Dan Corsi, Classic Model

0:02Welcome to the Business of Modelling, the podcast where we explore the fascinating world of the modelling industry. I'm Tessa Dewing, Managing Director of Sandra Reynolds, a commercial model agency celebrating its 50th year of business. Today, I'm joined by Dan Corsi. Dan began his career as a model, starting out in teenage magazines, before becoming a member of the UK boy band Northern Line in the late 1990s. When the band came to an abrupt end, Dan found himself having to rebuild his career from scratch. He returned to modelling, going on to build a consistent commercial career, working for brands including River Island, Hackett, Sky, Uniqlo and House of Fraser, alongside maintaining a parallel career as a DJ.

0:52So today we're talking about what happens when early success stops suddenly, how you adapt and what it really takes to stay working in the industry long term.

1:07Dan Corsi, welcome to The Business of Modelling. Hello, good afternoon. So take me back to the very beginning. I was born in Eastbourne in 1974. My mum got divorced. She moved to the Midlands. She got remarried. She became a model. They asked if she had children for a shoot. She had me and my two sisters. My stepdad joined in. And it started from there. We became the first model family as a real family, not a put together family. Brilliant. OK, so what kind of jobs were you doing back then as a family? As a family, it was holiday brochures. I don't think you get them anymore, do you? Oh, yeah, yeah, you do.

1:47They do some nice holiday trips for families. Yeah, we were doing holiday brochures. I think most of them were just going to Mallorca because it was all big thing back then. It was like the late 80s. It was like the Maldives of the time. Yeah, yeah, everyone was going to Mallorca, or Menorca. Madjulca. Yeah, yeah, those sort of places. I remember them being long days. It was fun, but I just have memories of long days and being so young, not wanting to shoot. Obviously, being on the beach, you want to go and play. You're a kid. You don't, like, can you do that? Yeah, I've done it. Can you do it again?

2:20Yeah, okay. Just one more. And now I've learned when a photographer says, just one more, you know it's going to be another hour. It's never just one more. So how did you get into it? Was your mum a model? My mum was a model, yes. She started out with an agency called Louise Dyson. Oh, gosh, yes. They were Birmingham, yeah. Did you work on your own as a model as a child? I did, yeah. with other people that made up a family. To begin with, I remember doing something. I'll post it again soon. Something for Cadbury's on Mother's Day. Like holding a box of chocolates, looking up at this woman. I've got the poster at home still.

2:55I did that. And then I did catalogs, which aren't around now. No, well, that's now Ecom, isn't it? I did the K's catalogs. Oh, yeah, wow. I did K's, dressed as a teddy boy on a karaoke machine. I mean, look where that led. I think the only cat, well, I don't even know Fargos do one anymore. today no i did i did loads of catalog stuff you know just like a kid with toys yeah that sort of stuff um cereal boxes you know you just have like the sunglasses or the kid on a roller skates at the back sort of really cheesy but it was good i mean to me my mum used to give me a pack of sweets and a pair of trainers and i'd be like yay i've made it she was a single parent again by by then so I didn't mind.

3:40No. And that gave you really great experience. I enjoyed it. Like I said earlier, sometimes I didn't like it because I'm a kid and I didn't want to keep, I didn't want to be there all day. Mates are out playing or whatever and just doing the same thing over and over and over again because you do it. Look this way, look that way. So, oh, come on. Give me a break. Yeah. Yeah, and it wasn't as quick back then. No, no, it didn't have digital. No, so you take a picture, you click, pull out your Polaroid, The photographer would put the Polaroid under his armpit. He'd wait for three minutes until it opened it.

4:14Okay, that's not right. Turn this way. Another three minutes. So you could take two hours just to get the picture. It's not like now. Yeah, perfect. Yeah, it wasn't like that. It took forever. Or the lights weren't right. You'd wait for hours just to get that one shot.

4:33Like I said, the more modelling I got, I could see it was opening doors. but I just I didn't think I'd be able to do it because you look at a traditional male model and they were like quite tall abs really chiseled look and I was pretty boy next door I had the blonde hair the blue like the boy bandy sort of look but little did I know that um so how did it come about you going into modeling going into modeling properly yeah um I my sister or my mum sent some pictures off to a teen magazine um and they got me down just to do a shoot i think it was a lad from birmingham they just put me in there as oh do you think this lad could model at the same time i did mr moore which was sponsored by storm which is more magazine another teenage magazine but it's for it was a little bit older because they had like position of the fortnight They talked a lot about sex in that one.

5:32Position of the full night. Yeah, yeah. Which is always really fun. They used to have quite a lot of up-to-the-wire stuff in those magazines, actually. They used to think, oh, they're really innocent and sweet. They actually weren't at all. No, you look back. I've got loads of them at home. I've kept all the magazines I've done. I've shown them to my daughters. Even I'm getting embarrassed looking at the pictures. Some of them, there's a girl holding a banana. And it's obviously, guess what the headlines are. but it was yeah it was different back then there was no it wasn't any of this filtered sort of stuff it was like how do I snog someone you know what they're looking at because it's all in one magazine you know whereas if they're online they're scrolling to God knows what aren't they yeah while all this was going on I went to the clothes show yeah which was a big big thing in Birmingham with the NEC perfect it's where all the new designers would put all their clothes out there'd be models there there'd be stylists there'd be hair maker it'd be an amazing an amazing day out loads of goodies um I wanted to get spotted I got nicely dressed up walked around my mum at the end of the day uh someone from models one came up to me and said I think you've got a good look can we take some pictures will you come down um and have sort of an an interview will you come down and see us yeah and I was like yes I'm like 18 years old and someone from London saying will you come so I went down and they said yes we would love to take you on but you can't be in Birmingham.

6:58And that was where everyone used to scout at the clothes show. Yeah, everybody was there. They did have festivals and stuff there, did they? No, no, that was the place. That was the place. And people would get dressed up and they would go there to get scouted. That would be the place to be. Yeah, and they had loads of fashion shows. Yeah. They used to have those all the time, didn't they? Bands, fashion shows. I mean, I'll tell you later on, but the amount of times I did the clothes show, actually not being scouted, like actually got paid to do stuff there, and that was the best time. Yeah. Yeah, joined Models One.

7:26My family's from North London originally, so I went and moved in with my cousins. Okay. Signed with Models One, which you could only be with one agency then. Yeah. But they got you enough work, so you didn't need to be with loads of agencies. They guaranteed you work all the time. So there was no point having 10 agents, one getting your job, one a month, one a month. You was working three, four times a week with them. So my first job was with Sean Maguire. Okay. He was in EastEnders originally, and then he brought out some pop music. And I did his pop video with Kat Dealey, because she was a model at the time.

8:04From Birmingham. From Birmingham with Storm. So that was sort of my first proper paid job with Models One. And from then on, castings for teenage magazines where I'd done a couple and they seemed to like me. and it just sort of snowballed from there. I think I did one poster here and then you could write in if you liked them and I'd be getting fan mail. I'd have bags of it coming into the agency. It was such a different industry back then though, wasn't it? I mean, you were out meeting people, you were doing ghosties and castings and you had a little community of models. You were all kind of hanging out together.

8:42Yeah, it was great. It was really sociable. They said you'd get up in the morning, you'd go and grab your coffee or whatever with your mate And then you'd be out for the day with all your friends. You'd have your rucksack on your back. You'd have your proper portfolio. Your A to Z. Your A to Z, your portfolio, and a couple of 10p so you could phone in at one o 'clock to your agent to make sure you haven't got anything else in the afternoon. And if you're still out, you'd call again at five with your diary and your pen to write down the next day's castings. So much fun. Yeah. It was so sociable.

9:12You'd meet your friends in the castings and you'd share stories. You'd look at each other's pictures. you'd say oh I've just worked for them but they want they're looking for somebody else because I've got brown hair and dark eyes next week they want to use blonde hair blue eyes why don't you go and see them yeah it was and then you'd all go to the pub yeah or you'd all go down the park and play football it was a great time back then that whole aspect of a group of you going out and about and meeting up every single day and being like a proper job you get to know people that way like working in an office because you'd see the same group of people everywhere every day Whereas now it must feel a bit lonely.

9:47It is a little bit. And if you don't, if you're not working, you're either at home or you do another job. Because otherwise you're not going on five castings. You're not going out in the day. You're sort of like, okay, just waiting for that job. That's why a lot of models. Yeah, you're not really mixing with people. Because obviously when you're doing a job, you're working with different people on each job, aren't you? So you're not building up those kind of long-term close relationships. No, I'm still really good friends with a couple of the lads I used to model with. We all meet up. we have reunions every couple of years and we all go out for beers and we just sit down and we all chat about the fun times we had like being pin-up boys poster boys or whatever

10:34well what were some of those early modeling jobs like they were great fun when i was started to do the magazines once I got picked up for doing them so did you get Mr Moore my friend did Mr Moore I was doing the younger one so I was doing Sugar Just 17 Catch Miz Bliss Live and Kicking I'm sure there's a couple of others I can't remember they were great you'd go in do your makeup most of them were quite cheesy shoots you look back now I remember no top on holding a puppy, holding a teddy bear, having some flowers. But they were for posters and you don't get posters anymore. No. They were literally, people would tear them out.

11:19They were tear outs or fold. Yeah, absolutely. You'd have them all over your bedroom wall. Yeah. And I've got a 16 year old daughter now and she's like posters. And I'm like, it's such a shame. Yeah. You can't go and get a poster. Can't go and kiss your poster. Yeah, you can't. Even for bands that have gone like One Direction, all these new bands, was it December? they don't do posters i said jason donovan on my wall so that's probably not what to base about i had madonna that was one of but i had footballers as well yeah my whole rave flyers i just had things on the wall yeah but all that culture's gone hence all the magazines really have gone everything's online but yeah doing those magazines got me quite famous yeah through doing those magazines i do like we were saying earlier i do fashion shows at the roundhouse capital radio used to do a fashion show and you used to be in a team doing those as well didn't you it'd be the same group the same group going all around all different shopping centers department stores used to do them you know they're yeah who was the guy that jeff banks yes do you remember him yeah and karen franklin yeah um i used to work for jeff banks okay and we would do fashion shows for him but it was a team of us so we'd do two shows in birmingham like that and then we'd all go somewhere to like Nottingham or Manchester or shopping.

12:36It was great fun. Yeah. It's like going on tour, basically. It was amazing. You'd have your PDs and you'd all be put in hotels. You'd all be drinking in the bus. But it would get people into the shopping centre. It'd be packed. And you'd have girls screaming and we'd be taking our tops off. And they'd always put the dance crew in as well, which when you're a modern, you'd look down a bit at the dance crew. Yeah. But they got people going and everyone just had a great time, didn't they? I got pulled off stage once for being in all the magazines. I'll never forget it. We were doing it. My agent was with me.

13:05And someone went like, and I went over and I had to have two security guards pull all these girls off. And they actually put me in this like shed where they kept the chairs. Because there was too many girls screaming. I think it's obviously all the magazines they'd see. And young girls get hyper. I love that. And I just thought this. You had to go and hide in the shed. This was mad. Two security guys outside. And I'm standing in this shed looking around. I'll never forget it. and all the chairs, like school chairs. I wonder what they would have actually done if you just let them go. Oh, I've had it done before.

13:37They'd rip your shirt. Oh, God. When we were doing Sugar, we had roadshows and we had security guards each. We all had like a bodyguard, literally to stop all these teenage girls just getting hysterical and ripping your shirt off you or just trying to take something. It's crazy. Oh, you loved it. Oh, I did love it. I loved it so much. Yeah. So much. Was it just in the UK, mostly in the UK, or did you go abroad? I travelled abroad quite a lot. I did a lot of commercials abroad. I did an amazing trip for Kellogg's once to South Africa. I worked for two days. They put me out there for a week on holiday.

14:14A couple of days to give me a tan first. Beautiful five-star hotel. First class there, first class back. Got paid loads of money for doing a worldwide commercial. That's when they had amazing budgets for commercials. Yeah, now they just choose someone from South Africa that look like me. they'd go for the same look but back then it was great well I went to Germany I've shot out there for teenage magazines I went to um where do we go Italy to do biscuits where they put you up for a couple of days they take you out for dinner um but my big one was going to Japan now that's did you go there as a model I went there as a model so that's an eye-opener isn't it that difference especially back then.

14:53That is amazing. That was completely crazy. What you do, it's like a casting. Yeah. And you get their agents come over. They send their representatives. Mine was for an agency called Fridays. Nicky was the scout that came over. My friend went over before me and he went, you've got to do this. Because they give you a guarantee, don't they? Yeah, I got paid. And you go for like two months. Yeah, I got paid every Friday. Even if you didn't work, you'd get paid. Yeah. So, yeah, I got that. Went out there for three months. You get your visa and you go there all by yourself. You're like 20 years old, you're getting on this aeroplane.

15:30You find that you've got your bag, you've got no idea. What are you going to? Back then, Japanese people didn't really speak English or they wouldn't. It was crazy. It's not like now. And it's such a different culture as well. It's not like going to Italy or Germany. No, it was completely different. Yeah, and the way they work. You'd have to get yourself to your agency, which is crazy. They literally fax over like a map. How to get there from where the bus drops you off. Yeah, and you can't queen in. No mobile phones or anything. So you literally were. Once we got out there, we had mobile phones because their technology was so far ahead.

16:03You didn't have them in this country, but they had them out there. So once we got there, we all got given them. And you have a driver there as well, didn't you? You have a driver because you can't speak the language. Yeah. So you go to a class, yeah, you get driven around like royalty. You have a lovely apartment. You get paid weekly, but you got paid cash, which was bad. And you'd have your agents telling you where to hide it to come back in. Like you could, what I was knowing girls that were doing like a hundred grand. They were doing three months. They were literally coming home and putting deposits down on flats.

16:33I mean, boys weren't making as much, but we were doing all right. We still did all right. I come back with 20 grand in cash. Which back then, for a 20 year old, I couldn't buy a car. And I spunk quite a lot of it because you think easy come, easy go. Japan was a crazy place. but you'd meet other models from all around the world. I've got friends now in America that I still speak to. I've got friends in Spain. We've got an Instagram group now called Tokyo in the 90s, which is everybody's old photographs from when we were, you're talking 30 years ago. Oh, God, brilliant. It is amazing. If you want to look at some funny pictures, you have to go Tokyo in the 90s.

17:11Yeah. It's a crazy time. So I did that. I went there three times, to be honest. and we met a lot of famous people out there, partied with Oasis, got invited to, went on stage with U2 at the Tokyo Dome, hung out with Matthew McConaughey because everyone, sort of celebrities, models, all hung out in this one bar called Lexington Queen and you'd get free drinks and we'd all be in there which would bring all the Japanese boys and girls to come to it. Yeah, it was just complete madness.

17:49And how did Northern Line come about? Well, that came about, funny enough, through doing a fashion show for Capital Radio. The T-boy at Capital Radio wanted to put a band together. He owns Capital Radio now, Ashley Table. Oh, wow. And he started off there as a T-boy. He started as a T-boy, but his dad did for it. He's a very wealthy young man, but he wanted to get into radio and he wanted a boy band, basically. When you have that sort of money, I suppose, you can get whatever you want. so he was like look we've seen dan's done all these magazines it'll give the band a foot in the door would he like to be in a band and my model agency were a bit like he's working all right if we let him go i think they come to some deal or whatever i don't think they just said yeah go yeah i don't know but i've just got a feeling i remember the manager saying and i was like yeah i can be like i'm in take that or something it's going to be amazing so take that we're ready going yeah they were already you had five and take that they would all started out this would have been what mid 90s or i think it was about 97 yeah um so i was the first one in the band they got me and just moved me into a house on my own i was like this is mad did you i mean could you sing no i can't really sing i can if there was a group of us i can hold a note but i can't sing on my own so you didn't have to do singing auditions and stuff no no we had singing lessons I went in and I think I did take that never forget and I just did a few who's and ah's and the manager was like yeah we want you anyway so they just basically went for you for your look yeah they went for me because I was a model I had a foot in the door anyway so they knew full well all the magazines gonna jump on it because Dan's in it yeah so there I was out modeling big house in St John's Wood on my own where they look for the other people and I was getting paid weekly I I was like...

19:43Oh, wow. So it was like a proper job. You were employed to do this. Yeah, I was employed. Yeah, I was employed. And I could still model as well because that family of the members yet. Obviously, when you weren't doing anything. So it was great. They were quite happy. Yeah, yeah. So I was earning good money, modelling. Plus getting paid. Plus getting paid. You don't get paid much in a boy band. You just get paid under the tax amount. Okay. So we had£150 a week. Right. That was all. Yeah. But you can't spend£150. But you didn't have any expenses because they were paid for all your living. nothing you had pds you had your hotel you had a car you had all your clothes your phone bills and you're always working so 150 quid didn't really leave your pocket i mean maybe if you went if you run into a service station and you brought a mcdonald's or something that's the only time you could spend your money so they got so how many of you were in the band there was five there was did you know any of them at that point when they first came in no none of them it's like going into a new job didn't know anybody hopefully one of them at least could sing yes yeah yeah they could all sing they were all really good so there was myself andy love warren morris zach lichman or ziggy lichman because he was in big brother after so there was him and there was michael sharp okay and we were all in a studio in sweden and we couldn't think of a name and someone said where do you live we said we live on the northern line and they went choose that i mean It's a rubbish name now, thinking back.

21:12Northern Line Classy. Yeah, yeah. I'm like, could have gone Piccadilly Central or something. But it just seemed fun at the time. We didn't really care. We were five lads having a laugh. Yeah. And actually, you don't think about that until you say it. You don't. You don't think of Northern Line. You don't think of that being the mayor. No, I mean, Andy Peters said in this programme on telly the other day, he was like, what would you call it? People outside of London wouldn't have a clue what that is. So they're probably thinking, what does Northern Line mean? So he was always explaining it. It was fun.

21:43I mean, for people who weren't around for late 90s pop, what did that period look like day to day? Crazy. Literally, from the moment you get up, you'd be working completely. I mean, this is basically one of the, it's a manufactured band. It's a manufactured band. We were put together. It was a business for richer people. Yeah, we had done what we were told. We all got together. we had singing dancing lessons at the beginning we didn't release anything for about a year got to know each other they sent us on holiday we got to bond we got to meet stylists listen to songs we all moved into a house in Finchley a lovely house um and then obviously we found a song we were called we went out to Sweden we recorded with um like Max Martin and all the people that work with Britney and Backstreet Boys and all of them recorded in the studios where ABBA recorded their albums and then came back and worked on a video, getting all built up for release day, then magazines.

22:50And to promote your single, so you'd get up in the morning, you'd be up at, say, five o 'clock. Your premier would pick you up outside your house. So in we all got. And then the first one would be the Big Breakfast. We did that so many times. So you get to Big Breakfast, hair and make-up, you go on at half six. You have a chat, you perform. Okay, so you finish that. Straight back in the van, off you go to a schools tour. So you go around all the schools. This is all to promote your single. No internet, well, there was internet, but no Instagram, no TikTok. Schools tours, that's hilarious. Can you imagine all the bands going into schools now?

23:27All the bands did it absolutely everywhere, because how else are you going to promote it? Yeah, because you didn't have social media, did you? You can't sit on your phone on social media. No, unless you wanted to get on top of the pop, didn't you, at the end of the day. You had to do the legwork. Like you had to physically go to all these places. So you do that. Schools tour in the morning, like assembly to some. Brilliant. And you'd come up and maybe you might do an afternoon, like good morning Britain. You do that. You're eating in between. Then you might try and have a bit of it. And then you go to another school in the evening.

23:56And then you might do Nickelodeon at like five o 'clock. Then you might have a bit of a rest. And then we used to go on and do like a nightclub, like an under 18s. And then maybe we'd do an over-18s or we'd do a gay nightclub. And then you'd be driving to a hotel, you'd sleep, and you'd do it all again. So it is hard work. Yeah. I've seen a lot of these programs, a lot of these boy bands are moaning. It's hard work, but I've laboured on a building site in the rain. That's hard work. It is hard work, but it's fun hard work. Yeah. It's enjoyable. but it's not, okay, you're tiring. It's like being married.

24:35You're arguing with the people. You're working with them, eating with them. You all sleep in the same hotel. But it's good fun. Yeah. I mean, to people looking in. And you all got on really well. And we all got on. We argued, like any relationship. We had some big arguments. Our security had to pull us apart. But it's tiredness. And you're with someone or you're with these four lads all the time. You cannot get, and you can't go off on your own because when you've had a single out and you've just done CD UK, people, so you can't just wander out and go. Have your own space, especially if you're living together as well.

25:09Oh, I'm going to get pissed in the pump on my own because you'll get people going, there's Dan or there's Michael. And then you'll be on the front of the press the next day. Yeah, I've got in trouble a few times for that. But you've always got your security guard or something with you when we were quite well known. Yeah. But it's good. I'm never going to complain about it. What about the standout memories of that, of the band time? Well, when your single gets released, that is amazing. Doing SMTV and CD UK. Again, programs you don't get. I don't know how bands promote themselves. People can't go and really see them unless they do a gig.

25:42Doing Smash It's Tour. That was standout. CD UK and SMTV. Love that. I suppose, yeah, I don't know. I suppose people do, they do festivals now and it's all online, isn't it? But new bands don't do festivals. You don't get boy bands. No, you have to have a name to do that, don't you? There's no tours. And actually, if you are a new band doing a festival at one of the other stages, you're not getting that much exposure from that, are you? This is why I think younger kids only know what their parents listen to. They don't listen or a song will come on TikTok and they'll look it up and listen to the album of that artist.

26:17There's no, you can't go and see, like we were saying, we used performing shopping centres. People would come. We'd perform in schools. They would follow, oh, it's a new band. But I don't know how, like my daughter doesn't know how would she find a new band. No, no, absolutely. She can't go and see them. Yeah. Like One Direction, you wouldn't get One Direction turning up in a shop or coming to your school. No, no, simply. You have to pay a hundred quid to go and see them. There's no free gigs for new and upcoming bands. No.

26:52We all went to LA. So we're out in LA. We were just going out. We were thinking of maybe trying to break LA or America, I should say. So we're out there. First, we've gone to this restaurant and it's owned by Christopher Ciccone, which is Madonna's brother. So we're there. Some of the lads weren't old enough to drink. She got me 21, obviously. So me and my friend Michael, Christopher, this Madonna's brother, bless his soul, he's passed away, I think, last year. He's gone, do you want to come back to my house for a few drinks? so I've gone back to his house it's a funny story and he's there with his mates and a few girls and whatever and we've all got a bit drunk and he's like can I paint you I'm like a bit drunk and he I'm like yeah of course you can he's gone right take your clothes off I'm like okay it's a bit weird and I thought he meant paint paint as in a portrait yeah because he's an artist and he went no, I want to paint you.

27:52What, as in paint your body? Body paint you? Yeah, so I took off all my clothes, apart from my pants, and he painted me in bright red paint. This must be about four o 'clock in the morning. We were in his house in LA, and he's gone, now go and stick yourself on the wall. He had a white wall. So I went and printed myself on Madonna's brother's wall in his bathroom, and he went, look at that piece of art. It was quite good. I remember just... I bet you don't have pictures of any of this, do you? No, no, I don't. Because you don't have cameras or anything. You still have cameras on your phones? No, no.

28:23So, yeah. And I just remember standing in his bathroom looking around a massive house and just thinking, sharing all this red paint off, half cut at like four in the morning. Going, this is surreal. And that was on your own, not with the rest of the band? Just one of the other lads. The others had gone. Me and Michael went there. We were like, sod it, he's asking us. So we went and that was one. And then the other one in LA, we're in the bar and our tour manager's come in. He's gone, come on, we've got to go. And me and my friends are chatting up these girls. We don't want to go. He's like, come on, I've got something important to tell you.

28:57Well, shit, someone's dead. Something's happened. He's gone, get ready. Jennifer Lopez has just invited you around for dinner to her house. So we're like, go away. I don't want to swear. But it was a bit more than that. So we've all got dressed up. We were sponsored by D &G then. So we had D &G outfit. Amazing. We've all got in his car and we're thinking just to wind up. So we've driven up. two-armed guy, big doors are over. We've gone in. Jennifer Lopez has walked over and gone, hello boys, how you doing? It was her 30th birthday. There was us, her, her mum, her sister, like a family gathering.

29:33No, it's not even a massive party. No, no, we're having a barbecue with Jennifer Lopez, all stripping off, jumping in a swimming pool. She's got her song on, her manager's there. We're all just throwing water and play fighting. It was... Surreal. Surreal.

29:57great fun how long did it last uh three years yeah um just came to an end i think people don't realize being in a band someone owns it i always say it's like it's having a business and you're selling something you've got a shop and it's full of all these things no one's buying it but you've still got to pay for the lights to be on every day you've got to pay for it what do you do you shut the shop you don't you don't keep it going because you're hemorrhaging money and that's what happened with us it's a business isn't it and you're the employees we're the product i suppose um we spent four million pound we spent a lot of money and to recoup that is is quite hard in the end our last single went in at like we needed a top 10 really um it went in at night number i think 24 and they were like look we can't we got called into the office they're like this is going to be your last gig we're really sorry um you need to move out of your houses oh god oh you just get let go so did you know did you know it was going to happen were you thinking all this well we all did so what are we gonna do you don't you can't really yes you can't get a normal job because you're like you get the excuse my swearing piss taken out of you because oh look there's Dan from Northern Line look he's stacking shells there's nothing wrong with that but it's just the grief you get with it and inside you think I'm a pop star why am I and it does get hard I can see why some people turn to drink just it's just weird time I left with four grand that was it no how Nothing.

31:36Nothing. So you didn't have anywhere to live. How long did you have to move out? It gave us a little while. All my stuff that was in the house, I didn't have anywhere to put it, went back to the Midlands. I went back and I was like, what am I going to do? So were you modelling at all during that time? No, we couldn't. And how did that make you feel when it all just came to an end? Because you'd obviously put your hearts and souls into it. I was in bitch, really. I didn't really know what to do. When it first finishes, you don't really do interviews on Tenny. Oh, the band's finished. It's going to be great.

32:05and it doesn't really sink in until I went back and I'm like okay I'm back in the Midlands um so I couldn't live anywhere in London I didn't have the sort of money I wasn't working uh I went back home and I went out for a beer with my stepdad um and loads of people kept coming up to me going oh you're in the band and my dad was like listen I'm gonna get you somewhere in London you can't be here. What are you going to do? What are you going to do, yeah. There's nothing. So, love him. He rented me a place, just rented me a room so I could start modelling. And then I went back to Japan. Luckily, I found an agent and they said, go to Japan.

32:48Did you go back to Model Swarm? No, not then. I wasn't, I sort of grown up then and I wasn't six foot two. I wasn't all abbed up. I was just like a boy band looking person, which is all right when you're young for the magazines, but when you're 26 27 it is I didn't really have a a model-y sort of look it was very boy next door look I auditioned for Hollyoaks loads of times didn't get into that you know all those sort of things I went down that route didn't go anywhere so I went back to Japan for a little while came back that's when I started getting in the newspapers which is a bit of a crazy time um started just did interviews and things through seeing Kerry but I won't go into all of that But yeah, I got paid.

33:33Yeah, go into all of that. I got paid quite a lot of money through doing, we were doing interviews. I was in the front page of all the newspapers. So who's Kerry? Kerry Katona. I was in the paper loads. And I ended up doing Heat magazine. I was on the front cover of the Mirror, the Sutton Field Self again, Red. So Kerry Katona, she was a bit of a wild child. Well, she was in Atomic Kitten. Yes. So we toured together. Yeah. So we had a little thing when we were in the band. And then it just all happened again later on. But she had been in a relationship at the time, so it all got blown out. And I was followed by the press everywhere, so it was front page of every newspaper.

34:15But I did get my own back and sued them all for phone hacking. Did you? Yes. Everybody had their phones hacked during... By what? News of the World? News of the World, the Mirror, is it like the Mirror Group and there's another group, News International or something? Yeah, yeah. So, yeah. And then slowly modelling started coming. I started DJing a lot then. So when you came back to modelling, did your visibility from music help or hinder that side of your career? Didn't really do anything by then. People are quite fickle. They just forget because another band comes along. It's only if I mention it now that people will know.

34:55People of a certain age. I worked with people in their 20s, 25. the band had split up before they were even born. But no, it didn't really make any difference. I just slowly started modelling and DJing. So DJing became another chapter for you. Yeah, I've been doing it at home since I was 16, all the raves and things. But it was only after I'd been in the band and then my friend asked me to DJ a place called Gilgamesh Fridays and Saturdays. That was good money. Yeah, I've done bottling's Big Weekenders. I had an agent that booked me for things like that, like back to the 90s, back to the 80s, house weekenders.

35:35And do you ever slip the odd Northern Line track in? On a 90s weekender, I do. Yeah. Yeah. I try and throw one of them in, but otherwise, no. I mean, I listen back to the songs down there. They weren't that good. Compared to some of the other bands, like Five, I listen to mine and I'm like, meh. Yeah, I can sort of see why it didn't work. Okay. And that, I guess, was something consistent that you knew was coming in every week. Yeah, I could do bits and pieces. I didn't rely on modelling because I don't think you can anymore. There's so many people now. There's so much competition. I think you've got to have something else.

36:14Unless you're very, very lucky, unless you're like in a 1 % where you're going to do absolutely everything, I think you need to do something. Or you do need to do something else. Not think. You need to have a trade. If I'm to say something to anybody starting out, make sure, stay at school, do your modelling. Yeah, I agree. But get a job. Yeah. Because if you don't make it, I'll be honest. Have another career because then actually modelling as well can go on forever. Yeah, I mean, look. You can pick it up and put it down though, can't you? I've done that so much. Yeah, you can make it fit in with your life rather than the other way around, I think.

36:49No, I 100 % agree with you. Yeah, and it's so hard for me when there's no work and I think, oh, what can I do? well I never learned did anything at school it's all computers now I'm a 51 year old man it'd be quite hard I can't go in well I've got kids I can't go in at small entry levels it'd be not worth it so I'd have to pay someone to pick my daughter up and that yeah so I do wish I had everything I've done I've loved it don't get me wrong I'll never change it but I wish I'd get like got a trade got something else something that I could like like being an electrician that was I can learn to be a plumber or something you can always go back to to earn money.

37:26That's flexible. Because modelling does have its time. January is quiet. Christmas is really busy. Summertime, everyone goes away in August. So your market now is really commercial and you also do fitting work. Yes. What do you think good long-term modelling work looks like? Trying to just be nice to people. I was fine. I've met some models. They're amazing looking. And I think, I wish I was like him. look at him he's six foot two but but then you talk oh they're just rude to the people i think yeah why are you being rude to the photographer and i think you have to be nice to people people want to work with nice people you get along with people you might like i might not be the best looking guy in the world but i think i'm polite and i think i'm respectful and i i learned a long time ago you you treat the people there same as the people there i always learned when we were in the band our old security paul passed away last year bless him he always said when you go somewhere even if it's the cleaners let them go and eat food first let them go first because you just never know like if you go on a shoot with someone you're with someone for a week and you're an arsehole they won't book you again but they might do a next shoot next year the following year and they'll be like oh dan was really good you look he's grown his hair he looks a little bit different he's lost a bit of weight or whatever let's book him again yeah so you never know who's going to be casting the next job either no it could be the person artist it could be this photographer's assistant he might have moved up and he might have his own job but if you're being horrible to him like oh do this do that i don't want to do that then they're not going to book you absolutely are there any particular types of modeling job that you enjoy more now you're older Tell you what I did for the first time last year.

39:12I did a cruise. Did you? I did a cruise and it was the best job I have ever done. Obviously, when you hit 50, you get cars for cruises. Yeah. I'm available for more cruises now because it's a year gone, so I can do more. But it's a riverboat cruise. Okay. And it was from, where did we go? From Germany all the way through to Hungary. So I've been to places I'd never... That's the Rhine, isn't it? Not the Danube. Danube. The Danube. Yeah, I would have never have done this. That's the thing about modelling. You do things, and I'm to my wife, I'm like, we've got to go on another one of these. I've got to pay good money.

39:47I went to Slovakia and all these sort of places. I went to Mozart's house, where The Sound of Music was filmed. I went to all those places. wine tasting musical tours went to see monks up in the monastery beautiful weather they had a swimming pool on this boat I was like I can't believe I'm getting paid to do this amazing yeah 10 days away

40:20how do you describe to people what you do now i'm a classic commercial model because when you say model people have this idea like i've said of chiseled six foot six foot five now everyone's taller uh so i have to say commercial they're like you're not a model you're lying i'm not that tall and i'm not built like i used to be i'm a sort of commercial dad model um i just say that now i do things like asda and cruises and cars and all things like that now and has your relationship with the industry changed as you've got older a little bit i don't i don't always enjoy it as so social aspects gone and a lot of it comes down people are getting jobs that i should get because they've got more followers than me which really annoys me because i've got the experience i think i know i can take direction well i just haven't got 100 000 followers i can understand it from a client's point of view it's like getting a like your advert going out to a lot more people because people are going to post it but i don't know i've done this all my life it's my job it's It's a difficult industry now, I think.

41:35It's really hard. With social media, anyone can be a model, can't they? Anyone can put themselves out there as a model. They can put themselves out there. They might not be able to do it, though. This is the thing. Absolutely. And I think as an agency, it's really difficult now. Anyone can go. There's loads of platform sites that people can go on. I am on some of them, and I've got some good jobs out of them. I'll be honest with you. I am on Mandy. You might not get as much as what an agent would get you, but then you don't pay the agency fee. So it can, I've had some good ones. I've also, they also have some really, really bad ones on there, like worldwide commercial for 200 quid when it should be.

42:12The problem is people will do it. This is what annoys me.

42:20Is there anything you'd do differently? I've got no regrets of anything. I think I probably should have learned more when I was in the studio. one of the other lads Andy he he was in the studio and he wrote a lot of me he's wrote the theme tune to x-factor now Britain's got talent he lived in LA he's wrote for all these big big big pop I just wanted a drink and party and hang out with women I just thought it'd last forever I didn't really take any notes if now I did it again I'd probably sit down in the studio and learn how to make music instead of just pissing it off the wall, really. Yeah, but you were 19 years old, 20 years old.

43:02Well, I was 20, 21, 22, actually. No, I think I was about 24. Okay. But he's still young compared to what I am. But you just think it's going to last forever. Everyone's doing everything for you. He had come from university. He was quite switched on. So he was learning all these things, and now he's taking it on and been able to buy a big house in LA. But I'm happy. I'm married, got two beautiful kids, lovely wife. Does your wife model? No. She's the CEO of a big company in the West End. Oh, wow. So we're completely different. She's very business, suiting meetings. She meets up with the mayor of London and does stuff.

43:40So that works for you, though, that you're more flexible. You can help with the kids. Yeah, I love it. I mean, a lot of dads don't get to take their kids. I take my kids to school. I'm the dad there when my daughter does a play. I'm at the front. Sports day. I'm there making the sandwiches I'm there picking her up from school I'm there it's great I get to see him grow up where a lot of a lot of other dads don't and I still get to go out though I still DJ at weekends um and me and my wife get to go and then my kids are older we can we still get time together what advice would you give to someone coming into modeling or music today that thinks that maybe early success equals long-term security?

44:20Well, it doesn't. Enjoy it. Modelling-wise, make sure you've got another career. Have a backup plan because not everybody makes it. I mean, I've been lucky. I've had lots of ups and downs. I have signed on before. I've had months when my look wasn't in, or maybe I'm old, but I look young. So I'm sort of, I'm too old to be this, but I'm too young to be that. So get something as a backup, learn a trade, do something. Don't rely on modelling. Music, just go for it and learn while you're in the studio. Save some money. Don't waste it. Invest it.

45:03Dan Corsi, thank you very much. It's been fun. It's all off my chest now. As always, thank you for listening. If you enjoyed the episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review and share it with someone who might find it inspiring see you next time