In May 2001, a new band named Blue released their debut single. The next six months saw the band achieve a meteoric rise to fame, becoming the hottest new pop act to emerge from the UK.
Comprising of London based lads Duncan James, Anthony Costa , Lee Ryan and Simon Webbe , Blue released their first single in May 2001, the anthemic "All Rise" entered the UK chart at No. 4 and stayed in the top ten for five weeks.
The next two singles "Too Close" and "If You Come Back" went on to be even bigger hits, both crashing into the chart at No.1 and selling in excess of 200,000 copies each.
The boys followed this massive success with their eagerly anticipated debut album "All Rise", which has now sold over a million copies in the UK alone, reaching No.1 in the album charts after a phenomenal 23 weeks.
Blue ended 2001 on a massive high picking up numerous awards in end of year polls including "Best Newcomer" at the Smash Hits Awards, "Best Newcomer" in The Sun's Bizarre poll, "Best Band" in the Daily Star's Hot poll and "Best Newcomer" in the Pepsi Chart People's Choice Awards.
In March of 2002, Blue picked up three awards at the Capital FM Awards: Best Single for "If You Come Back", Best Newcomer and Best Pop Act. They also released their fourth single, "Fly By II", a brand new version of the track which appears on the album. Reworked and remixed, "Fly By II" proved to be a massive airplay hit, reaching No.1 in the official airplay chart. It also provided the band with their fourth consecutive top ten hit in a row.
In November and December of 2002, Blue embarked on their first ever Arena tour of the UK, taking in Sheffield, Cardiff, Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow, Manchester and London's Wembley Arena.
In addition, Blue's success is not restricted to UK shores as the band have recently scored big hits in New Zealand, Australia, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Demark, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand and Ireland.
Duncan says: 'The past year has been crazy and exciting for Blue and we're totally blown away by the success we've had so far. We've worked really hard to produce an album that we are all proud of. All we want to do is perform decent songs with tough grooves and soulful vocals."
