HEART-THROB boyband JLS aren’t too worried about any costume mishaps, a la Whitney Houston, when they perform on Sunday’s X Factor results show.

In fact, they tell me, they positively encourage wardrobe malfunctions.

The band’s Marvin Humes laughs: “Sometimes we make our own wardrobe malfunctions. Perhaps a shirt might tear open, or just fall off!”

The lads, who finished runner-up to Alexandra Burke on last year’s X Factor, have become the most successful ever band to compete in the talent show.

They scored a number one with their debut Beat Again, and hope to repeat that success when second single Everybody In Love is released next week, sure to be boosted by their appearance on The X Factor on Sunday.

Meanwhile Manchester has become like a second home to the lads of late, with a host of personal appearances here, including tonight’s big Christmas lights switch-on at The Trafford Centre.

And they tell me they’re planning more nights here before Christmas.

Aston Merrygold says: “We love partying here. Manchester is a real favourite for us.”

Source: Manchester Evening News

JLS star Aston Merrygold has professed his love for X Factor favourite Stacey Solomon.

The 21-year-old X Factor runner-up has used his Facebook page to let the world know his feelings for the singer, and has even approached her sister in an attempt to get a date with her.

Posting on his Facebook page, Aston said Stacey has ‘everything in a girl I like’.

Aston posted messages on his Facebook wall shortly after Stacey performed the classic track At Last on the show the weekend before last.

The posts at first were reasonably level-headed, but soon revealed just how highly Aston thinks of Stacey.

Stacey looked YUMMY!!!! she can make me drop to my knees anyday’ he said in one of his early messages.

This was quickly followed by: ‘stunning performance think she’s singing about me’.

And finally, Aston gushed: ‘I think I’m in love with Stacey lol she’s my kind of girl’.

Heat magazine spoke to Stacey’s sister Jemma, who confirmed that Aston had already managed to contact her in an effort to meet up with Stacey.

She revealed: ‘His mate said, “Aston really wants to meet Stacey — can you hook them up?“‘

She added: ‘I was like, “I don’t even get to see her, let alone set him up on a date with her!” He’ll have to work it out himself if he wants to meet her.’

Aston carried on with his Facebook messages saying: ‘Stacey Soloman is gonna be by new GF.’

The singer from Dagenham in east London has become one of the show’s favourites after dazzling performances during the elimination rounds.

Source: Daily Mail

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

Hey guys! Here are pics from the campaign that Aston supports called “Beat Bullying”. It’s so sad that many adolescents have to deal with it  Hopefully things could change 

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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

JLS’ Aston Merrygold has revealed how her suffered at the hands of racist bullies as a teenager.

The 21-year-old singer — who has become an ambassador for the charity Beatbullying — told The Sun how he stood up to the bullies, who taunted him with racist abuse and for being short.

Aston revealed: “There were some comments made calling me ‘shorty’, but I was also the only black kid in the (football) team and the comments started to reach another level.”

Source: The Press Association

Last year’s ‘X Factor’ runners-up JLS have said that they are backing Rikki and Rachel in this year’s competition.

According to Digital Spy, Ortisé Williams: “We’ve got two friends from last year on there, Rachel Adedeji and Ricky Loney, and they’re both incredible talents so we hope they go all the way.”

“We would love a band to win, I think it’s about time. For us, we’re a band, so it would be like, ‘Yeah, another band’s won, another band’s coming through’.”

“There’s also some great groups, solo males, solo females — it’s a very strong year.”

His bandmate Aston Merrygold said: “Another band would never be a threat because you’ve got so many females, they’re not threats to each other. They’re all doing their own things and they’re still there.”

Source: RTE

JLS smoothie Aston Merrygold, 21, is a bit of a one when it comes to the ladies.

The babe magnet has admitted he fancies Shaniece Davis, 21, and Shar Alexandra, 25, from Miss Frank.

He told pals: “They’re hot. I’m rooting for them, they’re the best group. I’m going to get in touch with them on Facebook.”

Source: Daily Star

Hi again! Well I think it’s time to continue so here I bring you photos of Aston & Marvin from saturday going to Studio Valbonne nightclub in London. Enjoy!

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