"IT'S only a teenage wasteland," sang The Who back in 1972, but for music industry moguls, those tender years of adolescence are a veritable goldmine. Pop's history has been littered with "manufactured" boy bands, tailor made to snatch the hearts, minds and pocket money of young, impressionable kids, and equipped with just a smile, a dance routine, and a few forgotten old songs from the past.
The evolution of the boy band can be traced back to the doowop era, when young bucks gathered in groups on street corners and strutted their stuff for the benefit of passing ladies. Ask your granny, and she might go all dewy eyed at the memory of tearjerking boy band Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers. Your mum, on the other hand, probably cried into her pillow for brotherly bands The Osmonds or The Jackson 5, but she would have saved most of her tears for the undisputed stars of those two families: Donny Osmond and Michael Jackson (yes, Wacko was around even then, and he had a penchant for rats named Ben!). The Bay City Rollers started a teenage tartan fetish in the mid 1970s, but their Scottish style never really translated Stateside.
The US went on to produce the biggest boy band of the 1980s, New Kids On The Block, and they provided the blue eyed blueprint for a whole crop of Yank youths and Brit kids. Nowadays the New Kids are old kids - such is the fickle nature of the business - but there's always another fresh faced group of youths ready to leap onto that empty street corner and drive the young girls wild.
For the first half of this decade, British act Take That ruled the roost, building a teeny empire which included records, videos, Tshirts, accessories, lunch boxes and board games. When the group disbanded last year to embark on separate solo careers, telephone helplines had to be set up to deal with distraught fans of Britain's biggest heartbreakers.
SOMEBODY had to step into Take That's teenypop shoes, and by the end of 1995, there were clear contenders for pop's glittering crown, but they weren't from either Britain or the US. They were Irish, and they were called Boyzone, and last weekend they caused a sensation by winning six of the Smash Hits Awards, including those for Best International Group, Best Single and Best Album.
Ireland had its own rock revolution when U2 became the world's biggest band, and Bono became King of Killiney. Now, more than 30 years after Beatlemania, Ireland is waking up to a new pop dawn, and the soundtrack is the snap, crackle and pop of Boyzone. The five lads from Dublin's northside have danced neatly into the void left by the demise of Take That, and are now, arguably, the biggest boy band in the world which won't be good news to many morning grouches who still like to view the Irish music scene through fly shaped sunglasses.
In case you don't already know their names, Boyzone are Stephen, Ronan, Mikey, Shane and Keith; they all have last names, but that would sound too rock n roll. First names give that feeling that we know them as friends, and that they know us too. And when you're dealing with teen worship, feelings count far more than musical quality or street cred.
The group ("band" is also too rock n roll) was put together three years ago by music entrepreneur Louis Walsh, who firmly believed that Ireland had the native talent to take on the British heartthrobs. We had already produced world beating rock bands such as U2, The Cranberries and Thin Lizzy, but we'd never dared to field a fully groomed, well choreographed, stylishly dressed pop phenomenon on the world arena.
Scruffy, long haired demigods with guitars were our forte, so why not stick to what we knew? Not Louis Walsh, who, having become sick of the egocentric, underachieving Irish rock scene, turned to something he knew, understood and loved with a passion pop music.
Together with POD proprietor John Reynolds, Walsh auditioned a whole bunch of hopeful young lads, finally settling on the five we all know and (presumably) love.
"I wanted five working class guys from Dublin who really wanted to make it in the pop business, who wanted girls screaming, for them, and who were willing to work hard," Walsh says. "I was looking for talent, but I was also looking for hunger. They were definitely thrown in at the deep end, but they gained a confidence they didn't have before. Irish people tend to be less confident than their English or American counterparts, they think they're not as good as them.
According to Walsh, who at 40, now co manages a multi million pound pop phenomenon, the chemistry between the five "Boyz" was evident right from the start. "Boyzone have something special onstage that people love, I'd just have to call it Irish charm. And they're best friends off stage - I've never had a problem or a row with any of them.
"I consider myself the sixth member of Boyzone: I don't work for them and they don't work for me. They're involved in everything they do, from videos to album sleeves to running the fan club. It's not manufactured around them."
Walsh couldn't have manufactured Boyzone's success even if he'd tried the group's rapid rise outran all his wildest expectations, and he even had to reassess their projected lifespan, which, by his original calculations, should have meant Boyzone being on the scrapheap by the end of next year. "We're already talking about the next album in 1997, and we're only starting in Europe and the rest of the world. We're going to South East Asia next week, where the boys are mega, and we're planning to go to America in the near future. I honestly didn't ever think it would be this big."
As Boyzone's biggest year approaches its end, Walsh is confident that their latest single, A Different Beat, will go straight in at Number One in Britain's singles charts this Sunday.
BOYZONE may have beaten all comers in the battle of the boy bands, their nearest rivals being US teen sensation The Backstreet Boys, but they could face a deadly challenge from a totally unexpected quarter: Boyz, meet your nemeses - The Spice Girls!
The five feisty females from England made Number One in 18 countries with their debut single, Wannabe, an aspirational anthem for the new girl power generation. Unlike boy bands, who depend on the worship and sexual desire of their female fans, The Spice Girls have tapped into teenagers' need for role models, and their fans are mostly young girls who want to emulate their heroines' spiced up sense of individuality. Oh, and the little boys fancy the arse off them too.
Ireland, however, is ready with our own answer to The Spice Girls, and they go by the racy name of Syren. This quintet of hot colleens is managed by Valerie Roe, and they'll soon be breathing down the lovely necks of their British counterparts. Should be quite a cat fight.
Meanwhile, back in Ladland, Boyzone are getting ready for yet; another sold out gig in London's, Wembley Arena next Monday then South East Asia, coming home in time for a brace of Christmas shows at Dublin's Point and RDS, and Belfast's, King's Hall.
They'll be supported by Louis' Walsh's newest proteges, Brother 2 Brother, a twin sibling act which Walsh describes as "like Robson and Jerome with soul". The duo Just won Best Newcomers at the Smash Hits party, the same award which started Boyzone on their, rise to glory two years before, and they've been signed to RCA in Britain, the label which gave us; Take That. With such potentially big fish to fry, it's not surprising that Walsh isn't too worried about the latest Irish boy band, O.T.T., who are snapping gamely at Boyzone's heels. After all, it's a big teenypop ocean out there, and there's no shortage of young, hormonally driven girls just waiting to dive in.
