Boybands Forever - BBC Documentary series

Stuart

Stuart

I’ve sat and binged ‘Boybands Forever’ tonight - a new documentary series from the BBC focusing on the Boybands of the 90s and 00s. Some absolutely unbelievable revelations, as well as interviews with some of the key players from the era - Robbie Williams, Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh, Chris Herbert to name but a few.



I highly recommend - it is the perfect evening of entertainment, especially if you’re pop music obsessed like many of us are.
 
Blond

Blond

Stuart said:
I’ve sat and binged ‘Boybands Forever’ tonight - a new documentary series from the BBC focusing on the Boybands of the 90s and 00s. Some absolutely unbelievable revelations, as well as interviews with some of the key players from the era - Robbie Williams, Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh, Chris Herbert to name but a few.



I highly recommend - it is the perfect evening of entertainment, especially if you’re pop music obsessed like many of us are.
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This was so well done! Absolutely loved it.
 
Booers

Booers

Oh I didn’t see this thread and started my own! I’ll delete it and add my post here.


Episode 1 aired last night with the other two coming over the next few weeks I imagine - but all three are available on iplayer now:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0024qbx

Episode 1 was interesting, focussing mainly on the early to mid 90s, specifically Take That and East 17. With Take That it’s about the internal battle between Gary and Robbie but also Robbie and manager Nigel Martin-Smith. And with East 17 it’s about the tabloid bad boy image they had.

The interviewees are good (Robbie, Nigel Martin-Smith, Tony Mortimer, John and Terry from East 17, Michael Cragg who wrote the Reach for the Stars book and is/was a PJ journalist, Daniella Westbrook, Jayne Middlemiss, Andi Peters) - however, Gary Barlow and Brian Harvey are notably absent.

There’s a good use of archive too - there were many clips I hadn’t seen or don’t remember from back in the early to mid 90s.
 
lisaj

lisaj

I watched the first two episodes last night, it was very well done and a good companion to Michael Cragg's Reach For The Stars. Gary Barlow didn't come out of it well, but I wonder if it was a clash of the egos between him and Robbie, Robbie appears to have a victim mentality despite having so much success after Take That. Pop stars getting stitched up by the people around them and the media, a tale as old as time.
 
Booers

Booers

Tony Mortimer came across well, I thought. He seemed proud of what he'd achieved with no bitterness - but I guess as the main songwriter he earned well from it. John and Terry also came across well - very chirpy and able to laugh at themselves - but they were never overly necessary to the group, I found. (Edit: I see John & Terry actually had a few songwriting credits on the second third albums so did more than I realised).
 
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Booers

Booers

Blond said:
No, in fact it didn’t really go into boy bands in the 2010s and beyond. Blue was the most recent one they went into depth on.
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I'd have thought One Direction would be covered, but other than them and some of the Korean ones who I don't really know much by, boybands haven't really been that big in the last 15 years.
 
Booers

Booers

rav4boy said:
Not that he’s been much better since but Gary really was insufferable in interview and sat morning features- “In my village it was just inevitable that I would go on to great things…”
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I found him charmless back in the day, but seeing clips like that he was not only charmless but arrogant too (and such a boring voice). I don't deny his songwriting though, he wrote some brilliant songs.
 
Island

Island

Staff member
Booers said:
Oh I didn’t see this thread and started my own! I’ll delete it and add my post here.


Episode 1 aired last night with the other two coming over the next few weeks I imagine - but all three are available on iplayer now:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0024qbx

Episode 1 was interesting, focussing mainly on the early to mid 90s, specifically Take That and East 17. With Take That it’s about the internal battle between Gary and Robbie but also Robbie and manager Nigel Martin-Smith. And with East 17 it’s about the tabloid bad boy image they had.

The interviewees are good (Robbie, Nigel Martin-Smith, Tony Mortimer, John and Terry from East 17, Michael Cragg who wrote the Reach for the Stars book and is/was a PJ journalist, Daniella Westbrook, Jayne Middlemiss, Andi Peters) - however, Gary Barlow and Brian Harvey are notably absent.

There’s a good use of archive too - there were many clips I hadn’t seen or don’t remember from back in the early to mid 90s.
Click to expand...
Yes Danniella Westbrook! She looked snatched!
 
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rav4boy

rav4boy

Episode 2 is all over the place and I fell asleep during Episode 3 so need to rewatch! Curious as to how Five come across as, in books and Big Reunion, I really don’t think they came off well.

Gutted for Damage that they totally had to rebrand. I remember really liking Love II Love.
 
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