Birthday Number 1s: 2009 - Beat Again

In the golden age of The X Factor, Number 1 on August 1st 2009 was

Beat Again - JLS

I was in Poland for my 31st birthday, at a wedding. Bobby Robson had just died. There was dancing, there was vodka, there was meat.

There was quite a bit of travel to weddings that summer. 31's pretty much peak age for the weddings, isn't it?

Don't think I went to Latitude, but went to Green Man - Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, Bon Iver, Wilco. That was the era. Had recovered, though not fully, from broken leg.

The start of the year was the dawn of Lady Gaga but, apart from that, and I know I keep saying it, but I think 2009 is genuinely, fair dinkum, the first year I'm really not following the charts. I still don't really know most of the Number 1s in that year. I'm sure I've heard them, but couldn't hum them.

That pretty much applies to Beat Again by JLS. I kind of know it. I've listened to it a couple of times  this week, and thought, yeah I've heard that, sure. It's pretty catchy. Very of its time - bit like Usher, Ne-You, Timberlake, that kind of thing. Not that cheesy. A good way to start.

You can tell yourself you didn't watch The X Factor, but it turns our you did. I tended to watch a lot of the first half of each series, and not much of the second half. I certainly saw the first JLS audition. They were probably the most readymade act the X Factor ever had. They didn't need anything except exposure, which they got. They finished second to Alexandra Burke, which was probably a blessing in disguise.

In those middle years of The X Factor, it really did produce some of the biggest UK pop acts and some very good singles - from Leona Lewis to Little Mix, not to mention Chico Time. The bad outweighed the good, though - it was a dark reductive operation, and its comeuppance was, and is, a long time coming, but it did hold a powerful sway for a long time.

JLS had five Number 1s. They didn't have to release a shitty cover to start with - they waited a few months and then hit the ground running with this. It lasted a few years for them, but not for ever, but, rather like McFly, they combined being actually pretty good with nice-guy versatility, and have had good careers beyond. My favourite JLS-related song is, of course, JB singing "come join us down on the farm today" on CBeebies. Invaluable stuff.