Santa and CDs
On December 16, 2015, @rbbsbbofficial tweeted a picture of RBB wearing their aviators, Freddie Mercury mustache, and a Santa hat in front of a sign that said, “job centre plus.” It is believed that this particular location was in Chorley, which is about an hour from Holmes Chapel, about two hours from Doncaster and Wolverhampton, about forty -five minutes from Manchester, and a few hours from London. Other than that it was sort of central to the One Direction member’s hometowns, there was no significance found from this picture.
On December 18, 2015, the official Twitter account changed its profile picture again. This time it became a photo of Divine from a 1982 photo shoot for the cover of “In Touch For Men.” Also in the photo, there is a fancy red chair with a Santa doll resting on it. Divine was prevalent with the bears, so fans weren’t sure if they were missing a detail. After searching, the fans weren’t able to find anything they believed was significant.
On December 18, 2015, a photo of RBB placing a CD labeled “HAIRSPRAY” into a CD player. The player was surrounded by a large collection of books and movies including: Bette Davis: A Biography, Judy Garland, and Danny La Rue From Drags to Riches: My Autobiography, all of which have been featured on stage with the bears previously. Also included in the photo are: I am Divine, Freddie Mercury: The Definitive Biography, Mercury and Me, and Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupid. The most interesting thing was Hotel Babylon which is part of a series on various industries. The Daily Mail had also published an article from Pop Babylon on how to make a boy band and how to create a pregnancy with an unknown father.
Bearhemian & Birthday
On December 21, 2015, RBB and SBB were pictured with two other bears. One known as Brown Bear, who has been on stage with RBB and SBB before, but no one thought much of, and one called Peace and Friendship Bear, or PFB, who was brand new. In the photo, the four bears were in the formation of Queen on the single cover of their song “Bohemian Rhapsody.” The photo had the text “Bearhemian Rhapsody” vertically typed on the sides of the photo.
On December 24, 2015, the bears’ official twitter account changed their profile picture to a photo of Divine holding a birthday cake. This day was also Louis’ 24th birthday, so the theory most fans agreed upon was that Harry wasn’t able to publicly wish Louis a happy birthday, so instead he did it through the anonymity of the bears’ account. That same day Harry tweeted from his main account saying, “Merry Christmas to everyone for tomorrow. Hope it’s a lovely one well spent. Good tidings to all. H.”
Also on December 24, 2015, RBB and SBB were pictured looking like they had been wrapping presents. Along with this, SBB was sitting on a salon chair that had a note saying, “To the 1D potato from RBB + SBB hope you like the gift! xx,” which had a potato masher in front of it. The note and masher were interpreted as a general acknowledgment to how the fandom has been manipulated by 1DHQ. SBB being in the salon chair was taken as a nod to the boys having beards/PR girlfriends at the time or in the past.
The next day, on December 25, 2015, the profile was changed once again. This time it became a photo of the members of a Swedish band called Army of Lovers. This name alludes to a documentary about Rosa von Praunheim, a gay rights activist. Alexander Bard, a member of the band, was publicaly homosexual. Army of Lovers was widely known for their costumes , camp videos, and promoting same-sex marriage. The band also headlined Pride festivities and spoke about homophobia.
New Year, not so new news…
Happy New Year, @rbbsbbofficial’s profile picture has changed to celebrate the arrival of 2016. This same day, January 1, 2016, the account tweeted a photo of RBB outside bundled up for the cold weather.
On January 4, 2016, the account changed its profile picture (yes, again) to the time when Grace Jones was on the Russell Harty Barmy show. In an article that discussed Jones’ appearance on the show she said that she was treated like hired help and fun was being poked at her. The specific moment of time in the picture used was when Jones said, “this has been going on too long already.” This was likely talking about either Briana, because the baby was due to arrive soon, or the excess amount of pictures relating to Hendall – or both.
On January 8, 2016, the bears’ account icon was changed to George Micheal. The photo was of him wearing the jacket he burns in Freedom 90. Also on that day, the account posted a photo of RBB in front of a hotel in Cheshire called “The Bears Head Inn.”
On January 10, 2016, @rbbsbbofical changed their profile picture to one of Donna Summers. The particular photo was the cover art for MacArthur Park, a song, with the lyrics, “All the sweet, green icing flowing down…’cause it took so long to bake it/And I’ll never have that recipe again.” This profile change followed alleged spotting of Harry and Louis at a bakery in London. While there were no photos of them and many of the reports were confirmed as trolls, there was still a great possibility that the first report was real.
On January 13, 2016, @rbbsbbofficial posted a new picture of RBB and SBB. RBB was dressed up, looking prepared for business, and wearing a red checkered tie. This, by fans, was taken as a sign that One Direction’s contracts/relationship with Syco was ending. Also in the photo, SBB was floating. A prominent fan theory was that SBB, or the band members, were rising above something. This was pretty popular considering the rumors of a One Direction break up at the time.
On January 18, 2016, the account’s profile picture was changed to Andy Bell. Andy Bell is from Erasure and is openly gay. He has said that he won’t hide it, but he’s not going to go out of his way to talk about it and he wanted to make a stance with his music.
Connections and Calm
On January 20, 2016, @rbbsbbofficial posted a phone of SBB in front of a CD player. The time on the CD player was 2:01, which was almost unanimously assumed to represent Harry’s birthday (written month/day). Under the player there were a couple identifiable CDs. One was Erasure, Pop 20 Hits, and the other was Culture Club. In Culture Club, the lead singer, Boy George had come out as gay and was an androgynous icon in the 1980s. The band, Culture Club, has a hit song called, Karma Chameleon, that has lyrics that talk about closeting and sexuality.
On January 22, 2016, RBB is pictured on the Twitter account with the book The Little Book of Calm by Paul Wilson. This was right around the time Louis’ “child” was supposedly born. The book is said to help you find calm and peace in an otherwise stressful time.
On January 20, 2016, RBB was at a Baaba Maal concert. The fandom wasn’t able to find any real connection between One Direction and Baaba Maal other than them both appearing in a cover of God Only Knows for BBC Music.
Also on January 24, 2016, a picture of RBB at London’s Heathrow Airport was posted by @rbbsbbofficial. At this point in time, Harry, Louis, and Liam were in Los Angeles, and Niall was at the Australian Open, so the theory was that the bears and their sitter were likely headed to LA. Later that day, the account posted a picture of RBB entering Heathrow.
On January 27, 2016, @rbbsbbofficial posted a photo of RBB on the toilet reading Coping with Diarrhoea, while SBB was sitting on a toilet brush in the air, similar to a witch on a broomstick. There were also blue and green smiley face stickers in the background, that many fans assume are reflections of Louis and Harry. There was a lot of fan chaos at this time with the child’s birth, rumors of Harry going solo, and Harry switching management, so many fans took this post and hoped denials and/or confirmations would be released.
Happy Birthday Harry!
On February 1, 2016, the account posted a picture of two ducks, one on either end of a S-shaped rainbow. The phrase ‘two little ducks’ is usually used in Bingo to call the number 22 because the side profile of a duck is shaped like a 2. This day was also Harry’s 22nd Birthday!
Later that day, the account posted a photo of the bears, just in their bondage gear (except SBB had also their police hat), behind a chocolate-frosted cake with two green ‘2’ candles. The bears were also holding hands. The fans easily agreed that the message here was that Harry and Louis were together happily celebrating Harry’s birthday.
Following the last post, the account posted once that day. This was a photo where RBB and SBB had dug into the cake and were now covered in it, even SBB’s police hat had fallen off.
On February 12, 2016, @rbbsbbofficial was deactivated.
RBB is BACK!!
On August 27, 2016, RBB was spotted on stage at a Little Mix concert by a fan. The last time the bears were seen was on Harry’s birthday on February 1, almost 7 months prior! The bear was spotted hours before the concert even started, and it wasn’t reported whether or not RBB stayed on stage the whole night. The original bears haven’t been seen (and reported) by fans since.
Author’s Note/NSM Team
It has been a pleasure writing, researching, and reliving RBB, SBB, and the late 1D days. My Twitter is @copyofsogolden (previously @TommosTina) if you want to reach out or have further questions about the timeline, bears, etc.
Sources
- Another and final MASSIVE thank you to @beccaisafan (on Tumblr) and their website!
https://beccasafan.github.io/rbb/concerts/
- All the posted photos of the bears with dates from @rbbsbboffical!
