The Age (Australia)
Hayes puts the past to rest
By Guy Blackman
October 22, 2006

Caption: Darren Hayes: "It's interesting to see what
pressures are placed upon somebody in the public eye,
even on someone like me who's a bit of a crap celebrity."

Singer Darren Hayes talks success, failure and gay marriage with Guy Blackman.

Six years ago, Darren Hayes was one of the world's biggest pop stars with two multimillion-selling albums under his belt as vocalist for Savage Garden, and a string of No. 1 hit singles all over the world.

That all fell apart when Savage Garden announced an acrimonious split in October 2001 and, after two commercially unsuccessful solo albums, Hayes was dropped by record label Sony BMG in June this year.

"Most people work for years and years to get to a certain point, but our first record was successful all over the world," Hayes says at home in London. "And to go from that to essentially starting again, whooh, that was brutal."

A new DVD Too Close For Comfort, part concert video, part documentary, shows Hayes struggling to cope with this reversal of fortunes. It's quite a curio, shot over four years in three distinct stages: a European tour promoting solo debut Spin in 2002 ("it hasn't recouped yet, please buy it," he begs the camera at one point), then some 2004 commentary on the earlier footage, then, bizarrely, more commentary in 2006 from an older and wiser Hayes, looking back on the ruins of the past. The effect is strangely post-modern, with each successive Hayes commenting on the last as he makes a slightly glib journey from diva narcissist - bitching about the colour of his limousine, arguing with a Russian waitress he has forgotten to tip - to level-headed pragmatist, sizing up his future in music.

"I'm older, I'm 35," Hayes says with a little shiver. "I haven't found God or Allah, but I'm a kinder person and I'm so much more aware of why I behave the way I do."

At times you have to marvel at Hayes' willingness to display his flaws, although it's obvious that when the DVD was filmed, Hayes expected to edit out anything that might reflect badly on him. But four years later, the reasoning is different. "It's definitely squeamish," Hayes says, "but I think it's interesting to see what pressures are placed upon somebody in the public eye, even on someone like me who's a bit of a crap celebrity really."

This focus on failure, rather than success, makes for often compelling viewing. It's rare for any star to admit to a career downturn, but the DVD is littered with statements from Hayes, including: "by commercial standards, I was once very successful and I am now not very successful" or "the only option you can come up with is that I failed". Hayes acts up for the camera and tries to put on a brave face, but for a lot of the documentary he is clearly miserable.

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