Gareth Gates says Pop Idol helped him deal with being bullied over stammer

He might have been the bookies’ favourite to win the inaugural talent competition, but was pipped at the post by underdog Will Young.

But it didn’t really matter although Gates jokes that at the time he was “the UK’s biggest loser”. For a loser he hasn’t done too badly. His pop career took off – he has sold more than 3.5 million records in the UK – and then he moved into musical theatre. Not bad for a teenager from Bradford with an often debilitating stammer.

It is a stammer that Gates still struggles with today – “It’s an ongoing battle,” he says – but he refused to let it stand in his way.

He is back in Bradford to launch his new events company, The Events People, which is bringing top bands and festivals to the city. It the brainchild of Gates and two mates, Jon Oldroyd and Nick Martin.

Events organised for 2022 are The Big 80s Festival on June 3, with Sister Sledge, Martin Kemp, Boney M, Katrina and the Waves, The Fizz and Sonia; Bradford Dance on June 4 with Tom Zanetti confirmed so far; and The Big Pop on September 3, featuring Peter Andre, Five, A1, S Club, Liberty X and Gates himself. More are planned for 2023.

“It is good when I have to do interviews like this as it really makes me focus on my breathing and my speech,” says Gates, who is an ambassador for MacGuire programme in helping stammerers. He even trained to be coach himself.

“It isn’t easy for me but I really believe in this project and am very excited about it and so I need to promote it and that means doing interviews. It all depends on how much time and effort I put in. It is clear when I’ve been lazy.”

But he is determined to push himself to promote his new venture.

“I have always asked myself why should the people of Bradford have to travel to other cities to see world class music events. And so I decided to bring the music and other major events to them. I am very excited about it.”

When we speak at Odsal Stadium, the venue for his ambitious events, he has his speech coach with him who reminds him every so often to slow down and remember to breathe.

“He’s kicking me under the table at the moment for talking too fast,” laughs Gates.

He has come a long way from the spikey-haired teenager who so impressed the likes of Pop Idol judge Simon Cowell, and the nation, that he ended up in the final going head to head with Young. Despite losing out Gates remains firm friends with Young.

“Neither of us would be where we are today if it hadn’t been for Pop Idol,” he says.

But it wasn’t just his music career that benefited from competing in the ITV talent show.

“I was quite badly bullied when I was younger st school because of my speech,” he recalls.

“I sang in the Bradford Cathedral Choir (he even sang a solo for the Queen when she visit in 1997) but I never for one moment thought I’d make it as a pop star.

“All the pop stars I saw growing up weren’t like me – they were like Robbie Williams. None of them had a stammer, but appearing on Pop Idol changed all that. I don’t stammer when I sing which is why my parents always encouraged me. It took a lot to stand up there and try to speak but people seemed to like my story and for the first time in my life my stammer worked in my favour as it made me stand out from the others, it made me memorable, I suppose. For the first time in my life my stammer was a positive thing.

“It wasn’t easy talking about my stammer but it felt good that at last I could talk about it openly and not be ridiculed. It made me realise that I could make something of myself despite the stammer, but we had no idea at the time just how big it was going to be.” He also hopes his success will give courage to other people, particularly the young, whose lives are affected by a stammer.

He says the entire Pop Idol experience as a positive one.

“They really looked after us,” he recalls.“It really was like a big family, we all took care of each other. Me and Will have a great bond, we were there from the start until the final.”

Gates’ first single, a cover of Unchained Melody, entered the UK Singles Chart at number one. The single went double-platinum in the UK, and was voted 2002’s Record of the Year by ITV viewers.

This was followed by another number one single, Anyone of Us (Stupid Mistake). His third single, a double A-side Suspicious Minds/The Long and Winding Road, a duet with Young, also reached number one.

Since Pop Idol Gates has toured pretty much constantly – until the pandemic – either as a solo artist, in musical theatre – he has starred in West End productions such as Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Legally Blonde, Les Miserables and Loserville – or as a group.

In ITV’s Big Reunion of was part of the supergroup 5th Story made up of Gates, Dane Bowers, Kenzie from Blazin’ Squad, Adam Rickitt and Kavana. Although he has enjoyed success, Gates maintains his one big achievement is his beloved daughter, 12-year-old Missy. He is split from Missy’s mum Suzanne Mole, whom he met in 2002, but it is clear that Missy is the apple of her father’s eye.

“She’s a great little performer and has an amazing voice,” he says proudly,

“I don’t want to expose her to too much at the moment while she is still so young but I would love to perform with her one day.”

While Missy is London-based Gates, who has three sisters, still has lots of family in Bradford and returns when he can. And with the launch of his new venture he plans to be in the city even more.

“I’m actually looking for a plot of land as I would love to build a house here. So if anyone knows of anything get in touch. I love Bradford and Yorkshire – it’s where I grew up and my family still lives. I come home every opportunity I get.”

He says while the pandemic was “awful” he was lucky that he has “a lot of fingers in a lot of other pies”.

“I have other businesses which is great, but music and performing is what I do. When I am not singing I my stammer is terrible. Music is my only form of relief from that, so when that all stopped it hit me really hard.

“But I am extremely busy now and I’m really pleased to be back on stage either touring and also I am doing a lot on cruise ships which is fantastic. Last week I was in the Caribbean.”

The fresh-faced, spikey-haired youth might have been replaced by a buff, more mature, bearded Gates, but his passion for music and live performance remains the same.

For more information visit www.eventspeople.co.uk