May 19, 201015 yr Where did you get that Pam because I see nothing about the Jubilee line East of North Greenwich on the London Transport site. From the O2 link http://www.theo2.co.uk/location/getting-there.html I would hope the London Transport site is more accurate Does that affect your journey?
May 19, 201015 yr looks like I wouldn't be making it down :( hope everyone has a good time and that :D x
May 19, 201015 yr It does affect my journey - I have to get the Jubilee line from Stratford to North Greenwich
May 19, 201015 yr What time is everyone aiming to get there? We hope to be there 12.30-100p.m. - can we arrange a meet up with anyone before the show? :D Julie (Wendy and Allison)
May 19, 201015 yr How many of you are going to see Darius after the show (hopefully!)? Won't be able to see Darius after the show because we have a taxi booked for 5.45pm, give or take a few minutes. Please can you give him a big hug from me Meg, or even a little one! Sue
May 19, 201015 yr Author Sharon, it doesn't look like the ash will stop flights. It'd be such a shame if you didn't make it. Julie, I wont be there that early but can you pm me your mobile number and I'll phone when we get there, please?
May 19, 201015 yr Author Sue, I'll tell him you sent a hug if I see him but I probably wont. I'm not likely to start hugging him.
May 19, 201015 yr looks like I wouldn't be making it down :( hope everyone has a good time and that :D x What a shame. Can you get by train or bus?
May 19, 201015 yr No, as I need to be home for my son going to school on the Monday so i basically have to be home for Sunday night :( The flight i was getting i wouldn't be able to get back from The o2 in time for it! :( x
May 19, 201015 yr they just changed the rules from today, so flights may well be OK now. I got my email so at least I know I have seats!
May 20, 201015 yr It's not to do with the ash clouds its just cause i wouldn't be able to get from the o2 to airport in time :( I have to be home for Sunday night for my son as my dad is looking after him and he has to be in school on Monday. He wouldn't go with anyone else cause of Autism x
May 20, 201015 yr Somebody on the radio was just talking about The Arena and how huge it is and that if you walked around it, it would be a mile in distance! :o Sue
May 20, 201015 yr It must be difficult to see what is happening at the far end. Usually at concerts, huge screens are set up so people can watch those, but I can't see how they can do that when it is in the round. I hope you all find the right door to go in for your tickets, or you'll need hiking boots!
May 20, 201015 yr Author The Daily Mail. From popstar to opera star... how Darius Campbell bounced back from scathing reviews to score leading role in Carmen By NICOLE LAMPERT Last updated at 8:01 PM on 20th May 2010 Comments (0) Add to My Stories Fighter: Darius Campbell has landed the role of Escamillo in Sunday's performance of Carmen at the O2 Darius Campbell Danesh is like a fly that refuses to be swotted away. He’s faced public ridicule on Popstars, being dropped by his record label, and heading up an ill-fated musical of Gone With the Wind which was mauled by critics and closed within two months. But almost ten years on from his jaw-droopingly embarrassing rendition of Hit Me Baby One More Time on Popstars, Darius is not only still making a career in showbusiness but is actually doing rather well. On Sunday he will make his first major opera performance at the O2 arena in Carmen playing the arrogant and macho toreador Escamillo. At 29, he will be the youngest person to perform the role in a professional opera ever. And he is also one of the few people in the world who has taken on opera without any proper opera training. The role follows on from his win on ITV1’s Popstar to Operastar and is yet another string to his bow. He is also fulfilling a life-long dream, having played in the chorus of the Edinburgh Opera performance of Carmen when he was a wee 12-year-old boy. ‘I never really thought I would be allowed to do this,’ says the singer. ‘There is normally a whole process of training which one must undergo just to be able to get into the audition room for an opera like this. To be given this opportunity really is an honour and a dream come true. It is a privilege which is not wasted on me.’ Darius says the show’s producer Raymond Gubbay chose to take a punt on this failed popstar because, ‘He said I seemed very focused. He said when dedication and tenacity meets opportunity you can get great achievement.’ What a delicate and candid way of summing up the Darius story. The Edinburgh born son of an Iranian doctor and Scottish mother, Darius found instant fame on Popstars for all the wrong reasons. Although he had undoubted talent, his arrogance, kooky love of LA-style psycho-babble – ‘there’s a lot of love in the room’ - and his obvious ambition made him an instant figure of fun. His pay-off to Popstars' judge Nigel Lythgoe that he would have a double platinum album by the time he was 30 seemed like a joke. However he is a fighter and a year after the infamy a seemingly more contrite Darius was back on the reality show scene to come third on the first Pop Idol. That was indeed followed by a platinum selling album, produced by U2 maestro Steve Lillywhite. But time, generally, is not a good friend to the reality popstar and shortly after his second album failed to do as well he was dropped. Did that mean the end of Darius? Of course not. Soon he was back; first on the West End stage as the youngest actor to play Billy Flynn in Chicago and then came the £6million Sir Trevor Nunn National Theatre production of Gone With The Wind. Unpopular: Campbell, pictured with Jill Paice as Scarlett, was mauled by the critics for his performance as Rhett Butler in the Gone With The Wind Musical ‘Dreary and unspectacular…Danesh gives a stilted impersonation of Clark Gable,’ said a typical review. Did that knock Darius down? No. Not for a second. ‘I was really lucky with Gone With The Wind,’ he insists. ‘I got some great reviews. The show was criticised for being too long. And anyone who, like us, was affected by the credit crunch can say that if they put all their hard work into an endeavour they can hold their heads up with pride. ‘I take all reviews with a pinch of salt. All I was hoping for was that my family, friends and fans enjoyed it; you can’t keep everyone happy. That’s something I’ve come to realise as I’ve got older; that the most important thing is that you’re happy.’ There is something admirable in someone who can pick themselves up after so many public knocks. But it seems that setbacks to Darius are like water off a duck's back. You don’t have to dig deep to find that the old Darius confidence – and his love of convoluted sentences – are still as much in evidence as they were ten years ago. Perhaps his quirks are what make Darius still a figure of some interest – at least he’s got a bit of character unlike so many of the sickly sweet pop stars of today. Ask him a question and it's impossible to get a short answer. He thinks about each word he utters, his large brown puppy eyes deep in thought, but his sentences go off on so many tangents and the words get so big that he ties himself up in circles. So when I ask him where he gets his confidence from it takes some effort to find the actual answer: he learned from his Popstars humiliation never to worry about what other people said. The edited version of his answer goes a bit like this: ‘When I started on my – it seems like such a cliché to use the word journey – on my path of being gainfully employed in the entertainment business, after I left my studies and started a new part in my life, at first I was knocked off my feet and hit the ground on my a**e basically. I learned some hard lessons very quickly at the beginning. Big break: Campbell with his fellow Pop Idol finalists Gareth Gates, Zoe Birkett, Hayley Evetts and William Young in 2002 ‘I discovered perception and reality; the idea that it’s a business and you are a commodity to your record label. Because my fall at the very beginning was so public it put me in a position where I had to assess who I was and what I wanted and what was important to me. ‘And what was important to me was working really hard, growing as a young man and as a performer and trying to be the best I could. And I am really grateful for all the experiences I have had.’ Earlier this year Darius decided to change his name. Having grown up as Darius Danesh Campbell, the Scottish part of his surname was dropped by his first record label. Love interest: Campbell has reportedly split from fianceé Natasha Henstridge He has now dropped the Danesh – preferring to be known as Darius Campbell – following the recent illness of his maternal grandfather. The idea he should completely drop the surname he was famous – infamous – with seems a little strange. He insists it is because he wanted the Scottish part of him to be more on show as Darius is such a foreign name. When I question why he could not simply revert back to the double barrel name he was born with he refuses to really answer; he is always polite but will only let you probe so far before becoming positively obstructive by talking round and round and on and on about nothing. When I ask whether it's true he has split from his fiancée, American actress Natasha Henstridge, most famous for her role in Species, I get a lecture for about five minutes about why he's not going to answer that question ending with, ‘but thank you for asking’. Darius, who has been training with opera coaches daily for his latest role, says next up is a new record. He is in talks with several record labels and looking forward to hitting the charts again. And I don’t doubt that we will be seeing even more of the ambitious Darius who tells me; ‘I am a believer that if someone says it can’t be done it’s because they can’t do it. I believe that if I train hard enough then I have fulfilled my condition in life which is to be a performer and be the best that I can at any given time.’ Watch out world. Darius will star in Carmen for one performance only at the O2 on Sunday at 2.30pm. For tickets call 0844 856 0202 Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/artic...l#ixzz0oVBpgeKw
May 20, 201015 yr thanks, someone who doesnt get Darius - where did the scathing reviews as rhett come from..strange to choose the one negative bit from the many praising him!! their own I take it(and to say it was a typical review!) the whole article has that familiar undertone of begrudging acceptance that he has talent .. Edited May 22, 201015 yr by prettyinpink
May 20, 201015 yr Author I think that was one of theirs. It isn't completely negative which says something. They have really pulled him to pieces in the past - some of that is quoted in this article but the overview seems more positive towards him than I've heard for a long time. I thought him very restrained not telling them that his relationship had been private.
May 21, 201015 yr Sorry I dont find that positive especially as the bit about scathing reviews for gone with the wind is underlined by putting it under a picture of jill and D iN GWTW. That review must have been the only one like that that she has picked out on purpose. Several articles since have said he got rave reviews yet she picks that one.I have to agree with what PIP says.
May 21, 201015 yr ooh, I actually got an email from O2 saying about me going to see carmen and info about eating etc. handy! still worried about its size..the birmingham NEC seemed big enough to me!!
May 21, 201015 yr Author Just concentrate on you little bit - but remember to wave at us in the next corner.
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