I'm in a Boy Band Pop Life

In the beginning, God created pop.

This programme contains very strong language.

But pop was without form.

Then appeared the boy band.

Pure pop perfection incarnate.

They are pop's perfect vessel.

The perfect men,

the perfect bodies,

the perfect harmonies.

They appear before us as an immaculate conception,

seemingly descended from pop heaven.

Dreamboat disciples, chosen and sent

to spread pop's gospel to legions of screaming girls.

MUSIC: "Could It Be Magic" by Take That

But what mysterious elements

and alchemy form these magical pop entities?

How do they work? And what's it like to be in one?

Welcome to the magical world of the boy band.

# ..Talk about pop muzik

# Talk about pop muzik

-# Shoobi doobi do whap

-It's all around you

-# Bop Bop shoo whap

-They wanna surround you

-# Shoobi doobi do whap

-It's all around you

-# Bop Bop shoo whap

-Hit it!

# New York, London, Paris, Munich

# Everybody talk about Hmm, pop muzik

# Talk about pop muzik Talk about pop muzik... #

You're a boy band... if you are a band of boys.

Five young lads that just sing together.

It is a team. When you're on stage,

you're thinking about, "I want to kick some ass."

It's a ball of energy

and it's fun to look at and watch.

And sometimes it's as fun to watch it fall apart.

The boy band is a tried and tested pop phenomenon.

The original prototypes are to be found in the self-formed

male vocal groups and beat combos of the '60s.

Boy bands have always, always been around.

If you think of the Four Tops, Jackson 5.

The Beatles even. They were all boy bands, really.

I think we did set a standard

that even nowadays groups have started following.

# ..And I'm bringing you a love that's true

# So, get ready

# So, get ready... #

But there have always been people seeking to simulate these pop pioneers.

The boy band can also be a carefully manufactured beast.

It's alive! It's alive!

I imagine the record companies sit round in the boardroom and go,

"Right, we need five people of this age, there's their songs.

"There's their clothes. And go find them."

Whatever the era, however they met,

what makes these different bands of boys boy bands?

Please, stop screaming.

It's all about girls. Girls, girls, girls.

If girls like them, you've got a hit.

It's a way for young girls to explore their sexuality safely, I think.

You're looking in a boy band for the same things

that you're looking for in a pony - nice, clear eyes and a good coat.

Our prime purpose

is to sing love songs to girls.

It's definitely a sexual thing. There's no doubt about that.

I don't know what would happen

if there weren't boy bands there

for that excess female sexual energy to be channelled into.

It might just be bedlam.

Good-looking boys, sometimes put together,

making girls scream and singing in harmony.

# ..Hi, there, folks, how do you do?

# We're mighty glad to be here with you... #

These seem to be the eternal characteristics of a boy band.

It's been a winning combination throughout pop history.

So, why has boy band become a dirty word?

-We didn't think we were a boy band.

-That term, boy band, I don't...I just don't get.

-Even the label said you're not a boy band.

-You're not a boy band, is that right?

-I'd say we're a pop band.

-We're a pop band.

Just because we're five teenagers who are the same sex

doesn't necessarily mean

that we're a boy band. Does that make sense?

Stop being dicks. Embrace what you are, you know what I mean, like.

People'll think you're more rad.

So, who joins a boy band - if we are allowed to call it that - and why?

# ..When will I Will I be famous? #

Where does the journey begin? For many, it seems, there is an early craving for the spotlight.

Any spotlight.

As a child, I had ambition to be somebody.

Cos I remember one question I asked myself,

almost the first thing I remember,

is, who am I, and why am I here?

If I'm honest, I never really thought I would be in pop music.

I wanted to be an actor and I, kind of, went to acting school.

I'd done a few bits and bobs for TV.

I was on Casualty and Hale And Pace.

Must be better ones around. Come on.

I got a job at Granada Television

in Coronation Street.

Not in this you're not, have you seen it out there?

I started acting and singing in pantomimes and things like that.

I did Coronation Street, I did Z-Cars.

Yes, Willie Thatcher?

Have you got a shilling for the gas? My ma's out of it.

So, all of sudden, I'm watching the Beatles sing six tunes

on The Ed Sullivan Show, and I think, "I want to do that.

"I want all those girls screaming for me."

I thought I was doing well with 10, 15 people outside the stage door.

# ..Woke up this morning feeling fine

# There's something special on my mind... #

This appetite for adulation often leads our future heart-throbs

to the wonderful world of pop in search of stardom.

# ..Something tells me I'm into something good... #

So, how does a wannabe star join a boy band?

Back in the '60s, the DIY method was a favourite route in.

I decided pretty soon that I would be...

I was going to go full-on for music. Music career.

# ..Something tells me I'm into something good... #

And I saw the Beatles and I found four idiots

who believed that I knew what I was doing.

Although, there wasn't really a plan

except that we wouldn't go to school and we wouldn't have jobs,

and we would practise one song a day, every day,

until we could be as good as the Beatles.

Then there was the family route.

For five brothers growing up in 1960s Indiana,

the journey to boy band immortality began

when a strict father discovered a hidden talent.

# ..But can you remember? #

The beginning of our music career happened

when my father had a guitar and he used to play it.

Then he'd put it in the closet cos he had to go to work.

He would tell the brothers,

while he's at work, don't touch his guitar.

Tito, one day, started taking the guitar and playing it

and messing around with it.

And then, one day, one of the strings broke.

He kind of panicked and he put it back and my father came home

and he was saying, "Who's been playing my guitar? Cos the string is broken."

So, Tito was a little petrified at first.

He beat my butt for it and that whole thing.

And then, afterwards, he put it in my lap and asked me,

he said, "Now, show me what you know."

So, I was playing and crying.

He was surprised that I knew as much as I did.

So, the next day he took me out to a pawn shop

and bought me my first guitar.

And I've been playing since. And singing with the brothers.

# ..Oh, darling, all I need is one more chance

# To show you that I love you

# Won't you please let me

# Back in your heart

# Oh, darling, I need one more chance

# Ha! I'll show you that I love you

-#

-Baby

-Oh

-Baby

-Oh

-Baby

-Oh

# I want you back... #

These are the organic templates of boy band formation.

A model of brotherhood and male friendship

pioneered by the likes of the Beatles,

the Temptations and The Osmonds.

# ..I want you back! #

# Everyone else but you... #

But not all boy bands grow up in houses together.

Nowadays, they are often thrust together while in search of individual stardom.

With X Factor boy band graduates One Direction,

we saw this theory played out before our eyes.

We all, kind of, entered the show as individuals.

We all were waiting for the decision

to see which solo artists would go through to judges' houses.

We all got nos.

That's it, guys. I'm really, really sorry.

And then, like, five minutes later we were called back on stage,

and Simon said, "We want to put you in a group."

You've got a real shot here, guys.

# ..That's what makes you beautiful... #

Whether manufactured or not, perhaps joining a boy band

provides the aspiring pop star with strength in numbers.

My father explained it by saying, "You're strong together."

And he took five sticks and he put them together

and tried to break them and they wouldn't break.

And then, he took one of the sticks and snapped it and said,

"This is what will happen if you don't stay together.

"You can be broken."

Can it really be as simple as that?

Boy X 3, 4 or 5 = greater chance of stardom.

Ha-ha!

There can be no weak links in the manufactured boy band

because chasing stardom often requires some brutal sacrifices.

# ..Everybody get up, sing it! #

The 5ive audition come up, Simon Cowell stands there

and he says, "You'll live in a house together from next week.

"You can't tell anyone, just go along with this.

"Do you want to be in this band?" We all said, "Yeah."

# ..5ive will make get down now... #

All that I could tell was my parents.

I got home and my mate said, "How did it go?"

"Oh, erm, I don't know yet." But a week later,

I'd left all my friends behind and I hadn't told a soul.

It was horrible. Horrible.

These first baby steps to stardom can be a lonely experience.

But forming or joining a boy band is just the start.

Getting noticed is always a new act's first hurdle.

For The Osmonds in the early '60s,

this meant cornering the cute spot on The Andy Williams Show.

There's the camera. Oh, no, there it is, over there.

When we came and auditioned for Andy, it was like, wow.

# ..Yes, sir, we know Claire And she is mighty sweet... #

Sitting on the steps,

singing harmony that was buzzing at such a young age.

# ..Yes, sir, that's my baby No, sir, don't mean maybe... #

And America just wanted to hear more of it.

# ..Aa-a-ah... #

APPLAUSE

By the early '90s, more complicated times

meant the boy band was having to find new ways to get itself noticed.

How do you get this band across? Build up a fan base.

I came up with this idea of doing a schools tour.

For teenage Take That, this meant performing in bad shorts

to school kids by day...

And we are Take That.

..then heading out in leather-studded codpieces

to pursue the pink pound at night.

We, obviously, were targeting the young girls in schools

for all the reasons that boy bands would target young girls.

And we were, obviously, targeting gay men.

# ..Do what you like, oh-oh.

# Do what you want... #

After Take That had found their feet, a newly formed group from Ireland

would take their first fledgling steps.

They are going to be, or four of them are going to be,

Ireland's answer to Take That.

We were really catapulted into fame in Ireland.

Within 24 hours of being picked,

we were on the biggest TV chat show in the country.

OK, well, who's who, now? You identify yourself.

-I'm Ronan Keating.

-Where are you from?

-I'm from Swords.

We didn't have a song, obviously,

because we were only put together 24 hours before.

We went on this TV show and we danced.

Cue the music.

# Burn baby, burn baby All my energy

# Burn baby, burn baby... #

There was no real choreography. It looked like a bunch of guys

in the corner of a nightclub having a good time. It was chaos.

But if you watch that front row in the audience, it's hilarious.

Cos they're just sitting there going, "Oh, my God".

It's cringe it's, it's so horrible.

And we all thought we were superstars.

I had a part-time job in a shoe shop

and I remember walking down the street the next day.

And I was like, "Hey, did you see me last night?

"Hey, hey, did you see me last night? Hey, hey. Hey, it's me."

I mean, moron. Eejit.

But it's brilliant. It's funny.

But what does it take for a boy band

to move beyond these humble beginnings

of auditions and chat shows?

Since the dawn of pop, many have searched for a magic formula.

What complex chemistry is at work?

What are the essential elements that make up a truly great boy band?

A lot of boy bands are manufactured.

Whoever does, you know, end up putting them together,

they need to be clever in the way that they put them together.

That all the members bring something different.

You know, having a group of clones in a band together, it doesn't work.

There has to be characters.

There has to be individuals that'll come forward.

# It's been a hard day's night... #

The importance of having strongly defined characters

can be traced back to four lads from Liverpool

who took a stranglehold on the world's imagination

in the early '60s.

The Beatles, inadvertently, set the kind of template

for the kind of personalities within boy bands.

There are four really distinct personalities there.

# ..Work all day

# To get you money To buy you things... #

So, maybe that's why the sort of eternalness of the boy band works.

Because, in some primal way, it links back to The Beatles.

# Here we come... #

Realising the power of personality in The Beatles,

American TV producers set about creating a TV show

that would simulate this template.

# ..Hey, hey, we're The Monkees

# And people say we monkey around... #

And out of it, would spring

the world's first ever manufactured boy band.

The Monkees was not a band.

The Monkees was a television show about a fictitious band

that wanted to be The Beatles.

That's the genesis.

When they put the four of us together, 12 boys,

they kept mixing them up.

-Who are you?

-I am Micky Dolenz.

-Wrong, you are Monkee number one.

No, I am. I am Monkee number one.

All of a sudden, Micky, Mike, Peter and myself were left. That was it.

I am Monkee number four.

They were looking for characters. They were looking for personalities.

They were looking for those people that jump out at you.

Hey, everybody...

Micky Dolenz was funny, people used to laugh at him.

And he used to do these characters. And Peter Tork was the sympathetic one.

And Mike was more of the authority, the older person within the band.

I was this little cherub, you know, heart-throb,

kind of, no hair on his body, kind of guy.

# ..Then I saw her face

# Now I'm a believer... #

And then, something magical happened.

The fans said, "We want you to be real."

And we became real.

By the collective screams of teenage girls around the world,

these four characters were willed out of the television

and into reality.

Mike Nesmith to say The Monkees going on the road

and playing live was like Pinocchio becoming a real, little boy.

The Four Tops had brought the moves and harmonies.

Herman's Hermits, the boy-next-door charm.

But it was The Monkees

who would truly set the template for the manufactured boy band.

# ..Then I saw her face

# Now I'm a believer

# Not a trace

# Of doubt in my mind

-# I'm in love... #

-Like The Beatles,

teenagers could fall in love with more than just the music.

They could fall in love with the different characters.

Now, there should be somebody for everybody.

Looking at boy bands in general, I mean,

you do get certain characters that come through.

There's the cute one, there's the tough one, there's the smart one.

Whatever it is, you have all these different elements

and it's important.

I think I definitely was the wild card.

I was extremely shy.

I was more of an older brother.

This kind of role, you know, that fits around you.

This kind of role that starts to take place

and then you end up being, like, almost a caricature of yourself.

# Boys

# Boys, boys, boys... #

For some boy bands, these individual character types are obvious to them.

Others seem less clear.

-I'm not the cute one.

-Mine's upside down.

That's me, innit.

I'm definitely not the quiet one.

-Who's the quiet? No-one.

-I'm the quiet one.

-You three ain't....

You're not quiet.

I'd say I'm the spontaneous one.

Why isn't there one called the gay one?

There's always a gay one in a band.

# ..The boys are back in town... #

Whichever side they choose to butter their bread,

what are the key boy band character types that turn up again and again?

Meet the head boy. Often the main singer, sometimes the songwriter.

He's the band's unofficial leader.

Got the guy in the band who's like, "It's all about me."

But you need that.

I just imposed myself on them.

And actually got in a couple of little fights

with a couple of guys in the band at the very beginning.

I was pushed to the front

and I was the lead singer for an amount of time.

There was times where it created situations in the band.

There was awkward moments, you know,

because people, other people would pick me as the leader

or whatever it may be. And the other guys might, you know,

it might put their noses out of joint a little.

# ..What a show, there they go

# Smoking up the sky, yeah! #

But heavy is the head that wears the crown.

# ..Crazy horses all got riders... #

A young Merrill Osmond found his role as head boy

came with its own, unique pressures.

# ..Crazy horses

# Crazy horses... #

I was a manic depressant. And I always was very, very shy.

I never, I was almost a hermit when I got into this thing.

So, the pressures for me

was not wanting to face thousands and thousands of people

and have them just praise me. I wanted to hide in the back.

I'm Merrill, I sing lead and, as you can see, I'm very relaxed.

Pressure doesn't get to me.

I broke down. I've had three nervous breakdowns in my life.

And a lot of that had to do with just being forced into a world

that I was not comfortable with.

# ..See what they've done

# What they've done

# They've done, they've done They've done, they've done... #

How about a seemingly less onerous role?

What's it like being the band's unofficial mascot?

The McCartney.

The cute one.

The job of the cute one

is to keep things fun, keep things light-hearted.

To be the, you know, the pin-up.

# ..You know you need someone when the need's so strong

# When they're gone you don't know how to go on... #

I'd say Aston is the cute one in the band. Look at those eyes.

-Look at those eyes.

-That hair.

-And those cheeks, that hair.

His little cheeks.

# ..Can't eat, I can't sleep

# What else could it be?

# Missing you so deep... #

Unfortunately, the least expectations come with being the cute one

and that, sort of, makes it easy and frustrating.

As a cute, little guy, I have no problem with that,

just don't tap me on the head, you know, cos I'll knock you out.

For the Jackson 5,

the cuteness quota would be provided by a young Michael Jackson.

Michael's role is obvious. You know, he was the little, young guy.

And he was frisky and fun.

The cute one can sometimes grow up

and become the biggest star in the band.

Michael was a little shy off the stage but, when it's show-time

and the lights are on, he let's it all go.

# ..My baby's always dancing

# And it wouldn't be a bad thing

# But I don't get no loving

# And that's no lie

# We spent the night in Frisco

# At every kind of disco

# From that night

# I kissed that love goodbye

# Don't blame on the sunshine... #

What about a bit of sour to meet the cute one's sweet?

Every group needs a wild card.

# Wild boys, wild boys, wild boys! #

From Ringo the joker. To Robbie the bad boy.

"You are the best in show business.

"You are the best personality and celebrity there's ever been."

In a world of uniformity, the wild card is the band's loose cannon.

I could kind of get away with a lot of stuff.

Like, I mean, I didn't really have it be, you know,

careful about what I said.

And I just got a bit carried away, or drunk, you know,

and just said some stupid things which I regret.

You know, like, I said something about Nicola Roberts.

I think I called her a rude, ginger bitch or something.

I used to get really drunk and go and grab a fire extinguisher

and walk into the bar and just spray everyone up.

We got banned from that hotel.

With ginger girl group members and hotel lobbies in constant danger,

what's often required is a reassuring presence.

An organiser. A mature head.

A big brother.

I was the one driving the car.

I was the one, if the car broke, I was the one under there, fixing it.

So, it spelt me out from the rest of the guys.

Marvin's definitely the older brother.

Marvin has the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Marvin makes sure everyone's up in the morning,

makes sure everyone has their passports.

Like, "What time we getting picked up tomorrow?"

"9 o'clock." "Yeah, 9 o'clock tomorrow, yeah?"

"Yes, Marvin, 9 o'clock."

Just to see if you heard.

Last but not least, the often overlooked, quiet one.

Usually found going about his job without fuss.

Offering shapes somewhere at the back. Blink and you'll miss him.

You'd be in interviews

and all they'd want to do is talk to Brian and Tony. Brian and Tony.

You'd sit in the back and you think,

"What am I even doing here? I feel right stupid."

And then you'd go home and you've got your mum and dad going,

"Why didn't they ask you a question? Why didn't they hand you the mic?"

So, you've got to take all of that on board as well.

Yeah, I think he is quiet. I think he really is quiet.

I'm not the quiet one but, you know, you get so many times

where you're sitting there and no-one passes you the mic,

no-one asks you the questions.

If that keeps happening and keeps happening and keeps happening,

you're going to be the quiet one.

I think if you accept you're type-cast for life,

then it'll be all right, I guess.

If you try and battle against it and try and change things

then it's going to be, then you're going to have some difficulties.

Like it or not, every boy band character is a cog

in a bigger pop machine.

To truly succeed, a group needs a hit record.

And to get that, you need one of these.

The boy band needs a song.

The song is always the most important part. Always.

Being a songwriter, that's a sort of selfish response, you know.

When marketing a product, you're looking for a band

that has an image to sell the product, the song.

In 1974, Mike Chapman found some particularly unlikely lads

to market his songs.

Overnight, he transformed Mud,

a hard-working band of blokes,

into one of history's less probable boy bands.

They needed a number one and I've got a head full of hooks.

So, I pulled out one of those hooks and just that particular day,

it happened to be

# ..That's right, that's right That's right, that's right

# I really love your tiger light... #

# ..That's neat, that's neat That's neat, that's neat

# I really love your tiger feet

# I really love your tiger feet! #

Bang, it happened. It didn't take more than a day to write.

But the idea of being puppets for the pop song

took some selling at first.

We didn't actually like it very much.

But Mike Chapman said,

"I don't sit up all night writing these songs

"for you lot to turn it down.

"You know, this record is going to sell 50,000 records a day."

And he was totally wrong. Because it was selling, like, 75,000 a day.

I can remember doing Top Of The Pops when Tiger Feet first went

to number one and it was like a eureka moment, it was incredible.

Champagne out.

By the time we did the programme, we were probably all drunk.

-# ..That's right

-That's right

-That's right

-That's right

# I really love your tiger light

-# That's neat

-That's neat

-That's neat

-That's neat

# I really love your tiger feet... #

It's quite nonsensical. But it works.

I haven't got a clue what Tiger Feet is about, at all.

The only thing I'm sure about

is that I'm really glad we recorded it.

It doesn't really mean thing at all. But, to me, it means a lot.

# ..That's right's, that's right

# T-T-T-T-Tiger feet

# T-T-T-TTiger feet

# I really love, I really love I really love... #

Whether ridiculous or sublime,

if the right song finds the right band to perform it,

then pop magic is born.

Take, for instance, Holland-Dozier-Holland in Motown.

They, to us, were the perfect tailors of music.

They'd say, "Here's what we like to do,

"here's the music."

He plays it on the piano.

"Here's the harmonies we think would go with it,

"can you add something to it?" "Yes, we can."

It's the highway that you get on and you just ride this highway

with the sounds that you have.

And then Levi, his part is to take that and go.

Deliver the motherfucking mail. Excuse me.

# ..Sugar pie, honey bunch

# You know that I love you

# I can't help myself

# I love you and nobody else... #

This is what The Four Tops are.

Woman, I love you so much I just can't help myself.

I will cry for you.

Yes, I would die for. Whatever it is.

I'll wash the dishes, baby, come on.

That's what The Four Tops were about.

You know, baby, I would do anything for your love.

# ..When you snap your fingers

# Or wink your eye

# I come a running to you

# I'm tied to your apron string

# And there's nothing that I can do

# Oooh... #

The right song, delivered perfectly, has the power

to preserve a boy band in the heart of the teenager for ever.

But what the male, Motown legends realised was that

how the song was packaged and presented was just as crucial.

You'd do your steps and you'd do them uniformly.

Everything we did was kind of like really together.

Just be really smooth with it and natural.

That's how we'd come up with our signature move.

Cos it's something that Obie just used to do on stage by himself

and it was, hey, man, it was catchy. We all started doing it.

# ..Can't help myself

# No, I can't help myself... #

Over the years,

choreographed routines that were pioneered by the Motown greats...

# ..Everybody, yeah

# Yeah! #

..have mutated into an array of signature boy band dance movements

designed to make teenage hearts flutter.

It's always important to have a few things. A hip thrust.

If you thrust your hip, all the girls scream,

it becomes part of the show.

The classic air grab.

That, right there. That kind of thing.

So, whatever you do,

-as long as you've got those things in there, you're good.

-Bit of singing.

But the boy bands should beware of straying too far

from these conventions and should choose its choreographer wisely.

As the dance routine can go horribly wrong.

If you look back at some of the moves that we used to do.

All these things, like this,

those were karate moves that Chuck Norris himself taught us.

Chuck Norris was the one that actually got all of us trained

into being instructors in Tang Soo Do Korean karate.

All of our dance moves were combined into katas

and all different kinds of situations

where we'd break boards on stage.

We were animals, man.

Chuck Norris was sparring with us one day and all five of us

were just going after him and he was just defending like crazy.

He did a round kick, he kicked me in the back and ruptured L4, L5 and S1.

And I lived for 15, 20 years with ruptured discs

because of Chuck Norris.

And I don't think he knows even today

what he did to Merrill Osmond.

Whether spine-shuttering or not,

a finely honed dance routine can be a powerful symbol of group unity.

But there's no point in a boy band moving well

if they look like a dog's dinner.

Image is everything.

First thing they see

when you come to stage, before you hear voice usually, is how you look.

First, you hit them with a look.

If you've got a good look,

a dress, you've dressed well, you look great, it's, wow.

It's part of the image, the make-up.

You're in show business, you need, you need special kind

of appeal to your fans.

# ..I've got sunshine

# On a cloudy day... #

The classic boy-band look starts with the suit.

For the '60s Motown, male, vocal groups

it was all about looking sharp.

There was one particular time when we were at the Apollo,

I said, "All right, Eddie, what we getting, man?

"Tell me, what's happening?"

He said, "Yeah, man, we're going to try these here purple uniforms."

I said, "Purple? I'm too dark to be seen in purple.

"I'm too black for that." "No, no, no, they're going to love it."

When they opened up the curtain at the Apollo

and we were standing there with the purple suits on,

the place went bonkers.

# ..Cheer up, Sleepy Jean... #

Shuffle a bit further into the '60s

and The Monkees loosened things up a little.

# ..To a daydream believer And a homecoming queen... #

The Monkees brought long hair into the living room.

Up until that time,

if you had long hair and you wore paisley bellbottoms,

you were usually only seen getting arrested.

It resonated with the youth around the world.

As the '60s became the '70s,

the Jackson 5 championed a psychedelic, Sesame Street look.

Like, we weren't like The Temptations

where they all wore the same coloured suits, same tie, same this.

We wanted to be different.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic,

a new look would spawn a teenage army.

We thought about taking advantage of our tartan heritage.

It caught on very quickly.

Everything we touched turned to tartan, you know.

Everywhere we went it was just mad.

# ..I really love you... #

The image helped people liked us.

It was a pretty radical, little, boy-next-door,

maybe slightly, slightly a bit rough.

They're definitely better than The Osmonds.

They've got a tartan gimmick and The Osmonds haven't.

You can't go around with the American flag round your arm, can you?

# ..How can I try to explain? #

Fast forward two decades to the '90s

and a, by now, less chaotic Boyzone

were channelling a serene, choirboy-chic look.

# ..Same, old story... #

You know, and I think it was one of our strengths.

Our looks were never flash.

We were always, you know, like, the guys you'd see on the street.

And I think that was one of our strengths.

# ..That I have to go away... #

I think we were, kind of, the working-class boy band.

The working class in Ireland clearly dressed a bit differently

to the working class in East London.

We'd come from Walthamstow, we didn't come from Kensington.

East 17 looked amazing.

They had the hats on back-to-front

and the big, sort of, baseball shirts which, you know,

white kids just weren't wearing that kind of stuff.

Incredible! What a look!

# ..As we cuddle you can fantasise

# Deep deep down Like sleep sugar... #

It was more edgier, just really different.

We wore, like, the Army camouflage gear, just a bit more street.

And you had Take That out. They were the pretty boys.

We were the rough-looking boys and it just worked.

For the modern boy band, more explicit times mean

it's often less about what the band IS wearing

but what it ISN'T wearing.

You're dealing with prepubescent girls,

teenage girls, and gay men.

What a fantastic... So what you got to do is get their kit off.

That is peddling sex and not to be ashamed about.

# ..I wanna love you down I wanna sex you up... #

So at its core the boy band is about sex appeal,

characters, song, dance routine, look.

All these elements combine to create a potent cocktail.

Sex is the boy band's key currency.

They are tapping in to a force of nature.

SCREAMING

If you're a teenage girl, you fancy them,

late teenage girl, you want to have sex with them.

If you're in your 20s you want to have sex with them.

In your 30s and 40s you want to mother them, then have sex with them.

It's very flattering to think that you have provoked an emotion

to where somebody, essentially, temporarily loses their mind.

SCREAMING

It still bothers me, like, when girls faint.

You just literally see dozens

and dozens of girls being carried over the barriers and taken out.

It's... You kind of feel guilty, we caused that.

SCREAMING AND CHANTING

When that force of nature

is unleashed in its thousands, the results can be overwhelming.

It was really, really terror, almost, for me, almost trauma.

We just sat there going, "Aghh!"

CHANTING: We want The Osmonds!

Not even the battle-hardened Bay City Rollers

could be prepared for the scenes that would unfold

at a Radio One Roadshow at Mallory Park in 1975.

'Welcome back to the David Hamilton Show from Mallory Park.

'You probably gathered we have a slight amount of chaos here.

'One of the reasons is that we have the Bay City Rollers.'

We weren't really thinking of any craziness that was going to happen.

We were just going to do a radio interview.

'All the stars are enjoying the fun and games here this afternoon,

'Tony Blackburn is actually conducting boat rides on the lake.

'Trevor of Showaddywaddy is waterskiing with all his clothes on!'

Mallory Park, the racing track, there's a race going on,

cars flying round the racing track, over 100 miles an hour.

We get into the helicopter and we're flying James-Bond style.

The BBC guy's going, "Yeah, that's the Bay City Rollers

"in their helicopter just coming into land, now."

That's probably the biggest mistake he ever made,

because you could see people running past cars, in front of cars,

cars skidding to avoid them.

'We really must make an appeal to the fans if they can hear us,

'keep away from the racetrack, Rollers fans are all over the place.'

We landed and then we got into a boat

and actually got physically pulled out of the boat by some fans,

the boat got turned over.

'We have the most amazing scenes going on here.

'Girls are actually swimming across the river to get to their idols.'

There was a Womble in the river trying to help some fans

having difficulty, because they were doing their Wombling thing.

'In the meantime, their idols are trying to get away,

'and we're about to meet our next guest from Slade, Noddy Holder!'

# ..We're all crazy now!

# Said my my we're all... #

But maniacal session isn't always confined to arenas.

Sometimes fans must struggle to leave their

burning passions behind after the show.

We was touring Germany

and we'd been on the tour bus driving from one city to another.

We must have drove about 200 kilometres already.

We come to a checkpoint.

I remember us all going into our bunks upstairs in the tour coach.

And Brian opened up his bunk and there was a fan laying in his bunk.

He was like...

And what she'd done, when we'd come out of the hotel

she'd nipped in the luggage compartment and worked her way up.

Nutter, nutter. Absolute nutter.

I really think there is a clinical study to be done on what

chemically happens, especially in the female brain.

How does a 15-year-old find her way

past four security guards into your hotel room?

-And what do they think is going to happen?

-What are they thinking?

"He's going to see me,

"we are going to fall in love, he is going to take me

"to the bedroom and we are going to make passionate love."

The power to invoke hysteria

should be handled with great care, however,

as a fan's dreams can turn into a band's nightmare.

I had a stalker that stalked me all the way to Great Yarmouth,

after Herman's Hermits was over.

My wife and I would see her ride by on a horse,

and then go by with a kid in a pram. It was a real wacko.

I got sent some really weird stuff.

You kind of get... Like I got sent a birthday card

and when I opened it up it had pubes sellotaped into the inside.

She'd shaved her pubes and put them in the card.

The scary part is that it starts positive

and then ends dark in some people.

It's that obsession and then they go, "You've ignored me."

You know, I have four death threats on my life right now.

I am deputised in about five states.

I used to carry a weapon

and we're all licensed to do

whatever needs to be done if needed.

They want you on a wall.

It's not like they hate you,

they love you so much they want to put you on their wall as a trophy.

The boy-band life can be a treacherous one,

but there is always a mindful hand guiding them from on high.

Meet their maker. The manager.

LIGHTNING CRACKS

I'm the pantomime villain. I'm the evil witch.

We need the bad guy.

I was very much a dictator of how I saw it going.

With Tom and stuff, he was a hard person.

We'd all be round the office, he'd be putting down phones on people,

telling people to eff off, you'd be sitting there thinking, "Oh!"

But spare a thought for the manager,

as pulling all the strings comes with its own pressures.

They can be very nice lads on their own.

You put five of them together and it's impossible.

By its very name, it's a boy band, it is made up of kids.

"Why have you your haircut? I didn't.

"Why haven't I had my haircut? Where's the manager?

"Tell the manager I want my haircut." Cos that's what it's like.

It's like trying to keep five monkeys in a bag.

You have got to get these young kids together and make it into one unit.

You have to go, "Here's the carrot, money, success,

"whatever it is you want, here's the rules in the first place.

"We all need to agree these rules."

These rules the manager enforces can be traced back to

the very origins of pop.

They are the boy band commandments.

If you're in a boy band you don't do drugs...

Thou shalt not have a girlfriend, thou shalt not drink, thou shalt not smoke.

..You're not gay...

If somebody's gay and you're trying to sell records to girls,

you don't want anybody to know they're gay.

We were instructed and schooled that we couldn't talk about the war...

Don't talk about the war, don't talk about civil rights,

don't talk about gay liberation.

But perhaps the most sacred rule of all concerns...

..girlfriends.

The most important rule really is be sexually available,

apparently, to young girls.

Boy bands are there to satisfy a certain market, you know,

up-and-coming pubescent teenage girls.

If you're 16 and a heart-throb,

you probably don't want to go walking around with your new,

cute girlfriend, or at least it's been proven that maybe negative.

FAINT SCREAMING

The female fans,

they have an idol and they feel that they know you personally

and they feel that they have a chance to be with you personally.

When they buy that record and get that poster

and put it on the wall, you belong to them.

SHRIEKING

When they listen to your music,

they want to imagine that they're with you.

They can scream all they want, but they weren't having me.

My father wouldn't let me have them.

You would always say that you didn't have a girlfriend at the moment,

whether you did or not, because that was the image you were portraying.

-Do you have a girlfriend?

-No.

-Would you tell me if you had one?

-No.

And it kept the door open for girls to think,

"I'm going to marry him one day.

"I'm going to be his girlfriend. He's waiting for me."

All these rules are designed to uphold a childlike fantasy

of the perfect boy and sustain the magic

of the little girl's first crush.

You want an idealised Prince Charming kind of figure,

and that, I suppose,

that's what the boy band have got to provide.

You've got a kind of safe, clear, culturally sanctioned channel

for all these - grr - emotions

that you don't quite know what to call them yet.

Everyone has to live up to a certain kind of standard.

I must be dreaming!

There it is. It's there, and if you break the rules,

you're more or less screwed, in a way.

Some pop stars are never cut out to fulfil this Prince Charming fantasy.

In 1997, Brian Harvey of East 17 discovered what happens

when you break a commandment.

He did say a few silly things.

Maybe thought he could act up to the bad boy and do what he wants.

The lead singer of the pop group East 17 has been condemned

for saying it's safe to take the drug ecstasy.

I done 12 one night, you know what I mean?

I have been off it on them, do you know what I mean?

Really, it's a safe pill

and it ain't doing you no harm. I don't see the problem.

You do have to, you know, think about what you're saying.

Otherwise it just ruins your career.

# Stay now Baby, have you got to go away?

# Don't think I could take the pain

# Won't you stay another day? #

Can I ask my honourable friend what his reaction is

to the comments today from Brian Harvey of East 17?

The stuff Brian said did mess things up.

You had John Major in the House of Commons saying Brian's name.

I would certainly regard any comments of that sort as wholly wrong.

# ..Don't you know we've come too far now

# Just to go and try to throw it all away... #

Less than a day later, Brian Harvey was fired.

I remember the radio stations smashing up our CDs on air.

I don't think we've ever got over that as a group.

You know, there's things that stick,

and I think...I think that sticks.

I think that's stuck.

# ..Baby, have you got to go away?

# Don't think I could take the pain

# Won't you stay another day? #

Despite the manager's best efforts,

tensions always lurk beneath the boy band's shimmering surface.

At some point, the boys will inevitably struggle

to escape from Never Never Land.

Boy bands fall into the trap where they all want to grow up

and they all want to become men,

but they're not allowed to because of what they are.

We create monsters.

We create these monsters

and they come back and bite our heads off.

You tend to lose control of them. They all want to be "credible".

# ..I'm a man, yes, I am

# And I can't help but love you so... #

When you hear them saying those awful words,

"We want to write our own songs,"

you just know it's the beginning of the end.

This is not just a modern malaise. By the late '60s,

The Monkees were beginning to tire of being pop's original puppets.

There were two Monkees.

There were The Monkees that were singing the songs,

that were picked and chosen by the powers that be.

And then we had this palace revolt and we garnered the power

and the control over the music.

They were determined to write their own album.

Headquarters was the first album that this other group made.

# ..Why don't you cut your hair?

# Why don't you live up there? #

Headquarters was the sound of a boy band in rebellion.

# ..Why don't you be like me?

# Why don't you stop and see?

# Why don't you hate who I hate Kill who I kill to be free? #

Even '70s favourite tartan teddy bears the Bay City Rollers

flirted with the idea of writing stoner rock.

The guys in the band reckoned, "We'll do that, we'll write the next album."

They were starting to write songs about being stoned on the 11th floor,

chasing dragons and all this kind of stuff.

Songs that referred to, let's say, a more grown-up life.

For Les, the writing was on the wall. Time to get out of Bay City.

# ..Bye-bye, baby, baby, goodbye

# Bye-bye, baby, don't make me cry... #

'So I decided that I was going to leave.'

I was feeling very fearful and panicky,

cos I couldn't believe I was actually saying it.

What was I going to do?

Wait a minute, I was going to give up this brilliant job and go out

and take a chance by myself.

It's often at this point that the underlying tension

between individual desire and group unity reaches a head.

Someone inevitably makes a bid for freedom

and the boy band fugitive is born.

There's always this member who decides

they are bigger than the band or need to go off.

It is a pressure cooker, it's a melting pot of madness

and after an amount of time, you need to become

a human being again on your own, stand on your own two feet.

Pressure will just build up until you're like,

"I don't want to be in this band any more,

"I could do better on my own.

From Donny Osmond to Justin Timberlake,

history is littered with these want-away stars.

But there's one escape story that puts the rest in the shade.

I can remember with Robbie, when it was just beginning to unravel.

I've actually got nothing interesting whatsoever to say.

Which is quite un... Quite a bit disturbing.

You could tell he wanted to break free.

He just didn't want to be known as Robbie from Take That.

Why have we got to rehearse? You make me do it.

Everyone was a bit pissed off with him

because his hair was bleached blond and he was acting like an indie act.

He took a car and drove all the way to Glastonbury.

I came down last year, had a really good time

and thought I'd come down this time.

He arrived at Glastonbury absolutely hammered.

The beer's great.

He was getting a bit fed up of what he saw as a straitjacket.

The sort of band I'm in, people look at me

as if to say, "You're not supposed to be here."

Everything Changes, the hit song by take that, proved to be

true to life after Robbie Williams's decision to go it alone.

I think he got to the stage with Robbie where

he just felt like he was in chains.

If the desire to strike out alone

doesn't spell the beginning of the end,

then real life can quickly sneak up on the boy band

and shatter what's left of the illusion.

Yeah, there were points when it was hell. Literally hell.

"You WILL get on that plane, you WILL do this.

"No, you've NOT got time to eat."

I was really struggling because I'd just become a father.

My first boy was premature,

and he was in an incubator and he weren't breathing himself properly.

"Can you go on Live & Kicking?" "Fuck off. No! I can't.

"I want to see if my baby's going to survive."

I'd have ended up in a loony bin, and I just said,

"No. No, I won't, I can't."

When the dream is finally over, the boy band member

will often struggle to re-adjust to the civilian world.

Life after pop can be a shock to the system.

There is a period of time when, all of a sudden, the bubble bursts.

I was out in the cold, so I had to start thinking

"How do I make money and support myself, my wife and my young son?"

That took on a whole different realism for me.

When I left, I became reclusive afterwards

and stayed in the house for a long time.

I was kind of happy-ish, I suppose, in a depressed way.

# ..No alarms and no surprises

# No alarms and no surprises... #

It gets a bit dark. I was just like, "Shit, what am I going to do now?"

And, yeah, so I just decided instead of getting another job,

I would just drink myself stupid.

It's hard, it's hard, coming from a band into so-called reality again.

So is it ever really possible to leave a boy band past behind?

How does the post-pop mind acclimatise?

As time goes by, a level of acceptance seems to settle in.

Ultimately, I think every teen idol becomes

an impersonator of themselves in some way.

I go into a bar or a go into a place and they are doing a karaoke.

More often than not, they'll come over and say,

"Hey, Dave, will you do Daydream Believer?"

Now, 20 years ago, I would have said "no". But now I say, "Why not?"

I do the best Davy Jones anyone's ever seen.

# I could hide 'neath the wings

# Of a bluebird as she sings... #

I'm very, very proud of being in 5ive, to the point where

if I walk into a pub and someone says to me,

"Oh, yeah, it's that geezer from 5ive,"

I just go, "Sold 20 million albums, mate.

"You've probably bought one of them, and the pint I'm drinking,

"you've probably paid for. Go and be a dickhead somewhere else."

I think acceptance is a wonderful tool

and I'm glad my therapist taught me it, because it helps a lot.

# ..Never forget where you're coming from... #

For ever embalmed by their boy band past,

many eventually return to what they know best.

It's time to resurrect the group for the reunion.

Their songs, their hits become part of everybody's lives.

The public demands it.

They want you to get back, they want to see you one more time.

You are creating an emotion that the fan says,

"You are mine,

"and I am going to be there for you

"for the rest of my life."

Perhaps the boy band reunion is about the reliving

of a special time and place in the past,

a place where the boy band and fans gather together

to worship at the altar of youth.

I've been entertaining almost the same audience for the last 40 years,

because they've been growing up with me.

It's a re-creation thing.

I'm a Doctor Who of my generation, so I take them back

to those days and try and recreate that time,

and it's good. It's really good.

We've done gigs and fans we ain't seen for 12 years are there.

It's just nice to feel wanted again.

It's kind of like someone throwing you a birthday party every night.

You almost can't do anything wrong.

So when all is said and done, is the journey to boy band immortality

a journey worth taking?

I miss it a lot. It's very, very special.

We became each other's best friends outside of being brothers.

We were a team, a force.

I was 16 years of age and I got to live the dream.

I wouldn't change a thing.

It was just the best thing that could ever happen to you.

Every boy should have an experience like that.

For sure.

# ..Oh, baby give me one more chance... #

Next time, it's women on a mission.

We immediately knew that we had hit upon something very special.

Synchronised sisters were the burning dream that nothing can extinguish.

I think if anybody tells you that there was no jealousy,

bitchiness, it's a lie.

Pop's mysterious sisterhoods proudly proclaiming,

"I'm in a girl group."

# ..Tried to live without your love

# One long sleepless night

# Let me show you, girl that I know wrong from right

# Every street you walk on I leave tear stains on the ground

# Following the girl I didn't even want around... #

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