Craig still longs for home

CRAIG DAVID is back - and the one thing he would love to do is walk down Southampton High Street.

The R&B music sensation, raised on a Southampton council estate before being catapulted to fame as a teenager three years ago, has returned to the charts after a two-year break with a new single, What's Your Flava?, and soon-to-be-released album.

He has also pencilled in a UK tour next spring with dates and cities still to be decided.

Craig is now back in England after a mammoth 18-month promotional tour of the USA, which saw him soar to even greater heights of fame and critical acclaim than in the UK.

Speaking to the Daily Echo ahead of the release of his second, long-awaited album, Slicker Than Your Average, the 21-year-old star said he still feels strongly about Southampton, and comes back whenever he can.

"Southampton is my home - it's where I grew up," says Craig, currently gearing up for a UK tour at the start of next year.

"Even though I live in London now, that doesn't mean I've cut all my ties with Southampton."

One old tie has been broken, though. Craig's mum, Tina, has now moved out of her council flat on the Holyrood estate - where Craig spent hours writing music in his bedroom - and into a house on the outskirts of the city.

"It's great for me to have bought my mum a house. I've got my own bedroom there as well, which is nice for when I go back."

After three years in the limelight, and the inevitable pull away from his roots, Craig is understandably nostalgic about the city where he grew up and first explored his musical talents as a young DJ and MC in local clubs.

Southampton fans desperate for a glimpse of Craig after his 18-month absence should keep their eyes peeled - because they might stand a better chance of seeing him than they think.

"Whenever I come home I borrow my mum's car and do a little trip around Southampton, usually at night or in the early evening. I like to see the different places I used to go to," he confesses.

"It would be wicked to be invisible, like in that film The Hollow Man, and to be able to see what's going on in Southampton.

"The one thing I would love to do is walk along the High Street and see all the places I used to hang out."

Many young pop stars find it hard to cope with fame. When Hear'Say broke up recently, members of the band cited unwanted attention in the street as one of the main reasons for their split - although flagging sales might also have had something to do with it.

Craig, though, is positively thriving on it. And rather than distracting him from his purpose, the suffocating attention he has received over the last three years has only served to stiffen his resolve. Quite simply, he's one of the most positive, single-minded and intelligent pop stars you could wish to meet. The fact that he's got something worth flogging might also have something to do with it.

Two years ago, his debut album Born To Do It just released and everyone rushing to crown him the Next Best Thing, Craig was already a maturer-than-average 19-year-old. Today, he's still mature for his age. The main difference is that he's now got something to say for himself.

His reception in America, where he has completed two major tours since January 2001, now makes Craig a serious contender for long-term musical respectability.

"It was important to put in that amount of time in America. You can't expect people just to embrace you," says Craig, who played to rapturous audiences everywhere from New York to Boulder while he was there.

"When I first went over there, people were saying: 'I like that song by that English bloke.' By the end they were saying: 'I really like that Seven Days by Craig David.'

"I went over there thinking that I going to fail on my own terms - if there was going to be any failure. I wasn't going to pretend that I was from Harlem or the Bronx.

"I was overwhelmed by the way people just went crazy. It went from being able to just go into shops and enjoy life to having to get a car to take me around the corner.

"It was exciting to experience the whole process of becoming famous again. You just don't know which way it's going to turn."

Craig is still excited by the thought of people being into his music - even when it brings him into contact with the slightly more sinister side of fandom.

"It's quite fanatical in America. You really do get masses of people waiting for you outside your hotel and people who will follow you for miles in their car, to places where they couldn't possibly live.

"I just look at it and say: 'This is really flattering that people are so much into the music.'

"I love it that people can relate to my music, even though it's come from so far away. It proves to me that music is international."

The silky-voiced singer, who writes all his own songs, has picked up one or two famous fans along the way. One of them, Sting, is featured on the new album.

"I'd written a song called Rise and Fall, about the trials and tribulations of an artist in the music industry, based on a guitar riff from Sting's song Shape of My Heart.

"I approached him in order to clear the sample and he said he loved the song and could really associate with what it was saying - so we ended up working together on it."

With his new album on the starting blocks and the tour pencilled in for next spring, Craig looks set to dominate the British music scene for some time to come.

But,with his new-found international fame, can we expect him to ever play Southampton again - as he did two years ago?

"I love playing smaller, intimate venues, so there's no reason why I couldn't. Southampton is my home - it's still really important to me."

The new single, What's Your Flava? is released on Monday, with the album, Slicker than the Average, to follow on November 11.