The stress had become so bad I was waking up tired every day.. I thought,‘this is not fun any more’
Grace’s thrill at getting a nod of the Ed
positions than you,” he admits. “I was very lucky. I got to the hospital quickly and the NHS were amazing. I had an MOT but I am fine now.”
Simon, who was said to be suffering from low blood pressure, was fetching a glass of milk when he fell at his €11million mansion in West London.
He initially thought he had been paralysed. “I literally knocked myself out and my publicist was the first person I saw. I thought ‘if this is my idea of heaven, this isn’t great’.
“We were both thinking the same thing ‘have I broken my neck?’.”
Now his attention is turned towards The X Factor final where his act Rak-su are up against Grace Davies and Kevin Davy White.
Simon is backing Rak-su to win the series – hosted by Dermot O’leary – but says he is still haunted by the fact One Direction only came third in 2010. “I don’t want to jinx it as I always get this wrong,” he says. “I had the same conversation with One Direction.
“I thought we were going to walk it and on the night we were third and I was like ‘what?’. I am still pi***d off to this day that One Direction didn’t win.”
Before this series, Simon decided to ring in the changes, ditching novelty acts and encouraging artists to perform their own songs.
And his decision has paid off with five of Raksu’s self-penned tracks hitting the itunes top 20 already – with I’m Feeling You at No1. “The guys have been consistent from the beginning and the fact they were cool enough and brave enough to do their own material has worked in their favour,” he says. “They haven’t compromised themselves. People are going to be rooting for them.”
Simon thinks Rak-su have what it takes to follow in the footsteps of former X Factor contestants who have made it big. He says: “They effectively have to make a No1 record every week at the moment.
“It’s really hard to do that. But they’ve done it without any stress. In fact they’ve been very casual about the whole process. If they can do that, they will have no problems.”
But the group – 25-year-old Watford lads Ashley, Jamaal, Myles and Mustafa – are not getting ahead of themselves. Ashley says: “Us and the other finalists are all so different and while we have a lot of support, the demographic of our
ON COMING ROUND AFTER BEING CONCUSSED
support isn’t the ones that may sit at home on a Saturday night watching the show.” Regardless of who is named champion tomorrow, Ashley says he is staggered by Rak-su’s success so far.
“[Our song] Mamacita went into the charts at 30-something and we were all buzzing and thought ‘what a result’. We didn’t expect it to carry on and get higher and higher. It’s been unreal.”
Simon, as ever, has the final word. He says: “When I first met them, I didn’t know how they hadn’t been offered a deal before. But that’s what the show is about.
“I pinch myself as I realise how difficult it is to break artists when you rely just on radio. The show gives artists a better chance.” ■ X Factor is on TV3 at 7.05pm tonight and 7.15pm tomorrow. THE X Factor finalist Grace Davies said she already felt like a winner after getting the approval of Ed Sheeran.
Multi-award-winner Ed, 26, chatted with Grace backstage after he appeared on the show last week, just as she was waiting to hear whether she had made it to tonight’s showcase.
Grace, 19, said: “He stopped me backstage and said: ‘You’re really good, keep smashing it, your songs are cracking’. I was hyperventilating!
“It was just before I was going back on stage to see if I was through to the final. I couldn’t believe it. I would love to collaborate with him one day.”
Her original songs have made her one of the show’s stand-out stars. Bookies have put her at 3/1 to win, behind Rak-su at 2/5 but ahead of Kevin Davy White at 6/1.
OVERWHELMED
She said her fears over the final had died down and she will “absolutely not” return to her job packing CDS in a warehouse in her home town of Blackburn.
She said: “I’m going to take this opportunity with both hands.
“I’d performed in every pub in town to get my music out there. Now my face is on a massive TV screen in the town centre.
“Whatever happens, I want to make that album.
“I’m nervous and overwhelmed that I got to the final and I’m in it to win it, but I know I’m going to come first, second or third, so I feel all right.”
She thinks Rak-su is her biggest competition but added: “If I didn’t win, I’d want it to be Kevin. He’s such a wonderful and kind person.”
I thought ‘if this is my idea of heaven this isn’t great’
SIMON