KENT'S heavyweight crooner Rik Waller has vowed to bounce back from being picked as one of the worst living Britons - but says he was disappointed to finish ahead of Pop Idol judge Simon Cowell.

The singer, from Gillingham, finished 14th in a Channel 4 poll, 100 Worst Britons. The results were televised last Saturday.

Big Rik trailed behind the overall winner - or is that loser? - Tony Blair, but his nemesis Simon Cowell was back in 33rd place.

Kris Waller, Rik's father and manager, said: "Rik has taken it all with a pinch of salt, but we are all bit shocked and disappointed that Simon Cowell didn't finish higher.

"He was okay to Rik on the show but afterwards he said the only reason he remembered Rik was because he is fat. I think a lot of people will have voted for Rik because of his weight. They are just resentful of his success."

The Channel 4 show featured talking heads slating the people selected for the worst Briton list and Rik came in for a rough ride.

But his father believes a lot of the criticism was unjustified and unfair.

"It was a really badly researched programme. They described Rik as someone who has never had a hit, but he's had a song at number 6 in the charts and another that got to 25."

"They had Garry Bushel, Nina Miskow and some clown from MTV talking about Rik and none of them have even met him."