‘Four lads in jeans’ meme is set to be immortalised with a STATUE in same spot where photo was taken
The ‘four lads in jeans’ who rose to internet fame when their photo was turned into a meme are set to be 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 out in 2019, wearing tight denim jeans and standing side-by-side – but they were ribbed for being ‘stereotypically British’ and their photo went viral.
Now an artist claims to have created a statue of the four men which will be installed at the spot where the meme was born in Birmingham.
The artist, known as Tat Vision, says it will be unveiled outside All Bar One in Grand Central, Birmingham, on Saturday 27 August.
The sculptor said they made it from women mannequins in tight-clothing, with added papier-mâché and PVA glue, covered in bronze paint.
The ‘four lads in jeans’ who rose to internet fame when their photo was turned into a meme are set to be honoured with a statue in the spot the pic was taken, made by artist Tat Vision. Pictured is a sneak peek at the statues which will be unveiled outside All Bar One Grand Central, Birmingham, tomorrow
Showing his work in progress on his Instagram page, the artist wrote: ‘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.’
His art installment is part of the Birmingham Weekender which sees over 100 free events to enjoy fat the Bullring and Grand Central, New Street Station concourse, Birmingham Markets and 1000 Trades Square.
The ‘lads in jeans’ 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 they 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.
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, from Coventry and Birmingham, told presenters Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid 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.’
They also 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.
Looking at the sneak peek of the bronze-painted statues being revealed tomorrow, 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.’
