Читать книгу Union J: The Unauthorised Biography - Rebecca Grey - Страница 7

The beginning of the 1990s was an exciting time in Britain, as people waved goodbye to the Eighties and ushered in a brand-new decade, with new fashions and new music on the horizon. And on 24 February 1990, just a couple of days before dramatic storms hit the country, a little baby was born whose love of music and performing would change his life – Jaymi Hensley. Born James William Hensley in Luton, a town a little over 30 miles north of London, Jaymi was the first child for his mum Jackie and dad David (if he’d been a girl, he would have been called Amber!).

They lived in the village of Stopsley, where Jaymi’s mum worked in the local newsagent’s, Hendersons. Jaymi was a cute little boy, and right from an early age had a close relationship with his mother – his first word, in fact, was ‘Mum’. He always had lots of respect and love for Jackie, who he called his ‘hero’. Many years later, when he was in Union J, Jaymi would tell Cosmopolitan magazine: ‘We’ve all been brought up by strong, independent women. We’re all mummy’s boys!’ He started at the local school, Putteridge Infant and Junior School, in September 1994, proudly wearing his dark-blue uniform as he stepped through the school gates for the first time. As well as starting school, there was another big change happening to Jaymi back then, as his little brother Aaron arrived the same year.

From a young age, it was clear that Jaymi had a strong vocal talent and a flair for dramatics. In her spare time, Jaymi’s mum Jackie was a dance teacher and choreographer for local amateur dramatics group The Phoenix Players, and it wasn’t long before Jaymi wanted to join her. He took to the stage like a duck to water and the first musical he appeared in was Bye Bye Birdie. As Jaymi grew up he also started to form his own taste in music – developing a fondness for female singers with incredible voices. The first single he bought, aged nine, was Christina Aguilera’s ‘Genie in a Bottle’, a huge pop-dance track that was all over the radio during the summer of 1999, and soon Jaymi also got into Beyoncé. It fast became evident that Jaymi himself had a sensational voice, and as well as singing regularly, he began taking ballet lessons, too.

Aged 11, Jaymi moved up into Putteridge High School, and his love for performing grew even stronger. Despite having lots of schoolwork, he managed to fit in starring in the Phoenix Players’ production of Blitz!, a musical by Lionel Bart, who also wrote Oliver! But his cheeky, rebellious side sometimes saw him get into trouble at school. Together with his friend Stacey, Jaymi once hid every single clock in the school – a joke that spiralled out of control when the two pranksters got found out and suspended. And it wasn’t the first time Jaymi was suspended – the next time was for having a streak in his hair, and the time after that for wearing an earring. Jaymi was determined not to be just like all those around him, and instead to be himself. ‘Be honest and forge your own path in life’ is still his personal motto.

During his teen years, Jaymi poured all his energy into pursuing his dreams of a career in performance. He realised that he had a special talent and felt most alive when he was onstage. So with the support of his friends and family, he started attending weekend classes at the prestigious Sylvia Young Theatre School in London, where lots of the students had gone on to become famous and successful. Spice Girl Emma Bunton, pop star Rita Ora, late singer Amy Winehouse and actresses Kara Tointon and Denise Van Outen had all gone there and went on to achieve amazing things, so Jaymi knew it was one of the best places to learn his craft. And a short while later he met a friend at Sylvia Young who would become very important in his life in the future – a good-looking younger boy called Joshua Cuthbert.

As well as spending all his spare time singing and dancing, Jaymi also got into the Twilight books. As a sensitive Pisces, he adored the dramatic romance of the series and loved them even more when they were turned into the films starring Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. ‘I love Twilight; I’m a bit of a softy. I’m a proper RPattz fan,’ he said. No wonder that a highlight of his time on The X Factor was attending the Breaking Dawn – Part 2 London premiere.

After leaving school Jaymi decided to try and go for a career in pop music – and originally it seemed that his dreams would come true more quickly than he could have imagined. Aged 16, he tried out for a new boyband and was thrilled when he was accepted as one of Code5. Alongside bandmates Mitch Carroll, Dean Stansby, Joss Wilson and Chris Johnson, Jaymi threw his all into the new group. As the youngest member of the band, he found himself performing at huge arenas up and down the country, when Code5 landed a supporting-act slot on Westlife’s The Love Tour. He got a huge thrill from singing in front of such big crowds, and hoped that one day Code5 would get to be as big as the Irish supergroup, managed by Jaymi’s future X Factor mentor, Louis Walsh. ‘I can’t stop smiling. It was amazing. People keep taking pictures of me and saying well done in the street, it’s like star treatment,’ he told the local newspaper, Luton Today. ‘You imagine in your head how the other half live, but it’s all above your imagination.’

Things were going well: following the live tour, Code5 headed into the recording studio to lay down some tracks; they recorded a mixture of new songs and old classics, such as Lionel Richie’s ‘Hello’. But despite this positive start, Code5 didn’t find any real success, and soon a disappointed Jaymi decided to go solo. He began singing at lots of the Gay Pride events, and loved the buzz he got from being in front of an audience – even writing on his Myspace page how he feels ‘happiest when performing live’. As a solo artist, Jaymi thought he’d found his big break again – winning a talent contest and being signed by Dance Crazy management. He began work on his debut single – a cover of a Nick Kamen hit from the 1980s – but yet again he found that success eluded him. Things were proving a struggle, and to make ends meet he had to find part-time work as a singing and dancing teacher. He kept plugging away at his dream, though, and at the end of 2010 entered the Open Mic UK competition. There, he dazzled the judges with a rendition of Leona Lewis’s ‘Bleeding Love’, but missed out on the winner’s trophy, coming fourth in his age category. It was another near-miss for Jaymi, who was finding that reaching the top in showbiz was tough. But he didn’t let his dreams die, and all the time he had the support of his friends and family – especially mum Jackie, who always knew he would end up doing what he loved for a living. ‘If Jaymi wasn’t a singer, I don’t know what else he could be, really – as he’s not much good at anything else!’ she joked to The X Factor, years later.

But despite all the disappointments so far in Jaymi’s career, he was determined not to give up. He knew that fame and success weren’t going to be handed to him on a plate, and he would have to keep plugging away at every opportunity he could grab. A big fan of The X Factor, he knew that getting seen on screen could be the big break he’d been waiting for. So, by 2011, Jaymi was ready for another crack at fame. He’d joined a new boyband with some friends from Luton. They called themselves Brooklyn after pointing at an atlas with their eyes closed and landing on the city of New York! Having only recently formed the band, within a few months they were travelling to Cardiff to audition for The X Factor. Performing in front of judges Gary Barlow, Tulisa Contostavlos, Kelly Rowland and Louis Walsh, they impressed with their version of Cee Lo Green’s ‘Forget You’. Gary wanted to hear more, so the boys sang Jason Derulo’s ‘In My Head’ – causing a divide between the judges. They got through the audition stage after Jaymi vowed to Gary that they’d work hard. Determination was etched all over his face. But yet again his dreams were dashed when the group was kicked out at Bootcamp stage. Things were hard for Jaymi; instead of making a living doing what he loved, he had to earn money doing what he described as ‘rubbish’ jobs, such as working in a call centre. But the absolute worst job for Jaymi was packing items for online retailer Amazon. Standing by a conveyor belt wasn’t the stuff of his dreams, so he kept plugging away at his singing career.

He’d had so many false starts in music that Jaymi wondered if he would ever make the big time. But after getting noticed as part of Brooklyn, pop manager Julian White thought he had what it takes. He put together a new boyband called Rewind, which included Jaymi’s friend Josh Cuthbert from Sylvia Young and three other boys, one of whom was a former jockey called ‘JJ’ Hamblett.