X Factor Olly could be banned from singing at mate's wedding (From Gazette)
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X Factor Olly could be banned from singing at mate's wedding
8:00pm Wednesday 2nd December 2009 in Olly Murs News By Ryan McCarthy
Olly Murs and Lee Phillippo, second left, as work rivals
OLLY Murs may be wowing X Factor judges with his performances, but he could be banned from singing at one of his best mates wedding.
Lee Phillippo, one of the TV show star’s best mates, said, if his schedule allows, Olly will be one of his ushers when he ties the knot next year.
But Lee, 23, joked he would be banned from singing in case he steals the limelight.
Lee, 23, said: “Before he was on the X Factor, he said he was going to sing. But now I said, ‘you can’t sing the opening song, because everyone will be more focussed on you’.” Lee, a former pupil at Tiptree’s Thurstable School, got to know Olly about four years ago when they were recruitment consultants with rival firms.
He said: “One of my mates who I went to college with knew Olly and we met through him.
“We both worked on an industrial desk supplying people in the same areas, so we were competitors at the time.”
He also said it was “weird” that he had only been able to see Olly for a brief time when he popped back to his home town of Witham two weeks ago.
Lee said: “We had a kickabout and it was so weird because we had not seen him properly in about two months, apart from quickly after the show.
“We went to the George pub and played pool and did some filming, and when word got round, he was mobbed outside.
“The police were outside stopping people getting in the pub and Olly was chased down the road.
“Now he is in every newspaper every single day and singing in front of millions.
“I knew he had the potential, but I never thought he would get this far. He has been great.”
Lee said the picture the tabloid press had painted of Olly, of Carraways, as a bit of a lothario is way off the mark.
Referring to rumours of a romance between Olly and fellow contestant Stacey Solomon, he said: “They (national papers) put two and two together and come up with eight. There’s no truth in it.”
