The charts were dominated by boybands from the nineties and twenties – and 911 was one of the biggest.
From 1995 to 1999 the trio – consisting of Lee Brennan, Jimmy Constable and Spike Dawbarn – scored ten consecutive top 10 singles in the UK, their biggest hit being Bodyshakin.
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911’s Jimmy Constable talks about the dark side of boyband fame Credit: BBC
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911 were one of the biggest boy bands of the 90s Credit: Getty
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Liam Payne spoke of being “locked” in hotels before his deathCredit: Getty – Contributor
Watching One Direction star Liam Payne’s funeral yesterday was a stark reminder for Jimmy, now 52, of the pressures of being in a boy band – and the dark spiral he entered after the 911 split in 2000.
Jimmy, who hails from Liverpool, formed 911 in Glasgow with Lee and Spike in 1995.
They sold 10 million singles and six million albums worldwide during their time together and had a high level of security while touring at the height of their fame.
Liam tragically died on October 16, aged 31, after falling from a third floor balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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But three years earlier, he revealed the worst part about being in a boy band was being “locked” in hotel rooms after gigs – leading to his addiction to “pills and booze”.
“The problem was that the best way to secure us was to lock us in our rooms, and what’s in the room? A mini-bar,” he said. “So I had a party for one that seemed to go on for ages. It was wild, but the only way you could get your frustration out.”
And Jimmy says it was the same for 911, estimating that they had a total of three weeks off in six years and spent the entire time living in hotels.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun, he says: “For those four or five years, it was full pressure.
“A to-do list arrives at your door every day and you don’t have time to do anything else except what you’re focused on.
“Your record company obviously wants you to be full, 100%, with no time off. ‘This is what you do. This is your schedule,’ then it’s literally, ‘Right, back to your hotel room and you can’t get out because it’s too much down there. crazy’.”
Nineties boyband star unrecognizable as he reveals horrific treatment in chart-topping band
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The boy group had a high level of security as they traveled Credit: Alamy
Military level security
He continues: “If you ever wanted to go out, meet friends or whatever, we always had this thing where there was a parking lot under the hotel.
“So our tour leader would usher us into the van and then we would get out. It’s not like you could just walk outside and get a cab, because you’d probably spend at least an hour taking pictures and signing autographs, which is great.
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Like One Direction, fans adored them Credit: BackGrid
“But when you’re trying to find some peace or time for yourself, that was the way you did it.”
While 911 are used to adoring fans in the UK, Jimmy says South East Asia has been even more intense for the band.
“Going out was completely forbidden,” he says. “It was to the extent that they gave us the top floor of the hotel and security on all levels.
“It was crazy, absolute madness, to the extent that the army was recruited!”
Due to constant pressure from their record company, Jimmy fell into alcoholism, infamously appearing drunk on SM:TV Live – the Saturday morning children’s show hosted by Ant and Dec and Cat Deeley.
Jimmy admits that booze and drugs were given to the boys whenever they needed them.
“Oh God, as you can imagine, you can get it whenever you want,” he tells us. “Because there is such a culture that.
“So at the end of the day, especially if people are on the payroll, they’re there to make you happy and give you everything you need, because they want you to be in top shape whenever they need you to work.
“You could get whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted.”
10-12 bottles of wine a day
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Jimmy is now trained as a paramedic Credit: Instagram
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He’s also back on tour with 911. Credit: Getty
In 2000, Lee and Spike left the band, forcing Jimmy to announce the split 911 live on Radio 1’s The Chris Moyles Breakfast Show.
“I didn’t have time to think about it,” he told the Guardian in 2005. “I had a lump in my throat when I said it, and then we left Radio 1 and the other two guys went to the pub.
“I got in my car and left and I didn’t see them for two years.”
Suddenly Jimmy had no purpose in life – and was drinking 10 to 12 bottles of wine with his then-girlfriend every day.
I got to the point where I was ready to call it quits, because I just didn’t think there was anything left for me to do.
Jimmy Constable
He says: “I woke up the next morning thinking: ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do today because there’s no more work sheet,’ and my ‘friends’ were gone, because they’re not there, I’m not getting paid anymore.”
“I didn’t know what to do with myself. I felt very lost.
“I felt it was easy to just drink all day, and then when the booze didn’t numb him anymore, I turned to drugs.”
By 2002, Jimmy was at his lowest point, sitting on his bed with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s in one hand and painkillers in the other.
He says: “I got to the point where I was ready to end it, because I just didn’t think there was anything left for me to do.
“I wasn’t doing music and I wasn’t doing the job that I’ve always done, then I kind of felt like I had nothing.”
‘More must be done’
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Jimmy thinks more needs to be done after Liam’s deathCredit: Reuters
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One Direction when they first became famous Credit: Getty
Eventually, Jimmy sought help and began going to therapy.
He says: “The biggest thing for me was accepting the problem that I was and how I dealt with the breakup.
“I always felt bitter towards the world, as if the world owed me something. And that is not so.
“There are people who have problems, but until they themselves accept that they have a problem, it will never get better.”
And during the pandemic, Jimmy replaced unconscious fans with flashing blue lights when he joined the ambulance service.
He’s also now touring with Lee and Spike, having reunited with them for 2013’s Big Reunion.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t the same for Liam, who had several stints in rehab before he died.
Last month, prosecutors said they believed he was “in a semi- or fully unconscious state” when he fell to his death.
Three people were arrested and charged with “abandoning a person followed by death, supplying and facilitating drugs,” the office of prosecutor Andres Esteban Madrea confirmed in a statement.
And Jimmy believes that more needs to be done in record companies so that similar tragedies do not happen again.
He says: “Recording companies should provide a psychologist with all their signings or someone that artists can go to and say, ‘Well, I’ve had that experience in the music business. I really enjoyed it. I got everything on my plate. Now they have taken it away from me. What should I do?’
“And then they should still be there for years to come, to help them through the process of getting back to normal.”
911 are touring the Kubix Arena this December with bandmates Five and East 17 Tickets. For more information: www.kubixfestival.com
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Source: HIS Education