Sunday, September 30, 2012

Boston Herald reviews NKOTB Book

The Boston Herald has posted a review/article about “New Kids on the Block: Five Brothers and a Million Sisters” in today's issue.

Bio chronicles rise, fall and rise of New Kids on the Block

There are fans, and then there are New Kids on the Block fans.

Allston-based author Nikki Van Noy chronicles the rise, fall and rebirth of the Boston-raised boy band and the support of their loyal followers in the authorized biography “New Kids on the Block: Five Brothers and a Million Sisters” -(Simon & Schuster; $25).

“You can’t have a New Kids story without the fans,” Van Noy told the Herald. “If you look at those articles from the ’80s and ’90s, there isn’t a story about the New Kids that doesn’t involve the fans.”

The 288-page book, on sale Tuesday, weaves the voices of all five band members — Donnie Wahlberg, brothers Jordan and Jonathan Knight, Danny Wood and Joey McIntyre — with anecdotes from nearly 100 “Blockheads.”

Van Noy, 34, was among the throngs of adolescent girls pining for the band in the late ’80s.

“Seeing the fans come back in full force all those years later is a pretty crazy thing,” she said. “Talking to (band members) and watching them with the fans, it’s amazing how (in touch they are). They will sit there, and they know names of fans, have nicknames for fans.”

But don’t look for any sordid tales involving groupies in this book. Neither the guys or Van Noy go there.

Any hint of indiscretion is summed up in an anecdote from Jonathan Knight: “We’d get to go and play in a lot of amusement parks and stay in hotels. I think that was the equivalent of us going to college. That must be what going to college is like: getting drunk, and stupid, and sex. All that stuff we never experienced in college, we experienced on the road, just the five of us.”

Van Noy spent a year and half interviewing each guy one-on-one, as well as their parents.

“There wasn’t a publicist around. It was me and whatever guy I was talking to at the time. I can’t tell you how refreshingly open and honest they were. They blew everyone else I ever interviewed out of the water,” Van Noy said.

The book touches on dark topics, such as Jonathan Knight’s struggles with anxiety and depression and Jordan Knight’s battle with booze, but doesn’t linger there.

“What really struck me with them over and over again (is that) they are so hands-on,” Van Noy said. “They are in the minute details. That’s something a lot people don’t get about them. ... They are calling the shots. They are driving this and making decisions, and it’s a true representation of them.”

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