FROM being the member of a hit 90s boy band to nurturing talent from across the north – 911’s Spike Dawbarn speaks of the highs and lows of decades working in the music industry.
The pop singer, who grew up in Orford, described the gruelling schedules of being on tour back in 911’s heyday and rewound the clock to where it all started – at an under 18s club night in Warrington.
Speaking to the Warrington Guardian amid his latest TV appearance on the new BBC 2 series Boybands Forever, Spike recalled first being talent spotted at the young age of 13.
“I was spotted dancing at Mr Smith’s when I was 13, I was spotted by Pete Waterman who hosted The Hitman and Her.”
Spike met his fellow bandmate Jimmy Constable while performing on the iconic dance show which first aired at Mr Smiths in Warrington back in 1988.
“My mum was a dance champion when she was older, it’s in the family. I taught myself to dance, we were like the original street dancers, that is what first caught people’s eye,” he continued.
“Warrington had the best street dancers in the country back then.”
It wasn’t until their early 20s that Spike and Jimmy started the band 911, bringing on a third member and lead singer Lee Brennan.
“We started by doing school tours in different areas, we were still on the dole and had no money,” he added.
I lived in a cupboard like Harry Potter
In 1996, the band released their first debut single, a cover of Shalamar’s ‘Night to Remember’ which entered the UK charts at number 38.
Shortly after, Spike said, they were signed by Virgin Records.
“We had no money at all, but we were working so hard. We did a lot of under 18 nightclubs, at one point we were doing like five shows a day.
“We lived in this flat, I was in a cupboard like Harry Potter,” he laughed.
During the new BBC 2 documentary, which focuses on some of the UKs biggest boybands through the years, Spike and his fellow band members discussed their rise to fame and the pros and cons that came with it.
'We lived in a hotel for eight years'
As the band built momentum in the late 90s, Spike reminisced on the days of world tours, including one particularly chaotic 24 hours which saw them touch base in three separate countries.
“We lived in a hotel for about eight years. Every single day we were in different countries and at one point we had three days off in a year,” he said. “In the last year we took our foot off the gas but the first four years we were flat out every day.
“One day we were in three different countries in one day. We finished a video shoot at 12 midnight, went straight to Alton Towers to open the Oblivion ride, then went on to GMTV to do a performance at 5am, then back to Alton Towers to ride the Oblivion for MTV live.
“We then flew to Holland and did a TV show, before getting back on a plane to go to Sweden, did a couple of TV shows and then flew back home to the UK – that was all in 24 hours.”
Spike referred to a dispute that followed their rigorous schedule and led to the sacking of the band’s manager at the time.
“We did not have a clue about life, I had never been to a bank at the age of 26.”
After the recent and devastating news of the death of One Direction band member Liam Payne, who spoke openly about his struggles with touring and life after the band, Spike commented on his death, adding: “I think all of us in the industry know exactly what Liam was feeling.
“I have always lived in Warrington and will always come back to Warrington because that is my home and where I am surrounded by the friends I grew up with and family – I think that has helped me a lot of the years.”
Determined to help young talent
Following on from his success and fame in the band, Spike continued to bring his own input to the entertainment industry by running dance academies across the country, picking up fresh talent along the way.
He told how many talents that featured on Simon Cowell’s popular ITV shows; X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent (BGT), came from those academies, with him having personally trained street dancing sensation and winner of BGT’s second series, George Sampson.
But fast forward to the present, where there is a current absence of beloved boy bands on the music scene, Spike suggested a reason for this might be the change in attitudes of artists.
“My company used to take artists off the street and show them how to promote themselves. But since lockdown, they have no drive to do it. I am not seeing hard working artists anymore.
“If you got a good boy band out now, they are going to clean up.”
Approaching the 30-year mark since the band first started, Spike teased that more songs are in the pipeline for 911 with further tours to follow.
They still tour and have a huge following in Asia, with a song with Vietnamese singer Duc Phuc hitting incredible heights.
To watch the band members share their tales of success along with the likes of Take That, Blue and Westlife, tune in to BBC iPlayer now.
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