It’s early evening in Glasgow, and the forecourt of the SECC complex is lined with young women intent on getting a glimpse of the stars arriving for tonight’s Mobo awards. N-Dubz and Tinchy Stryder are duly squealed at as they make their way up the red carpet – but the real excitement is being held in check. Then, as the last scrap of daylight disappears, the crowd get what they’re waiting for. Four Lotus sports cars – red, blue, green and yellow – chug up from around the side of the building, and a member of JLS pokes his head out of each car. The fans erupt into screams.

This is why they’ve have been hanging around for hours on this chilly day – to see the X Factor runners-up, whose 15 minutes of fame has turned into something more substantial than anyone had anticipated. Oritsé Williams, JB Gill, Marvin Humes and cherubic Aston Merrygold (whose name is wailed most frequently by the fans behind the crash barriers) lever themselves out of the Lotuses and start their slow progress up the carpet. They’re stopped every few inches by TV and radio crews, who repeatedly pose one question: how does it feel for a reality-TV band to have the kudos of two Mobo nominations (for best newcomers and best song)? It feels, JLS patiently say, fantastic.

“Aston! Aston!” Merrygold, the smallest and prettiest, turns his attention to the fans, some of whom seem close to tears. As he signs scraps of paper, Mr Hudson and Lemar slip past, unnoticed by the kids poking cameras into Merrygold’s face. Another few signatures and Aston and his bandmates are shepherded into the building, leaving a cloud of aftershave in their wake.

If you asked the current batch of X Factor contestants what they imagine fame to be like, their description would probably come very close to that. JLS (it stands for Jack the Lad Swing, a name that conflates their British identity and love of new jack swing, the dominant US R&B genre of the late 1980s and early 90s) are a genuine teen phenomenon: the London quartet aren’t simply the first new boyband in years to reach No 1 in the UK singles chart, but the very first successful black British boyband. Until now, this country has never produced an equivalent of America’s 1990s titans Jodeci and Boyz II Men, and while it would be premature to predict that JLS will match their sales, they’ve hit the ground running. Their first single, the Mobo-nominated Beat Again, has sold nearly 400,000 copies and Epic records is serious about breaking them, sinking “in excess of £1m” into the task, according to label MD Nick Raphael. The Mobo nod further solidifies the perception that they’re more than just reality-TV flotsam.

“They’re a 100% priority for us,” Raphael says on the phone a few days later. “A band like JLS does not get released by Epic on a whim. These are the opportunities you wait for as a record executive – this is not a short-term opportunity. There hasn’t been a brilliant boy band in the UK since Blue, and we understand the value of a frontline boyband; they can sell for many albums.”

Simon Cowell – who inexplicably declined to sign JLS to his Syco label, an offshoot of Sony BMG, when they came second to Alexandra Burke in last year’s X Factor – must be kicking himself. Not only have JLS maintained their popularity since last December’s final – their first tour, next February, sold out almost as soon as tickets went on sale – but their slick urban pop is leagues cooler than anything mustered by the rest of the X Factor stable. And that’s not damning with faint praise: though Beat Again hardly breaks new sonic ground, it’s a gem of a modern R&B song, effortlessly meshing swagger and elegant harmonies. In fact, it raises the question of why a band of their ability bothered putting themselves through the grind of The X Factor when they would probably have been successful under their own steam.

“It’s very hard in this current climate to launch a new [boy] band,” Gill says a week or so later, midway through a day of interviews in London. “We’ve had a huge boost from The X Factor.” That’s certainly so – but they must also be grateful that Cowell didn’t sign them. Rumour had it that he’d considered it, with a view to turning them into a black Westlife, so they must feel they’ve had a lucky escape. “It would have been a different direction if he’d signed us,” Aston admits diplomatically. “Epic gave us the chance to go into the studio and write with people.” Working with top-flight pop/R&B songwriters such as Taio Cruz and Steve Mac, they co-wrote nine of the 13 tracks on next month’s self-titled debut album.

Having said that, the dismaying news is that they actually admire Westlife, whose beige ballads represent the nadir of the boyband genre. “When Oritsé put the band together, we thought of [being] an amalgam of all the great boybands,” says Humes, a pop veteran; his previous group, VS, scraped into the album chart at No 142 in 2005. “Westlife, Boyz II Men, Take That, ‘N Sync, Backstreet [Boys] – we wanted to take elements from all those guys.”

Cripes. Why would four young men find insipid family entertainers like Westlife inspiring? Weren’t they more motivated by the music they heard while growing up in the capital (or Peterborough, in Merrygold’s case)? Williams, to whom the other three often seem to defer, calmly disagrees. “We’re not grime MCs. It’s not what we do. We sing love songs to girls.” Merrygold is nodding. “We were lucky to find each other. When I was young, my friends liked rappers and I liked ‘N Sync.”

It appears that JLS are under no illusions about who they are, noting that, unlike Dizzee Rascal and Tinchy Stryder, who rose through pirate radio, “we come from commercial culture, from The X Factor.” Recalling their pre-fame days of entering local urban-music talent searches, Williams says: “We used to see Dizzee and Roll Deep headlining shows where we were competing, and we worked as hard as, or even harder than, any rappers.”

Hard work, ambition, determination: the words come up again and again. Williams, who founded the band in 2007, did so because he “spotted a gap and realised there were no boybands, literally none,” which persuaded him to abandon attempts to become a solo R&B artist. He recruited the others through friends’ recommendations, but before finalising the lineup, he first put their photos side-by-side on his computer to ensure they looked right together. “Every element, from styling to sound to vocals, we did it with ambition, determination and dedication. We became an unshakable force from the beginning,” Merrygold says matter-of-factly. Humes is nodding. “This had to work for us – we left home, broke up with long-term girlfriends, spent our last money on rehearsals.” (Indeed, Humes’s ex-girlfriend, Jaime Jay, is about to release a track as a “response” to Beat Again, titled Cheat Again.)

They self-managed the band, and were soon playing paid gigs around London. Sensible to the last, they had back-up plans – as they built JLS, Gill was also studying theology, Humes was a property developer and Williams was taking an events management course, revising for exams while in the X Factor boot camp. But their plan Bs have now been shelved, and they’re devoting body and soul to JLS. “You all have to be on the same page,” notes Gill. “People who buy music are much more clued-up now. You can’t put out anything and expect people to buy it just because the boys are pretty.”

Their businesslike attitude must be manna from heaven to Epic’s Raphael, who praises their “ambition and focus”. But even as he outlines plans for “a plot that goes into Christmas” (otherwise known as their album and second single, Everybody in Love), he puts his finger on the quality they possess that money can’t buy: credibility. “They feel very passionate about music, and their credibility makes it easier for radio to play them,” he says, sounding very happy.

Back at the SECC, JLS are whiling away time before the ceremony by browsing in what’s known as “the gifting room”. This is a little perk that has recently become established at award shows: nominees are led to a backstage area crammed with brand-name clothes and gadgets and told to take whatever they fancy. It’s the adult equivalent of letting kids loose in a candy store: JLS cruise the room, choosing jeans, trainers and shirts, which are popped into shopping bags carried for them by young female gifting-hosts. “Can I have this?” Williams asks, pointing to a chunky silver Marc Ecko watch. “Sure,” says the Ecko representative, and £185 of watch is dropped into his bag. “This is great, a beautiful young lady carrying my bag,” Humes marvels. “To be fair, it was like that before,” Merrygold banters back.

JLS win both the newcomer and best song categories. “Shout-out to Mr Simon Cowell!” says Gill as they receive the newcomer trophy. The scene in their dressing room afterwards is peculiarly British: hoisting bottles of Budweiser, the quartet drink a sedate toast, then change out of their stage clothes. There’s a lot of toned, hairless bareness in the room. Determinedly focusing on his face, I ask Humes if he’d expected to win. “Not at all!” He sounds dazed. “We’ve only had one song out!” says Gill. Give JLS this much: they’re realistic about the amount of slog that lies ahead before they’ll be able to say with conviction that they’ve arrived. It seems a reasonably safe bet, though, that they’ll put the effort in.

• The single Everybody in Love is released on Epic on Monday, followed by the album JLS on 9 November

Source: Guardian

Charming, excitable and polite.

These are the three words that best describe boyband JLS on meeting them for the first time.

All four make a point of introducing themselves — Aston, JB, Oritse and Marvin — and are full of compliments.

Within minutes there is a huge burst of laughter and I am called upon to judge Aston’s impression of a seal… which he is performing with full gusto on the floor.

During the time it takes to set up for the interview, the boys — who came second in last year’s X Factor competition — begin a play fight.

It all starts to get a bit out of hand, but no one else in the room seems to mind.

Quiet now. I want some decorum.

JB: Sorry. Right we’re ready.

Good, right lets go back to the Mobos in October — bet it was great beating X Factor winner Alexandra Burke and scooping two awards?

JB: It wasn’t about beating Alex at all, she was sat on a table next to us and she was one of the first people to congratulate us on winning the award.

We had a great time and we’re so over the moon to have won both awards that we were nominated for.

What would you rather have done — won the X Factor or your two Mobos?

Aston: What we’re doing now.

Marvin: With hindsight now, we’re glad we didn’t win the X Factor because we wouldn’t be in this position. We’ve had an amazing start, Alex is a deserved winner, she’s a fantastic artist and we’ve now won two Mobos.

It’s not always about winning, it’s not always about beating someone, it’s about us establishing ourselves in the market place and having a career in music.

Are you feeling the pressure now you have won two awards so early in your career?

Oritse: Winning awards just makes us the more determined to go out and do even better.

The pressure that we have we feel amongst each other, and that’s in terms of goals and aims that we always want to try to achieve. We have our own delivered pressure.

I think that’s really important because it means that you care about your job and what you do. We love to do this and we want to be doing this for a very long time and it’s all about JLS and establishing ourselves.

Not all former X Factor contestants have stood the test of time. Steve Brookstein, Shayne Ward, Same Difference and Leon Jackson — where are they now? What is the secret to success?

Aston: There is no secret to success, it’s just what direction you go in. We’re a group, we’re a totally different act to what they were.

At that time there may have been another 10 solo artists out at the time, that’s just how this industry works, now we’re the only boy band. Right now, there’s a market gap and we’re tying to grab hold of it.

Do you think the X Factor format is getting rather boring as we have seen the sob stories all before?

Aston: I bet you sit there and you watch it and you think about it. You might say: ‘There’s another sob story’ but you will still sit there and watch it, because you’ll be thinking that that is actually someone’s life. That’s what they’re going through.

JB: I sat and watched it last weekend and I thought to myself: ‘You know what this is actually a really great show.’ I’m not talking from being on it, I’m talking from the way it’s filmed, the way it’s done. And you can’t deny that every week it has millions of viewers, you don’t get that by chance.

Oritse: You get very attached to people. I almost don’t believe in the term ‘sob story’, because for me, it’s one of the biggest reasons why the show is so relatable to the general public.

Nobody wants to see fully auditioned artists going onto that show being well groomed and well prepared.

What you want to see are real people, they could be your next door neighbour, it could be your mum, it could be your uncle, whoever has this big dream to play on a major stage, to get the opportunity they would never have had without the show.

Marvin: I must admit I got a little bit choked up. You can’t but help getting a little bit attached, it’s real life, they’re real people and they’re just trying to pursue what we were trying to pursue.

Alexandra Burke and Cheryl Cole both have singles out — which record will you be buying, and you HAVE to give an answer.
Aston: We’re half and half.

Marvin: We have nothing but love for both of the ladies.

JB: Two of us would buy Cheryl’s single and the other two would buy Alex’s.

What is all this we have been hearing about you wanting to make it big in the US?

Oritse: We’ve not actually discussed anything to do with the US yet. For us the most important thing is for us to do well on our home turf.

At the end of the day we were part of a show where everybody voted for us and I think our fans and supporters deserve for us to be here and give them some great music before we even branch off anywhere around the world. But obviously, it will be in our sights in the future. Right now it’s all about the UK.

One final question, what is on your rider list?

Marvin: Our rider list is very simple, all we request is fruit, water, towels, Haribo and Nandos.

Aston: To be fair we don’t even ask for Nandos, we go to Nandos and bring it back ourselves.

The band’s second single Everybody In Love is due out on 2 November 2009 and their debut album will follow on 9 November.

Source: BBC News

JLS’s Oritsé Williams has admitted that the group will not allow band member Aston Merrygold to cut off his hair. He joked that singer’s hair style was the secret of the band’s success.

Aston told the radio show You Call The Hits: “Let me tell you this right now.

“As soon as Astie gets a little bit of free time, I’m cutting my hair off.”

Williams cut-in: “Let me let you in on a secret.

“We’ve been together now for two-and-a-half years and in those two-and-a-half years, Aston’s cut his hair off once.

“He had to regrow his hair to get to this stage. At that point, that was when we started to progress and develop success.

“So now there’s no way he’s going to cut it.”

However, Merrygold retorted: “You lot chat so much rubbish!”

Band member Marvin Humes has previously said that Aston Merrygold is so popular with their younger fans because of his hairstyle.

Marvin joked that the Aston sends the girls wild with his fringe.

He told the Daily Mirror: “I think it’s because he’s the youngest and he has the little fringe which all the girls like.”

Aston quipped back: “Look, if you three want a fringe — then just grow them.”

Source: STV

WITH his legions of fans, boyish good looks and amazing voice, most lads wouldn’t mind being ASTON MERRYGOLD.

But life hasn’t always been so good for the JLS star.

The singer has revealed how he was tormented by racist bullies when he was a teenager.

Aston, now 21, was sickeningly branded a “Paki” and “Osama Bin Laden” by football team-mates.

Now he wants to use his fame to try to help kids in the same horrible position after agreeing to be an ambassador for the charity Beatbullying.

He says: “When I was 13 I joined a local football squad as I had dreams of playing for my team, Arsenal.

“I was always the shortest in my side or class at school and there were some comments made, calling me ‘shorty’ or taking the mick.

“But I was also the only black kid in the team and the comments started to reach another level.

“I’m mixed race as my mum is Irish and my dad is Jamaican. But I used to get called ‘Osama Bin Laden’ or ‘Paki’ which I just couldn’t understand as it didn’t make any sense.

“It was just ignorant but I decided they were never going to break me.”

Desperate to deflect the bullies’ attention, Aston would muck about to make the other players laugh.

The X Factor runner-up says: “I’d always been the class joker. I tried to put on a bit of a performance, cracking jokes or clowning around.

Hurtful

“But when I got home it was a relief to be able to drop the performance and be myself.

“When I was on my own and got to thinking about what had happened, it was very hurtful.

“It was hard to find the courage to speak up and tell my mum. When she found out she told the team’s manager. He made the lads who had made the comments apologise.

“I stayed in the team as I didn’t want to run away. Now I’m trying to get somewhere with my future — and where are those guys at?”

For Aston, the word “Paki” — a term which sparked outrage when BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing star ANTON DU BEKE used it to describe his partner LAILA ROUASS after a spray tan — is ALWAYS offensive.

Aston says: “I don’t know anything about the Strictly row, but it’s not a word I would use and for me it’s a racist word. If you use that kind of language you should realise people don’t want to hear it.”

Instant fame and fortune has transformed Aston’s life — but the after-effects haven’t all been positive.

His family, who live in Peterborough, Cambs, have borne the brunt of negative comments from locals jealous of the success of JLS.

Aston says: “You can’t please everyone. It’s fantastic for my mum and everyone but it’s not always going to be 100 per cent sunshine. It comes with the package.

“My family and friends are really proud of me and the band, but there will always be people who make comments or want to be negative.

“My little sister Courtney, who is 15, has been getting some hassle because of who I am and what I do. She has dealt with it all really well — she’s my inspiration.

“But the experience made me think about helping prevent bullying.”

Sitting in the music room of a south London high school last week Aston was in his element, chatting with the pupils and helping them to produce a song about beating bullies.

The excitable girls from the group, all aged 12 or 13, were dumbstruck when he walked into the room.

Aston’s visit had to be top secret as teachers feared pandemonium if more than the select 15 Year 8 students realised he was in the building.

Afterwards the pupils were keen to share what they had learned and the anti-bullying message they wanted to get across.

Carmen, 12, said: “If you are getting bullied you should tell an adult. And if you see someone being bullied then get an adult. Don’t step in or you could get hurt, or something more serious like getting stabbed.” Friends Aaliyah, Jasmine and Nashae, all 12, were excited to see Aston.

Nashae said: “It’s important to get famous people involved to talk about bullying as then you realise it can happen to anyone.”

Aston is aware of his responsibility to the youngsters who propelled JLS to the top of the charts with their debut single Beat Again.

He says: “The band have loads of younger fans. I get a lot of letters handed to me saying that I made someone’s year because I posed for a picture with them or I made a difference to their life because I gave them a hug.

“I realise that fans look up to me and I wanted to do something positive for them.”

The huge fame JLS have achieved in under a year is still sinking in for Aston.

He says: “The success that the band have had is a dream come true. I still can’t believe we won two MOBOs last month. That whole evening is a blur.”

The lads have been snapped in clubs across London, partying with beautiful women.

But, although Aston is single, he’s choosy when it comes to finding a girlfriend.

He says: “It’s ten times harder for me to get a girlfriend nowadays. I want a girl who is genuine and I try to be really careful about who I meet while I’m out. It’s hard now to see a nice girl and ask her out without her knowing who I am.

“As for my ideal woman, I’ve always fancied CHERYL COLE. I loved it last year on The X Factor. I’d be sitting next to her, texting my mates about where I was.

“I’m a 21-year-old fella and I like to go out and have fun with the guys, but it’s important to remember kids do look up to you.”

And his mum Siobhan, 41, is always ready to step in if she feels his ego is running away.

He admitted: “My mum keeps my feet on the ground. When her and Marvin’s mum see us in the paper, out partying, they ring us up to give us a good telling off.”

Source: The Sun

THEY are the product of a rival show, but JLS singer Aston Merrygold reckons he has the solution to Alesha Dixon’s problems on Strictly Come Dancing…

The boy-band singer, whose act were runners-up in last year’s X Factor final on ITV, thinks Alesha would win over her detractors if she gave them a flash of her legs.

Aston and his mates are talking to Saturday Plus! in the HQ of their record company in London’s plush Kensington when the subject of the rival TV show comes up.

While his three JLS colleagues fall over themselves to keep out of the controversy surrounding the singer’s new gig as a judge on Strictly Come Dancing, the 21-year-old is happy to share his thoughts.

“Her legs, man, wow,” he says. “She’s a lovely girl, Alesha, but maybe she should sit in front of that desk they’ve put her behind.”
It’s all he gets to say on the matter. His bandmates then speak over the top of him, protesting that they “haven’t seen the show” or “haven’t heard about” the Alesha issue.

Four young men signed to a major record label are obvious choices to be given rudimentary lessons in media training — especially as their core market is teenagers and kids.

They may well have been told to avoid answering certain questions. And, like a well-oiled footballing defensive partnership, they cover for each other perfectly.

Like many products of the manufactured pop market created by The X Factor and shows of that ilk, JLS have garnered a formidable profile.

Young boys think they’re cool, young girls think they’re gorgeous.

They’ve gone from watching The X Factor to being on it, nearly winning it, then landing a record deal they never thought they would get off the back of it.

And last week in Glasgow, they landed two prestigious MOBO awards — Best Newcomer and Best Song, their No.1 single Beat Again — at a glittering ceremony in the SECC.

The upsides — fame, attention, the chance to make a living having a laugh with their mates — are obvious.

So, what’s the downside? Again, it’s Aston who speaks most honestly.

“You can’t do all the stuff you did before, such as going out with your friends and having a quiet drink,” he says. “Now there is always someone trying to say something to you, or asking for a photograph.

“That’s a good thing in one way but not if you’re just out having a catch-up with your mates.”

To be honest, Aston looks like he would have trouble getting over the door of a nightclub let alone be troubled for autographs once he’s in there.

JB (Jonathan Benjamin Gill), meanwhile, hates the attention that he gets any time he’s seen with a girl.

“People always write that she’s your latest girlfriend,” he says. “They jump to conclusions because we’re high-profile and people pay attention to us.”

Then Oritsé Williams intervenes. Although two years younger than JLS’s elder statesman, 24-year-old Marvin Humes, he has the aura of the “big brother” of the band.

He says: “The biggest bonus for us is that we do what we’ve always wanted to do for a living.

“We’re very fortunate we even got a deal from the show. When we went in, the only person who was getting a record deal was the winner.

“That’s why we looked so sad on the show. It felt like if we didn’t get a deal then we’d have been back to square one.

“To get a deal was a dream come true — especially with Epic, because of the calibre of people they had on their label. The first person I thought of was Michael Jackson.

“I thought our manager was having us on at the time. It was exciting for us. Now we get to come in here all the time and get on people’s nerves. But there are too many pluses to even start thinking about negatives.”

Every now and then, there’s a break away from that feeling that JLS are a band who say what they think a band should be saying. Some of their chat is stock cliché for the newly famous who are maybe a touch guilty of thinking they are more famous than they are.

At other times, they almost seem a bit embarrassed — especially in the case of Marvin, perhaps because he has done the “band thing” before with Simon Webbe’s short-lived act VS, and also because he worked in the altogether less showbiz world of property sales before having another crack at pop.

But, for the most part, JLS have the repartee you’d expect from four young guys who work and live (in the case of Marvin and Aston) together.

Aston teases Marvin about which team he would support if he was forced to pick one between Celtic and Rangers, trying to trip him up in front of a hack from Glasgow, having himself made headlines for saying he would wear a Celtic top on stage, for a bet with an ex’s dad.

Then Oritsé teases Aston about his appearance on a kids’ show years ago, and jokes about ITV mistakenly using footage of one of JB’s primary school mates on last year’s X Factor thinking it was him.

Oritsé himself ‘fesses up that he didn’t play football when he was young because he wanted to go off at break times and sing with the girls. Soon, they’re all laughing at each other. Is it always like this? Marvin says: “We’re business partners, best mates, family. Every single day we’re having a laugh with our mates.

“Of course, it’s hard work but you’re doing it with people you love and having a great laugh. I live with Aston and we went to Ibiza the other day. We spend a lot of time together.

“When we go abroad to places like LA or whatever, it’s different from here and Europe. We can do stuff like go shopping and no one recognises us. And going to clubs there was totally different.” Why, because you had to stand in a queue like everyone else?
“Yeah, more or less,” he says, smiling.

They’ve already had one No.1 single but, once the album is released next month, the foursome can expect that to change.
While they’re careful not to say anything about The X Factor’s rival show, Strictly Come Dancing, they are happy to talk about the talent contest which made them stars.

Do they watch it? Yes, unanimously.

“Me and him were in a hotel the other week in Manchester, going out with some of the boys,” says Aston, nodding to Marvin. “The guys were desperate to get out but we wanted to stay in and watch The X Factor before going out. We got a bit of stick for that.”
Do they have a favourite this year? Rikki Loney. Ah, but of course. These boys really do know how to play the papers. Speaking to the Scottish press? Give the Scottish guy the “big up”.

Marvin says: “We’re rooting for Rikki. He’s a genuinely great guy and he’s so hungry for it.”

Oritsé adds: “We know him from last year at boot camp. He has a great voice, very powerful. He could be flying the flag for Scotland this year.”

After that, Aston says he likes Danyl, and, before long, Rachel and Jamie “Afro” Archer are in there too.
Four guys, four points of view.

As a band built round four-part harmonies, do they agree on who is the best singer in JLS? “Yeah, the backing track,” says Aston, with a wry smile.

Flatmate Marvin considers it more seriously.

“We all have our strengths and weaknesses,” he says. “That’s the best thing about being in a group — we all know each other so well. So, yeah, we’re all good singers. But I reckon there’s an acknowledgement… that I’m obviously a better singer than anyone else…” And then they’re at it again, shouting and laughing, like a class full of schoolkids after a lunch break of blue M&Ms.

“Marvin always says it’s like being on a rollercoaster,” says Oritsé. “We keep going up and up, and we’ve not started coming down the other side yet. Hopefully we never will.”

JLS’s new single, Everybody In Love, is out on November 2. The album is released on November 9.

Source: Daily Record

JLS ladies man ORITSE has earned himself a Boombastic new nickname courtesy of his services to Shagging — Mr Lover Lover.

Cheeky ASTON kept serenading his pal with lines from the cheesy Shaggy chart-topper when I caught up with the boys.

Fresh from their MOBOs success, Aston bounded into the room singing, “What you want is some boombastic romantic fantastic lover. Mr Lover lover.”

Enter Oritse.

It should be noted that Aston’s impression of the growly-voiced reggae lothario is spot-on.

He explained: “That’s Oritse’s new name. He is Mr Lover Lover. That song could have been written about him.

“We love a bit of Shaggy. In fact, MARVIN used to perform Boombastic on stage.”

JLS defended their serial Shagger reputations, insisting “no one’s getting their heads slapped in” at the end of the night.

The Beat Again boys are serious contenders for my Bizarre Shagger of the Year crown this year following months of all-night debauchery and no-strings flings with the opposite sex.

And it seems Aston would be a proud recipient of the title — even the band’s close relatives think he’s done enough, pun intended, to earn it.

He told me: “Our mums say that me and Marvin are the worst. They think JB’s an angel for some reason.

“We’re all young guys, we like to chat to beautiful young girls.

“We’re all single and we haven’t got girlfriends. No one’s getting their heads slapped in when they get home.”

Meanwhile, the lads have urged TINCHY STRYDER to keep his chin up following his strop at last week’s MOBOs.

The grime star was furious after missing out on all three awards he was nominated for.

JB said: “When you’ve worked so hard, sometimes it is upsetting when you don’t get rewarded.

“At the time he was very upset but I’m sure now he won’t think it’s as much of a big deal. I’m sure his career’s not over.”

Source: The Sun

JLS have admitted that they wouldn’t change anything about their lives, and are revelling in their new found fame.

While speaking to Sugar magazine about being voted ‘Best Newcomers’, Oritse explains: “While sometimes we miss walking down the street without being completely mobbed, we wouldn’t change this for the world. We wake up everyday smiling!”

But while the group is known for enjoying the perks of being celebrities, they insist that they intend to use their fame to “become good role models” to young fans.

“We’re now in the position where we can inspire other people and become good role models for the UK’s teens,” he continues. “We pride ourselves on being the best examples we can. So knowing we have your support behind us means everything.”

The band are also going on tour next year — get JLS tickets here.

Source: Angryape

Band respond to reports about their sexuality

Marvin Humes says claims JLS are homosexual are completely untrue.

But The X Factor runners-up don’t mind people thinking they’re interested in men.

‘We don’t care,’ says Marvin. ‘We’ve got loads of gay friends anyway. All of mine fancy JB.’

Fellow member Aston Merrygold, 21, insists all the boys are heterosexual.

‘We always get the same thing from straight guys,’ he tells Gay Times.

‘Just because we like to take care of ourselves and get a lot of female attention, they’re first response is “you’re gay”.’

Jonathan ‘JB’ Gill and Oritse Williams are also in JLS.

NOW VIDEOS JLS photoshoot and their celebrity crushes…

Source: Now Magazine

JLS star ASTON MERRYGOLD names SIMON COWELL as the only X Factor judge he’d consider kissing — in a blistering snub to DANNII MINOGUE and CHERYL COLE.

During a game of ‘Snog, Marry or Avoid’ with Gay Times magazine, the Beat Again singer said: “I’d snog Simon — he’s the least repulsive.”

However, JONATHAN ‘JB’ GILL favours the ladies, saying: “I’d snog Danni and marry Cheryl.”

“We were like, ‘Yeah, whatever baby.’

“We don’t care. We’ve got loads of gay friends anyway. All of mine fancy JB.”

Though Aston claims he’s the one with the most gay fans.

He said: “Whenever we do meet and greets with gay fans, I’m the one they sling over their shoulders and run off with.”

The latest issue of Gay Times is on sale now. Go to www.gaytimes.co.uk for more info.

Source: The Sun

STRICTLY is not the only reality show getting a bashing — The X Factor has been given a slap by last year’s stars JLS.
The foursome who ended as runners-up, have joined the chorus of disapproval over the ITV1 talent hit’s new live auditions.

The lads reckon getting the wannabes to audition in front of hordes of screaming fans is just a rip-off of Britain’s Got Talent.

Oritsé Williams said it had even put him off tuning in. He told GT: “I did catch ten minutes of it on YouTube. It’s too much like Britain’s Got Talent.”

Aston Merrygold chipped in: “I watched it and expected to get a weird feeling because we were there a year ago — but I didn’t.

“It’s a completely different show now. I don’t like the new format — it’s taken the build-up away.”

Bandmate Marvin Humes added: “Some contestants have been wicked. But it seems like they’re already in the live finals.

“You don’t get to see personalities properly — they’re more confident and playful. It takes away the intimacy.”

A poll found 70 per cent of viewers preferred the old system — and we have backed them at TV Biz. We have already said we miss the intimacy of the studio, where hopefuls auditioned with no backing track and just fed-up judges for an audience.

The full interview appears in this month’s GT

Source: The Sun