Exclusive interview: 911 back for a little bit more

The 911 boys are back for a little bit more, and maybe for good. Lee Brennan, Jimmy Constable and Simon ‘Spike’ Dawbarn have reunited for ITV2’s The Big Reunion, with naughty tales to get your body shakin’...

The boy band, or man-band as they’ve now rephrased it, were rumoured to have suffered rifts escalating to their split in 2000 which led to two years of silence between Jimmy and his bandmates. In this exclusive interview, 911 tell iVillage.co.uk how they’ve been moving on.

So how is it being back in 911, especially as you didn’t end on the best terms?

Jimmy Constable: It’s strange really, and weird being in that scenario again, when people are reminiscing about the old days and their favourite songs. From the beginning when we were doing it, we sat down and said it was going to be warts and all for us. We cleared the air between us.

Spike Dawbarn: At the time Jimmy wasn’t happy for us to split up and wanted to carry on, but he was going down a different tunnel and lost the plot a bit. Lee and I thought it would be a better time to go because we weren’t as tight as we used to be. That’s what’s been nice about getting back, because we're trying to forget and move on from that.

Lee Brennan: If there were any issues in the band, I think they were mainly between me and Jimmy. We’ve talked a lot about it the last four months. I now live a mile from Jimmy, so I see quite a bit of him and it’s good to get to know him again.

Along with other bands of the nineties you’re taking part in ITV2’s The Big Reunion. Will you be continuing as a band after the show?

Lee Brennan: I think we’ll just see how it goes. We’ve got a tour in twelve arenas around the UK, so we’re looking forward to that. I guess after that, you never know in this industry what’s going to come up. We’d like to do our own 911 tour in 2014 but I think we’re waiting to see how it goes. I’m happy with anything that comes our way.

Spike Dawbarn: We’ve got a taste of it now, and when you get a taste for it you do really enjoy it, so we’ll just see how the show goes when we do the live show. Just see whether people want you to carry on or not. You just don’t know, do you?

Jimmy Constable: We always said we’d take it day by day... If the demand's there, then we’ll sit down and have a conversation about it. But the music industry has changed so much since being in 911 the first time round.

How is it learning the songs and routines again? Have you kept up the singing?

Spike Dawbarn: Well, we’re going to be doing a fair bit. I’m hoping no one will notice the difference between what we did back then and what we’re doing now. I’ve got a dodgy ankle and it’s a bit of a 'mare, and I’ve not sung a note since. Lee sort of got all the vocals and stuff.

Jimmy Constable: That was another conversation that we had; that if we were going to do this, it was all or nothing. Which means all the backflips, somersaults, breakdances are still in there... we just need a bit of resuscitation afterwards. We’re a bit older than the old days!

Lee Brennan: We all got a personal trainer to get ready for the show, and we’ve been rehearsing a lot. I’ve done some song writing over the years and fell out of love with that, but I’m just getting back into that.