The ‘Hold Me Down’ hitmakers will sing some songs at the Royal Albert Hall on July 6, which is a Saturday.

Other acts on the bill include Olly Murs and former Girls Aloud manager Kimberley Walsh.

Angel, Flawless and Charlie Brown will also be there if that helps at all (we suspect not).

There’s more information on it all here.

In a statement on their fairly bleak looking official site, they also revealed that they’re in the studio working on new songs for the album, with a single due “later in the year”.

They also had this to say to anyone worried about what happens next: “We will always remain brothers and friends and we will always be your boys.”

So there we have it.

The world of pop is quite rightly flying its already ludicrously low v-neck at half mast today, with the new that JLS will be clearing off after one last tour.

It is easy to take the piss out of boybands when they split up – apparently BBC 6 Music took some time out from their busy schedule of playing Supergrass b-sides to do just that in one of their news updates this morning - and you can be sniffy all you like about whether it’s a good thing that boybands are back in the charts in 2013, but JLS kickstarted the boyband revival, they lay the groundwork themselves, they released a number of excellent singles along the way, and they did the whole thing without being dicks.

JLS entered The X Factor fully-formed – even if Marvin’s haircut at the time was only half-formed…

…and they understood the pop climate well enough to have already established the logo, the colour-coding, the hoodies, these things that most unsigned pop acts don’t even consider. Like any sort of band operating in any sort of genre, JLS just needed decent A&R and a way to get people’s attention.

It’s usually assumed that The X Factor uses and abuses young artists, but perhaps in the case of JLS the band - who knew that they might never have taken off without an X Factor-shape rocket up their arse – exploited The X Factor as much as it hoped to exploit them.

It worked. JLS were the first successful British boyband launch in a decade. Triple 8, D-Side, 365, Avenue, V – all these acts, with powerful management, multi-million pounds major label support, some decent songs, talented singers and all the rest, had all failed, but JLS got it right. And you could say that any boyband with the X Factor machine behind it might also have worked, but the X Factor contestant landfill site is full of acts like 4Tunes and Eton Road, these terrible boybands that the public just didn’t like very much.

But the public instantly liked JLS. There was no big secret behind this: JB, Oritsé, Aston and Marvin simply came across as four incredibly likeable people. (This is as true in 2013 as it was back then – JLS remain one of the only successful pop bands about whom you never hear stories of backstage wanker behaviour.) Even while they were still on The X Factor, JLS seemed like a classic Capital FM sort of act, perhaps never destined to be a Radio 1 priority but tailor-made for Party In The Park appearances. Most of all the sort of note they instantly struck with fans – a very natural sort of appeal but didn’t seem overhyped - reminded us a bit of the appeal Blue enjoyed at the height of their success, when we spent a few weeks following them around for a book.

When they signed to Sony they were taken under the wing of Nick Raphael and Jo Charrington, who had previously been involved with the early stages of Blue and, before that, Another Level. Instantly they got it right with the debut single. Many years before One Direction’s ‘Heart Attack’ or Demi Lovato’s, well, ‘Heart Attack’, JLS mastered the art of the cardiac catastrophe set to music with ‘Beat Again’.

‘She Makes Me Wanna’ was also very good.

The elephant in the room here is, of course, the fact that for every ‘Beat Again’ and ‘She Makes Me Wanna’ there is a ‘The Club Is Alive’ and a ‘Do You Feel What I Feel’. The latter, in particular, is quite simply total shit.

On the other hand ‘Hottest Girl In The World’ was arguably a better Justin Timberlake comeback single than Justin Timberlake’s actual comeback single…

…and while it might be hard to remember now that One Direction have redefined boyband hugeness on a global scale, JLS were properly, actually massive. Remember our trip to HMV in 2010? The entire place was festooned with JLS merchandise.

These days, of course, the equivalent HMV displays are full of One Direction merch, and maybe in a couple of years it’ll be another band. Certainly, if One Direction made JLS look a little old, Union J make them look like they should be arriving on stage at their farewell tour straddling customised mobility scooters. JLS aren’t that old, really – Aston’s 25, Marvin is the oldest at 28 – but the world of the boyband is an unforgiving place, and JLS have perhaps been wise to retire before pissing their pants in the supermarket aisle of pop.

Five years is a good run. Pop’s all about timing and, just as JLS arrived at just the right time, they’re probably going at the right time too. We liked Marvin’s comment in the band’s split statement about how “we never wanted to be that band where people said, ‘Oh, bloody hell. It’s JLS again’”.

As for the future, Marvin’s Friday night show on – of course! – Capital FM is really good, Aston’s obviously being positioned for a solo career, we suppose Oritsé has Vida, and JB’s recent appearance on Countryfile has already gone down in popular culture history.

And whatever happens we’ll always have this.

Amazing.

Marvin, Aston, JB and Oritsé will complete an arena tour and release a Greatest Hits album at the end of the year and then that’s it.

The news was initially made public by Gordon Smart on Twitter, before a full interview appeared on The Sun’s website.

Popjustice’s favourite JLS member Marvin had this to say about it all: “It’s an emotional time. There’s no getting away from that. We have been through so much together.”

“But we have to be mature and look at this decision as a celebration of what we managed to achieve. We never wanted to overstay our welcome. We never wanted to be that band where people said, ‘Oh, bloody hell. It’s JLS again.’”

He was also keen to point out that their five year career is pretty impressive given their X Factor roots, but that they just couldn’t face doing four or five more albums.

“We are the first X Factor act to finish a five-year recording contract. If we wanted to carry on and sign to another label, it was going to be another three, four or five albums. So we all thought about it for a few months and it sort of made sense to say we were moving on with our lives,” he explained.

Mind you, Aston’s not ruling out some sort of reunion at some point in the future: “For us, this is the end. Of course we don’t know what could happen in five years’ time.”

JLS: we will not forget.

The Fusion Festival takes place on August 31 and September 1 in Cofton Park and also features the likes of Union J, Wiley, Amelia Lily, Wretch 32 and Conor Maynard, which is all very exciting.

If you’re after a quote from Jessie J that’s been plonked in a press release, then look no further:

“I can’t wait to perform at Fusion Festival, it’s exciting to be headlining a brand new UK festival with such an amazing line-up, it’s one of the performances I’m most looking forward to this summer. It’s amazing that the festival is donating £5 from each ticket sale to The Prince’s Trust, it’s one of the charities closest to my heart and makes me even more proud to be on the line-up. Roll on August 31st, it’s going to be BIG!”

There’s more information on it all here.

The weekly slot will air on Fridays between 7 – 10pm and will – according to a press release – feature “hit-music and club tracks”.

To celebrate this momentous occasion Humo will be doing special shows over Easter, one tonight at 8pm and then one on Friday at 7pm.

“It’s an absolute honour to become part of the Capital family, the JLS boys and I have always had a close relationship with the team and it only felt right to grab this opportunity with both hands,” the experieced press release quote-giver enthused.

“My DJ-ing is going incredibly well and having my own Friday night show on the UK’s number one hit music station is the icing on the cake!”

We’ll tell you this much readers, if he’s going to be decorating baked goods while he’s banging out the ‘hit-music and club tracks’ we’ll definitely be tuning in.

Marvin went to have a little chat with – YOU KNOW WHAT’S COMING – the Daily Star Playlist about their next album, saying: “We’re booked in to go to LA and work with Rodney Jerkins again and are looking at some new people too.”

“We’ll pool all our energy into new material and already have great stuff.”

More of this, less of this please chaps.

Amelia Lily, Jessie J, JLS, Lawson and Union J will sing a few of their songs at the Madjeski Stadium in Reading.

Tickets cost 40 English Pounds and go on sale HERE this Sunday.

That’s about it really.

According to The Scotsman, JLS headlined 34 UK shows last year, more than any other artist.

34 isn’t that many is it?

In response to the ‘exciting’ ‘news’, JLS or someone pretending to be said in a statement: “We’re delighted to once again be crowned the hardest-working band of the year. It means a lot that so many of our fans have had a chance to see us perform live.”

Other hard-working artists in the list included Westlife, who performed 31 arena ‘gigs’ this year, and Steps and Olly Murs who came third and fourth in the list.

Speaking for PRS For Music, who compiled the list, the amazingly named Barney Hooper added: “JLS have once again demonstrated that they truly know how to engage with their massive fan base, performing live to as many of them as possible.”

Well quite.

Here it is confirmed by Marvin via the medium of Twitter:

“Rochelle and I are SOOOOO excited to tell everyone that we are expecting our first baby!!! Its absolutely amazing! Baby is due middle of next year and all is great!! We want to say thank you to everyone for their love and support..it means so much to us!! We are over the moon! Love Marv x”

The gift of life, ladies and gentlemen.