Advertisement
All they need is "need," "love" and "baby," words that appear in practically every song title. All they do is feed the fantasies of preteen girls. All they've sold is an estimated five million copies of their first three albums since they arrived on the scene five years ago. Not that anyone living in North America who doesn't subscribe to Teen Beat would know any of this, simply because the veteran boy band Boyzone have yet to butt heads with the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync on U.S. soil.
Since forming in Dublin in 1993, the five lads with the best hair
in the business have dominated Europe's illustrious boy band
category, landing at No.1 on the Billboard charts with
three consecutive albums -- a feat matched only by the Beatles and
Oasis. They have scored eleven Top-Five singles overseas, filmed
fourteen music videos, posed for more posters than Leonardo
DiCaprio and even contributed background vocals for U2's latest
single, the rejiggered "Sweetest Thing." Still, Boyzone are
certifiable nobodies in the colonies.
"Maybe, being Irish, we are doing things a little back-to-front in
our way of trying to conquer the world," says Boyzone's oldest
Eros, twenty-six-year-old Mikey Graham. "Normally, people would try
to go through the U.K. and straight to America, and then have the
rest of the world follow suit. But being Irish we started in
Ireland, went to England, went to Europe, went to Southeast Asia
and Australia and then went to South America. Now all that's left
for us is the United States and Canada."
More adventurous and genuine than 'N Sync, less contrived and
pompous than the Backstreet Boys, Boyzone are bringing their
choreography and Celtic charms to the last great frontier on Nov.
17. Where We Belong, released in Europe nearly six months
ago, exhibits Boyzone's penchant for unabashed radio candy --
sticky sweet and addictive -- as well as authentic musicianship and
instrumentation. Nearly all fourteen tracks -- from the impeccably
produced "One Kiss at a Time" to the sincere ballad "All the Time
in the World" -- dare critics to do more than glance at the album
cover and toss it in the trash.
"Apart from the name Boyzone, which really does suggest that we are
just another boy band, when people see us and hear our music, they
will definitely not characterize us as mainstream pop, because our
music really has moved on past that," Graham says with a Dublin
lilt. "It's easy listening, damn good music. It's in the Irish
stable of U2, the Cranberries, the Corrs, etceteras."
The Corrs maybe, but U2? That's gonna be a tough sell but, of
secondary importance, Boyzone do actually share some traits with
their Irish peers. For one, Boyzone are huge hometown heroes. Their
current single, "No Matter What," has brought Ireland great
international attention via the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical,
Whistle Down the Wind, which features that song
prominently in its score. In addition, Boyzone are grassroots guys
-- they write and produce nearly all of their songs, a rare and
respectable practice in the boy band industry.
"There are a lot of artists out there who would concentrate on the
vocal aspect of it, and not necessarily the writing and recording
and producing," Graham says. "We want to make sure that when
something is coming across to the public, it doesn't just have our
vocal touch to it, but our talent as songwriters and co-producers
as well."
America's response to Boyzone's 'talent' remains to be seen. Before
Thanksgiving, Ronan Keating, 21, Shane Lynch, 22, Stephen Gately,
22, Keith Duffy, 24, and Graham will jet to the U.S. for
promotional gigs in New York, Los Angeles, Cleveland and Nashville.
Before returning again next spring, the boys will release a
greatest hits album abroad and finish filming their movie, which
Graham describes as "somewhere between The Commitments and
the Beatles' Help! -- a fun film that basically tells the
story of us five lunatics.
"When we began, we were the only five people to believe in us, but
we stuck to our guns and we worked hard and now everyone kind of
takes their hat off to us," he says. "You can bet your bottom
dollar that Boyzone will be the next biggest thing in the
States."
ANNI LAYNE
(November 13, 1998)