1995: Formation Dancers
Jimmy Constable and
Simon "Spike" Dawbarn met in the early 1990s and were both later chosen to work as dancers on the late-night
ITV music show
The Hit Man and Her. In 1995, after seeing how successful
Jason Orange, a former dancer on the show, had been with boy band
Take That, Constable and Dawbarn put their own group together. At
Carlisle's radio station
CFM, they met Steve Gilmour, who had previously managed
PJ & Duncan and
Boyzone, and asked him to be their manager a few months later. After initially turning them down he decided to manage them but they were short of a singer and
Lee Brennan was recruited at Gilmour's recommendation. After holding a launch party at the Pogoda nightclub in Carlisle, they moved into Gilmour's three-bedroom flat in the south side of
Glasgow; 911 then embarked on a tour of schools and under-18 clubs in the UK. Having been turned down by record companies, 911 and their management team Backlash formed their own record label, Ginga Records, with funding from businessman Frank Shapiro.
1996–2000: Success In April 1996, they released their debut single, a cover of
Shalamar's "
Night to Remember", which entered the
UK Singles Chart at number 38 in May. 911 had their first top 10 hit in November 1996 with "
Don't Make Me Wait", which reached number 10. Nine more successive UK top 10 hits followed, including "
Bodyshakin'" (which became their signature song), "
Private Number" and the UK chart-topper "
A Little Bit More". Constable was also told by the other two that he would be the one to break the news of their break-up live on
Chris Moyles'
Radio 1 show on 26 February 2000. Constable said in 2005: "I didn't have any time to get my head around it. 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."
2008: First reunion In 2008, 911 reformed for a nightclub tour of the UK and Republic of Ireland, performing their most popular hits, and have also performed at a number of nightclub and university events, and they entertained the crowd prior to the
Bradford Bulls clash with
Leeds Rhinos on 23 May 2008. They took part in
Living's
Pop Goes the Band; where they came together to get back to their boy band ways, resulting in a live performance of "
Bodyshakin'".
2012: Second reunion 911 reunited in 2012, along with
Atomic Kitten,
Liberty X,
B*Witched,
Five and
Honeyz, for the
ITV2 documentary series
The Big Reunion, a show which would feature the bands reuniting for the first time in several years and undergoing two weeks of intense rehearsals ahead of a comeback performance sometime in 2013. The show began airing on 31 January 2013, and the second episode, which aired on 7 February, featured Lee, Jimmy and Spike talking about their time together and the difficulties that came with being in a band. The six bands performed a sold-out comeback concert at London's
Hammersmith Apollo on 26 February 2013. This was followed by
a UK arena tour taking place from 3–14 May 2013. Two more dates were later added for 16 and 17 May, taking the tour total to 14 shows. It was then announced that the bands would also be going on a mini-Christmas party tour in December 2013. On 6 March, 911 made an appearance on
Daybreak, where they announced that they had recorded a new version of "Bodyshakin'" and were also planning to release new material. On 28 March, they appeared on
This Morning and confirmed that they would be releasing a new album and touring in 2014. Brennan said: "We're doing a new album, we're going to be touring ourselves next year, so we've got lots of things to look forward to. Bring It On!". During The Big Reunion arena tour, it was announced that the band's new album would be called
Illuminate. On 3 August, Brennan tweeted that the album,
Illuminate... (The Hits and More), would be released on 9 September 2013 alongside their comeback single "
2 Hearts 1 Love". During another appearance on
This Morning on 5 August, 911 spoke about their music comeback and also performed "2 Hearts 1 Love". On 20 March 2014, it was announced that 911 and the other boy bands from both the
first and
second series of
The Big Reunion,
Five,
Blue,
3T,
A1,
Damage and
5th Story, would go on a nationwide tour in October 2014.
2019–present: 911 The Reunion and Đức Phúc collaboration On 22 June 2019, 911 made a comeback to Southeast Asia with their concert known as 911 The Reunion in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with a sold-out show. On 9 February 2023, the group collaborated with Vietnamese singer
Đức Phúc for a bilingual version of "I Do" in English and
Vietnamese. ==Discography==