The first X Factor winner, Steve Brookstein, returns to music, exactly 20 years after his triumph.
The singer played to a packed house in Chiswick, west London, on Wednesday night, where he couldn’t resist listening to a pop on the now-defunct ITV talent show.
Steve, now 56 and unrecognizable from his time on the now-defunct ITV talent show, told the audience at his concert: “It’s been 20 years since I won that show, I call it that.”
But his venue for Wednesday night’s concert was a stark contrast to Fountain Studios in Wembley, north-west London, where he was crowned the first X Factor king on December 11, 2004 after being mentored by Simon Cowell. .
Instead of glitzy theater watched by 10 million viewers, Steve performed to 30 people at the Rhythm and Brews cafe in the leafy London suburb of Chiswick.
The owners invited Steve after reading an article in MailOnline about a gig he did in Scotland in October.
The first X Factor winner, Steve Brookstein, returns to music, exactly 20 years after his triumph.
The singer played to a packed house in Chiswick, west London, on Wednesday night, where he couldn’t resist doing a pop on the now-defunct ITV talent show.
“I’m only here for the Daily Mail,” he said.
Steve sang covers of hits like What’s Goin On? by Marvin Gaye. California Dreamin’ by Moms and Dads and Nightshift by the Commodores.
The anniversary did not go unnoticed by Steve, who had traveled from Scotland, where he now lives with his wife Eileen.
And now he will celebrate by preparing to release a new album.
While she may not have been on X Factor, where she won the hearts of Britain’s Housewives, she didn’t stop smiling all night.
Because speaking for the first time about his role on the show last weekend, Steve told how the show brought him deep torment.
He said: ‘The X Factor gave me everything I didn’t want: humiliation. It’s been like an albatross around my neck.
And revealing the depth of the insults directed at him by the judges, he told how Sharon Osbourne called him the C-word during rehearsals, while Louis Walsh even said he looked like serial killer Fred West on live TV.
Steve, now 56 and unrecognizable from his time on the now-defunct ITV talent show, told the audience at his concert: “It’s been 20 years since I won that show, I call it that.”
His venue for Wednesday night’s concert was a stark contrast to Fountain Studios in Wembley, where he was crowned the first X Factor king in 2004 after being mentored by Simon Cowell.
‘It was quite shocking. There was a lot of hate towards me.
‘The hardest thing was when I was harassed online. People were sending me emails and website links and there were all these pictures of me and Fred West. It was all in the (online) chat rooms. And you’re not prepared for that in real life. The worst thing that happened to you was going back to school, and this was a national thing.
“I never wanted to take my life, but I felt that if I didn’t have Eileen and the children, I could have it.” Brookstein is unequivocal: his treatment on the show showed a callous disregard for him as a person.
‘There was no duty of care (on the part of the employers). “What they learned from the first series was not how to take care of the artists, but how to protect the company,” he said.