911

911 (pronounced "nine one one") are an British pop group consisting of Lee Brennan, Jimmy Constable and Simon "Spike" Dawbarn. They were formed in 1992 and released their debut single "Night to Remember" in May 1996.

Dancers Jimmy Constable and Simon "Spike" Dawbarn were introduced to each other in the early 1990s by another dancer called Clive. Before long, Constable and Dawbarn were both chosen to work as dancers on the late-night ITV music show The Hit Man and Her. In 1995, after seeing how successful Jason Orange, who used to be a dancer on the show, had been with boy band Take That (and having also become more popular than the acts they were dancing for), Constable and Dawbarn decided to put their own group together. At Carlisle's radio station CFM Radio, they found Steve Gilmour, who had previously managed PJ & Duncan and Boyzone, and asked him to be their manager a few months later. Gilmour initially turned them as he did not know anything about management, but as time went on, Constable and Dawbarn continued to gain more and more fans. Every time their paths crossed, Constable would show Gilmour the fanmail they were receiving and they were also one of the seven acts to be booked at the Sands Centre in Carlisle, again for CFM. Gilmour had finally become convinced and he decided to manage them but they were short of a singer. Lee Brennan, who had been a fan of Dawbarn and Constable on The Hit Man and Her, was recruited following recommendation by Gilmour. After moving into Gilmour's three-bedroom flat in the south side of Glasgow, 911 embarked on a massive tour of schools and under-18 clubs all over the UK in order to build up their growing army of teenage followers, and fast became crowd favourites on road shows during the Summer of 1995. Despite their immense popularity, they were turned down by every record company they turned to.

In April 1996, after being unable to secure a major record deal, 911 and their management team Backlash decided to form their own record label, Ginga Records. The following month, they released their debut single, a cover of Shalamar's "Night to Remember", and it entered the UK Singles Chart at number 38. In July, their second single "Love Sensation", which was later featured in the 1997 live-action film Casper: A Spirited Beginning, charted even higher at number 21. The success of these two independently released singles created a major record label bidding war and in September 1996, 911 were signed up by Richard Branson's Virgin Records on a £3.5 million, four-album deal. 911 won GMTV's 'Search for the Next Big Thing' and were voted the 'Second Best Newcomer' after the Spice Girls in Smash Hits.

However, after a gruelling schedule the band began to fall apart, with Constable descending into alcoholism (on one occasion appearing on SMTV Live drunk), Dawbarn beginning to suffer agoraphobia and Brennan, being the pin-up and lead singer of the band, began to feel more and more insecure about his image and looks. At the end of 1999, 911 released a greatest hits album, The Greatest Hits and a Little Bit More, which included (at the time) their final single "Wonderland". In February 2000, Dawbarn and Brennan told Constable that they wanted to split up. On The Big Reunion, Dawbarn said: "We knew we'd reached our peak and we were kind of that little decline and we thought, 'It's best getting out at the top.'" Constable was also told by the other two that he would be the one to break the news of their break-up live on Chris Moyles' Radio 1 show. In a 2005 interview with The Guardian, Constable: "I didn't have any time to get my head around it. I had a lump in my throat saying it, then we came out of Radio 1 and the other two guys went to the pub. I got in my car and took off and I never saw them for two years."

In their five years together, 911 scored ten UK top 10 singles. They sold 10 million singles and 6 million albums around the world, and were very popular in South East Asia, where their first two albums went to number one. They announced their split in February 2000 .

911 reunited in 2005, when they participated in the ITV reality show Hit Me, Baby, One More Time. They continued to occasionally perform live shows thereafter. In October 2012, it was announced that 911 would again reunite for the ITV2 reality-documentary series The Big Reunion, along with Atomic Kitten, Liberty X, B*Witched, Five and Honeyz in January 2013. Due to the highly positive reception, the groups went on an arena tour around the UK and Ireland. Their comeback album Illuminate: The Hits and More was released on 8 September 2013, along with their comeback single "2 Hearts 1 Love". In early 2014, 911 headlinined their own UK tour - The Illuminate: The Hits and More Tour.


911 discography
1997: The Journey
1998: Moving On
1999: There It Is
2000: The Greatest Hits and a Little Bit More
2013: Illuminate... (The Hits and More)


Members
Lee Brennan
Jimmy Constable
Spike Dawbarn