Former Blue singer Simon Webbe has defended bandmate Antony Costa after he slammed boyband One Direction for finding fame so easily.

Last week, Costa told Yahoo! OMG that the 'What Makes You Beautiful' superstars don't know the value of hard work because they were handed a life in the spotlight after appearing on talent show The X Factor, whereas Blue had to tour tiny nightclubs and bars to raise their profile enough to get noticed.

Now (August 14), Webbe has taken to his official Twitter page to talk about the comments and explained that he supports Costa's opinion as he knows what it's like to try and 'make it', but the intention was never to put anyone down or to offend them:

"Just want to clear something up regarding @AntonyCosta and 1D the way people write stuff in the papers can cause us to look at situations... Because he knows the work you have to put into being a success (if you're lucky)."

"So going back to 1D, what he said was it was different for us an he can't imagine what it's like to be catapulted to stardom overnight. We have the most respect for JLS 1D Little Mix @AlexandraBurk all these up and coming stars because we have been there. We had haters but that's not us #BLUE. Ah that's better got it off my chest."

He then added: "@AntonyCosta wouldn't slag anyone off in the industry as we know how hard it is to gain success (of your lucky) don't get me wrong 1D have l got great voices."