X FACTOR runners-up JLS are in the ascendancy. Jackie Butler finds them totally focused on a long and lasting career

ADORING Westcountry fans are gearing up for the arrival of JLS who play a sellout show at Plymouth Pavilions next week. The 2008 X Factor finalists have firmly seized the crown for the UK's most popular boy band, and have been working hard to establish their credibility as artists with substance and longevity.

They've already won awards for best newcomers and best song for Beat Again at the 2009 MOBO Awards. On Tuesday they will be at the glitzy Brit Awards in London with nominations for British Group, British Breakthrough Act, and Best British Single. The following night they will be on stage in Plymouth as part of their first ever headline tour.

Things are pretty sweet right now for the Home Counties quartet originally known as Jack The Lad Swing. Far from being a hit-factory farmed unit, they are actually the brainchild of one of the four members – talented and determined singer songwriter Oritse Williams.

He had a vision for putting together a British boy band super-group, taking the best elements of all that have gone before to play a style of music dubbed New Jack Swing, hence their moniker.

He recruited JB, Aston Merrygold and Marvin Humes in the summer of 2007 after placing ads around his University of North London campus and trawling MySpace pages online to scout for talent.

Together they put in some serious hard work, practising harmonies and choreographing dance moves, believing their efforts would eventually get them noticed. It happened sooner than anticipated after various family members pushed them to enter The X Factor auditions.

"We wanted to make it in our own way and didn't think we needed it," says JB. "We were our own industry, we organised our own gigs, held our own management meetings, we were already doing pretty well.

"But then when we saw how well Leona Lewis had done, becoming a global superstar as a result of winning the show, we thought perhaps it wasn't such a bad idea after all."

Despite being arguably the best primed and prepared band ever to enter the contest, they found The X Factor was by no means a walk in the park – one week they even finished in the bottom two as a result of the public vote, only to be saved by the judges. In the event they finished in runner-up position to Alexandra Burke in what was a particularly hard-fought contest.

"Of course we would have liked to win," says JB. "But sometimes you have to lose the battle to win the race. The X Factor was an amazing experience and without that exposure it would have taken us a lot longer to get where we are now."

They are signed to Epic Records under the guidance of director Nick Raphael who has helped shape the careers of both Jay-Z and Lemar, who they were supporting on their last Pavilions appearance.

Their eponymous debut album, which they had a major hand in writing, and the poppy single, Beat Again, both hit the number one spot, with the album selling more than a million copies since its release last November. Follow-up single Everybody in Love also topped the chart.

If you haven't bagged a coveted ticket for their Plymouth show, the boys will be back in the Westcountry in the summer to perform at the Sound City Festival in the grounds of Escot House on July 17.

The Plymouth Pavilions show on February 17 is sold out. For tickets to the Sound City Festival at Escot on July 17, and for more information, visit www.escot-devon.co.uk or call 08712 200 260.