This week a tweet caught my eye promoting an interview with Jimmy Constable, whose name only sounded vaguely familiar, but apparently he’d been going through some rough times after his boyband 911 broke up. 911 sounded slightly more familiar. I remembered as much as them being a three piece boyband from the UK, who’ve had a few hits at the time that I was following the UK pop charts, which must have been somewhere in the middle of 90s to early 00s.
Funny enough, I can’t remember any of those hits and none of the videos I’ve watched to prepare me for this blog have rung a bell either, other than their cover “A Little Bit More”, but that’s because I know the original very well. I do remember their faces because they did get a lot of publicity back in the day.
So, Jimmy fell into a black hole that many artists fall into after their reign of success ends. He was unable to deal with normal life and the vast difference it had, compared to the fast paced life he led as a pop star. He turned to alcohol, and later to drugs.
Jimmy has found his way back and 911 have also been reuniting a couple of times since those days, usually triggered by successful TV shows that had put them back together.
Now, Jimmy wants to go solo though. He’s started a crowdfunding Pledge Music campaign to raise the money for a solo album entitled “Road to Evolution”, which will be a country album and feature songs he has written himself. Two tracks are already finished are called “Tell The Truth” and “Hearts Lost Heart”. He’s hoping former 911 fans will give him the boost needed to make sure the rest of the album gets done as well and, at the time of writing this, he’s at 70% of reaching his goal after having appeared on UK television to share his story.
For me, just checking out the Pledge Music side was so much fun. I’ve discovered lots of acts from the past are actually planning upcoming releases. I guess I’ve found some artists to write about.
