BERN: Everyone has one of these. Who's yours?

By BERN MORLEY

This week my 13 year old daughter attended her very first ever, live concert. The band (and I use the term ‘band’ loosely) were no other than One Direction.

Now unless you don’t reside on the Planet that is earth, you should know who these kids are. Put simply, they are one of those Boy Bands that teenage girls would stomp over a field of puppies to get to.

To attend this concert, we had to purchase the tickets nearly 18 months ago. Do you know how many times a teenage girl changes her mind on a daily basis? That’s a rhetorical question. Point being, I wasn’t entirely convinced she’d still be all that into them when the time rolled around or I figured at least one of them would have been arrested for some kind of incident that involved  the words ‘hookers’ and/or ‘blow’.  But no, these boys are squeaky, SHINY clean and by the time showtime rolled around, Maddie and her friend were completely beside themselves. And enjoyed every… single… minute.

I may mock them but I know I was no different. Instead of One Direction I was into Bros. Pretty confident that any one of those guys, let’s face it, preferably Matt, would spot me on a suburban street and be so enamoured by me that he would just HAVE to whisk me away.  And that’s what it’s all about isn’t it? The perception or perhaps more so, the illusion that you may end up living some kind of fairy tale existence. The difference being, thanks to modern technology and the internet, my daughter can tell you exactly where any of the band members might be, at any given time, who they are going out with and what they ate for breakfast.

All I had to keep me going was a 500 word Dolly article, vaguely suggesting that the boys from Bros were likely to stroll along Sydney Harbour sometime in June. To be able to see them in concert when I was her age? God, I would have DIED.

In stark contrast, I myself, cut my teeth on live concerts with Joey Perrone. Remember him? Arguably the hottest star of Young Talent Time, circa 1986. He, for whatever reason, was the headliner at my local Blue Light Disco and although I REALLY wasn’t all that into him, I was into boys and figured there’d be some there to perve on. I was wrong. There were however, a thousand determined 16 year old young ladies in white stilettos that were willing to trample 13 year old girls such as myself, under foot. I still have the scar on my foot to prove it.

This fandom, this boy or girl band obsession, I think is classified by generation. Whether it be New Kids on The Block, Hanson, Human Nature or Back Street Boys, we’ve all shamelessly been a part of it.

So come on, spill, who was yours.

While you’re thinking, here’s a gallery of old boy bands to flick through…

Who was your boy band obsession?