JLS: We are still best friends and always will be... but this is the end Boyband to split after 5 years

JLS: We are still best friends and always will be... but this is the end

Boyband to split after 5 years

Going own ways ... JLS stars Aston Merrygold, Jonathan JB Gill, Marvin Humes and Oritse Williams

DAVE HOGAN / The Sun

X FACTOR chart-toppers JLS are splitting up, The Sun can reveal.

Aston Merrygold, 25, Marvin Humes, 28, Jonathan “JB” Gill and Oritsé Williams, both 26, agonised for months before deciding to bow out with a farewell tour after five years together.

Emotional Aston told The Sun: “It’s just that time. We are still best of friends and always will be — but this is the end.”

The boyband have come a long way since finishing second to Alexandra Burke on 2008’s X Factor.

They have been showered with awards, flogged 1.5MILLION gig tickets, sold more than 10MILLION records and had FIVE No1 singles — more than any other act from a reality TV talent show.

We'll go out in style ... boyband plan farewell tour for their fans

DAVE HOGAN / THE SUN

Marvin, 28, said: “It’s an emotional time. There’s no getting away from that. We have been through so much together.

“But we have to be mature and look at this decision as a celebration of what we managed to achieve.

“We never wanted to overstay our welcome. We never wanted to be that band where people said, ‘Oh, bloody hell. It’s JLS again.’

“We wanted to finish on a high. We’re finishing with an arena tour — our third arena tour — and that is a massive achievement.

“The last five or so years have been nothing short of incredible. It has been an incredible journey.”

Marvin — married to Saturdays singer Rochelle — went on: “I’ve got a baby on the way in four weeks, so it’s another celebration for me. But that was also another sign that we were moving on to the next stage in our lives.

Next step ... Marvin and his Saturdays wife, Rochelle, are expecting their first baby in May

“We are the first X Factor act to finish a five-year recording contract. If we wanted to carry on and sign to another label, it was going to be another three, four or five albums. So we all thought about it for a few months and it sort of made sense to say we were moving on with our lives.”

Aston, 25, added: “The question was asked, ‘Can you do this together for another five or so years? Can you see that happening?’

“Between the four of us, there was no definite ‘Yes’ in the room. We had to dig deep and find the right solution. We haven’t fallen out. We leave with some amazing successes under our belt and we can say goodbye in style.”

The band were put together by a teenage Oritsé. X Factor guru Simon Cowell SNUBBED the chance to sign them — so they went to Epic and became the first act from the show to win a Brit Award.

Oritsé, inspired throughout by his mum, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, said their families had grown incredibly close — making the split even harder.

Second best ... JLS were runners-up to Alexandra Burke on X Factor in 2008

He admitted: “I’m not going to deny it, I’m sad. It has been amazing. I remember that moment in my bedroom when JLS was just an idea and I was determined to make this dream a reality.

“They say all good things come to an end and for us it just felt like it was the right time to move forward and pursue different ventures.

“We have all become so close, as have our families, so that has been quite hard to deal with.

“Breaking the news to them was hard, but my mum was proud we did it and we are calling it a day as friends.”

Previous boybands have set up phone helplines to comfort fans when they split. Oritsé, 26, confessed: “I don’t think we are ready for what’s going to happen. It could be mayhem. There have been a lot of fans who have grown up with us and we’re going to represent a key time in their lives.

“We’ve been a big part of their lives — they’ve been a part of ours. So naturally it’s going to be an emotional time for everyone.”

Aston agreed: “It’s like a relationship break-up. There’s no way to prepare for it, we will just have to take what comes.”

The lads will say goodbye with a December farewell tour and a greatest hits album. Oritsé said: “There’s nothing more I love than performing with the rest of the boys. It’s been a massive part of my life and my family’s life, especially with my mum. She treats the boys as if they are her sons.

Two good ... lads won twice at Brits in 2010

“Hopefully, we can make sure it’s going to be the biggest celebration on that last date, especially because it’s going to be the last time that anybody is going to see us together on stage.”

Aston said they would keep that promise despite the ratings success ITV2 has had bringing ’90s pop acts back together for The Big Reunion. He insisted: “For us, this is the end. Of course we don’t know what could happen in five years’ time.

“But I can assure you there’s no plan or secret operation to come back in ten years’ time!”

In their heyday they created Beatlemania-style mayhem.

Sixty people were injured after 30,000 screaming fans stormed a Christmas lights switch-on in Birmingham in 2009. A year earlier five fans were injured when 3,000 descended on another free show in Croydon, South London. One of the band’s proudest achievements is the JLS Foundation, their charity which is funding cancer research and raising awareness about sexual health issues.

Up for a laugh ... JLS took part in Comic Relief skit with Gordon Brown in 2011

JB, 26, said: “The only thing we have committed to, and I suppose it will be the only time you’ll see us together as a group, is with the JLS Foundation.

“We’ve all made a commitment on paper that no matter what we’re doing, wherever we are, whatever happens from here on, we will commit to the Foundation. We’re already in a partnership with Cancer Research UK — we’re committed to them for two years and we want to raise £2million.”

The band are now focusing on their individual plans. Marvin is a DJ on Capital FM and has become a reporter for Daybreak. Oritsé has his own management company, looking after the next generation of pop stars. Aston has just finished filming Sky’s hit show Got To Dance. And JB has bought a deer farm in Scotland.

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By GORDON SMART, Showbiz Editor

THE first time I met JLS back in 2008 they told me about a list they had drawn up of 50 things they wanted to achieve in their boyband career.

Within a year, almost everything was ticked off — No 1 single, No 1 album, posh flat and Audi R8s included.

There were a few others I can’t mention in a family newspaper.

JLS ... with Showbiz Editor Gordon Smart

DAVE HOGAN / THE SUN

The end was the one thing they never anticipated, which made the moment they called it quits yesterday quite sad to be a part of.

The decision to bow out now is as shrewd as the master plan Oritse drew up in his bedroom nearly ten years ago.

There is no point in them competing with the One Direction juggernaut. Bowing out when they are at the very top shows just how mature they are — and why they have been so successful.

They were fastidious about every detail of their career — from their simple and clever styling (each member had an assigned colour) all the way through to their attitude and manners.

They made a point of befriending the right people, shaking the right hands, sharing a drink with the right people and appearing in the right places.

But the key to pulling that strategy off was in their authenticity.

They are genuinely friendly, generous and family-loving guys.

They had every right to get an ego — but that never happened.

When things didn’t quite work in the US they didn’t spit their dummies out — they just worked even harder at home.

JLS should be a blueprint for any wannabe pop band eyeing chart glory.

And if they take the same principles into their professional lives beyond the band, success is almost guaranteed.

JLS through the years

2003: Oritsé Williams decides to form a boyband to raise money for MS charities. Meets Marvin Humes and Aston Merrygold through friends.

2004: JB Gill joins band, then called Unique Famous Outrageous (UFO).

2007: UFO win Best Unsigned Act at the Urban Music Awards.

2008: Appear on X Factor as JLS. Finish second to Alexandra Burke.

2009 (January): Sign a record deal with Epic.

July: First single Beat Again is No1.

November: Follow up Everybody In Love also hits No1.

2010: First X Factor band to win a Brit Award — Best Breakthrough Act and Best Single (for Beat Again).

July: The Club Is Alive is No1.

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