BBC's Boybands Forever

supermassive

supermassive

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www.bbc.co.uk

Boybands Forever - Series 1: Episode 1

It’s the early 90s, and Take That are vying with East 17 for both teenage hearts and chart dominance, giving birth to a British pop phenomenon which would define the decade.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

Middle of watching episode 2 now. It's good but I didn't realise what a stuck up bragger Gary Barlow was from the beginning :D
 
Saw this at the weekend and then watched the Larger Than Life: Reign of the Boy Bands documentary from Paramount+ - which focussed on the American bands. Tonally very different!
 
The 5ive stuff was really bleak. Poor lovely Scott :(

Also the tabloid journo talking head could not be more of a pantomime villain if he tried. Truly a career that seems to exclusively attract and reward sociopaths.
 
VoR said:
Also the tabloid journo talking head could not be more of a pantomime villain if he tried. Truly a career that seems to exclusively attract and reward sociopaths.
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Tabloid journos still work off “if you don’t like it, don’t be famous” and “we’re just reporting on what people want” although I doubt Dan from Bolton is in on a Saturday thinking “Cor’, I hope News of the World has an exposé on Richie from 5ive tomorrow!”
 
VoR said:
The 5ive stuff was really bleak. Poor lovely Scott :(

Also the tabloid journo talking head could not be more of a pantomime villain if he tried. Truly a career that seems to exclusively attract and reward sociopaths.
Click to expand...
I was visibly agog when he accused East 17 of being talentless, junkies, ugly, stupid, etc as if he was rattling off his shopping list :D
 
Duncan from Blue “shagging”, who I imagine was/is the world’s biggest fag hags, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson and Martine McCutcheon, always makes my chuckle.
 
Also Louis Walsh is such a STUPID CUNT for disregarding the suggestion that Damage's lack of success was down to the fact they were all black. The same man that commented on every black Xfactor finalist with something stupid like "YOU'RE LIKE A YOUNG EDDIE MURPHY" or "YOU'RE LIKE A YOUNG ARETHA FRANKLIN".
 
Just finishing this now.

The mental collapse of Five was quite sad. Brian Harvey was sad too. Fascinating to hear the jacket potato story explained, even though it makes little sense.

Brian McFadden comes across well. Westlife really were absolute rubbish. I've tried to reasses all the artists from my youth I hated, and they're just shit.

Robbie Williams, was the least irritating I've seen him for a while, although the cheap concealer was a misstep. Lots and lots of healthy therapy clearly.

Blue seem to have come out least scathed. Hard to believe Duncan went from selling perfume in Selfridges to not realising he was gay.

Louis Walsh, and generic 90s journo were both appalling. Walsh has form of denying racism, he did it on Big Brother. Although to be fair Damage didn't really have the songs.

I guess Boyzone were just :whatami:
 
VoR said:
The 5ive stuff was really bleak. Poor lovely Scott :(

Also the tabloid journo talking head could not be more of a pantomime villain if he tried. Truly a career that seems to exclusively attract and reward sociopaths.
Click to expand...

I've seen him on at least one other documentary before, and he came off awfully in that too.

Anyway this was a great watch. They balanced the enjoyable nostalgia with the less cheery human stories very well.

I particularly loved the editing of the Brian McFadden interview with mad Louis bitching away about him and Simon Cowell sitting there drinking his coffee like the evil villain he is.
 
I need to watch this. I assume Westlife are on it, but are the Backstreet Boys?
 
Rachey said:
I need to watch this. I assume Westlife are on it, but are the Backstreet Boys?
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It’s focused on British/Irish bands so they’re only mentioned in passing.

The main ones are

Episode 1: Take That & East 17
Episode 2: Five & 911
Episode 3: Blue, Damage & Westlife

Poor A1 don’t merit a single mention IIRC.
 
Cool to hear Jason being involved, unless that's old audio
 
Not seen any of these. I think I thought I'd seen Boybands Forever due to the Boyzone series. Will get started soon. I've also tracked down Dirty Pop and Take That on my dirty firestick. Can live without the BSB one. I think the Lou Pearlman sleaze was hidden in plain sight as that O-Town series back in the day was just gross at times even then.
 
Seen 2 of the 3 Dirty Pop episodes. It's got more BSB than N*Sync. Was quite odd seeing actual video footage of a swimming pool photoshoot that once was porn for me that now is rather icky to look at from my age (29 of course!) Totally didn't know about some of these bands (Natural, B4 4 and one I just scoffed at), or that Britney was even once in a girlgrouop. It's rather weird (and off if you ask me) to use AI to have Pearl be speaking words from his book.
 
I’m only halfway through the first episode of this Take That documentary. Already it’s a bit samey and just re-hashing stuff we’ve all heard before, only with all the old footage being quite new. Please tell me it gets more interesting, because all it’s doing is reminding me of why I thought they were so naff in the 90s.
 
Ellie said:
I’m only halfway through the first episode of this Take That documentary. Already it’s a bit samey and just re-hashing stuff we’ve all heard before, only with all the old footage being quite new. Please tell me it gets more interesting, because all it’s doing is reminding me of why I thought they were so naff in the 90s.
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I'd love to say your patience will be rewarded, but it's not the most compelling documentary.
 
GNL said:
I'd love to say your patience will be rewarded, but it's not the most compelling documentary.
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Maybe because it’s for Netflix, they had international audiences in mind. Because there’s fuck all new for the UK.

Also I just want to say, as someone who was 12 years old when Pray came out, I was absolutely their target audience. I also went to an all girls school. The Take That fans at school were NOT COOL.
 
The Boyzone one was in parts very interesting and moving, but zero interest in this Barlow and the other two vehicle.
 
Is it one of those Netflix ones where the subjects are also 'executive producers' (i.e. the Beckhams and Robbie ones) so it's essentially a fucking advert that's been signed off by them? No thanks if so
 
They spend about 20 minutes in Episode 2 literally talking about that ITV documentary from 2005 and showing clips from it. They could have just shown that same documentary and then picked up again from there.
 
Well that's an easy skip, not least because Mark is not a sight for sore eyes these days let alone the voice. I do find Gary inadvertently comical though. I'd have been more interested in them talking about the tax thing with the one who left.
 
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We've watched it over the last two days and it was diverting but little more. The only new interviews are with Mark, Howard and Gary now, and only as voiceovers.
 
And obviously they never completely relied on cover versions, but it does underplay the role they played in their success. It very much portrays them only resorting to one in the first place to get a breakthrough, rather than the reality of using another when it didn't go quite to plan straight after It Only Takes A Minute, using another one on the second album (presumably something of a safety net if it didn't go to plan with the first single), and then deciding to bow out on yet another one.
 
lolly said:
And obviously they never completely relied on cover versions, but it does underplay the role they played in their success. It very much portrays them only resorting to one in the first place to get a breakthrough, rather than the reality of using another when it didn't go quite to plan straight after It Only Takes A Minute, using another one on the second album (presumably if it didn't go to plan with the first single), and then deciding to bow out on yet another one.
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Yes, no mention at all of Could It Be Magic and Relight My Fire.
 
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