When you’re on a 30-date tour at 33 years old, doing the same moves you were doing at 18, you can’t be smashing McDonald’s every day. That goes for all of us – we have to make sure we are in the right space physically and mentally. I styled it out and picked up the routine, but I could have really hurt my coccyx. At one show, I went to do a backflip and on the way down slipped on a drink someone from the audience had knocked over. We did loads of club performances, which meant there was lots of alcohol around. When you’re on a 30-date tour at 33, doing the same moves you did at 18, you can’t be smashing McDonald’s every dayĪfter X Factor finished, we worked hard if there was any gig, we were playing it. When Oritsé set up auditions for his new group, it looked like an incredible opportunity. I was a presenter for the CITV show the Fun Song Factory, then was going from job to job, trying to pay the bills.
I’m from Peterborough, but moved to London after school. Is any performance ever 100% perfect? No, but we did the job. When we sang our cover of If I Ever Fall in Love, I didn’t really think we’d nailed it. I had the mentality of: right, the door’s open, let’s run through it. We were always happy to set boyband trends. The same thing happened later down the line with the deep V T-shirts. That first X Factor audition opened a lot of doors for JLS, fashion-wise, as it was quite forward-thinking at the time. We vibed it out in shorts, Converse and pulled-up socks. It was Marvin’s idea to wear pastel polo shirts. Their new album, JLS 2.0, came out on 3 December, and they complete their comeback tour on 12 December at Capital’s Jingle Bell Ball at London’s O2.
Oritsé Williams and Aston Merrygold went on to pursue solo careers in music, Marvin Humes is thriving as a TV and radio host, while JB Gill pivoted to turkey farming in Kent. They released three more albums and a condom range, before splitting in 2013. Celebrated for their R&B-infused pop and slick dance routines, the band reached No 1 with their first single, Beat Again, while their debut album won multiple Brit and Mobo awards, and went quadruple platinum. From left: Marvin Humes, Oritsé Williams, Aston Merrygold and JB Gill in 20įinalists on 2008’s X Factor, JLS – short for Jack the Lad Swing – are one of the show’s most successful acts.