WHEN 20-year-old club singer Kevin Simm appeared on ITV's Popstars, nobody expected him to do well. And nobody could have imagined he would be branded a Flopstar when he failed to win.

But three years of hard work, and two albums later, Liberty X are a household name. Kevin's superstar life is a world away from Leyland and Abbey Village, near Blackburn, where he grew up.

But in an exclusive series of interviews, BEN HEWES finds out how East Lancs made Kevin the star he is today, and how getting expelled from college put him on the road to fame...

SITTING in the front room of the Simm family home it is sometimes easy to forget that Kevin Simm is no longer an average East Lancashire lad.

Dressed casually in boots, jeans and a T-shirt, he only lets his popstar lifestyle slip through subtly, with a diamond studded earring or a chunky jewelled crucifix around his neck.

Kevin, 23, only has two or three days a year with his family now, and when he visits he likes it to be as normal as possible, to help keep his feet firmly on the ground.

He still brings his washing home for his mum, Bernadette, and he still sees his friends, although trips to the pub are more difficult when your band has had a number one single.

But the one thing that Kevin makes perfectly clear, is that fame does not interest him, and he puts his attitude down to a normal upbringing.

He was born in 1980 in Chorley Hospital, while his family lived in Farington Avenue, Leyland. After 10 years he moved to Broadfield Drive until the late '90s, when his mum and dad, Bernadette and Stephen, took over the Royal Hotel in Abbey Village, near Blackburn.

When he was younger he had no interest in singing, and instead wanted to become a footballer for his beloved Liverpool FC.

But at St Mary's High School, now a technology college, he entered a singing audition, performing Elton John's song Daniel.

It literally changed his life overnight.

He said: "I was never into singing until I was about 16, right in my last year in high school. Before that I wanted to be a footballer and I played for years and years.

"To be honest I didn't really know what I wanted to do until I was about 17. I wanted to be an architect and all sorts of stuff.

"Then one time there was a school concert. Me and a couple of my mates went to the audition for a laugh.

"I think I sort of wanted to do it, but I still wanted them to come along so I would have a bit of false courage

"I remember that I made all my friends go before me and they were pretty bad - it showed a good reflection of me!"

His former music teacher, Helen Dean, remembers Kevin turning up out of the blue and bringing the house down.

She said: "I taught him music and he didn't really do much with it until it was time for leaving. Then he auditioned to take part in the end of term concert and sang Elton John's Daniel.

"He didn't have any music with him or anything. Usually they bring a backing track with them or the printed music for me to play. I ended up busking it because he was that desperate to do it.

"I think he quite enjoyed the attention that brought him and there was no stopping him after that!

"He had never been in a show or taken part in a production, he just asked to come and sing the song. He brought the house down.

"He drops into school now and again and we follow what he is doing in the papers and on TV.

"All the kids here know who he is even though none of them were here when he was."

Kevin made it into the Christmas concert, much to the surprise of his classmates.

He explained: "I don't think anyone expected me to do it because I was a football type. There are perceptions of singers when you're that young. I think people were quite surprised.

"I had a skinhead and everything and I just went and did it. It went down really well and that just really encouraged me. The buzz of having a really loud round of applause was better than scoring goals in football. That really got me hungry for it."

When Kevin left school he joined a performing arts course at Runshaw College, Leyland, but was expelled towards the end of his two-year course. He wasn't happy with the course, and stopped going to lessons. But his passion for music was officially kindled, and an appearance on ITV's Stars In Their Eyes singing Ocean Colour Scene's Riverboat Song put him on the right track.

"I have been really lucky as far as auditions go.

"I went through about four or five auditions for Stars in Their Eyes and I got put on the show which was wicked.

"It didn't really do that much for me, it didn't open that many doors, but I started getting bookings for gigs, just doing pubs and clubs to earn a bit of money."

Out of college and performing on the working men's club circuit meant Kevin had to work hard for his money, slowly learning the trade.

At one show, in a Burnley pub on the day that the Clarets were promoted to the first division in the 1999-2000 season, fights broke out and the crowd were spitting on his equipment before he even started.

Kevin doesn't remember the name of the pub, but he remembers what went on clearly. He said: "By the end I had a few of them up singing with me.

"That's the good thing about singing - if you are good or you can get the audience involved they respect you and give you a chance.

"When I went in there it went from no chance, I'm going to get killed on the stage, to having them up at the end, drunk but singing.

"I was quite glad to get the hell out of there, though!"

Kevin went from having no interest in singing to performing for a living. He says none of his family are natural singers, and out of his two brothers, David, 20, and Christopher, 18, and sisters Rachael, 15 and Michelle, 22, only Rachael has shown any interest in following him career-wise.

Christopher and David are labourers, Michelle a make-up artist and Rachael is still at school.

His parents Stephen, who works for a vending company, and support worker Bernadette, both 43, have never sung.

But Kevin said: "When I started out I was okay, but when you start progressing and doing things you never thought you could do with your voice that's where it's really exciting. And now I'm a million times better than I was then. That's what really got me interested in it.

"If I was still at the same level I was at when I was 16 then I wouldn't be trying to do this."