As a male in my late twenties, did I really want to give up my Saturday afternoon to see JLS in concert? Well the answer would be, not really, for something supposedly churned out of the X Factor 'factory'. To my surprise it wasn't half as bad as I first expected.

Upon arrival I was quite surprised to see a sold-out concert held at one of London's most popular music venues, the HMV Hammersmith Apollo.

The supporting act for JLS was Stevie Hoang, who sang to the crowd with his smooth vocals and had the crowd truly entertained for a show opener. As Stevie ended his act, the digital countdown set into action with 10 seconds remaining until JLS made their eagerly awaited presence on stage. As the mainly teenage crowd counted down the final seconds, their chanting turned into a screamed fervor, as individual spotlights lit up each member of the four-piece band as they started singing their first number, the yet unreleased 'Private'.
For a group that doesn't seem to have enough hits to actually perform an entire concert at this early stage of their careers, they somehow managed to pull it off, and smoothly at that. It was a good touch to see how they added to their few hits with a Micheal Jackson tribute, which saw the boys performing a solo each to a sing-a-long audience. Reflecting back on their X Factor days, JLS also performed songs from the show, such as the now anthemic 'Umbrella' by Rihanna and 'If I Ever Fall in Love', originally sang by Shai.

It was pleasant to hear live vocals throughout the whole evening, which is more than what can be said for many of the emerging pop talent these days.

As a group JLS performed exceptionally well, with their perfectly refined danced moves and harmonised voices, but Aston was clearly the star of the show. Not only was he celebrating his twenty-second birthday, he also had every teenage girl in the house swooning with delight over him, encouraged I'm sure by his signature back flips and sneak peaks of his honed six-pack.

Despite the fact that JLS could easily be labelled as a manufactured band in terms of their almost overnight rise to fame, the chemistry between the band members cannot be denied and profoundly comes through in their performances. This alone made them a pleasure to watch. JLS have definitely filled the boy-band void in the UK and anyone who has seen them in concert could vouch that they undoubtedly have bigger and better shows stored up their designer-clad sleeves.