Читать книгу Union J: The Unauthorised Biography - Rebecca Grey - Страница 8

You would hardly expect to find a future pop star on the racecourses of Britain. Set in beautiful countryside, the town of Newmarket is where horseracing was born hundreds of years ago and it still dominates the life of everyone who lives there, claiming ‘horseracing is breathed on every corner’. It couldn’t be more different from the bright, bustling lights of London and the world of music and showbiz. But, on 25 May 1988, James Paul Hamblett was born in the Suffolk town, and for most of his life horses were his focus. He didn’t ever expect to end up as a pop star – he was going to be a jockey!

He came from a horsey family: JJ’s dad, Paul, had been a jockey and so had his uncle, Martin, who trained horses in Germany, and a distant cousin – Liam Heard – was a jockey, too. JJ’s older brother Ashley had been born just a year before him, and the two boys grew up incredibly close to each other. So close that often their mum, Karin, worried about them! ‘JJ and his brother had a secret language with each other – they sounded like the Clangers!’ she recalled. ‘I was so worried I had to take them to the speech therapist.’ From a young age, JJ and Ashley were riding ponies every weekend, and JJ – quieter than confident Ashley – wanted to do everything his big brother did.

Despite being horse-crazy, JJ still got into his music. The first single he ever bought, aged 10, was ‘I Want It That Way’ and he soon became a huge Backstreet Boys’ fan. He also developed a big crush on sexy Baywatch star Pamela Anderson! But with his two obsessions of horses and music, JJ didn’t leave much room for concentrating in class at Soham Village College and Scaltback Middle School and he often found himself getting into trouble with teachers. A big chatterbox, JJ found that teachers got annoyed at his constant talking. It frustrated his cooking teacher so much that she even threw a pencil at his head once!

Animals were a big part of JJ’s life. His family owned a stunning German pointer dog, but he went through a traumatic experience with this dog when he was just 11. Told he was able to take the dog for a walk, JJ proudly set off, determined not to disobey his dad’s instructions to keep the dog on the lead at all times. But he forgot and took the lead off near a local motorway – whereupon the dog ran into the traffic and was hit by a car. Poor JJ ran home in terror and the RSPCA ended up bringing the dog back. He never forgot the experience.

After leaving school at 16, JJ threw himself into the horse world full time and started working for trainers in Newmarket. His dream had always been to work for Sir Michael Stoute, a 10-time champion trainer, but his dad, Paul, hadn’t been sure he would get the opportunity. ‘Dad asked me who I wanted to work for. I said Sir Michael Stoute, but he thought that, with me being only 14 [at the time], he wouldn’t want to take me on,’ he said in an interview as a young rider. JJ was over the moon when he eventually became Sir Michael’s apprentice at just 16 years old. The experienced trainer became a valued mentor to JJ – just like Louis Walsh would be on The X Factor – offering him advice and tips on how to improve. ‘Even when I have an outside ride, he’ll watch the race and have a word with me afterwards, telling me what I did right and what I did wrong. It’s a great help,’ he said at the time.

JJ worked for Sir Michael for four years while he began jockeying professionally. It was hard work, but he loved it, and he was proud of his older brother Ashley, who was apprenticed to trainer Luca Cumani. The boys spent their lives criss-crossing the country competing in races, trying to build up experience and a number of winners on the racecourse. In spare moments JJ and Ashley would sit on the sofa at home, watching their rides back on video to see where they might have improved. Dad Paul was always behind them, encouraging them to race as much as they could. ‘He keeps asking, “Why haven’t you got a ride today? Phone your agent and ask why you don’t have a ride,”’ said JJ at the time. ‘Then he tells us to go for a run or something, to get us out of the house.’ While a horse-mad teenager, JJ’s little sister Otea was born, and he dotes on her to this day.

During this time, JJ even rode one of Her Majesty the Queen’s horses and was then lucky enough to meet Her Majesty. ‘Once or twice a year, she would pop into the yard to check on her horses – it was so weird seeing her,’ he told the Daily Express. ‘She sauntered in wearing Wellington boots as if it was normal – and she walked into the horses’ box that I was in at the time. She said hello, fed the horses grass and left. Apart from The X Factor, it was the most surreal moment of my life.’ Living and breathing flat racing, Ashley and JJ’s bond grew ever stronger, and they were each other’s biggest fans. ‘When I ride against Ashley, if I can’t win, I want him to win instead,’ said JJ.

But a career in horseracing wasn’t to be. JJ was just 21 when he realised that he would have to give up his racing dreams. As a flat jockey, it was important he kept his weight at a very low level: if the jockey was too heavy, it would slow down the horse. At a regular weight of just 7st 12lb, he was much lighter than other guys his own age and ate a special diet at home to keep him at the right frame. At 18, JJ had no problems in keeping his weight down, saying, ‘I don’t have to watch what I eat, but I don’t eat that much anyway – I hate getting full up.’ But as he grew older, it became a struggle. He reluctantly realised he would have to quit the saddle and find something else to focus on in his life. It was a huge decision for JJ to take – horses were his family’s world. Still, he could be proud of his successes – by the time he stopped competing in October 2009 he’d ridden in over 260 race rides and had 24 wins in just four years of appearing on the racecourse. He wasn’t ready to give up horses for good, though, and carried on as a part-time work-rider for Newmarket trainer John Gosden, taking his horse out every morning.

JJ decided to take this opportunity to try to make it in singing, acting and modelling – something he’d always secretly dreamed of. ‘I have always loved singing but never had the bottle,’ he told the Newmarket Journal. ‘When I stopped race riding it gave me the drive to do something else.’With his chiselled good looks and toned body he signed up to a modelling agency and began attending auditions to try to land acting parts. One of his first was for a BBC series called The Cut. Although he didn’t get the role, JJ’s experience was growing and he was really enjoying this new challenge in his life. With the same drive and focus he’d previously applied to horseriding, he was determined to make it in the world of acting, but things were proving difficult. By 22, he’d been involved with a couple of failed singing projects and done a bit of acting but, as he himself admitted, ‘nothing really took off’.

But one day in 2011, JJ was contacted out of the blue by a songwriter who’d seen his picture on his agency website. US-based songwriter Kasey Monroe had seen something in JJ’s publicity shots and got in touch with him, asking if he could sing. JJ recorded a clip of his singing voice on YouTube, which impressed Kasey, who’d worked with some of the biggest names in pop, including Madonna and Westlife. She put JJ in touch with Julian White, a music manager who was putting together a new boyband. He was working with two ex-members of a band called Brooklyn who’d appeared on The X Factor earlier that year – and one of them happened to be a certain Jaymi Hensley! The boys hit it off straight away and JJ was hopeful that this would be the big break he’d been waiting for. ‘This is a fantastic chance for me and I’m really excited,’ he told the local paper in Newmarket. At the time, JJ was known as Jamie, but he quickly realised that with another member also called Jaymi, although it was spelled differently, it wouldn’t work. He came up with a new nickname for himself – JJ, standing for ‘Jockey Jamie’! Having met up with Jaymi and Josh, JJ was onto something good, and the next year would change his life forever.