Darius in Smash Hits from July 2002. Click the pic above to see it enlarged.
August 19 1980
Darius Danesh is born with a fine pair of lungs. “As a baby, I used to hum myself to sleep – at first my parents thought there was something wrong with me, but then they realised I was just singing.”
Aged 1
“I had one of those baby bouncers that was attached to the door frame. Apparently I could bounce up to my dad’s eye level. I must have had bionic calf muscles from a very early age.” Ahhhh!
Aged 2
“I used to love feeding my dad grapes. I would put as many in his mouth as I could before he started chewing. Once, I smacked his cheeks together – he choked and almost died! I was a rebel!”
Aged 3
Darius poses in his lumberjack shirt with brother, Aria. “I like to think I was ahead of my time, style-wise. Me and Aria’s favourite cartoon was Thundercats. I was Panthera and he was Liono.”
Aged 5
“I started school and was fascinated by musical instruments, like the piano and the recorder. My best mate was an 8-year-old girl. Well, I was into older women!”
Aged 7
Daz buys his first single: Michael Jackson’s Dirty Diana. From this picture we can see that he was a gentleman from an early age. But what’s with the posh coat and tie? “We were going to a wedding. My mum gelled my hair and I hated it,” he smiles. “My brother nicked the umbrella off me and beat me up with it later.”
Aged 11
Darius teaches himself how to play the guitar.
Aged 14
He writes his first song. “It was for a girl I fancied at school and, at the end of the year, I played it to her. It was so embarrassing! She gave me a kiss on the cheek and I almost passed out.
Aged 14 ¾
Darius wears dungarees - a lot. And, more importantly, had his first snog! “It was at a disco at the local football club. We were in the corner of the room and Everybody Dance Now was playing in the background. The dry ice was swirling around our feet. (sounds magical – Ed) She was two years older than me and I ended up going out with her! In my younger years I sought the guidance of older women!”
Aged 15
Judging by this photo, we can only deduce that D has reached that awkward age, fashion-wise. He starts getting into rugby and wears Converse All Star trainers which he wishes he had kept, because they’re quite trendy now. Strike a pose, Darius! “We were at Loch Ness with my American cousins in this picture,” he says, “We went on the hunt for the monster, but sadly never found it.”
Aged 16
“I had to do army training for school and they shaved my hair off. So when I came out of school I rebelled and didn’t cut it for three years, hence the ponytail. That was my biggest fashion mistake ever.”
Aged 17
Darius goes to college and does music A level. “But my school wanted me to be a doctor or a lawyer or something. I got an A though.” He goes on to do English Literature at Edinburgh Uni.
Aged 19
The polite young gentleman enters Popstars looking gorgeous, if a little dodgy. What made him audition? “A mate egged me on,” he says. “I’d finished my second year of Uni and I didn’t know if I wanted to be in a pop band. He said, ‘But there’ll be a lot of fit girls there!’ So, I went to the audition. You know the rest.” We certainly do!
Aged 22
It’s 2002 and Darius makes it big with a £1 million record deal and the release of his debut single, Colourblind. “My dreams came true. My pop music producer idol Steve signed me to Mercury Records. He had been in America and knew nothing about Pop Idol – which means he signed me on the basis of the way my music sounds. It’s all really, really cool.” But will he make it in the fickle world of Planet Pop? We think so!