Men will be Boys
By Pititul Chavanachid
Friday December 16, 2005
Thaiday

Mid-90s icons the Backstreet Boys will make their presence heard

I have to say that when it comes to girl/boy bands, I like Atomic Kitten better than the Backstreet Boys. The latter group was, of course, no small thing back in the day.

BSB was a cult. It still is, sort of.

In case you weren’t an initiate, the five Backstreet Boys are Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, AJ McLean and Kevin Richardson. Nick is the cute one, according to girldom. There’s one that wears leather and looks scruffy. He’s the bad Boy.

Now you know everything you need to know about the Backstreet Boys, and you should be all set for their upcoming Bangkok show. That’s right. BSB is coming to Bangkok.

Backstreet’s back. Omigod.

On January 22 at Impact Arena, they’ll hold a huge concert entitled “Scotch Forever Young Present Backstreet Boys Live In Bangkok.” Sponsors include SEED 97.5 FM, Asahi, Sofitel, MTV Thailand, Matching Entertainment and Sony BMG.

Tickets can be purchased starting today at Thaiticketmaster.com. Prices range from 700 to 3,800 baht.

So, where have they been all these years?

“We have been touring pretty much non-stop for seven or eight years and we were almost living in a bubble; we had lost perspective on a lot of things,” Kevin said, somewhat cryptically, in Sony BMG’s handy press materials. “I appreciate my family more, these guys more and myself more. Life is great. It’s worth living again.”

The Boys returned recently with a new album, Never Gone, which they spent more than a year recording. The first single, “Incomplete,” released in April, soon began climbing the Billboard charts. Locally, the song is getting some airplay.

Being together in the studio again for the first time in years, it took the group some time to integrate their different musical influences. According to AJ, “we started going more toward contemporary, alternative pop with a little R&B. We found exactly what we are supposed to be doing for this album. It’s more organic, with more live instruments, and a nice departure for us. If we kept on doing what we used to do with the way music sounds today people wouldn’t care anymore. We have to step ahead.”

Steps, in the dance sense, were always key to BSB’s popularity.

In 1996 “I’ll Never Break Your Heart” and “Quit Playing Games (With My Heart),” the two singles from their first album, Backstreet Boys, hit the top 10 on charts worldwide.

In 1997, four more BSB singles went to the top. Then in 1999, BSB released their third and most popular album, Millennium. This album sold more than 20 million copies and earned them golden records in 28 counties. Black and Blue came in 2000, moving eight million copies. The Boys also worked with producers to make this album even closer to their lives and loves. A few years later, the inevitable greatest-hits package came.

They were, by that time, rich and famous with loads of girls. They dated hot celebrities (but they still sang about being alone and broken-hearted). The Boys have sold 75 million albums worldwide, and 594,000 copies in Thailand. Now they’ll probably sell a few more.