Hayes stops traffic
The Daily Telegraph
25jun04
DARREN Hayes literally stopped traffic in
London this week while
filming the video for his new single release,
Popular.
Following on from the guerilla gigs trend
which is sweeping the
British capital, Hayes decided to stage a
guerilla video shoot
on the famed Oxford St tourist and shopping
strip. This involved
just rocking up with models, crew and boom
box in hand and filming
whatever happened, instead of seeking
official council permits or
police approval, according to music writer
Kathy McCabe.
All was going well, with Hayes strutting
his new George Michael-style
stuff in the front window of a Kookai store,
but crowds swelled when the
singer and crew headed out onto the pavement
and people ended up
on the street, disrupting traffic flow.
Police arrived and Hayes and the video
gang did the bolt and hid in
a side street while the constabulary sorted
out the bottleneck.
They crept back onto the street and took
up where they left off until
another snarl developed and the police came
to check out what was
causing all the commotion.
The cat-and-mouse situation went on for
half a day before the police
finally caught the singer and his entourage.
They were ordered to cease and desist and
are now waiting for the
weather to clear to finish off the shoot.
The single spoofs the pop business with
lines like "I'm willing to sleep
my way to the top/I want to be pop-popular".
Expect a massive airwaves assault when
radio stations are given the
track on July 12 with Hayes' second solo
album, The Tension and The Spark,
released in late August.
Hayes should be back here from his London
base before the end of the
year to talk it up.
