How did the nicknames take off?
EDIT: Let me try make this more clear as literally NO ONE seems to have interpreted the question like I meant it. I know that they got their nicknames in a magazine. I want to understand how it grew beyond that. What other examples are there from that late 96-up to the Brits 97 window exists that show how the nicknames grew so much in a short space of time.
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I understand they originated from a music magazine. But only people in the UK/Ire had that magazine, right? And not everyone is going to have read it? And even so, it was just a joke article. Tons of other articles like it have been long forgotten.
So how did the use of those names grow to become universally known?
So well known that they were introduced by those names at the BRITS performance (less than a year after their debut!)