better place.

So, to those who have served on the pop frontline, we salute you.

# ..Is like the sun going down on me. #

-# Don't let the sun go down on me

-# Don't let the sun

# Although I search myself It's always someone I see... #

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