Big Brother Pete: Lose the daddy?

There was always going to be trouble in turning Pete Bennett off of Big Brother into a super-duper celebrity, in that he was in a band called Daddy Fantastic who seemed to demonstrate the worst side of the Brighton music scene - all banging dustbin lids and names like Wobbly Bob. They recalled the shame of the years when young Brightonians could never work out how their town proved attractive as a home to so many great musicians who'd already made it, but only ever nutured the likes of Pookisnackenburger, The Pirahnas, The Levellers and other comedy acts.

In fact, watching The Brighton Bottle Orchestra and Stomp, people from outside of Brighton might have assumed the place had some sort of rationing system still in place, which made it impossible to actually buy proper instruments. We heard rumours that someone in Westdene had a guitar, but they were a Christian rock group and they'd probably walked barefoot to Wales to get it.

It might have been thought kinder to leave Pete to go back to Brighton and happily make music out of ashtrays and orange-box pianos, with the ghost of Craig Phillips from Big Brother 1's music career hooting over his shoulder.

But there's money to be made - a little, for other people, if they move swiftly - and so Guy Chambers has got Pete to sign a deal. Guy, remember, managed to make Robbie Williams a solo star, so imagine what he could do starting out with someone who's actually likeable?

Or maybe not so likeable: in order to solve the problem of the chronic band, they've been quietly sidelined.

music pete bennett daddy fantastico guy chambers big brother