Playing the Game on X Factor

Hello everyone, I'm Jammie Lang and this is Great Moments Hello everyone. This is Great Moments, where I share some of my favorourite moments from my conversations on Great Company. somethingomething that's made me think, made me laugh, or changed my perspective. and hopefully, hopefully there's something in it for you too. So are you ready? Let's get into it. I don't think you remember this, but I remember this. The great when we slept together. Yeah, do you remember that? Not really? Okay, well my memory is a bit hazy. Yeah. It's a little bit. You weren't the only one. Do you remember this moment when we were in a car together We weren't in the car together. We were I was in the car And I was singing a song. See, you didn' I think I do remember this I was singing a song and I think it was like a Britney Spears song or whatever was. And I was singing along like this And it was something like, Hit me baby one more time. Oh sorry, I thought Brittany was here. I know she is yes. And I look to my right And I pull up to you and you're singing exactly the same har And I was like, Oh was that you? I've been looking for you for years. And I never realized I thought I was meant to be. And and you're going, hear me, baby. I swear to God and you look at me and went And just And I was like, I hate myself. Honestly, I remember this you remember this definitely sounds like me. Yeahah. I didn't realize that your real name is Ross Who fucking told you that Yeah mother knows worth Ross, Richard Clark. Yeah, Dick in the middle born twenty fifth of October, sameame year that I was born but we're not going to say that year Y Yeah, you said it fine eighty eight. Someone's been on Wikipediia, haven't they? Nice to see the researchers in. When did you change your name to Ryland? Well, I never legally changed it. Did you know, I'm still Ross But yeah, it was when I was about sixteen, seventeen. I was working in River Island. And at the same time, I was modeling because I've always been like forty foot tall And I did a modeling job for this like concierge company at Canary Wolf And it was basically the most NF photos shoot of like me with a bunch of flowers knocking on a door hereere go, Madam, awful style of like Muggy picture. And my modeling agency at the time said our Ross's a boring name, we're going to call you Keelen. I went, all right Yeah fine, whver. Sorry, they said they were going to call you Kean. wasas one K LAN. Yeah ye yeah. And So I did this job all day, everyone's calling me Kean. and at the end of the day back then, That's how old we are. they payid you by check But the check wasn't a written check, it was a printed from like a company and it was made up to Mr. K Clark And I was so embarrassed to go up to this woman who'd handed me this check and say, I'm really sorry, can you change this check? Because my name's not Kelin, it's Ross I never ended up cashing the check shut up. Yeah, I was that embarrassing back then was like two hundred cp, a lot of money as was now and The next day I was back at River Island and on my lunch break, opposite was WHMith. I went in, picked up a baby book, went straight to Arks. I thought it was going have to be the same initial as my name if I get paid by check again And I saw Rylan and I went, o, that sounds like Kelin. shhut the book and then Get out of here. There's no ways through literally opened b, that said, that's why I think it was like a thousand and one baby names Have you have you always been this kind of charismatic kind of large than the life character I mean, I've always been the same person, but there's definitely like two of me. Like I think I'm pretty boring Really? Yeah. I think I'm a bit of a boy You're not a bit of a b. I am But our agent is over their m in his head I'm not this like party boy that everyone thinks so I don't youre a party boy, but like I would say this, like I definitely there are there are so many sides to everybody, right? Like peopleeople would say there's one side with your family, there's one side with your friend. There's one side you're at work and there's one side maybe you're in a relationship. And you definitely sort of You know, Ben four faces. Yeah, exactly. But also in this like life of like presenting in TV, you kind of have to have Yeah, like Ryo is a bit of a character Really definitely. Yeah. but it's a lot of Ross but like Ross on crap Hm Yeah But as a kid though growing up. Oh, I was that like ginger kid that was like Fisty little bastard Yeah, I'd be the one at like family parties, like getting up on the chair and doing a little routinewice girs. whyy my brother's sitting there going She she like for So you're young, you're living in Essex and you you go to this go to this get go to the school which is probably one of the best At the time, it was the top school in the country It's the top school carotah. I was like this really bright kid Where you? Yeah Did you know what you wanted to do? I always want to be a pop star And then I I knew I was going to be famamous but I didn't know what for. get out of here. Yeah no, I know. L even in my yearbooks, it so funn. I remember in the yearbook for the boys it was I one most likely to be famous. And in the yearbook for the girls, I was in that one as well, obviously. And I can't remember what it was. I think it was most likely to end up on TV or something Do you know what say every? for some reason,pe because we' the same age, like fame was like the most like exciting thing you could Because of the era we grew up in. So why is that? So when we were at secondary school, which was like two thousand to two thousand five era is when Things like reality TV really kicked off. Yeah. So things like Big Brother U I'm a celebrity even things like that. and it just showed you, especially Big Brother anyone could become a superstar. You know, we'd grown up previous to that with people like film stars like Arnold Torcheneger, Tom Hanks Yeah yeah like celebrities. We didn't have social media, we didn't have none of that And then the spice girls come along and they were British girls that are taken over the world and you're like, wow, like they're celebrities. Then all of sudden you've got the likes of Jade Goody peopleople like that, this' reality star that come through and all of a sudden you look at as an absolute celebrity They are in your head at that age on the same level as someone like the Swice Girls or Tom Pank because they are everywhere. they're earning so much money, they're celebrities There was this thing in my head like I was always obsessed with my brother And that whole concept of a world within a world This artificial bubble that has been created. like I used to love the Truman showh, the film, like all of that. And it's all these like little drip feeds at our age that started making me going I could do that And I remember it was year. it would have been Big Brother four. so two thousand three. so it would have been year nine In nine, we went on a school trip to the Isle of Wire And at that point, Big Bother fourV had just started And I printed the Big Bother fourour I off in the IT lab and stuck it on my suitcase And I remember getting on the train to go to school. I a weird thing I am weird But it was almost like I was like crafting my future. Yeah ye. So like physically doing it. And obviously I did ended up going in Big Bother, got those suitcases and won I'm gonna to get into that, but it's this fascination with fame. I'm so I'm so glad I don't know why it was our age. Like I remember seeing Britney Spears on TV and just being obsessed with like Maybe for different reasons. for different reasons. But I was obsessed. And I also like I used to go to bed at night. And it was Gar of this. Yeah yeah Th of Brittney Spears. No, but I used to go to bed at night and I remember I used to like dream about being on stage and performing and so many of the guys that I knew were thinking they say, we had this obsession with being famous. But is Because it was like untouchable There's a group now though. There is a group of us and we're all of very similar age that are doing not the same things But we're all in it in some respect And whether people, I'm just very honest but whether people want to admit that is Thinking back to those times, that childhood that we had and then teenage years, which are the years that shape you.. Don't get me wrong, people later on in life, they could be in their forties fifty, sixty, seventies might have a massive career change or change the path of their life because of circumstance, but There is a lot of us in the industry that we both work in now that are of a very similar age all do The best way to describe it is an event Let's say there's an event that everyone wants to go to. There is a group of our age people that are standing there all together. And it's because we all grew up in that era of Data All that this is showing me is that that could be me And that's when you had these new avenues to be you wanted to be. You know, you found fame on a reality show. Yeah ye yeah. I found fame on a reality show. Yeah, but I was I was I at the beginning of it was I didn't want people to think that I was doing it because I wanted to be famous. You didn't want Yeah, I didn't that. Yeah, but I did think it, right? Yeah of course. It saids a reality show about being poshed because I thought it'd be fun to be famous. Exactly. But I try to make every excuse under the sun No, it was because this and because of that and I of course. Yeah because you know, you see someone on TV it's like, I just wantan to be famous. you think prick. Yeah. But you were never you never tried, I don't think you ever tried to make an excuse. No, I was like, I know what I wantan to do and I'm gonna to do it. And And you always were just like, no, that's why I want to be famous. I was like, I wantan to be famous. I mean, don't get me wrong It's a very different story now, but When I was an exactor, I had a job Expector was a job to me, a hundred percent I knew, am I the best singer in the world? No. T away Do as good as other people in here? Yeah I can And when process started happen in And I started going through and I saw the way they were treating me different to This guy here and that girl there I was like, okay And it's I just started playing the game early And you realize in, especially in reality TV As much as people don't like to go on about stereotypes, bullshit. There is a box for absolutely everyone. If I'm the producer, I'm the execive, I'm the head of the channel, I've got a chart. It's a little bit like when you see on these reality shows, the pictures and the pololaroid. That's what it is and you want The gay one. You want Hamlet the Joe Hack. You want G goodood looking guy. You want the sweet innocent girl. You want that It's actually that, yeah, you're completely right And I knew I'm not the good looking guy I'm not Come on. The boy band boy. Come on. No I knew what I was. I knew what bo I thought you were fitting quite lot those boxes. I think good luck But yeah, I knew what my job was. and I thought, I can either stand here and sing and last two or three weeks of the live shows or I'll give the machine exactly what it needs to be fed And hopefully last a little bit longer and eight weeks later right there was Yeah, but that's amazing that you realize that. Yeah. When I did Main Chelsea, I did not realize Joe how much of a game it was. I was the joke I knew I was the jokes so I was in on it That's the difference where it's looking warmy You know, not mention any names but especially on X Factor, there are people that get that far or actually not as far as me, I was the one that got that. There were people that got to those live shows that we'd all perceive as the public as the joke act they didn't believe they were a joke tack. They thought they were the next Lady Gargar, or they thought they were the next Madonna When in fact, from day one, I was like I'm not the next Lady Gaga I know I'm the joke. Well, let's let's play guys. Where does that self awareness come from? Because that's the era we grew up in The year we grew up in I just got there earlier. But that self awareness realizing that because it's every bit of your emotion wants to Typically as humans would just go, I'm not the joke act this is, I'm good, I'm great, I'm this. But you kind of leant into it. and we're like, no, this is what it's going to be. Because I knew I wasn't as good as Dave ree threeree people along. I knew I wasn't as good as that. You know, I was on there with like James Arfar. I was on there with Ella Henderson. I was there with Lucy Sragon, Union Jage. I mean, all of these people that were incredibly talented singers knew I wasn't as good technically a singer as them I knew I was better than what I was doing on a Saturday night on X factor And so did all of they. So when you watch X factor back and week one, obviously I'm in the bottom two and get saved, week two When I got saved by the public for the first time on them live shows, just look at every single other contestant's reaction. because they were more happy for me than I was because they were like, fucking brilliant. They knew. They were all in with me. They knew I could sing. I shared a bed with James for like six weeks. Did you really? Yeah we used to sing in bed like pretty much every night. You made up this song about me called Rylander And we even now whenever we speak, he's like, Rylander and I'm like, R Rander it's just like his t. And it's like you and James are the shared e. Yeah, we were like romance, central. I love that man. You know, he's like a brother to me. And so's Jarermane L likeike we with the shersey boys. We always will be