Fans still wild over the Backstreet Boys

Back - Index - Submissions - - What is RSS? Date: Feb 10, 2001 Source: Toronto Star Submitted By: Sol Carter Thorpedo Katie Killen's quick-dialing fingers won her a place among 120 bandaids inside the ``MuchMusic environment.'' Her 14-year-old youth kept her smiling for the long hours before the doors opened. But her cut-and-paste Backstreet Boys suit got her a bewildering TV hug from - ohmygod! - the Boy named Nick. It was just one of thousands of world-shaking moments last night when the massively popular Backstreet Boys crashed the Queen St. West music station for an interview. A taste of the madness to greet the Boys when they play SkyDome tonight. Fittingly, the Backstreet Boys spot on Live@Much - an hour-long chat but no performance - began with a crowd. About 1,500 mostly female fans swarmed the corner of Queen and John Sts. long before the event. Some camped out overnight. All helped bruise eardrums with their screams. The weaving lines of youth coiled around the City TV building. They strained for a glimpse of the group members - Kevin Richardson, Brian Littrell, Howie Dorough, A.J. McLean and Nick Carter. They squealed at every prompt from promoters and the film crews. They nearly crushed each other when security guards opened a gate to let them spill in front of the large windows on Queen St. Near chaos erupted when the Boys arrived. The ``Back-street-Boys'' chant struck up. Teddy bears were tossed toward the aging pinups. Prepubescent girls declared their love with shrill cries. MuchMusic VJ Rick Campanella struggled get his softball questions heard above the din. So did fans. Is it stressful for Howie to be so hot? Would the Boys eat a bug or each other to stay alive on a desert island? What do the seemingly perfect Boys really suck at? The Boys tried to answer some of the questions. Kevin was grumpy and had a quiet microphone. Brian was bouncy and happy to play along. A.J. acted up and bared his tattooed arms, bringing more screams. Howie was off to one side, a bit quiet - but stressfully hot. The crowd was smaller than when the Backstreet Boys last visited MuchMusic. That was in 1998, when 6,000 fans went wild and a teen was trampled by the crowd. This time, they appeared amid claims that pop had eaten itself. Reports are that boy bands are passŽ, especially if they aren't put together on reality TV, as O-Town was. Sales and singles aren't reviving the tried-and-true formula hyped by fame-makers like Lou Pearlman, some say. And critics seem to relish the fact that the Beatles' 1 sits higher on the album charts than the latest Backstreet Boys release, Black And Blue. (They are No. 7 and No. 18 in Canada respectively) But it's only possible to write off the Florida boy band if one ignores the first-week sales of Black And Blue: 156,000 copies in Canada. Then there's the stubborn staying power of a commercial format that many have tried to drown. Then there's the fact that Backstreet Boys can still sell out the SkyDome in 75 minutes. Comment on this item. Recent Comments Submitted by: pasparty Submitted by: geroin9l Submitted by: Edward Submitted by: Ann Elisabeth Submitted by: Kevin Shen Submitted by: Mary Submitted by: Ann Submitted by: Kelly Comment on this item. Next Item: Backstreet Boys Take To The Streets Of Toronto Prev Item: Support Brian's Healthy Heart Club for Kids!