Lee Ryan becomes fourth and final Blue member to file for bankruptcy

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/may/18/lee-ryan-final-blue-member-to-file-for-bankruptcy

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Lee Ryan has filed for bankruptcy, meaning that the entirety of the pop boyband Blue have gone financially bust.

The singer was reportedly forced to declare his bankruptcy by a debt collection company, and will now have all of his assets frozen. “Lee has tried to manage his financial commitments from over the years to the best of his abilities but ultimately concedes that bankruptcy is the best way forward in order for him to provide the best future for his children,” a representative for Ryan told the Guardian.

Blue member Duncan James filed for bankruptcy in September 2013, owing to the property crash, before Simon Webbe filed just weeks after James. Antony Costa, meanwhile, struggled financially in the wake of the band’s initial split in 2004, and the band’s company Blueworld Ltd went into administration in May 2013 when it was unable to pay creditors – a circumstance which unfortunately coincided with the band’s sell-out comeback tour.

Initially forming in 2001, the band, best known for their hit All Rise, have had more than 40 No 1 hits around the world and sold 15m records. According to Webbe, Blue made £82m over the initial three years of the band’s lifetime … “but we hardly saw a penny of it”.

Despite renewed media focus prompted by the TV show The Big Reunion, in April 2015 Blue were dropped by their label, Sony. In a Facebook message, they assured their fans that they would continue to release music independently.

“Sadly there are still those ‘journalists’ that find it fun and amusing to preach their negativity and vitriol towards us,” wrote the group. “Those that don’t listen to the fans who buy our music and come and see us live. Those that smile to our face and stab us in the back. They have always been around and perhaps just like us – they are not going anywhere either.”