POPFESSIONS

Paula Edwards

New Kids On The Block (NKOTB) were the best thing since sliced bread when I was 13 or 14 (1989 or 1990). I had posters on every available area of my bedroom wall (so many in fact I forgot what my wallpaper looked like for a short time) and even a few on the ceiling above my bed.

Donnie Wahlberg was my preferred choice and Jordan Knight was that of my then-best-friend so it worked well. She would record everything (I mean, everything) they appeared on and I would go to her house once a week for tea where we would watch the videos when her mum had gone to work and lust after our favourite boys. That was probably the one (and only) time I ever thought wearing brogues with jeans looked good.

I remember my friend would rewind the video for ‘Baby I Believe In You’ and play it back at least 10 times over gushing at Jordan’s rippling bare chest. Another friend (and Jordan fan) who lived nearby joined us one evening and randomly burst in to tears at around the sixth or seventh playback so we had to quickly move on to another video. I still have that image of Jordan’s chest and his white shirt billowing out behind him like a line full of washing on a windy day seared on to my brain… probably for life!

We were due to go to a concert but, for some reason, I didn’t or couldn’t go and another friend went in my place. She was also a Donnie fan and somehow managed to acquire a piece of one of his trainers at the concert, which became a prized memento – like a piece of the Berlin wall. I will admit, I was jealous.

I’m still in contact with the Jordan fan friend and we even looked at booking tickets for the NKOTB/BSB tour when it was announced, but neither wanted to stand or pay out for seats that had a rubbish view.

How times have changed.