‘Four lads in jeans’ statue is unveiled at Birmingham spot where iconic snap was taken: Tight-trousered men who became immortalised with internet meme appear for unveiling of gold-painted papier-mâché memorial
- The statue which was created by artist William Douglas was unveiled last night
- The Sculptor made it from women mannequins, paper-mâché and bronze paint
- The group rose to fame after a picture of them wearing tight clothing went viral
The ‘four lads in jeans’ who rose to internet fame when their photo was turned into a meme have been honoured with a statue in the spot the now famous photo was taken.
Jamie Philips, Connor Humpage, Kevin Rooney and Alex Lacey took an innocent group photo on a night our three years ago, wearing tight denim jeans and standing side-by-side but were ribbed for being ‘stereotypically British’ and their photo went viral.
Last night the statue, created by the artist William Douglas also known as Tat Vision, was unveiled outside All Bar One in Grand Central, Birmingham.
The sculptor said they made it from women mannequins in tight-clothing, with added papier-mâché and PVA glue, covered in bronze paint.
Three of the ‘four lads in jeans’ squatted down in front of their new statue for a few promotional snaps. The ‘four lads in jeans’ who rose to internet fame when their photo was turned into a meme have been honoured with a statue in the spot the now famous photo was taken
Artist William Douglas also known as Tat Vision made it from women mannequins in tight-clothing, with added papier-mâché and PVA glue, covered in bronze paint
Last night three lads from the group (pictured above) unveiled the artwork in Birmingham. The ‘lads in jeans’ now have a verified Instagram profile, which has accumulated more than 25,000 followers, where the group repost memes created by people online
Before the great unveiling the artist wrote on his Instagram page: ‘Come down and see my four lads in jeans bronze statue [on] Saturday outside All Bar One Grand Central.
‘A tribute to these lads inspired by them old Greek statues.
‘These four men ready for an adventure like the first bit in Homer’s Odyssey, before the adventure.’
Tat Vision’s artwork is part of the ‘awe-inspiring’ Birmingham Weekender which hosted more than 100 free events across the city.
As well as the statue the ‘lads in jeans’ have a verified Instagram page with more than 25,000 followers which is dedicated to reposting memes created by people online.
This was a sneak peek of the statues yesterday which were unveiled outside All Bar One Grand Central, Birmingham, tomorrow
Jamie Philips, Connor Humpage, Kevin Rooney and Alex Lacey took an innocent group photo on a night out in 2019. The friends in tight, denim jeans standing side-by-side, were ribbed for being ‘stereotypically British’, and their photo was shared millions of times
The group have mixed with celebrities since their stratospheric rise to fame, having been interviewed on Good Morning Britain and BBC Radio 1 as well as being photographed with football legend and commentator Chris Kamara and bodybuilder Martyn Ford.
The main meme which dominated social media after going viral was users attaching a photo of the group with a made-up ‘quote’, with something the user believed one of the lads would say.
One of many examples included ‘AJ [Anthony Joshua] batters Muhammad Ali…’, and ‘Yeah he might have been a bit racist, but defacing a Winston Churchill statue is just too far mate.’
They told The Tab that their image led people to link their ‘look’ to the representation of ‘lads’ who have ‘bigoted’ views.
One example was of the picture alongside a ‘quote’ which read, ‘It’s sad what ‘appened to that black geezer in America but all this rioting and looting is just not on mate’, referring to the death of George Floyd.
The ‘lads in jeans’ (pictured together) now have a verified Instagram profile, which has accumulated over 25,000 followers, where the group repost memes created by people online
Since their rise to online meme status the lads (pictured) have mixed with the stars, with photos showing them next to football legend Chris Kamara and bodybuilder Martyn Ford, and have been interviewed on BBC Radio 1 as well as Good Morning Britain
They even appeared on this year’s Brit Awards in a skit alongside comedian and host for the night Jack Whitehall (pictured)
Many social media users put their photo editing skills to use and edited the faces of other people onto the bodes of the four men, and one Etsy store owner even sold mugs showing the faces of Matt Hancock, Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak and Chris Whitty stood beside each other.
Captioning the tweet it was taken from, a parody ‘Chris Whitty’ account of the Chief Medical Officer for England wrote: ‘Cheeky Nandos 2k21! Love these boys.’
They had the same thing done with Irish MMA star and former UFC champion Conor McGregor, who reshared the post to his 45.9million followers on Instagram.
A Twitter user called Richard shared an edit of Kim Kardashian’s Instagram story, which was captioned ‘My little artist North’ – the original snap was of her young daughter’s artwork – but amidst the social media storm for the four lads, their photo was plastered on instead.
They even appeared on this year’s Brit Awards in a skit alongside comedian and host for the night Jack Whitehall.
‘Now, the Brit Awards is as famous for its after-hours shenanigans as it is for the show itself,’ Whitehall began.
‘Alas this year, due to Covid, there will be no after parties. I’m gutted but not nearly as gutted as my crew, isn’t that right lads?’
The camera spins to the foursome who are stood, matching Whitehall who dons a tight pair of blue jeans, wearing the outfit from their famous meme, looking rather disappointed.
The group, from Coventry and Birmingham, told presenters Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid on Good Morning Britain that they received floods of abuse online after the many memes shared online.
Alex Lacey explained: ‘My work number got released so I started getting loads of prank calls.
‘That really affected me. With personal and work, you wanna keep it separate… so it did have a massive effect on my mental state to be quite honest.’
He added: ‘I had to come off social media because they even went into my mum’s comments, started leaving troll comments. It wasn’t nice.’
On the statue, one Twitter user wrote: ‘Perfect representation so far of these Brum icons.’
Another wrote: ‘If the bodies look like this I really can’t wait to see the heads.’
The ‘meme lads’ have addressed rumours they will be appearing on the next series of Love Island after rising to prominence following an appearance in a viral post.
The four men – Kevin Rooney, Alex Lacey, Jamie Phillips and Connor Humpage – appeared on Capital Breakfast to discuss their sudden rise to stardom.
Host Roman Kemp, 27, jumped straight in and asked Connor whether he’d fancy his changes on the ITV2 dancing show this year.
However he admitted he doesn’t fancy a stint on the show because he is already a taken man, and said: ‘No. Three of us have got girlfriends so…’
After realising that Kevin was the singleton, Roman said: ‘Kevin, you’re the single one – so Kevin? Love Island’s on the cards?’
Refusing to squash speculation, Kevin said: ‘Oh, we’ll have to see won’t we?’
While co-host Sonny Jay encouraged: ‘Ohhhh! Please make it happen!’.
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