Top Pals

Work, rest and play - Ultra can't get away from each other. But are the lads such good friends that they don't care?

JAMES
Who's your best friend in the whole world?
"I've got a lot of friends from college. One of them is a girl called Sophie who I've known since I was 15. Also, there's a guy called Ally who I went to school with. The guys in the band are different, but we are close."

Do you argue with the other members of Ultra?
"Me and Michael have had a few barneys! We argue about music - the words, keys and the production things. But when we are on the road and all the music is sorted, we tend to get on better."

Tell us something we don't know about a band member.
"Jon used to have a facial twitch - it wasn't that bad, but he used to twitch his eyes a little bit. He actually went to the hypnotist and got rid of it."

One of the other band members fancies this gorgeous girl, but she fancies you - what do you do?
"It never happens. Obviously if he went for it and he was dumped, I'm sure he wouldn't begrudge me if I really liked her as well."

NICK
Who's your best friend?
"The guys in the band all turned out to be my best friends. All three of them are such good mates - which is lucky cos we could all been different. I have also got a good mate called Rich who's been my best mate since I was three, and there's Taren who's at university."

Who are you closest to in the band?
" I'm very close to Michael even though he doesn't let people get close to him. James is just a brilliant mate, and Jon is someone I go drinking with - so he's a great mate too!"

Do you guys ever fight?
"We haven't had one fight since I joined the band! Apparently, they used to argue all the time before I came! There are obviously things we don't agree on but we haven't had any big rows at all."

One of the other band members fancies this gorgeous girl, but she fancies you - what do you do?
"I had a bit of a situation like this before - James pulled this girl but he didn't really like her, so I stole her! I wouldn't have done it if he liked her though."

MICHAEL
Who is your best friend in the world?
"I have a really good friend, Chris, who I grew up with. We went travelling in the Philippines together - byut it's like a phone friendship, cos I never see him. Since being in the band, I've become really close to the other guys and they're like my best friends."

Do you guys fight?
"We do in the studio cos it's a stressful time. When you write songs it's personal and we all argue over the words. Before we got a record deal, it was really stressful, we all threatened to punch each others' lights out!"

Tell us something we don't know about another band member?
"I think Nick is really under-confident. He's quite insecure about girls. He's got more confident, because he's got loads of girls after him. He used to be really shy but his confidence has grown."

One of the other band members fancies this gorgeous girl, but she fancies you - what do you do?
"If I wasn't interested in her, I'd try to talk her into going out with him. But if I liked her too, I think it would probably end up causing a bit of a band fight!"

JON
Who is your best friend?
"I've got a lot of friends who are girls, but blokes don't have best mates, they just have a lot of good friends."

Who are you closest to in the band?
"All of them. I've known three of them for so long that we're all mates. We all go out and have a laugh together."

One of the other band members fancies this gorgeous girl, but she fancies you - what do you do?
"Get in there first! We're really terrible and we all poach each others' girlfriends. Mike's the worst, if he and Nick like the same girl, he'll be like, 'She likes me,' and he'll just go steaming on in there."