Day 85: ‘Who remembers The Box?’

TONIGHT my friends from school are heading to watch the Backstreet Boys at the LG Arena in Birmingham. 

Even thinking about Marie, Helen and the Backstreet Boys instantly takes me back over 18 years.

When you’re in your teens, everyone has their idols. Mine were the starting eleven at Mansfield Town, Take That and my Dad of course. For a couple of my closest friends, it was Backstreet Boys all the way. 

Sitting in my lounge tonight, I can remember distinctly what this room used to look like in the nineties when my Gran and Grandad lived here. Me and my friends would walk up here most lunchtimes to have our sandwiches and watch music on my Gran’s Diamond Cable box.

At the time there was the more polished MTV option, but there was far too much talking from presenters for our liking. For us it was The Box all the way. A constant stream of music videos, some often playing over and over again - at their height it was almost impossible to watch it for more than 15 minutes without seeing the Spice Girls!

The nineties was fantastic for dance routines, simple moves that anyone could emulate. The likes of Steps, Spice Girls, S Club 7 and Five. 

As a rather clumsy, flat footed, tom boy, I could just about manage to remember most of the moves from these more simple, easily replicated routines (and still can now if the music and mood takes me!) But I wasn’t dedicated enough to recreate routines that Backstreet Boys put together - my friends however were far more committed!

At Helen’s 30th birthday party last Summer, they proved just how committed. It all came flooding back to me as I watched Marie, her sister Louise and Helen jump up when ‘Everybody’ came on over the loud speakers. 

Far too professionally for a troop of 30 plus women, the dance was delivered faultlessly, to the point that I believe some mirror-based rehearsals may have occurred in the evening’s preparations! It made my evening, week and month all in one! 

I may have to start re-watching these videos on YouTube to enhance my skills for the next time we convene near a dance floor. 

In the meantime I’ll stick to my near-perfect rendition of Steps’ ‘5,6,7,8’ (chorus only), faultless performance of Whigfield’s ‘Saturday Night’ - not all the way through though, I get knackered by the second verse - and of course the unforgettable jig to Wham’s ‘Wake me up before you go go’ that can only be achieved in the company of Laura Mellor…preferably only with very drunk people watching!