Pop superstars JLS are heading this way on a UK tour and in an exclusive preview band member JB Gill has revealed new show stopping highlights.
Everybody Say JLS: The Hits Tour – full details below and tickets at www.ticketmaster.co.uk and www.gigsandtours.com – will feature not just their own greatest hits but ‘bangers’ from the naughties to present day in a DJ battle of the bandmates.
JB, real name Jonathan Benjamin, told how he will partner Aston Merrygold in the high energy DJ showdown against Oritsé Williams and Marvin Humes.
And In the exclusive video chat with Graham Walker – watch in full above – he also revealed chart-topping UK rapper Tinchy Stryder will be joining them as special support on the 18 date, 14 venue tour.
JB also admits he's almost got a double life, juggling between the glitzzy life of a pop superstar and mucking out as a farmer. He has an 11-acre pigs and turkey farm in Kent.
Everybody Say JLS: The Hits Tour – full details below and tickets at www.ticketmaster.co.uk and www.gigsandtours.com – will feature not just their own greatest hits but ‘bangers’ from the naughties to present day in a DJ battle of the bandmates.
JB, real name Jonathan Benjamin, told how he will partner Aston Merrygold in the high energy DJ showdown against Oritsé Williams and Marvin Humes.
And In the exclusive video chat with Graham Walker – watch in full above – he also revealed chart-topping UK rapper Tinchy Stryder will be joining them as special support on the 18 date, 14 venue tour.
JB also admits he's almost got a double life, juggling between the glitzzy life of a pop superstar and mucking out as a farmer. He has an 11-acre pigs and turkey farm in Kent.
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00:00 [MUSIC - THE KINGDOM, "EVERYBODY'S IN LOVE"]
00:02 [MUSIC - THE KINGDOM, "EVERYBODY'S IN LOVE"]
00:31 Pop superstars, JLS, one of the biggest bands on the planet,
00:35 selling more than 10 million records worldwide,
00:38 with chart-topping smashes, "Everybody In Love," "The Club
00:41 Is Alive," "Love You More," "She Makes Me Wanna,"
00:43 and of course, classic debut, "Beat Again."
00:45 And after a 2021 comeback tour, performing to 350,000 people,
00:51 the JLS is about to beat again.
00:54 Everybody say JLS, the It's Tour,
00:56 is going to play 14 venues on an 18-day UK autumn tour.
01:00 You've got all the details on the website.
01:02 But to tell us all about it, I'm just delighted.
01:04 So my special guest today is the one and only JLS legend,
01:08 Jonathan Benjamin Gill, or JB.
01:11 Hey.
01:11 [INAUDIBLE]
01:12 Hey.
01:12 How are you, buddy?
01:14 I'm good.
01:14 It's good to hear from you.
01:15 I haven't spoken to you for ages.
01:17 Yeah, well, you know what?
01:18 You decided to leave the planet for a few years, didn't you?
01:21 But you're back.
01:22 [LAUGHTER]
01:23 Not far off.
01:24 Not far off.
01:25 And just to remind everybody, you're
01:26 back with your bandmates Marvin Youms, Aston Marigold,
01:31 and Otis Williams.
01:32 So big, big tour that's coming up.
01:35 You gave us the dress rehearsal a couple of years ago,
01:38 I guess.
01:38 This is all the hits, isn't it?
01:40 What can fans expect?
01:42 Yeah, like you say, it's going to be all the hits
01:44 that everybody knows and loves, all the energetic dance
01:47 routines that you'll have seen us perform over the years.
01:50 We're definitely, obviously, going to be adding a few twists
01:53 to that.
01:53 We're in the rehearsals at the moment,
01:55 and obviously looking forward to production
01:57 where we can get everything together and put
01:58 on an incredible show.
01:59 And we're actually doing something unique and different
02:02 for the first time on this tour, where
02:04 we're going to be doing a DJ set, sort of a DJ battle
02:07 kind of thing between the four of us.
02:10 I'm going to be with Aston.
02:11 I think Arita's going to be with Marvin.
02:14 We're going to be playing bangers, songs people know
02:16 and love from the noughties all the way
02:19 through to the present day, obviously,
02:21 to get you guys hyped and excited.
02:24 And we've got some extra special support acts as well.
02:26 We've got Tinchy Strider on support of us,
02:29 which has been the first time we've worked with him.
02:31 But of course, you've got a great relationship with him
02:33 over the years.
02:34 So we're looking forward to welcoming him on the tour
02:37 as well.
02:38 So it's going to be good.
02:39 It's going to be an incredible night.
02:40 So if you guys are in the area and want to come down and check
02:44 your boys out, then you're obviously more than welcome.
02:47 You've sold it to me.
02:48 I'm sold.
02:49 I'm there.
02:50 I've got to ask, what's your favorite JLS song
02:53 to perform and why?
02:56 My personal favorite song is probably Love You More.
02:59 I don't know what it is.
03:00 I always have a soft spot for the ballads.
03:03 It's one of those ones that evokes all the emotion.
03:05 So everyone watching, they have a little tear in their eye.
03:09 They've got the lighters out or their phone lights out.
03:12 And they're waving them in the air.
03:14 And for me, it's a really beautiful moment
03:16 that gets captured on camera.
03:19 So Jebby, you split in 2013.
03:22 So eight years before the comeback in 2021.
03:25 Did you expect such a massive tickets demand
03:27 and the spark when you returned?
03:30 Do you know what?
03:31 Absolutely not.
03:32 I mean, of course, we knew it had been a while since we toured.
03:35 So we were sure that we'd get a good tour on the road.
03:39 But we were absolutely blown away.
03:41 I think in the end, we ended up doing about 28 or 29 dates
03:45 across the UK, two or three nights in most venues,
03:49 which is absolutely incredible.
03:51 And I think for us, as I say, it was a huge surprise
03:54 having that much support.
03:55 And I think maybe we shouldn't have been so surprised.
03:57 And I think when a lot of our fans heard about the reunion,
04:01 it was their first time coming for eight years as well.
04:05 But in that eight years, a bit like us,
04:07 they'd had their own kids.
04:08 And they'd obviously taken on a whole new life by then.
04:12 So actually, they were wanting to come back to the show
04:15 and then bring in their kids for the first time as well.
04:17 And some of them even--
04:18 I remember some of the shows we had three generations
04:21 of the family coming to watch.
04:22 So when you do the maths, of course,
04:24 there's going to be a whole lot more people coming out
04:26 and supporting and wanting to get down to the show.
04:30 Well, that's a nice segue in, isn't it?
04:32 Because the people's lives did change quite a bit.
04:34 And they did take on different lives.
04:36 You've almost got a double life going on, haven't you?
04:38 I mean, apart from being the daddy, too,
04:40 and happily married, you've got an 11-acre pig and turkey
04:44 farm in Kent.
04:46 Now, how do you balance that?
04:49 How do you balance the two?
04:52 Well, you know what?
04:53 It's tough, of course, with a farm, any farm.
04:55 There's always stuff going on every single day of the year.
04:58 And that's one of the reasons why we focus--
05:00 or why I focus specifically on the turkeys.
05:04 It's seasonal, of course.
05:05 So it means that I have a bit of time
05:07 other parts of the year to do other projects
05:09 and other things.
05:11 Like you say, I'm very happily married.
05:12 And I've got a fantastic support network around me,
05:15 not least my wife, who very much does hold things down.
05:18 So if I'm traveling from away, thankfully on this tour
05:22 and with most of the other work that I do,
05:24 I'm not away for super long periods of time.
05:27 So it's manageable between all of us.
05:30 And of course, we've got, as I say,
05:31 a great network of support across the community as well.
05:34 You must have seen Clarkson's farm
05:36 and been able to sympathize with Clarkson
05:38 trying to attempt to run a farm in the countryside.
05:42 Have you thought of anything similar plans?
05:44 I mean, I know you were down at Calinore, which
05:46 was quite near to me earlier this year.
05:48 And you've been on TV about the farming.
05:50 But what about a JB Gill's farm TV or series or books
05:57 or have you thought of it?
05:59 Yeah, like you say, I mean, I have got a children's book,
06:02 which is out.
06:03 I've received-- or I've put on sale one book in the series
06:12 already, which has been exciting.
06:14 It's been a massive project for me.
06:16 And I actually wrote the book myself,
06:18 which is a massive task, as you can imagine.
06:20 I'm just in the process of writing book two,
06:22 so very excited about that.
06:25 But yeah, I mean, of course, like you say,
06:26 I do lots of different TV bits and pieces.
06:30 And I love working in TV as well.
06:32 I love to present.
06:33 I love to meet different farmers, different people
06:35 up and down the country.
06:37 And who knows?
06:38 Like you say, never say never.
06:39 There may well become a time when I have my own show.
06:42 I do a show with my family on Channel 5 called
06:44 Cooking with the Gills, which obviously is more
06:46 sort of the end process of book to table.
06:50 But yeah, or filter table, should I say.
06:53 But yeah, for me, I think it will
06:55 happen at the right time.
06:57 Jebi, can you feel Clarkson's pain, though?
06:59 You must have had similar instances when you first
07:03 start running a farm.
07:05 Absolutely.
07:05 I mean, I remember the first time--
07:08 there's two instances that really stick out
07:11 the most in my head.
07:12 When I first started with the pigs,
07:14 and we probably had, I think, maybe four or five working
07:18 sales.
07:18 So you can imagine, you've got eight or 10 piglets
07:21 in the litter, almost 70-odd pigs on site.
07:24 And I remember someone--
07:26 I decided that I was going to go with my family on holiday.
07:29 So I didn't actually leave with them.
07:30 They went on holiday.
07:31 And I thought, let me try and get a couple of days
07:33 where I can actually just take a bit of stress off,
07:36 spend a bit of time with the family.
07:38 And then I think it was about three or four days,
07:39 and then we'd be coming back.
07:40 And I remember I surprised my wife.
07:43 I didn't tell her I was going to go.
07:44 I jumped on the plane, got there, left my phone off,
07:47 because, of course, I didn't want her to call me and then
07:49 hear that international tone.
07:50 So I literally turned up at the Airbnb where she was staying.
07:54 I walked in the door, and the first thing she said to me
07:56 was, what are you doing here?
08:00 And of course, I don't have my phone on.
08:02 So as soon as I walked in the door,
08:04 I realized that someone had been calling her literally nonstop
08:07 saying that the pigs are out.
08:09 They're in one of the neighbor's fields.
08:12 I think it was like a school group or a scout camp
08:14 or something like that.
08:15 And they wanted to know if they were ours.
08:17 And of course, she'd been trying to get hold of me
08:19 to sort it all out.
08:20 And I'm halfway across the world.
08:22 So I literally had to get someone who's--
08:24 the person who's looking after it for me
08:25 was literally going to go in and feed up and make sure
08:27 everything's OK, muck out.
08:28 And then that was it.
08:29 So what was that--
08:31 was that when you were on tour then?
08:32 Was that with the band commitments?
08:34 And is that how sometimes these things happen,
08:36 that you can be on stage one minute
08:37 and then having to think about running the farm the next?
08:40 No, that wasn't when I was in the group still.
08:44 But like you say--
08:45 well, like I say, there's always stuff going on.
08:48 There's always things happening on the farm.
08:50 And you do have to juggle things sometimes,
08:53 even little things like ordering stuff for Christmas
08:56 and making sure we get everything prepped.
08:58 I literally come off this tour, and then I'm straight
09:00 into Christmas with the turkey.
09:01 So it's going to be full on.
09:03 A profitable life.
09:04 Yeah, not far off.
09:07 So just finally, obviously you've
09:11 told us that the fans are going to get all the hits
09:13 and that you're going to be doing new things.
09:16 Is there something that you could reveal about the tour
09:19 that we've not even heard of yet?
09:21 Is there something really special happening on this tour?
09:25 Yeah, absolutely.
09:26 As I say, we're going to be doing,
09:28 for the first time ever, a DJ set, a live DJ set on stage.
09:34 So I'm going to be partnering with Aston.
09:35 I recently partnered with Marvin.
09:37 And basically, we're going to go head to head,
09:39 playing all the hits, all the bangers,
09:41 from everybody's favorite artists, from the noughties
09:44 all the way up to the present day.
09:46 And it's just a way for us-- we saw on the last tour,
09:48 we had lots of DJs come support our tour.
09:51 And it absolutely hyped the crowd.
09:54 It was an amazing interaction.
09:55 And I think it's great for us to be able to get back on stage
10:01 and bring people the songs that they love amongst all the hits
10:05 that we're going to be performing.
10:06 We're really excited about it.
10:07 Brilliant.
10:08 And just finally, JB, what would you
10:10 say to all the fans who have been giving you such great
10:12 support over all these years since you smashed into our lives
10:15 on the X-Factor in 2008?
10:18 I mean, they've been around a long time.
10:19 What would you say to them?
10:21 I'd just say thank you so much for your support.
10:23 You guys have literally stuck with us.
10:25 We've fit, we've thinned from the early days,
10:27 even before people knew us as JLS.
10:29 So we thank you guys for everything, for coming out,
10:33 for voting for us all those years ago,
10:35 and continuing to support us by coming on tour
10:37 and spending time with us.
10:38 And for us, it's a real privilege,
10:40 it's a real honor to get all up and down the country.
10:42 Of course, we're going to be at every single venue
10:45 pretty much across the country.
10:47 We're going to be in Leeds.
10:48 We're going to be in Newcastle.
10:49 We've got two shows in Newcastle.
10:51 Such has been the demand.
10:52 So we're really excited about getting on the road
10:54 and seeing some of those fans that perhaps we
10:55 don't get to see as often.
10:57 And of course, finishing the party
10:58 at the Utility Arena Sheffield on November the 11th.
11:03 We'll have all the dates, including Yorkshire dates.
11:06 You're obviously going to be playing at the Leeds
11:09 First Direct Arena on the 7th of November.
11:11 And we've got those dates that you're going to be
11:14 at Newcastle as well.
11:16 In fact, one of them was sold out.
11:17 So you put the matinee on, on November the 4th.
11:20 So get your tickets, folks.
11:22 If you're thinking about this, you'll not have much time.
11:25 The show's around the corner,
11:26 but the tickets and the venues are selling out.
11:30 JB, as ever, always a pleasure to speak to you, buddy.
11:32 Hope to catch up with you on the tour.
11:34 Have a great time.
11:35 And yeah, good luck balancing the farm
11:38 and the pop style lifestyle.
11:40 - Nice, O'Graham.
11:41 Thank you so much.
11:42 - Take care, buddy.
11:43 ♪ Everybody in love ♪
11:44 ♪ Put your hands up ♪
11:46 ♪ Everybody in love ♪
11:47 ♪ Come put your hands up ♪
11:49 ♪ Everybody in love ♪
11:51 ♪ Let's just get back together ♪
11:53 ♪ We should've never broke up ♪
11:55 ♪ They're telling me that my heart won't beat again ♪
11:59 ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪
12:02 ♪ Makes me wanna ♪
12:03 ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪
12:05 ♪ Now everybody's in cheerless ♪
12:08 ♪ Now everybody's in cheerless ♪