| NKOTB [The Beginning] |
|
It all started the day Mary Alford, a talent agent, set out on a search for five talented Boston youths that had that something special that made girls swoon. They also had to be able to make the world move.
In July of 1984, Mary had her first stroke of luck. She found the first member (and the foundation of the group) when she saw Donnie Wahlberg. Donnie’s younger brother Mark went along to Donnie’s audition to meet singer/producer Maurice Starr. Donnie’s audition pretty much consisted of singing, dancing and rapping. Needless to say Maurice saw something in this young man and brought him on immediately. Mark was chosen to be in the group as well. It was then Donnie’s job to help them find the remaining members. The first person that came to mind was Danny Wood. At first Danny was a bit apprehensive about auditioning. He was after all very involved in his own thing. At that time Danny was doing shows with a breakdancing group called Rock Against Racism, but in time he decided to go ahead and audition and was chosen to be a member. In the winter of 1984 after a manic search, Donnie was able to track down Jordan Knight and asked him to audition for Maurice. When Jordan eventually decided to go through with the audition, he was asked to sing a line from "Be My Girl." That was enough to impress Mr. Starr, Jordan joined, as did his older brother Jonathan. Alas, 15 year old Mark’s interest in the group didn’t last long and he left the group (not to worry fate had something else in store for this young man). Another friend of Donnie’s by the name of Jamie Kelly joined the group also. But after awhile he became a no-show to rehearsals and started losing interest. Jamie’s parents also weren’t too keen on the whole idea and Jamie became the second member to drop out. Once Mark and Jamie were out, Mary and Maurice realized that they were missing a very important element…the younger baby faced member. This of course was the formula of all the great boy bands before them, The Jackson Five and The Osmonds (just to name a few). Mary called around to local schools in the Boston area and while speaking to voice coaches someone mentioned that there was a young kid by the name of Joseph McIntyre that she should see. After eventually finding the young Mr. McIntyre on a basketball court, Mary spoke to him about the group and the members they already had in place. Not sure if he wanted to be a part of this group with four guys from Dorchester, Joe didn’t want to audition. He was perfectly happy and involved with his community theater. What changed his mind? One of his sisters just happened to see this new group Nynuk open for Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam at a local club (Lansdowne 9) and liked them. In June of 1985 Mary drove Joe to Maurice’s home to audition and the rest as they say is history. Like most new situations, this did not go over too smoothly. Joe had a hard time fitting in with the others. For one, he replaced Donnie’s pal Jamie and two; he got many of the leads that Jordan wanted. Joe’s troubles did not end there, Donnie and Jordan sometimes paired up and teased him a bit. According to "Our Story", one thing sticks out in Joe’s mind about that time. Due to his theatrical experience he usually got the choreography rather quickly. But the one time he didn’t he was tagged with the nickname "Slow Joe". Needless to say this road was very bumpy in the early days. Maurice’s manager Dick Scott was also there from jump street and ended up becoming the boys dedicated manager. This, as they say, was the start of a beautiful relationship. During those early years Nynuk rehearsed any place they could, whether it was their basements or at the Lee School the fivesome just practiced, practiced, practiced. All of that work paid off when Maurice got the group booked for talent shows, in small club (sometimes for an audience as huge as five people) or at some sort of benefit. Their very first show was at the Lee School in Boston. When they finally started traveling, they performed in and around Boston. They soon had gigs set up in New York and New Jersey and they did a lot of county fairs. A pretty modest start for five kids from Boston. Soon things started looking even better, their booking agent, Jerry Ade, just so happened to be the agent for a very popular teen queen at that time. Jerry set up a life altering audition for the boys in Tiffany’s dressing room of all places. Despite the cramped quarters and the awkwardness, Tiffany really liked what she saw and agreed to let the boys open for her. This indeed was the huge break they were hoping for. Another project in the works was getting the all-important record deal and signing a contract. They started recording their first album at Mission Control, a recording studio in Westford, Massachusetts. They only had four songs to begin with; "Be My Girl", "Angel", "Stop It Girl" and the Donnie Wahlberg original rap "New Kids On The Block". In those days Donnie and Joe did most of the leads. Maurice shopped Nynuk’s demo tape around NY to a lot of record labels with no success in sight. Finally in 1986 their luck changed, Columbia Records signed them for one 12" single with an album to follow, if they had success with the single. But, by some sort of twist of fate, they ended up doing the album first! Another thing they were happy about is that Columbia wasn’t too keen on the name and wanted it changed. Happy to oblige the guys decided on New Kids On The Block, after the song on their album. The new name fit them like a glove! Other songs included on the album were; "Are You Down?", "I Wanna Be Loved By You", "Popsicle", "Don’t Give Up On Me", "Treat Me Right" and "Didn’t I Blow Your Mind?" Once the album was completed, it was sent to Columbia and they had to play the waiting game. Then one day Mary called a meeting at the Knight house and surprised the guys with a 12" vinyl of their first single "Be My Girl." The song entered the top 100 singles chart at #90, but didn’t do too well. They released two more singles "Stop It Girl" and "Didn’t I Blow Your Mind?" to no avail. After six months Columbia became skeptical about giving their newly signed artists another opportunity, but the boy band gods had another plan and the record label gave them another chance. With the hard knock experience from the lack of success of their first attempt, the guys became even more determined to succeed the second time around. They knew they were very lucky to get this second opportunity, especially in this industry. Hangin’ Tough was recorded in two studios, Mission Control and House of Hits (which happened to be a studio in Maurice’s home). With little money, an ok recording facility, one keyboard and almost no soundproofing the guys worked hard on the album. Columbia released Hangin’ Tough in 1988, but the first single "Please Don’t Go Girl" didn’t start making waves until that summer. This is why touring with Tiffany became highly important. With their record company steadfastly behind them with a big marketing effort, the New Kids embarked on a huge promotion at Disney World where high school students were flown in to be in the audience. They soon filmed the video for "Please Don’t Go Girl" to help promote the single. Airplay on video channels and radio started to really take off for them as their popularity grew among young music fans. Hangin’ Tough became a huge success, eventually selling about 12 million copies. New Kids On The Block filmed three more videos from the album; "(You Got It) The Right Stuff", "I’ll Be Lovin’ You (Forever)" and "Hangin’ Tough" – all smash hits. |
| ...more |
|
NKOTB - Feeling a bit nostalgic for the glory days? Well you've come to the right place, just by pressing on the links below you can read the groups story, the discography, and much more. If there is anything you would like to see added to this section please let us know! [The Beginning] How it all started.[Cartoons] The animated series on ABC.[Commandments] What you should and should not do as a fan.[Discography] Their musical accomplishments.[Memories] What are your favorite memories?[Videography] Their videos and DVD collections. The Solo Years - Here's a mini webliography for each guy [discography's, films, articles, hopefully chat transcripts, and anything else that we can find] [Danny's Career] [Donnie's Career] [Joey's Career] [Jonathan's Career] [Jordan's Career] |
 |  |  |  |