Jedward fans defy critics who said duo had used up their 15 minutes of fame

CRITICS SAID Jedward had exhausted their 15 minutes of fame by the time they were voted off X-Factor but they haven’t gone away, you know.

Those who believed twins John and Edward Grimes (18) were destined to drift back into obscurity would have been confounded by the scenes of mayhem which greeted their arrival at HMV in Dundrum Town Centre yesterday.

A deafening cacophony of screams came from the teenage fans who queued all night and most of the day to catch a glimpse of the pair.

Jedward were unknowns six months ago and are now a cultural phenomenon, though few people over the age of 21 understand why.

Many fans had waited with good humour for the best part of 16 hours. They sang along to every word of Jedward's debut single Under Pressure (Ice Ice Baby)as it was played over and over again on the tannoy.

Yesterday’s event was one for the hardcore fans. In order to get one of the 400 wristbands to attend Jedward’s signing session, fans had to queue during the night.

Other sloped away in tears or hung around half the day in the vain hope of getting one. There was consternation when the music store was closed to all those without a wristband shortly before the session which began at 4pm.

Every single wristband was gone by 4.30am yesterday morning. “We turned up at half three and thought we would be too late,” said Sophie Butler (14) who, along with her friend Naomi Gobbett-Collins (15).

There was already 271 fans ahead of them in the queue at that stage. They later returned home to do their Junior Certificate science mocks before coming back for the signing session.

Mary O’Connor who arrived with her teenage daughter Karen (16) and three other friends outside HMV at 9.30pm on Thursday night said the 24-hour Tesco “had made a fortune out of all of us”.

Karen, who has 945 pictures of the twins on her phone, described Jedward as a “guilty pleasure”.

“They’re very level-headed,” said Karen’s friend Sarah Swan (17), referring to the twins’ manner rather than their gravity-defying quiff. “They are always nice to us. They always have times for their fans.”

Sarah, Karen, Ashley Byrne (18) and Jade Hayden (16) met through following Jedward around on all their public appearances.

They are so familiar with them now that they can even tell the identical twins apart. “It’s easy. John has a pointy ear, one of his teeth goes over the other two,” said Sarah.

Others travelled from further away. Sisters Shannon Kavanagh (12) and Róisín left Gorey, Co Wexford, at 12.30am to be in the queue for 2.30pm and stayed all night.

“I’m too long in the tooth for all of this,” said their weary grandmother Betty Whelan.

Back stage Jedward signed copies of the single for disappointed fans who did not get a wristband.

Their single is No.2 in the Irish charts behind the charity single for Haiti. It is also No.2 in the UK charts.

The pair have announced an eigh- date Irish tour which begins in Castlebar on April 6th and takes in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Killarney.

Edward promised they would not disappoint the fans who want to meet them. “It’s going to be really big, it’s going to be massive. We’re going to do meet and greets. We’re going to see our fans again and again,” he said.