Aiden: I'm not recognised any more

Aiden Grimshaw has admitted he's happy not to be recognised any more.

The former X Factor contestant is forging a successful music career two years after appearing on the hit ITV1 show.

But he says he has grown out of the need to be spotted in the street these days and his trademark quiff has gone.

"I don't get recognised any more," he said.

"I did, after I'd been on X Factor and we'd all been on the tour. I was 18 when I was on the show, and part of me loved getting spotted, to the point where I'd be disappointed if people didn't notice me and I'd find myself putting my best clothes on at 10 in the morning to go and get a bacon butty.

"That was just stupid, and a pain, so I stopped with all that, and the quiff was cut off. Now no one bats an eyelid."

While other former X Factor contestants perform in plush London venues and talk of their starry collaborators, Aiden has performed in a number of indie spots, been spotted at numerous other gigs and been interviewed by normally credibility-conscious publications who wouldn't go near an X Factor contestant.

"Part of it is deliberate, I suppose, just to make sure everyone knows there's a difference between what I did on X Factor and what I do now. You need to be clear, I think," he admitted.

"But it works both ways. When we sent samplers of my album out to journalists, it was my idea not to have a name on them, because it's a natural thing for people to pre-judge the former contestants, expect them to sound a certain way and write them off before they've heard them."

:: Aiden Grimshaw's debut album Misty Eye is out on Monday, August 20. He begins his first UK tour in Bristol on September 19.