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New Kids and Backstreet Boys hit Birmingham LG Arena

If it's good enough for every other 90s band, then it's revivial time for the New Kids On The Block too.

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If it's good enough for every other 90s band, then it's revivial time for the New Kids On The Block too.

Back in their heyday, they had arenas full of crazed teenage girls screaming in excitement. Believe it or not, it's been a whopping 26 years since the New Kids on the Block released their first single.

For the Backstreet Boys, it's been 16. And now, not to be outdone by a series of staggeringly successful comebacks from the likes of Take That, Spice Girls and Steps, the ultimate boyband heartthrobs of the 80s have joined forces with their 90s-dominant musical brothers to form a cheesy pop supergroup.

This frightening beast – nicknamed NKOTBB – has taken the world by storm, selling out dates across the US and Canada as Joey McIntyre, AJ McLean, Jordan Knight, Howie Dorough, Jonathan Knight, Donnie Wahlberg, Brian Littrell, Danny Wood and Nick Carter try to prove they still have the moves.

Now, they are hitting the UK, bringing two generations of unapologetic pop fans together in one place.

Backstreeter AJ, now at the staid old age of 33, said he didn't believe the world was quite undergoing the same kind of boy band revival as the one which more or less defined the 90s, but said the tour owes its creation to the recent spike in dance and pop music, which has been helped by new 90s club nights and the like.

"It couldn't be a better time for both of us to go on tour," he said. "When we first started, everyone immediately compared us to New Kids on the Block.

"They pretty much paved the road for us."

The show features a mix of the two groups' best-loved hits, from NKOTB's Summertime and Hangin' Tough to some of BB's more annoyingly catchy tunes – many of which get played on primetime radio even now (think Everybody Backstreet's Back and I Want it That Way).

And Kids member McIntyre said they were loving life on the road together.

"It's been great. We hit it off pretty much from the get-go and we get along great and that makes it all worthwhile," he says. "But then on the professional side we just wanted to make a great show and the two groups feed off of each other.

"It comes from a pure entertainment perspective. It's fun to rock and to listen to music, but it's much more interactive."

"When you get nine of us in the same room, it's overdrive," adds AJ. "We're all focusing for an hour and then we go goof off.

"We're still young guys, we're still in great shape. We always try to keep it youthful but mature. It's a sophisticated youthfulness."

* NKOTBB hit Birmingham's LG Arena tonight. Tickets start at £40 at www.theticketfactory.com

By Charlotte Cross

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