Why Preston stormed out of Buzzcocks

Singer Preston has revealed that he stormed off Never Mind The Buzzcocks – before he punched Simon Amstell in his ‘snotty little public schoolboy failed-career face’.

The Ordinary Boys frontman – who became famous after appearing on Celebrity Big Brother – flounced out of the studio after Amstell joked about his wife Chantelle Houghton.

Preston said: ‘I went on Never Mind The Buzzcocks and I was very up for the kind of rib-poking that you get on it but then he just started insulting my wife and, as any married man would know, if that was in any other situation I would have literally hit him and knocked him out.

‘Obviously I didn't want to resort to those sorts of things, so I just had to remove myself from the situation.

‘If I'd had to look at his snotty little public schoolboy failed-career face, I would have hit him,’ he told Radio 1.

‘He's got no charm. He's very bitter because he went on Popworld, he thought that he was going to have this Ant and Dec massive career, and he's just doing some little budget indie show on late at night.’

Preston, 24, was booed when he ripped off his mic and walked out of the studio after Amstell sarcastically read out extracts from Chantelle’s autobiography, Living The Dream.

He chose a passage in which she described wearing Marks & Spencer clothes for a photoshoot, which says: ‘I’ve always loved M&S, but it was always too expensive. The photoshoot made me feel very posh and upmarket’.

Team captain Bill Bailey joked: ‘Don’t worry, it’s not Big Brother — he’s not been voted off.’

He then found the audience member who most looked like Preston to sit in his seat.

A spokeswoman for the show said: 'Preston just stormed off. He literally walked out of the building. It's a shame he felt he had to leave.

'Fans will know Simon loves to banter with his guests. It's the nature of the show - and it's not meant in a mean way.'

Preston – whose full name is Sam Preston - said he hoped his walkout would be broadcast when the show airs on BBC Two.

‘I think it's brilliant - at least I've got principles. No one's got principles any more,’ he said.

Published: 11 Jan 2007