Celebrity top of the flops!

Celebrity top of the flops! They’ve made their names as screen stars – but as these excruciating pictures reveal, what they really dreamed of was having a No 1 hit song

As the handsome Duke of Hastings, Regé-Jean Page, 31, smoulders on screen in Regency tailcoats and breeches in Netflix period drama Bridgerton.

But, 15 years ago, the star had an altogether different look when he fronted a little-known rock band.

He is one of many celebrities who tried and failed to make it as a pop star.

Here, CLAUDIA CONNELL looks at the famous Top of the Flops…

RICKY GERVAIS: NEW WAVE BAND THAT FELL FLAT

Long before David Brent’s toe-curling dance routine in the hit TV comedy The Office, Ricky Gervais was in a 1980s new-wave band called Seona Dancing

Long before David Brent’s toe-curling dance routine in the hit TV comedy The Office, Ricky Gervais was in a 1980s new-wave band called Seona Dancing.

He formed the duo in 1982 with his friend, Bill Macrae, while they were studying at University College London.

They were signed to London Records and released two singles including Bitter Heart, which had an accompanying music video, showing Ricky in tight leather trousers and full make-up. Neither single entered the top 40 and the duo split after less than two years.

Ricky, 59, says: ‘People only know I was in a band because I’m famous for something else. The video pops up on Graham Norton and we all laugh at how thin I once was.’

LAUREN LAVERNE: SONGS FOR A DESERT ISLAND?

As the face of BBC TV’s Glastonbury coverage, Lauren Laverne, 42, introduces the live acts. But, in 1997, she and her band, Kenickie, performed there

As the face of BBC TV’s Glastonbury coverage, Lauren Laverne, 42, introduces the live acts. But, in 1997, she and her band, Kenickie, performed there.

The Desert Island Discs and BBC Radio 6 presenter formed the pop punk band in Sunderland when she was 16 along with her brother, Pete.

Lauren was the lead singer, songwriter and guitarist.

Named after the character in the movie Grease, the band’s first album At The Club reached No. 9 in the charts in 1997. Kenickie had four top 40 hits in two years. But when their second album sold badly, they called it a day. Lauren says: ‘It was so much fun doing Kenickie, but I don’t miss it at all. I feel so at home doing radio.’

ANTHONY HEAD: WE WERE NEVER CHART-SLAYERS

Best known for Buffy The Vampire Slayer, playing the Prime Minister in Little Britain and, of course, the long-running Gold Blend coffee commercials. In 1983, Anthony Head, 66, was one half of an electro pop duo called Two Way

They released two singles which weren’t a success, so Anthony decided to focus on acting.

He says: ‘I gave up a rock career long ago. Basically my partner, Sarah, said: “What do you want to do? You can’t keep doing two things somewhat half-heartedly”, so I decided to stick with acting.’

REGÉ-JEAN PAGE: A ROCKY START TO PIN-UP’S CAREER

The Super Nashwan Kids were a five-piece band which the charismatic Regé-Jean Page fronted when they were together between 2006 and 2013

The Super Nashwan Kids were a five-piece band which the charismatic Regé-Jean Page fronted when they were together between 2006 and 2013. Their Facebook page is still available to view, featuring messages from a purple-haired yet polite teenage Regé-Jean thanking his fans for their support.

Although they weren’t signed to a major label, the band did release two albums independently. Turn On. Engage and No Idols were both characterised by their loud, angry guitar-led rock tracks.

‘What else are you going to do as a teenager?’ Page says in a recent interview. ‘You’re going to scream at people one way or another — you might has well do it in a productive way.’

BRIAN COX: I DARED TO BELIEVE THINGS COULD ONLY GET BETTER

Famous for presenting high-brow TV shows such as The Planets and Forces Of Nature, physicist Brian Cox spent six years as the keyboard player in rock band Dare long before he appeared on our screens

Famous for presenting high-brow TV shows such as The Planets and Forces Of Nature, physicist Brian Cox spent six years as the keyboard player in rock band Dare long before he appeared on our screens.

Brian joined the band in 1986 while studying physics at the University of Manchester. Dare were signed to A&M Records and, when Brian was a member, they released two albums, Out Of Silence and Blood From Stone. Neither did well and the band were dropped.

After Dare flopped, Cox, now 52, left the group but went on to taste success as the keyboard player in D:Ream, whose biggest hit, Things Can Only Get Better, was famously adopted by New Labour.

Of his time in Dare, Cox said: ‘At the start, we paid ourselves £75 each a week and that went up to about £120 by the end. We thought: “We’ve made it!”’

DENISE VAN OUTEN: ESSEX GIRL WHO WANTED TO BE THE NEXT CILLA BLACK

Essex girl Denise Van Outen made her name as one of the ‘ladettes’ of the 1990s, but before presenting TV show The Big Breakfast, she had tried her hand at becoming a pop star

Essex girl Denise Van Outen made her name as one of the ‘ladettes’ of the 1990s, but before presenting TV show The Big Breakfast, she had tried her hand at becoming a pop star.

In 1994, she was one half of girl band duo Those Two Girls, along with Cathy Warwick. The reasoning behind the band’s name was because their manager could never remember their names. Denise (top right) and Cathy were put together by Arista Records to record commercial, bubble-gum style pop.

Their first single, Wanna Make You Go Uuh, only reached No.74 in the singles chart. Follow-up, All I Want, got to No.36, and the label dropped them. ‘I never wanted to be edgy — I wanted to be Cilla Black!’ said Denise, now 46, of her brief pop career.

PATSY KENSIT: THE EIGTH WONDER OF THE MUSIC WORLD

After finding fame as a child actress, 16-year-old Patsy became the lead singer in a pop band called Eighth Wonder in 1983. Now 52, she didn’t achieve her teenage rock star dream of being ‘more famous than anybody’

After finding fame as a child actress, 16-year-old Patsy became the lead singer in a pop band called Eighth Wonder in 1983. Her brother, Jamie, was on keyboard and, signed by CBS Records, they had early success with the single I’m Not Scared, written by The Pet Shop Boys.

‘There might come a time when I want to finish with the band, but not yet — we’ve got years and years; we want to play live and everything,’ Patsy said in an interview in 1988.

But their only album, Fearless, was a flop and Patsy quit to focus on acting. Now 52, she didn’t achieve her teenage rock star dream of being ‘more famous than anybody’.

FIONA BRUCE: HERE IS THE NEWS – WE HAD NO TALENT!

As the lead singer of a New Romantic band, how do you think the teenage Fiona Bruce would have reacted if someone had told her that, in three decades time, she’d be fronting a cosy Sunday-night TV show called Antiques Roadshow?

Aged 19, she sang in Chez Nous, sporting an upturned collar, high-waisted trousers and an 80s quiff haircut. She joined the band while studying French at the University of London Institute in Paris.

‘We did a few gigs,’ said Fiona, who is now 56. ‘We were terrible. We enjoyed it but were fundamentally a talentless bunch.’

TOM HARDY: VENOM STAR’S VERY BAD RAP

Known for his roles in Peaky Blinders, The Dark Knight Rises and the Venom films, things might have been rather different if Tom Hardy’s career as a rapper had taken off

Known for his roles in Peaky Blinders, The Dark Knight Rises and the Venom films, things might have been rather different if Tom Hardy’s career as a rapper had taken off.

As ‘Tommy No.1’ he recorded tracks in an affected Jamaican accent. He made an album in 1999 with fellow rapper Eddie Too Tall called Falling on Your A**e. It failed to set the music world on fire and Tom, 43, never became the UK’s answer to Eminem.

He said: ‘I started rapping when I was 14 or 15. But because I come from a nice middle-class neighbourhood it was a hard sell. And, also, I wasn’t very good!’

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