So here we are the day after British band JLS announced they are splitting up! It was a moment to shatter the world of young music fans everywhere. I personally have not seen this much outpouring of grief from a fan group of a band since Take That split up in 1996.
It was not that long ago when Westlife split, there was very little press coverage on it. JLS splitting was one of this years biggest music stories. I guess Westlife had been around so long that their fans had grown up and had a bit more life experience to deal with it. The news about JLS made the BBC flagship news programme, that is how big it was (unless it was a slow news day). Twitter was full of (mainly) young girls expressing how upset they were about the break up.
I think most females (who are now in their 30’s) will remember Tuesday 13th February 1996 as a day that broke their hearts. For those too young to remember it was massive news when Take That announced they were splitting up. Special helplines were created to those who were finding it hard to cope with such news. I was in my first year of college at the time, and I remember vividly hardly any girls attended the next day of lessons! It was almost like a ‘boys only’ college for the day! Perhaps the same could have been the same in schools and colleges today but in shock about JLS?
I also remember the February 13th 1996 quite well also. It was about 5pm, the doorbell went at the home I was sharing with my mum. It was the daughter of our neighbour across the road. I never really knew her, but I knew her parents were a really nice couple and would do anything for their children. She was in floods of tears, red as anything (from what I assume was a large amount of crying). ”It’s over, they’ve split up, they’ve split up” my mum put her arm around her shoulder, invited her in to sit down, the young girl was very short of breath, obviously very distressed. All she could say was ”they dont love us anymore, they split up’. My mum was utterly shocked, she obviously thought the girl was talking about her parents, my mum seemed to know EVERYTHING that was going on in our street, and could not predict a seemingly happy couple just ending their marriage! My mum said ‘would you like me to go and talk to them for you’ …..the girl said ”You know Take That, how do you know Take That???’
Then it dawned on both of us that all along it was about a pop group NOT her parents. If the phrase ‘hashtag awkward’ was known back then, I would have used it at the precise moment.
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Andy
Andy Martindale 