Union J: The Unauthorised Biography. Rebecca Grey
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with some difficult times, too. His brother Will, who had joined the Royal Marines, went off for his first tour of duty in Afghanistan when his little brother was only 13. George had to deal with the fact that Will was risking his life for his country, and that he might not see him again. ‘It was really hard knowing your big brother’s going out there fighting for his country and he might not come back,’ George told The X Factor, years later. And after starting high school, sensitive George found himself the victim of cruel bullies who ended up physically hurting him, just because he didn’t fit in. ‘I was 12 stone and really short. All the other boys loved football and I just wanted to play my guitar. I was always the last one picked because no one wanted the fatty who couldn’t run,’ he told the Daily Star Sunday. ‘The worst thing that happened was we were playing football and one of the kids purposefully kicked the ball as hard as they could right at me. I put my hands up to protect my face and ended up breaking my wrist.’
It was a nightmarish experience for George, who felt he was always a bit of a ‘loner’ at school. But after this traumatic experience, he transferred schools to Kings of Wessex in Cheddar, where he found his niche in the creative subjects. He even landed plum roles in school productions of Animal Farm and Much Ado About Nothing – as well as bagging his first kiss with a girl called Sandy! Meanwhile, his guitar playing went from strength to strength, and George performed in the Priddy Folk Festival near his home in Somerset, aged just 14. His dad Dominic was still an important part of his life. He spent as much time as possible at his dad’s house in Nottingham, where George was accumulating even more brothers and sisters! With his new partner Rowena, George’s dad Dom had three children – Leo, who came along in 2003; Archie, born in 2008, and little Spencer, born in 2011. Including George’s stepsisters Annabelle and Louisa, he now had a truly huge family! George adored his little siblings and they, in turn, looked up to their cool big brother in awe.
Creative George went on to study graphic design at Weston College, part of Bath Spa University, where he received distinctions for his work. During the holidays he earned extra cash working part-time in Costa Coffee. He expected that he’d follow a career in design, perhaps in America, after graduating from uni. Meanwhile, his older half-brother Tom emigrated to Australia, where he worked as a builder but was also a drummer in a band. Seeing his eldest brother follow his musical ambitions stirred something in George. He’d long harboured a secret dream no one knew about – that he wanted to follow a career in music, too. By now, he was really talented on the guitar and was able to pick out a tune on ‘anything from a bongo to a banjo’, according to his mum Toni. George also had a gorgeous singing voice, but modestly held back from pushing himself forward. But a devastating event in March 2011 changed his attitude. Toni, who’d been working as a nurse, felt very ill one day and went to hospital. There, she was diagnosed with a severe migraine and sent home – whereas, actually, she was having a stroke. Toni suffered a brain bleed, which left her with loss of feeling on her left side. She had to have surgery on her wrists as well after she developed Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, a painful condition where the hands and fingers develop a dull ache and tingling sensation after a nerve is compressed. Having to leave her job and spend months recovering from a big health scare was traumatic for Toni and the rest of the family. Seeing his mum go through such a scary illness left its mark on George and he knew then that he should follow his heart.
Just a few months later, he was hanging out with Weston College friend Emily Tollner when they saw that The X Factor auditions would be coming to Cardiff. ‘Go on,’ urged Emily – it would be just a short journey away across the River Severn. Her encouraging words gave George the confidence boost he needed. And so, on a March day in 2012, he packed up his guitar, bought a train ticket and plucked up the courage. He was going to enter The X Factor.
The X Factor is the biggest show on UK television. Before then, Britain had had singing contests, like Pop Stars and Pop Idol – which Will Young won back in 2002 – but nothing quite like The X Factor had ever been seen before. From the moment the series hit TV screens in 2004, it became the biggest deal going. Millions of viewers tuned into the four-month-long series each year, which offered a million-pound record contract to the winner. Anyone over 16 could enter and have their chance of singing their way to superstardom. And thousands upon thousands did – in 2006 an incredible 200,000 wannabes auditioned for the show. By the time Union J were ready for their bite at the X Factor cherry, the show had made stars out of many of the winners – including Leona Lewis, Alexandra Burke and Matt Cardle. Even those who hadn’t won the big prize found that X Factor exposure in front of millions of the viewing public had transformed their lives. JLS, Olly Murs, Stacey Solomon, Rebecca Ferguson and even joke band Jedward had all become hugely successful following their involvement in the show, but in 2012 the name on everyone’s lips was One Direction.
The five-piece boyband had been put together by The X Factor in 2010, after originally auditioning as solo singers. They ended up coming third overall, behind Rebecca Ferguson and outright winner Matt Cardle. But since then their success had eclipsed everyone’s wildest expectations. Not only did their debut single, ‘What Makes You Beautiful’, shoot to Number One in the UK, it went on to become an enormous hit in the US, too. With their debut album, Up All Night, selling in its millions across the globe, the boys were famous worldwide. They had become the first British group in American chart history to hit Number One with their debut album when it was released over there in March 2012 – and entered into the Guinness World Records as a result. As the boys from Triple J and George Shelley separately travelled to their first X Factor auditions, the papers and internet were full of One Direction’s international success. They internet truly global superstars, and their journey had begun this same way just two years before: travelling to an X Factor audition alongside thousands of other hungry would-be superstars. In the back of their minds the boys must have wondered if this would end up being their big break – Josh and Jaymi in particular, as they’d been in a few boybands in the past that hadn’t worked out. Would Triple J be the answer? They hoped and prayed it would be.
Behind the success of the X Factor lay Simon Cowell – the music-mogul-turned-reality-show-TV-judge. He’d come up with the idea after becoming famous in the UK through Pop Idol, and had turned The X Factor into the global brand it was. Notorious for his plain speaking and harsh put-downs of singers he felt were not up to scratch, Simon’s pantomime-baddie act hid a sharp business brain. He was a millionaire many times over thanks to his production company owning The X Factor and signing the winners to his own record label, Syco. The British public had a love/hate relationship with Cowell, but it was obvious that he had the magic touch with The X Factor. He had appeared as the main judge on the show since its start, originally alongside music managers Louis Walsh and Sharon Osbourne. Australian singer Dannii Minogue had been brought in as a fourth judge in 2007, and her fiery relationship with Sharon saw the wife of rocker Ozzy Osbourne leave the next year – to be replaced by Cheryl Cole. This proved an amazing move for the Girls Aloud star, who became the nation’s sweetheart and also launched her own top solo career. But following the launch of The X Factor USA in 2010, both Simon and Cheryl left the show, followed by Dannii, who was focusing on her career in Australia. It was a big shock – three-quarters of the show’s judges had left. They were replaced by Take That’s star singer and songwriter Gary Barlow, N-Dubz singer Tulisa Contostavlos and Destiny’s Child’s Kelly Rowland. With this brand-new line-up, the 2011 series of The X Factor faced more criticisms and controversies than usual, as viewers adjusted to this big change in the format. And it didn’t work out 100 per cent successfully, as ratings dropped from the last series in 2010, which had seen an amazing 19.4 million viewers tune in for the final.
Both Triple J and George had made it through the first, early rounds of auditions, which were held without the famous judges being present. Luckily for Josh, Jaymi and JJ, this was the first year when acts with management deals were able to audition – in previous years they would have been prevented from entering. Now, in May 2012,