Boyband Blue flown to Milan by Donatella Versace after being mistaken for Blur | indy100

Blue shot to fame for singing about “money and free rides”, but even they couldn’t have anticipated how one free ride would end.

The British boyband were Top of the Pops regulars at the start of the noughties, but it turns out they weren’t quite as internationally well-known as they might have thought.

At the height of their fame, the bandmates were whisked off to Milan Fashion Week on a private jet chartered by Donatella Versace herself.

However, they were soon to discover that the glamorous trip wasn’t actually intended for them – Donatella had actually wanted to meet Blur.

Former Blue star Antony Costa revealed the embarrassing mishap in an interview for the podcast Ben Behaving Badly.

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Speaking to host Ben Hanlin, Costa, 39, said: “In 2001 we released our first single, things were going really well for us, and we were invited to Milan Fashion Week by Donatella Versace.

“So we got kitted out, you know, they invited us to Versace on Bond Street – I got the leather trousers and the leather jacket, I thought I was the don.

"So we get a private plane out there, they flew us out there. We landed, went to the fashion show, and afterwards they were like, ‘Look, we want you to meet Donatella, she wants to meet everybody.’"

Versace waves to the crowds at Milan Fashion Week, 2018

"So we lined up, like we were meeting the Queen, and she looked at us. And I said to [Simon] Webbe, ‘This is a bit weird, we’re supposed to be one of the guests –why wouldn’t she want to say hello or thank you for coming?’”

He then explained that when they got back to London they discovered that she had “invited Blur and not Blue.”

Bursting out into peals of laughter at the memory, he added: “She had clearly gone to her PR saying ‘get me Bleuh,’ and they must have thought oh, they’re like the new band out, she must mean Blue.”

The former pop star revealed that he met Blur bassist Alex James years later and the latter joked: “Oi you, you took our tickets.”

Blur are one of the most iconic British bands of all time

Blue split in 2004 following the release of their compilation album Best of Blue, before reuniting briefly in 2011 for the Eurovision Song Contest – in which they came 11th.

Blur, on the other hand, have been chart toppers since the 1990s, most recently reuniting for the 2015 album The Magic Whip and its associated tour.

Asked how he realised there had been a mistake at the time, Costa said it was all about Versace’s body language.

Rather than thanking them for attending the event, she left them with “pie in our face,” he said.

Still, he and his mates got new designer outfits had a “big night out in Italy”, so it wasn’t all bad.

“Me and the boys had a lovely time,” he laughed. “It was fab.”