I was a 90s boyband star who sold 10m records but hotel lock-ins led to drugs spiral… I know how Liam Payne struggled
THE charts were dominated by boybands back in the Nineties and Noughties – and 911 was one of the biggest.
From 1995 to 1999, the trio – made up of Lee Brennan, Jimmy Constable and Spike Dawbarn – scored ten successive UK top 10 singles, with their biggest hit being Bodyshakin.
Watching One Direction star Liam Payne’s funeral yesterday was a stark reminder for Jimmy, now 52, of the pressures of being in a boyband – and of the dark spiral he went into following 911’s 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 around the world throughout their time together, and had high-level security while they were touring at the height of their fame.
Liam tragically passed away on October 16, at the age of 31, after falling from his third floor balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
But three years earlier, he’d revealed the worst part about being in a boyband was getting “locked up” in hotel rooms after performing – leading to his “pills and booze” addiction.
“The problem was, the best way to secure us was to lock us in our rooms, and what is in the room? A mini-bar” he said. “So I had a party-for-one that seemed to carry on for years. It was wild but the only way you could get frustration out.”
And Jimmy says that was the same for 911, estimating 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: “Those four or five years, it was full-on pressure.
“The job sheet comes through your door every day and there is no time to do anything else apart from what you’re concentrating on.
“Your record company obviously wants you to be full-on, 100%, no time off. ‘This is what you do. This is your schedule,’ then it’s literally, ‘Right, back into your hotel room and you can’t come out because it’s too crazy downstairs’.”
Military-level security
He continues: “If you ever wanted to go out, go meet some friends or whatever, we always had this thing where there was a car park underneath the hotel.
“So our tour manager would get us in the van, and then we’d be out. It’s not like you could just walk outside and get a cab, because you’d probably spend about at least an hour doing photographs and autographs, which is great.
“But, when you’re trying to get a bit of peace, or time on your own, that was the way you used to do it.”
While 911 were used to adoring fans in the UK, Jimmy says southeast Asia was even more intense for the band.
“Going out was completely off limits,” he says. “It was to the point where they gave us the top floor of the hotels and security on every level.
“It was crazy, absolute madness, to the point where the army was being drafted in!”
Due to the constant pressures from their record company, Jimmy descended into alcoholism, infamously appearing drunk on SM:TV Live – the Saturday morning kids’ show hosted by Ant and Dec and Cat Deeley.
Jimmy admits booze and drugs were handed to the boys whenever they needed it.
“Oh God, as you can imagine, you can get it whenever you want,” he tells us. “Because there is that kind of yes culture.
“So at the end of the day, especially if people are on the payroll, they’re there to keep you happy and give you whatever you need, because they want you on top form whenever they need you to perform.
“You could get whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted.”
10-12 bottles of wine a day
In 2000, Lee and Spike quit the band, forcing Jimmy to announce 911’s split live on The Chris Moyles Breakfast Show on Radio 1.
“I didn’t have any time to get my head around it,” he told the Guardian in 2005. “I had a lump in my throat saying it, then we came out of Radio 1 and the other two guys went to the pub.
“I got in my car and took off and I never saw them for two years.”
Suddenly Jimmy had no purpose in life – and was getting through 10 to 12 bottles of wine every day with his then-girlfriend.
I got to the point where I was ready to end it, because I just didn’t think that there was anything left for me to do.
Jimmy Constable
He says: “I was waking up the next morning thinking, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do today because the job sheet’s not there anymore,’ and my ‘friends’ weren’t there anymore, because they weren’t getting paid anymore.
“I didn’t know what to do with myself. I felt very lost.
“I felt it was easy just to drink all day, and then when the drink didn’t numb it anymore, I turned to the drugs.”
By 2002, Jimmy was at his lowest point, sitting on his bed with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s in one hand and some painkillers in the other.
He says: “I got to the point where I was ready to end it, because I just didn’t think that there was anything left for me to do.
“I didn’t have the music business and I didn’t do the job that I’ve always done, then I kind of felt like I didn’t have anything.”
‘More needs to be done’
Eventually, Jimmy sought help and started going to therapy.
He says: “The biggest thing for me was accepting the problem was me, and how I was dealing with the split.
“I always felt bitter towards the world, as if the world owed me something. And that’s not the way it is.
“There are people out there that have problems, but until they accept they have a problem themselves, it will never get any better.”
And during the pandemic, Jimmy swapped swooning fans for flashing blue lights as he joined the ambulance service.
He also now tours with Lee and Spike, having got back together with them for the Big Reunion in 2013.
Sadly this wasn’t the same for Liam, who had several stints in rehab before he died.
Last month, prosecutors said they believe was “in a state of semi or total unconsciousness” when he fell to his death.
Three people were arrested and charged with “abandonment of a person followed by death, supply and facilitation of narcotics,” confirmed a statement by the office of prosecutor Andres Esteban Madrea.
And Jimmy believes more needs to be done at record companies to stop similar tragedies happening again.
He says: “Record companies should provide a psychologist to all their signings, or somebody that the artists can go to and say, ‘Well, I’ve had this experience in the music business. I’ve really enjoyed it. I’ve been given everything on a plate. Now they’ve taken it away from me. What do I do?’
“And then they should still be there for years to come, to help them through the process of getting back to normality.”
911 are on the Kubix Arena Tour this December with fellow boybands Five and East 17 Tickets . For more info: www.kubixfestival.com