LIVE AND UNLEASHED

It's like watching an intellectual giant being freed from the constraints on sharing his thoughts - now he's no longer a member of Blue, Lee Ryan is at long last able to share his truths with us:

"It feels different because I can actually talk, whereas before I didn't used to talk. The boys would be the ones to answer all the questions. I'd stay stuff because I was very passionate about stuff. It would come out wrong half the time, and they would tell me to shut up.

"By the end of it I didn't really care. I'd say stuff that was truthful, whereas a lot of people would say stuff you wanted to hear. I'm not too bothered about what people think, I'd rather speak my heart."

The people have a new leader, then - how long we have been like babes crying, lost in the wilderness, waiting for a calm voice to lead us. Thank god Lee's now able to say stuff about stuff - the stuff that he's passionate about, mind, not just any old stuff.

Of course, this does seem to be Ryan claiming that he's not that bothered about responding to the mass murder of thousands of people in a terrorist attack on 11th September with the observation that "who cares about that when elephants are dying?" being seen as a thick, callous, even moronic demonstration of a low-wattage brain unable to process more than one piece of information at a time and incapable of considering empathetically the likely effect of a statement, however heartfelt, on people suffering feelings of fear and anxiety. Let's hope we can bear the truths he now chooses to share with us.

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