The Boys were ‘never gone’

The practice is pretty much the same everywhere these days. After recording an album, an artist will usually go on tour for performances that will help boost record sales. Vice versa, a hit album will of course also boost ticket sales to the concert. So after coming up with Never Gone, its first studio album after several tempestuous years, The Backstreet Boys are now on tour and set to perform in the Philippines.

I do not recall if the group has ever been to the country for a big concert like the one they are going to do at the Araneta Coliseum come Friday, Jan. 20. I am very sure though that they have been here before. That was a long time ago. Brian Littrell, was still single. Kevin Richardson’s Broadway dreams still had to manifest themselves. Howie Dorough had no idea he could do Latin music. Nick Carter was only 14, didn’t have a drinking problem and hadn’t met Paris Hilton yet. There was no sign at all that A. J. McLean would one day be in a rehab facility coping with depression. Even the relationship with their music label seemed perfect with no prospect of a lawsuit in the future.

They were a clean-cut, good-looking, thoroughly wholesome bunch whose only concern was to sell albums and be popular teen idols. Thanks to hits like Get Down, Backstreet’s Back, Quit Playing Games with My Heart, I Want It That Way, As Long as You Love Me and others, it did not take long for The Backstreet Boys to attain stardom. The guys from Florida became one of the biggest selling acts of the ‘90s and were in fact credited with setting the boy band craze ablaze all over the world. ‘N Sync, Boyzone, 98 Degrees, Blue, Westlife and many other boy groups, all rode on the crest of the success generated by BSB.

Then Brian, Kevin, Howie, Nick and A.J. grew up and life was not so rosy anymore. But to the BSB’s credit, they chose to pull themselves out of the doldrums and save, not only their careers, but their very lives. The story of how these guys rallied together to help one another conquer their weaknesses is one of the most heartening I have ever heard. And it was with this thought in mind that fans enthusiastically welcomed them back last summer. These survivors are the men whom we are going to meet this week.

The album was the aptly titled Never Gone and it was the group’s third studio album and first release in three years. Never gone, never far, in my heart is where you are, goes the song. In a way, that was how BSB fans felt then. In a way, the guys were also singing to them. Despite all that have happened, the fans were all that really mattered. The release date in 2005 was admittedly, a difficult time because the boy band craze had by then pretty much petered out. Thankfully though, the BSB still enjoyed that huge fan following and it was this, which lifted the first single release Incomplete to become a hit.

Never Gone is a solid album that straddles a tricky middle ground between today’s melodic rock and the Boys’ teen pop sound of the early days. Sentiments expressed in the songs are pretty much the same as before but the sound is fuller and the arrangements have a definite rock feel to them. Do you notice how grown-up and masculine their voices sound? The Backstreet Boys knew that being cute is not going to work anymore and in the process have given us what must be their best work to date.

Incomplete, Just Want You to Know, Crawling Back to You, Poster Girl, I Still… My Beautiful Woman and Weird World are some of the best among the titles included in Never Gone. Friday’s show will probably showcase these but you can bet that the BSB will not miss the chance to show off the hits that made them the leading boy band of an era.

Incidentally, the local edition of Never Gone comes with a free DVD that contains the full video for Incomplete, behind the scenes footage, a photo gallery and the wistful Song for the Unloved as a secret, bonus track.

But if you want to see them live, tickets to the Backstreet Boys’ concert priced at P5,000, P4,000, P3,000, P1,000 and P500 are now available at all SM Ticketnet outlets, Ticketworld at National Bookstore and the Araneta Coliseum box office.