[ August 07, 2000 ]


The BBMAK Base



BBMak Arrives With Britney Tour, Hit Single
  

By Robert Mancini for MTV.COM

With a slot on teen queen Britney Spears' tour and a debut video 
on "Total Request Live," the British trio BBMak is finding life in 
the States to be quite a ride these days.

"We're really, really busy," the group's Ste McNally told MTV News, 
somehow understating the run BBMak has been on. "We've been on 80 
planes in the last six months and haven't even covered half of the 
United States." 

The guys are currently taking a brief break before taking on the rest 
of the country on the next leg of Britney's tour. After those dates 
rap in late September, BBMak's record label, Hollywood Records, says 
the trio plans to launch its own headlining tour in October. The 
group has yet to sort out its plans for a follow-up single to "Back 
Here," but Hollywood notes that "I'm Not In Love" is a strong 
candidate.

For now, the group is just happy to have the chance to make an 
impression on Britney's sizeable audience. "It's been great to get 
the opportunity to go on tour with Britney," Christian Burns 
said. "To go on stage in front of 25,000 people for a new band with a 
debut single -- it's a great experience in front of large crowds, and 
it's just great to get out there and be meeting people and to let 
people see what BBMak look like." 

"It's been funny because we've been doing signings after each gig at 
Britney shows," Mark Barry added, "and we've been having dads coming 
up to us and say 'Oh, I love your music. It's great.' Even the older 
crowd likes it, so that's cool." 

While an opening slot on Britney's tour offers a veritable corner on 
the teen market, the band hopes to reach more than just the teen pop 
audience. BBMak flaunts its affection for the Goo Goo Dolls and Oasis 
and talks with pride about having landed "Back Here" on the Adult 
Contemporary radio chart. But despite the difference between these 
well-coifed guitar-slingers and their equally well-groomed (if 
somewhat less musically inclined) contemporaries, they aren't going 
to get offended if the "boy band" tag comes up.

"People can call us whatever they want as long as they go out there 
and buy the record and enjoy the music. That's what it's all about 
for us," Burns explained. "I think if we all had beards and we were 
all 40, people would just call us a band, but because we're all young 
and we like to dress well, they think, 'Oh, they should be dancing.' 

"They see your picture in a magazine and say 'Ah, these guys are 
going to come on and do some really good moves.' But we don't," he 
said. "We come out and we play and the reason we do that it because 
we love doing it live whenever we can, and we can't possibly sing to 
the best of our abilities if we're jumping around on stage. 'NSYNC 
and the Backstreet Boys, they do that, and they do a fantastic job. 
We were watching 'NSYNC the other day on the TV and those guys are 
amazing dancers and they can sing as well. That's great, and they do 
it really well. We just do something different." 

If you want to experience that difference, here's where you can catch 
BBMak playing their own shows as well as opening for Britney:

For more info on this tour, go here: Little Stuff Tour



For a full-length interview with BBMak, 
check out the MTV News Online feature 
"BBMak: Three's A Charm."

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