I am from Venus....I fell for the boy band...once.

I sneered at my sister's Duran Duran posters. Bros were too gay for me, as were Curiosity killed the Cat for that matter. I'd play Back Street Boys if it was on the car radio and hum along to Boyzone and Take That but that's about all. Westlife have bored me to tears for the last decade with their music, chart success and cheesiness. I've always been to much of a non-girlie snob to pay heed to the boy band, but I confess I did slip up, just once...2, 3, 4 5. Oh yea. Five were the boy band for me. "Why then? Why them?" you may ask, as you might tell it was fairly late in the day for me to do the boy band thing given I was 26 or 27, but it just kind of happened. Maybe I needed an excuse to get away from college work - given I had just started at the time.

I bought all the albums, US & UK versions and their video. Paid to see them at the Childline concert (niece in tow of course) and couldn't hear a tap with the 5 year-old racket and only 2 of them turned up. But I did get to see them after that, and took the slack of the Soundcellar lads when buying the tickets (tip to all you parents out there, no one buys cheesy pop tickets in Soundcellar so if you buy there you get front row, where you would get the back row on ticketmaster). I even bought crappy smash hits type magazines to get the latest on Richie Five, etc (it was too early for the net). I learnt the dance routines with my niece and her friend, I was only short of scratching their name onto my pencil case - if I had one.

I loved Richie, he was my favourite, but most of all I liked to watch Abs dance. He's possibly my all time favourite dancer to watch. Ah the memories.

The love affair didn't last too long and I've snapped out of the boy band lure since (and into the void), but I still carry a torch for the boy band that broke my celibacy. And the songs are still catchy too.