Blue Blood

'I LOOK an absolute idiot," comments Antony Costa on the publicity shot of him complete with sideboards for the latest tour of 70s tribute show Boogie Nights.

Far from it, the new slimline founder member of boyband Blue is almost unrecognisable from the singer who chat show host Jonathan Ross picked on as podgy not that long ago.

He responds to the 'compliment' somewhat philosophically. "You see we're in a world where people talk about weight and what we look like and it's a bit upsetting," he says. "Yeah, I was a bit bigger but when you're on tour with a band and eating at 3am you haven't got time to do anything. I'm one of these people that has yo-yo weight and I haven't got a six-pack or a 15-pack and I don't really care because I'm doing what I love doing. With me, if people like me for my talent then it's cool but I'm not going to say I'm a big heart-throb because I'm not.

"A lot of people may not recognise me and that's a good thing because when they see me they'll be surprised."

The surprise for Costa is that he's been able to turn his career around from pop chart performer to West End show star, having landed the plum role of Mickey in Blood Brothers for ten months.

He admits that when the balloon burst for Blue after five years he could have stayed home and watched Trisha on the telly, but opted instead for some dangerous career choices - the two biggest gambles being an appearance on ITV1's I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! and entering a song as the UK's Eurovision choice.

"You never know when this is going to end, so I just want to keep working and working hard. That's why I'm glad I'm not just a singer and holding out for another major record deal because that will never happen. I'm glad I trained as an actor before I started in Blue and now I'm able to prove that I'm not just a guy from a band," says the London-born performer who learnt the art of holding audience attention at drama classes and on his family's Wembley market stall selling women's clothes.

"I didn't get the part in Blood Brothers because I was in Blue, my agent phoned me and said they're recasting would I like to go up for it. And I jumped at the chance. There were about 15 or 20 others guys at the audition and I got a recall the next day and Mr Kenwright offered me the job there and then. I love the fact that I did it for myself. Bill stopped me during the audition and asked me if my family was from Liverpool and that was great," he says about creating a Scouse accent good enough to fool the theatre impresario.

He laughs about the highs and lows of being Mickey and says: "Waving a gun about at the end was cool because a lot of people were there who didn't know I was from Blue but were blown away by my performance. The minute I came on stage, bang, the image of me as boyband member was gone. Mickey Johnson is like the ultimate role in Blood Brothers and to get the audience's attention you have to act like a child and spit so they can follow you in the journey from kid to adult. A lot of people come out of the musical crying their eyes out, which is, of course, what we wanted."

In fact his Boogie Nights offer from Jon Conway was a direct result of the theatre producer seeing him in Blood Brothers.

"He heard some good things and came along to see me and wanted me to play the part of Roddy for the summer tour of Boogie Nights," says Costa, who is enjoying every moment of switching from a role alongside Maureen Nolan - of Nolan Sisters fame - to singing and acting with 70s legend Alvin Stardust in Boogie Nights.

"He's a lovely guy, very professional and gets involved and doesn't keep himself to himself. He's a nice guy and family orientated," he says of his singing co-star

Costa's character, Roddy O'Neil, a jack-the-lad twentysomething, mirrors his own life to a degree in the ambition of wanting to be a chart star and starting off in the pubs and clubs entertainment circuit.

"But he's also got a girlfriend who he cheats on and an Alfie-esque character but he's still got a good heart and that comes across in the end. In life people do make mistakes," says Costa.

He admits his biggest mistake was being persuaded to enter a song in last year's Eurovision UK contest and losing out to Daz Sampson's oddly infectious Teenage Life rap.

"I put my hands up to that. I was on a bit of a downer at the time and I got told I was the favourite to win it and you believe things and, in the end, I'm glad it didn't work out because I got Blood Brothers. The song was off my album and I thought I had a good chance but I ended up thinking 'what the hell has gone on with that bloke winning?' No disrespect, it wasn't even a song, what has this world come to?"

Costa will always be immensely proud of the fact that he and Duncan James were the driving force behind Blue and the pair recruited Lee Ryan and Simon Webbe as the band achieved million-selling albums and singles.

"If we were trying to do this in 2007 it would never happen because the music industry has changed to downloads and MySpace and things I haven't got a clue about. We hit it just right... but we're all still mates."

* Boogie Nights, Darlington Civic Theatre, March 12-17. Box Office: 01325-486555.