World of Chig   

5.2.02

Hear'say go Boom!


Never mind Enron, Camp X-Ray, train strikes, measles outbreaks, murder trials and bad weather, there was still time on both lunchtime TV news progs for the most important news of the day: Hear'say's new member!

And guess what? The job hasn't gone to one of the thousands of unknowns who queued and auditioned over the weekend. Far be it from me to suggest this was all just a publicity stunt and the decision had already been made, but it's gone to Johnny Shentall, 23, from Doncaster. That's Johnny Boom! to those of us who keep an eye on these things, who just happens to be the fiance of Lisa Ex-Steps too (or The Steps, as Anna Ford called them, making them sound like a Russian geographical feature). Boom! spent three weeks in the Top 40 exactly one year ago with #11 hit Falling. They presented an edition of Eye TV, our local arts and listings programme, and then disappeared. I'd been wondering where their second single had got to.

Boom!'s Falling is very much a template for what Liberty have since gone on to do; pop/r'n'b lite. Oh the irony. Johnny is a good-looking chappy who has caught my attention before (although not as much as the skinhead who was in Boom! with him). Today though, he does look like he has taken make-up tips from Dale Winton. Johnny was unveiled quite literally - from underneath a grey sheet.

UPDATE: This momentous news story was even on Channel 4 News tonight. Pop culture gets everywhere. Not bad for a group put together by a rival channel, whose last album only scraped to #24 in the charts.

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