Take that and party: Meet Mark Owen - (March 2005!)

The cute one from Take That with the neverending smile and the dimples to die for. The caterpillar-performing, break-dancing body-popping boy band superstar, then solo artist, then winner of last year's Celebrity Big Brother. A second solo album - released six years after the first - is due out in November and startlingly good and catchy single "Four Minute Warning" is out next week. Ladies and gentlemen, we present 19 Questions with the nicest and icklest man in pop music, Mark Owen.

1. What would you do with a four minute warning to the end of the world? You’ve been quoted as saying you’d snog a bag lady or something but c’mon…

Probably just watch people or the skies and think about old friends and loved ones. You’d not have time to phone everyone ‘cos the phone lines would all be jammed, wouldn’t they? So I’d probably just smile and look at the skies.

2. It’s been about six years since your debut solo album Green Man. What’ve you been up to in that time?

I’ve written loads and loads. I have the most b-sides in the world. About two years ago I set up a home studio and got people up to play. So I made a record at home, and put 10 tracks on a sample thing and started to take that round. Just to get some feedback really. Just to people I knew so it wasn’t like I was saying “gimme a deal.” And they all had really positive things to say and suggested that I don’t put it out myself. So I went away and wrote more songs, and that’s when Universal/Island started to show interest. And then the Big Brother thing came…

3. What went through your head when you were offered it?

Initially when the call came through I was like, no way, I couldn’t do that. They gave me a few days to think about it and the more I thought about it, the more I started to think it’d be good for me. It’s different and it would challenge me in a way that I’d not been. I’d hate to have been sat at home and watched it and thought “oh, I wish I’d done it”. There have been things that have happened in the past, and I’d said no to, and when it’s happened, I’ve thought “maybe I should’ve done it”.

4. But you were opening yourself up to a lot, though. You were the nation’s darling, but it could have gone so much differently…

Yeah, I could have broken down on day one, couldn’t I? Written things on tables or whatever! (laughs).

5. What was it like really? Any stories?

No, nothing really odd. I think I had a bit of an unfair advantage though because I had spent 5 or 6 years in a room with a band, so I’d learned the art of blending in and making the most of it, really. And I didn’t have any family. I think 10 or 11 days away from your kids is a long time, and I didn’t have any of that. The thing I missed the most was music. And TV. I don’t even watch much TV but when you actually can’t have it you think ‘I wanna watch TV.’

6. Goldie’s teeth didn’t blind you?

Nawww. I’d met Goldie before and so it was kinda nice to see him and I’d met Sue before. In all it was a weird combination of people but it was great.

7. You blubbered like a baby at the end of BB. What was going through your head?

I don’t know why! I don’t easily cry so it was weird. It was the first time I was in the house on my own. Les had left and I don’t think I’m good on me own. I just thought, this is mad, a bit crazy. I think it was probably a bunch of pent-up emotions from probably a few years. I cry at films once and a while but I wish I could cry more.

8. You seem to have taken a bit of a Zen approach on BB and perhaps on your album as well. You seem really calm these days, chilled out.

When I was writing and it wasn’t happening, I just kept thinking that if it’s meant to happen, it will and that kept me going really. I’d think "maybe the time isn’t right for me now”, so I kind of just was patient really. And if it didn’t happen for 20 years, I’d still be sat there waiting.

9. Aren’t you even a bit nervous about re-entering the musical strasophere? It’s been ages since you released your solo debut Green Man.

I am. I’d be lying if I said I’m not. But I tell myself ‘what’s the point?’ Because I don’t know what I can do differently. I’ve done the best I can and apart from having a van and travelling up and down the country and buying every copy of the single the week it’s out – which I might do…but I’m too busy for it. Umm, maybe I could, ha! – it’s out of my hands. I don’t want another six years until my next album. I want to go in quite quickly into the next one. I’m trying to see more of a future picture.

10. About the past, what were the darkest hours for you during Take That?

Robbie leaving. It was a big time for me ‘cos it was over a weekend and we all went our own way. And then thinking about what we could have done differently or what could I have done differently was hard for me. It was a lot of fun being in that band. The early days was probably when it was the most difficult for us, when things weren’t going well but you were so excited about being in a pop band anyway, that the rest didn’t really matter.

11. You were so young!

Seventeen or 18…yeah. And I suppose that when it all comes to an end you do all your thinking. I never really watched any Take That stuff for about three years after we split. It wasn’t spoke about, which is a bit weird really. Amongst friends or whatever, we never spoke about it all. And I think I needed to.