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So you wanna know how all the guys ended up as the best god damn boyband in the world today? Ok then, we'll tell ya...
We'll start with Chris, seeing as he's the mastermind behind the whole NSYNC thing. Well, once upon a time in the mid 1990's Christopher Alan Kirkpatrick was working at Universal Studios, Orlando, Florida. One sunny day back in the day when he wasn't famous at all, and nobody had even heard of "pineapple head", he had an idea..."I want to start up a vocal harmony group" he said to himself. He was currently singing with a 50's doowop group called the
"Hollywood Hightones", they'd sing to the thousands of people who'd pass through the Universal gates every week. Lovely. But he wanted more than that...
Around the same time a boy by the name of Joshua "JC" Scott
Chasez was busy being gorgeous, and was working for the "other" theme park in Orlando...Disney! He'd gotten himself a cushy little number as a cast member on the Disney channel show "Mickey Mouse Club" or "MMC" as it's known. He was hosting the show for 4 years, until *sigh* it ended, and poor JC had to give his Mickey ears back and head home...poor love.
Whilst working on the MMC, JC got friendly with a cute little Tennessee curly head by the name of Justin Randall Timberlake, who was also a cast member, and was one of the younger members of the cast. But boy could he sing. The 2 of
them became good buddys, but when the MMC was all over, they went their seperate ways for a while...oh dear.
Joseph Anthony Fatone Jnr was also working at Universal Studios at the same time as all this was going on, he was a member of the "Beetlejuice Graveyard" show, and would pretend to be Frankenstein, and other charming creatures every day. Joey and Chris knew each other quite well, they'd bump into each other at work... JC knew Joey too, and Chris knew Justin from auditions also...although
JC and Chris didn't know each other...confused yet? Yes, so are we...next!
Sorry we haven't mentioned little Lance Bass yet, he's comin into it soon though! Promise!
Right, where were we...oh yes...well, Justin went back to Tennessee after MMC had ended...JC went to LA for a bit, then he also ended up in Tennessee, and just happened to bump into Justin along the way, cool or what eh? So the two
went back to Orlando and started putting some demo stuff together.
Chris meanwhile, was itching to start up a five part harmonie pop group...so he phoned up Justin, and off he popped to Pleasure Island to see Chris. JC tagged along also, and met Chris, who asked them both if they'd be interested in starting a pop group together..."Too right" the 2 J's said, and so then were 3. Until that is, Joey popped up, and Chris said "Hi", and JC said "Hi",and the 2 of them looked at each other and said..."I never knew you knew him! Wierd!". So then they asked Joey if he wanted to join their "cool new pop group dude"...and of course he did! Woo hoo!
Something was lacking though...they were practising really hard, and they were doing really well, but something was still missing, they needed a bass voice...and by freak of nature, they really, really did end up with a bass...a
Mister James Lance Bass. How odd is that? Very, we think, Anyway! Justin got onto the blower to his old vocal coach and asked if he knew of anyone who had a bass voice, and yeppers...it was none other than Lance. Lance wanted to do it, but his momma was very skeptical about the whole thing...he insisted that his charming southern style would be a hit with the ladeez, "Oh, go on then" said Momma Bass, and the rest, as they say, is history!
Or not quite...cuz they didn't even have a name yet. Although the lads were all in Orlando now, and all were practising their little, tight butts off, and sending demos to people, they didn't know what to call themselves. But wait! Momma Timberlake (or Lynn Harless as she's known) came to the rescue and put her brain to good use...she was messing about with all the guys names, and found out that if you put the last letter of their first names together, you'd come up with "SNYCN"!!! Good eh? Nah, only kidding... of course, it was NSYNC...so, TADA...NSYNC was born... Hallellujah!
Finally, in 1996, they got a record deal...praise the lord! They got all the help they needed from their then, business manager, Lou Pearlman, what they thought at the time was help, anway. And once the deal with record giants BMG
was signed, the lads were on their way to...erm...Germany. They ended up staying over there for practically a year, and became rather big out there,having humoungous hits such as "I Want You Back", "Tearin Up My Heart" and "Here We Go"...nice vid lads.
After being in Germany for a whole year, and after a failed attempt to crack the UK *sigh, never made it this time...(we blame those silver shiny tracksuits)* the guys went back to their homeland, where, nobody knew them. Sob.They did a lot of work...and soon enough, "I Want You Back" was being requested over and over on every radio station in the land. They were asked if they'd like to do a Disney concert special, which obviously, they jumped at...it was an overwhelming success, and they credit that concert as THE thing that exploded them onto the US scene, good on 'em!
Still though, nothing was happening over here in Blighty for NSYNC...they were now a pop phenomenon in America... everybody knew who they were...millions of kids, teenagers, and even twenty somethings idolised them, but alas, one man
and his dog knew who they were here...apart from, us that is.
FINALLY! In February 1999, NSYNC had their first top 5 UK hit with "I Want You Back"... followed by a top 10 hit a few months later with "Tearin up my Heart"...at last!
2000 was quite a year for our boys...after succesfully getting rid of Lou Pearlman and their former record company, (nearly being sued for $150 million in the process... FLIP!), they joined Jive Records and embarked on the dream that they'd all been hoping for since they got together back in 96. First up, they came to the UK... whooppeee, and they had a #3 smash with "Bye Bye Bye",
then in March they released the album "No Strings Attached" to the eagerly awaiting fans....who weren't disappointed as it sold a whopping 2.4 million copies in it's first week in America alone, just to let you know that it sold... errr... 14,000 copies here in the first week...not exactly million
proportions, but jolly good all the same if you ask us.
NSYNC embarked on 2 American tours in 2000, all of the concerts selling out in a matter of minutes, as yet, they still haven't toured in the UK yet (hurry up man!), but pinkies crossed, they will soooooooooooooooon.
Anyway, here endeth the story of how NSYNC grew into the biggest, and BEST group in the world right now...lets hope 2001 will be even better...
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