The name fits.  Out of nowhere the New Kids on the Block have hit the streets to claim the No. 1 spot on the Billboard singles chart with their ballad "I'll Be Loving You (Forever)."

They're the hottest teen group to come along since the Jacksons. the Osmonds The Jets. Menudo and New Edition.

The New Kids on the Block include brothers Jordan and Jonathan Knight. Danny Wood, Joe McIntyre and Donnie Wahlberg. They range iii age from 16 to 19.

The success is mind-boggling to the self-described "street kids" from Boston

"I think it's great." said Jonathan, 19, with typical teen-age giddiness. "The odds of this actually happening are astronomical. We're so lucky."

But the New Kids groan at the mention of the Osmond comparison or any other association with teen "bubblegum" music. In fact, their music is a little bit of everything.

"I just think the bubblegum label - for any group - is an insult. It's like teens don't have the right to make music that's good and appealing to Queen teens," said Donnie. 19.

Donnie admits. however'. the quintet's first album. "New Kids on the Block." might have seemed youthful. "As we grow up. our music will grow up. too." he said.

Their second album. "Hangin' Tough." has sold more than I mullion copies and spawned two other top 10 hit "Please Don't Go Girl" and "You've Got It (The Right Stuff)."

They recently taped a segment of "Kid's Choice." an award show for the cable TV channel Nickelodeon. t Universal Studios. The group performed its next single. "Hangin' Tough."

Like The Jets and Osmonds. the New Kids are as squeaky clean as their image. They are well-dressed and wel1~mannered. They attend classes during the school year. and they brag about having never done drugs a rarity in a business full of raucous rock bands and recovering substance abusers.

"I think our success gives other kids role models. positive role models, because we don't do drugs or things like that. I think that's important." said Jordan, 18.

In honor of their anti-drug stance. Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis proclaimed April 24. 1989. "New Kids on the Block Day."

The sudden rise to fame hasn't jaded them. They were still excited about being taped for a television show. and likewise starstruck at all the celebrities they're getting to meet on their way up.

"I just met Alyssa Milano" said Joe. 16, referring to the teen-age co-star of ABC's "Who's the Boss'?"

"It's not like a job. Right now we're just having a whole lot of fun." he said.

The fun includes gathering mostly teen-age fans all over the country. The group estimates their average fan is female and ranges in age from 12 to 16.

The New Kids were discover in Boston by producer Maurice Starr'. who staged a citywide search in 1984 to create a b such as New Edition which he all put together.

At first, the quintet focused on rap and rhythm and blues, but weren’t satisfied with the minor success the first album achieved. So they widened their musical style and hones their dance steps.

For now, the boys are concentrating on developing their vocal prowess, and sing much like a polished street corner group. But in the future they plan to start working more with their own instruments and incorporating them on albums and in performances.

They have toured the United States of and on since last summer, opening in some cities for Tiffany, another teen singer.

The group’s next project is an album called "Merry Merry Christmas," due for release in the fall. The record contains traditional holiday fare such as "White Christmas," and more modern originals such as "A Funky Funky Christmas."

As for the Kids, they’re loving every busy minute, but can’t say the same for their parents.

"It’s like the grass is always greener on the other side. Our parents wanted us to make it really bad, but now they kinda miss us," says Donnie .

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AUBURN HILLS - All together now One. two. three -JONNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!'.!

Jordan! Danny! Donnie! Joe!!

What kind of spell were you casting over those young girls Saturday night?

For more than two hours Saturday. the New Kids on the Block held court at the Palace. reveling in the mania of 17,000 young girls and their assorted escorts.

It was like a board game kids used to play - "Mystery Date" -without the nerdy Poindexter. There. in the flesh, a young girl's fantasy come to life, stood the five Boston teens - which one should she choose, if only in her dreams?

The song titles tell it all. Take "Didn't I Blow Your Mind." While the New Kids put some tight choreography on this classic, a young girl near us clutched her head in her hands and shrieked at the top of her lungs. Something was blowing her mind!

How about "I Wanna Be Loved Be You?" Or "I'll Be Loving You Forever," the group's first No. 1 single? It tells the story of the New Kids' success.

(So does 'I Still Believe in Santa Claus," though there were a few post-adolescents in the crowd.)

Music was incidental to Saturday's audience - the fact that the New Kids breathed the same air under the Palace rafters was enough to drive their young fans into tearful ecstasy.

Not that New Kids were without talent, musically and in their easy rapport with the fans. Entertaining is a good word. Clean fun is another description that comes to mind.

(OK, we didn't witness musical history in the making here. Now I'm in for it legions of half-pints wearing white New Kids baseball caps and oversized New Kids pins tracking me down with rolled New

Kids programs, pummeling me to the beat of a "Funky, Funky Xmas.")

From the floor to the rafters, in a full circle around the stage, the loyal clustered, shrieking, crying, reaching out to the young entertainers. Even when they couldn't see the objects of their affection -we're talking about those in the upper reaches behind the stage who viewed everything through a massive gridwork of stage lights -they jumped up and down, shrieking out their loyalties.

The five swirled in a dizzying dance, crawled across the stage in amorous agony to their young fans' great delight, donned sequined jackets for a special Christmas segment, and even paid special tribute to one of their early musical influences, the Jackson Five.

(Can you say Bubble Yum?)

"Oh, I think I've died and gone to heaven," one young fan moaned, tears running down her cheeks.

"I can't believe this is happening," added her friend. sitting with

her head between her knees as she tried to hold off a faint.

Backstage, stage workers bagged up dozens of small stuffed animals, countless envelopes with declarations of undying affection, and the occasional solitary rose.

"If you think this is something, you should see what's back there from the afternoon show," one worker said.

Before the band ever took the stage Saturday night, another large bags were added to the u-haul - visual proof of the affection showered on this year's sensation.

Opening Saturday's show the Cover Girls and Dino, the latter offering the older fan an interesting pause before the pubescent dreamboats.

"Oh. I wish I was young enough to dream of a chance," on grandmotherly sort lamented as Dino strutted his way through "Summergirls."

It was a dream repeated many times over.

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A concert promoter wants to l)ring the New Kids on the Block to Ojibway Island.

First, however, he will have to win over the Saginaw City Council, which has gone around the block a few times on the touchy issue of charging admission to public parks.

Another even larger obstacle is that the top-selling pop vocal group is scheduled to play in East Troy. Wis., Saturday, June 30, the day promoter Norbert C'. Len wants to stage the Saginaw performance.

New Kids are to play at the Alpine Valley Music Theatre, said Ruth A. VanBeek. a ticket seller in East' Troy.

The concert is sold out, she said.

Len was to meet today with Ci~ Manager Vernon E. Stoner to work on a way to brin~ the popular group to town.

Len begged council members Monday night for a "nod or a wink" to indicate they back his plan.

Councilman Delbert J. Schrems suggested a vote ii favor of the concert "subject to the approval of the city manager," but other council members hesitated, insisting that Stoner should review details and offer ~ recommendation.

Len persisted, comparing himself to "vacuum cleaner salesman" who will not take no for an answer.

"I've got an agent in New York City that wants me to fax him a newspaper article" indicating city sup-port for the event, he said.

"Without some nods or winks, I'm dead in the water," he said.

"I have to have a yes or no on the facility. I've got to know you guys are in favor of using the island for that."

"Trust us," Mayor Henry H. Nickleberry responded.

Stoner and Schrems attempted to reassure Len.

"You don't hear anyone saying no, and I think you can take that... as a sign of their enthusiasm to carry

that forward," Stoner noted.

"You can call your men in New York and tell them it looks good~" Schrems added.

After the meeting, Stoner said deed restrictions on city parks such as Ojibway forbid charging for access to them.

In 1988, the city allowed Shockley Productions Inc. to charge a $3 "donation~' for admission to the is-land to view boat races.

"We got killed over it," Schrems recalled. "The public said, 'How can you charge us to come on our own island?'

Stoner questioned whether people would pay "donations" of $15 to $20, common concert prices.

Still another stumbling block is that a church group has applied for use of the island for three days starting Thursday, June 28, for an anti~drug rally.

Roderick P. Andersen, an associate elder at Whole Truth Church of God in Christ, 3024 S. Washing-ton, said Len approached him about incorporating the musical group in the event, but no decision was reached.

Len said he has negotiated since January with an agent to bring the singing group to Saginaw in an event that could benefit church and anti-drug organizations.

New Kids will perform at the Palace in Auburn Hills Tuesday June 26, and Wednesday, June 27.

The concerts were sold out December.

"If you allow me to put this show on the island, I can show you how you can increase the size of the stage... so that it would compete in the summer with Pine Knob," Len said.

He said he was disappointed by the council's response.

"I'm really not seeing any enthusiasm," he said.

Len, 5385 Swan Creek, brought singer Rick Springfield to the Swan Valley High School stadium in 1982 and rock group ZZ Top to Bridgeport High School foot field in 1983 in concerts to benefit programs.

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A local promoter says his plan for a New Kids on the Block concert in Saginaw probably is dead. but that he is not ready to give up.

Norbert C. Len, 47, said he was surprised to learn Tuesday that the popular vocal group is booked in .Wisconsin on the day he wanted to stage a performance on Ojibway Island.

Len said a New York City agent told him repeatedly that Saturday. June 30, was an open date on the group's tour.

"I might have been getting my leg pulled all along," said Len, a machine tool company agent and part-time music promoter who brought singer Rick Springfield and rock group ZZ Top to Saginaw County in the early 1980s.

Len said he would meet with city officials today in an attempt to work out a way to pursue the New Kids event.

City Manager Vernon E. Stoner cast doubt on Ojibway Island as a venue, noting that deed restrictions on the park prohibit charging admission.

Critics blasted the city two years ago when it allowed the promoter of a series of boat races to collect $3 "donations" to enter the island.

Still, Stoner said he wants Len to meet with City Clerk Bevelyn B. Bradley so officials can study the proposal.

A possibility exists that the New Kids could play Saginaw in t afternoon and fly to Wisconsin time for their evening concert, L said.

Nonetheless, he said he is not optimistic.

"This thing looks pretty dead," he said.

The June 30 concert at Alpine Valley Music Theater in East Troy Wis., was announced Feb.16, said Lisa M. Stewart, marketing director for Joseph Entertainment Group Inc. of Milwaukee.

"It's sold out at Alpine Valley," she said.

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Buffalo, N.Y. – Groups of eager young girls’ wait in the hotel lobby, hoping to spot a New Kids on the Block before they leave for their tour bus.

"I thought all of this would be easy. I thought it would be like pie. I really did," says singer Jordan Knight, shaking his head while a security guard keep watch by the door.

The new Kids – aged 16 to 20 – swap stories of being mobbed in lobbies, restaurants, shopping malls. Then a glint comes to Knight’s eye. "But hey, it’s fun. How can you really complain?" he smiles.

Indeed, how do you complain when you’re on a roll like New Kids? The Dorchester, Mass., song-and-dance quintet has sold five million copies of its second album, "Hangin’ Tough." They’re dominated the charts with six Top 10 hits in a row – "Please Don’t Go Girl," "You Got It (the Right Stuff)," "I’ll Be Loving You (Forever), "Hangin' Tough," "Cover Girl" and "Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind)." Their new holiday album, "Merry Merry Christmas," also is rocketing up the charts.

They’re the hottest teen-idol group since the Jacksons. And their concerts – with newly added lasers, inflatable balloons and pyrotechnics – like the one Saturday at the Palace, are rapid sellouts.

Other members of the groups are Knight’s older brother, Jonathan, Danny Wood, Joseph McIntyre, and Donnie Wahlberg.

The New Kids are in such a fast lane that they’re not sure what’s next. "After this tour, we have two weeks off and then we’re doing a movie," says Jon.

"Are we?" Jordan asks.

"IT changes every day," laughs Donnie Wahlberg. "They’ll probably postpone it in a week. That’s just the way this business is. It changes every day."

There had also been rumors of a new Valentine’s Day single, but they’re not true. "I’m sure our record company will try to do something, but we’re not going to let them. It’s time to give it a little rest," says Wahlberg.

With so much happening so quickly – there’s even talk of a Saturday morning TV series – the Kids are aware of the dangers of overexposure. "It’s a thin line," says Wahlberg, "but it’s not like we’re stuffing it down the fans’ throats, and they don’t want it. It’s hard to say, ‘No, you can’t have New Kids,’ though I think there’s going to be a point where we say it. It’s not going to be for long, but I think we’ll have to say it."

"If we keep going and keep improving and let our music grow with us, we won’t overkill ourselves," says Jordan. "A lot of groups stay the same – the Monkees or whatever. They never really changes, so they got killed. But Michael Jackson, he’s always grown and improved. And the Beatles went to new heights. I think we do that, we’ll be around a while.

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By the Associated Press

ATLANTA – NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK member DONNIE WAHLBERG scuffled with a fellow airline passenger over a seat, authorities said.

The 20 year-old pop singer fought with BENJAMIN DATTNER of New York on a Delta Air Lines flight after it left Salt Lake City on Sunday, police and Delta said.

The scuffle was very short-lived, and it was not necessary for us to land the plane," said a Delta spokeswoman.

Dattner was treated for minor injuries at a hospital and decline to file charges, authorities said.

Wahlberg, who had been sitting in the first-class section, had gone to visit with members of his entourage in coach. He left briefly, then returned and found the seat he had been occupying was take was taken by Dattner, police said.

A fight broke out in which Wahlberg poked the passenger in the eye and the passenger kicked Wahlberg in the abdomen, police said.

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BRIGHTON, England – Thirteen people were hospitalized in this seaside resort after getting caught in the crush of thousands of young fans trying to get into a sold-out concert by the U.S. pop group NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK.  More than 8,500 people had arrived for Sunday night’s concert, which was held in a 5,100-seat hall.   East Sussex ambulance service in Brighton, 50 miles south of London, said it treated more than 350 people, mostly teenage girls, for hysteria and hyperventilation. Fans began collapsing as they stood in line hours before the start of the concert.  A similar scene occurred Saturday night at a concert by the group in coastal Whitley Bay, 280 miles north of London, with first aid being administered to more than 400 fans.

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New Kid hurt, but Palace shows are on

You can’t keep the New Kids down. Pop sensation new Kids on the Block will go ahead with their sold-out concerts tonight and Wednesday at the Palace, though one member of the quintet will be missing. New Kids Donnie Wahlberg, 20, suffered bruises to his chest and cuts to his arms and mouth after falling through a trap door onstage Sunday night in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. On Monday he was in stable condition in a Saratoga Springs hospital, waving to fans gathered outside and visiting with a young fan who broke her arm at the show. The Detroit shows were in jeopardy throughout the day Monday, but Palace director Tom Trzos said the four remaining New Kids decided to go on without their wounded compatriot.

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What was supposed to be a dream – performing onstage with the wildly popular New Kids on the Block – has turned into a nightmare of disappointment for 55 Detroit youths.

A choir directed by Detroit school teacher James Topp was supposed to perform the song "This One's for the Children" for more than 40,000 fans at the New Kids' shows tonight and Wednesday at the Palace. But on Saturday, New Kids representative Lawrence Hamilton called Topp to tell him that the choir he formed wouldn’t be needed anymore.

Hamilton said the group would be replaced by an adult gospel choir. The move was "an artistic decision," said a spokesperson for New Kids' manager Dick Scott, and applied to all of the stops of the tour.

Hamilton could not be reached for comment Monday night.

Topp - who directs the James Topp Singers in 40-60 performances per year - was contacted through the Palace last Wednesday by Hamilton, who asked him to assemble a racially mixed group of 8- to 13-year-olds to perform with the group.

Topp's group will still get the $50 per child stipend that was offered, as well as free T-shirts.

That, however, was little consolation to Topp, his singers and their parents.

"A change because of artistic attitude does not go over with a 12-year-old girl who's looking forward to singing with New Kids on the Block," Topp said Monday, adding that Hamilton also asked him to recommend an adult choir from Detroit. "To get axed like that is just terrible, insensitive, unprofessional. They've killed these kids."

Palace director Tom Trzos said the change "is unfortunate for the kids that were originally involved with this. I know they had high expectations of being on the same stage with New Kids

on the Block. However, beyond our control, it was a decision by management, for whatever reason, to not have them involved."

Topp said the New Kids, who have the No. I single and album in the United States, both titled "Step by Step," could smooth over some of the ill feelings by either meeting with the spurned singers or finding some way of getting them into the sold-out shows.

"Five minutes of their time would be a lifetime experience for these kids," Topp said.

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BOSTON - They’d like to be known as Betty Wood, Alma Conroy Kay McIntyre and Marlene Knight. But these days they might as well throw out their names. Now they are simply Danny's mom, Donnie's mom, Joe's morn and Jon and Jordan's mom.

They are the moms of New Kids on the lock, performing Saturday at the Palace.

"Ma!" called Joseph from the family's living room last Christmas morning. Come here, Ma!"

So Kay McIntyre went, and there was her son, standing with a full-length mink coat on a hanger. She did what any mom would do: She cried.

"Ma!" yelled Donnie Wahlberg into the phone to his mom, Alma Conroy, last spring. "Ma! I’m in Japan. How are you?"

"Good, Donnie – guess what, my picture’s in one of the teen magazines!" she answered.

"Ma, that’s great!"

These are not kids who grew up in Hollywood, who had talent agents when they were 10 or famous classmates in Beverly Hills schools.

They are five kids from the Boston area whose talents were discovered when they were singing in church choirs, performing in school talent shows and break dancing with youth groups.

Now that they’re famous and touring places like Japan, Hawaii and Holland, they get rides in limos and buy themselves things like portable phones. Any you know who they call first on the phones? Mom, who else?

And even though the fathers - Dan Wood, Mark Conroy and Tom Mclntyre – go to concerts, too, it’s the moms the fans zero in on. "I honestly don’t know why, but girls go right to the mothers when all the parents are at a concert," Alma said. "I guess kids feel the mothers know the most about them."

If the New Kids are considered regular guys, the New Kids' moms are just a regular. Kay works part time for the Greater Boston Boy Scouts; Alma is nurse's assistant; Betty works for the Boston School Committee; and Marlene a social worker.

Sure, Kay has that nice mink coat she wears all over town, but she’s never driven a car and doesn’t plan on changing that. Even though the mink sometimes drags when she gets on the bus.

Alma is planning on moving to a bigger house, just outside Boston, but still drives her Hyundai. As for fancy clothes, well, she’s fretting now over having to buy a ball dress for an upcoming function, because "I’m not a dress-up person – I’m not even sure what a ball dress is!"

Marlene said someday she might have her black Lincoln, but "for now I drive a Honda that need servicing."

As for Betty, she did buy herself a mink stole last year – " a small size that I found at Jordan’s at an end of the season sale." But she has no desire to move from the home where she’s lived for 26 years, though her son has seen to it that there’s new insulation and replacement windows – "so I’ll be warm this winter."

The moms are hard pressed to know what makes New Kids – and their families- click. But, said Betty, "we probably have the closest thing to a family without blood relations."

Just take a look when they all converge on a New Kids concert

"When you've got five boys and our families, it's a massive crew," Marlene said. 'The kids call the moms he Posse 30, since there are 30 kids between the four of us." Kay and Alma have nine kids each; Marlene and Betty each have six.

Despite the large broods and the New Kids' fame, the women still practice their mothering techniques on the young celebrities.

It is Morn, after all, who will take Jordan to the orthodontist and Jonathan shopping when they're in town; it is Mom who makes sure Joseph- not "Joey" to her - is going to mass when he's on tour.

"I tell him, 'Just because you can sing doesn't make ,you any less a Catholic, or my son, "Kay said. She doesn't let much slip by her, either.

"When I saw one of the videos, I called CBS and said, why did they have to throw that cleavage in? I want them to know he's 16 and he's still my child."

Despite the limos, the fans and the articles in national magazines, some-times even the moms can't believe the success of their sons.

"For some reason I keep feeling like I'm watching a movie - I can't seem to connect with this," Alma said.

Marlene agreed.

"This whole thing has taken over our lives. You had to make a decision, are we going to go with this - there's no stopping it - and enjoy it as much as we can, or just separate ourselves completely?" said Marlene. "But to separate yourself from New Kids means you separate yourself from your child, because their whole lives are submerged in New Kids. So it's obvious what you do - you go with it."

That means having their phone numbers changed regularly and keeping them adjusted, and trying to balance the attention among the many other kids in each family.

"Sometimes it takes over." Kay said. "But I other children, and sometimes it’s overwhelming. If we’re all together at a restaurant, my daughter Carol will say, 'OK, the 10 minutes we'll talk New Kids, then no more.'"

One form of attention the moms didn't want to ignore was from the fans.

"As the fan mail began coming in, it was imperative from the mothers’ perspective that these girls get some response," Betty said.

The first move was to set up a post office box and send out a autographed picture, pin and card for a $5 membership fee.

"That was so naïve" Betty recalled "We did all the manpower work voluntarily, but by the time printed and mailed, it was crazy – but what did we know? Then the letters began to rain on us, and we had to go into Phase Two."

That meant a higher membership fee – it’s now $15 - and looking for help from a marketing company.

"But we’d still meet once a month to stuff the packets and process everything," Betty said. She'd either cook dinner or order pizza as the moms sat around the dining room table on the assembly line of fan mail.

Now the moms have admitted that the task of addressing fan ~ than a dining room operation, and have set up an office and hired manager. But the four moms are the executive directors, and they still review and OK everything that is sent out.

The moms see the kids on stage as much as they can, pushing their way through the wave of teenage girls and making sure the boys know that the Posse 30 is there, arm in arm, often crying in happy disbelief.

"As long as he sees OK," Kay says. "I wave and yell, 'Joseph, Joseph!'"

But when the din of the concert hall dies down and the crush of fans fades, the reality starts to come into focus.

"I believe it's happening, I know it is," Betty said. "For years the boys and parents were told it was going to happen, and every once in a while, you’d dream. Now it’s like you are living the dream. It’s no longer out there, it’s here now."

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Two years ago, the New Kids On The Block were nobodies. Since then, their popularity has skyrocketed to the level of a national phenomenon as teen-age girls across the country share a major crush on the boys from Boston.

You have only to turn on the radio to Detroit’s No. 1 teen station, 96.3 (WHYT), to hear how the group dominates the playlist.

"New Kids On The Block are definitely huge," says Mark Wuggazer, research director for the station. "They are definateluy the biggest thing happening with teen-agers. They have easily been the No. 1 requested artist on one station for the year. As long as I’ve been in the business, I’ve never seen an artist generate the volume of requests on the request lines as New Kids. We had to modify the way we take requests to handle the enormous volume."

Wuggazer says the only artist who is possibly hotter on the station right now is the Milli Vanilli, a European pop-rap duo. "And Milli Vanilli is probably only bigger because of a wider age appeal. New Kids are much bigger than say, Tiffany or Bon Jovi."

So what make New Kids so hot?

"Their looks," coos 15 year-old Julie Hadden of Southfield. "They’re gorgeous. And I also like their music, but without their looks, they’d be nothing."

Julie, who is a sophomore at Southfield Lathrup High School, is sitting on top of her cushy double bed with four giggly girlfriends. Plastered on her bedroom wall are the glossy posters of the boys in the band. She has the New Kids Hangin’ Tough cassette playing in the background as she tells how she and her pals have tickets to the group’s upcoming concert at The Palace. And, of course, she owns all three of the band’s music videos in addition to their cassettes.

"The guys don’t like them," says her friend Kristen Zang, who is also 15 and a sophomore at Shrine High School. "They call them Faggots on the Block. The guys think they’re sissies, but all the girls like New Kids."

Kristen, Julie and their gang know all sorts of delicious details about the guys in the band. Jordan Knight, 18, puts ketchup on everything and bites his nails. He’s a brother to fellow band member Jon Knight who is 21 and the oldest of the group. Joe McIntyre, a mere 16, is the youngest and has eight brothers and sisters.

New Kid Danny Wood, 19, looks like John Travolta they say, and his nickname is Woody Woodpecker (though Kristen and company call him "Banana Nose" and find him the least attractive of the bunch). Donnie Wahlberg their favorite along with Jordan Knight - is the serious one; the 20-year-old loves ripped-up jeans, Vitamin D milk and eggs sunny side up.

New Kid Danny Wood, 19, looks like John Travolta, they say, and his nickname is Woody Woodpecker (though Kristen and company call him "Banana Nose" and find him the least attractive of the bunch). Donnie Wahlberg - their favorite along with Jordan Knight is the serious one; the 20-year-old loves ripped-up jeans, Vitamin D milk and eggs sunny side up.

"New Kids project this clean-cut image of anti-drugs, anti-every-thing," says Julie. "A lot of high school girls like them because of their looks and they're around our age. If they were 3O or something, that would be different."

Julie first heard the group on the radio last summer and thought they were black. She liked the sound of their music and was surprised when she saw their videos and learned they were white.

The girls' interest in the group increased after they attended a New Kids concert last summer at Pine Knob. Says Kristen: "After that, we were like in love with them."

OF ALL the bands on the music circuit these days New Kids probably are the best role models kids could choose, says child and adolescent psychiatrist Alexander Sackeyfio of Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak.

"They are clean and wholesome," he says. "They do not represent the excesses of' life like drugs and alcohol and sex."

The 42-year-old psychiatrist, who has been practicing in his field for 19 years, adds that it is socially healthy for a group of girls to share common idols.

"It is normal behavior for teen-age girls to have crushes," explains Sackeyfio. "Having a crush on someone is a step toward learning to love somebody - learning to respect them. Crushes are a way of learning to believe in people and accept other people as a way of being soothing. My own 11-year-old daughter talks about the New Kids quite a bit."

Pat Hadden, mother of 15-year-old Julie, agrees that New Kids are perfect role model: "This particular group is very clean cut. They do no' represent racism or violence. And I even like their music."

"In my day, it was the Beatles a] the girls loved," the 37-year-old mother recalls. "I would get together with my friends and listen to their bums. We didn't have videos like t kids do now. And back then you didn't go to concerts; you watched American Bandstand. I think my daughter and her friends have pic a great group to idolize."

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NEW YORK - This really is a scary town. Just ask New Kids on the Block. They felt safe in their midtown hotel, confident their fans had camped out elsewhere, and even considered slipping out for pizza.

But it wasn't safe. Fourteen girls had staked out the right hotel. "Jennifer I know they're in there right now," one girl said urgently to her comrades as they camped on the street.

Be brave, Kids; don't panic. In a few years, those girls won’t even remember your names.

"By the time tonight is over, they'll catch on where we are and there'll be 100 girls out here," says Jonathan Knight, 21.

"We've had girls dress up as maids to try to sneak into our hotel rooms. Once, in Atlanta, I was on the 25th floor of a hotel, lying in bed, hearing girls screaming.

"I couldn't understand where it was coming from. I looked out. They had paid construction workers to take them up in a building being built across the street so they could look in our windows. I waved and shut my curtains. I think the police had to come."

Jordan Knight and Donnie WahIberg. both 20. and Jonathan Knight agreed to an interview while Joe McIntyre, 17, slept and Danny Wood, 20, worked out at a gym. Jordan and Donnie arrived almost two hours late, ready to drop from the tight tour schedule.

"Today we hosted MTV and Saturday Night Videos and did a lot of IDs for different radio stations across America and for a lot of video outlets," said Jordan. "It was a busy day. Tomorrow morning we fly to London."

They performed in four German cities, seven British Cities and did promotional events in Madrid, Milan, Amsterdam, Paris and Rome.

New Kids on the Block is the biggest-selling band in the land, with a new record and video and another leg of a seemingly tour. Columbia Records shipped a new single, "Step by Step" on May 9. It sold more than one million copies in less than a week.

The company's release of "Step by Step" album in early June was more than 2 million. A 50 minute video was offered at the same time, the biggest initial release in CBS video mg the record of "Hangin Live," New Kids On the Block last long form video, which sold more than 1 million copies.

The tiny tots who love to scream along with New Kids’ tunes will have plenty of time to learn the lyrics because the group will be touring stadiums through Sept. 15.

The bucks are pouring in for the test-tube band. They’re paid 125,000 per concert, and sell equally as much offstage in souvenirs. Merchandise licensees to 25 manufacturers can be found in stores.

The group also will make commercials for Coca-Cola, will launch New Kids dolls in August, debut in a Saturday morning cartoon series in September and start in a movie in the fall.

New Kids on the Block, the idea of Boston-based music entrepreneur Maurice Starr, who also started New Edition, is discounted by some as a "made" group, and derided by others as another example of white people taking music and making the big money form it.

Despite all the acclaim and fame – if they’re too busy for television, then TV talk types will interview their mothers – and money, Wahlberg is bugged by the group getting what he considers a bum rap.

They work hard, always have; they’ve been on the road for most of the last four years. Before they were famous, they toured as an opening act for Tiffany.

They don’t play instruments but dance and do their own singing. The group’s top management people are black. So are on-stage musicians, presenting visible racial harmony.

"As I find myself growing up, I’m focusing on trying to speak out and fight more for things I believe in," Wahlberg said. "I like to show older people that I’m not just a brainless little puppet of Maurice Starr.

"I think the media has turned our image into the image of milk and cookies. I'm not necessarily about milk and cookies. I'm about positivity.

"I talk to writers who turn around and write articles of only criticisms about our young fans and how much money we're supposed to be making and selling a lot of merchandise and getting a lot of exposure, and we're clean-cut guys who've been marketed to suit whoever's needs, and nothing about the positivity of the group.

"I haven't been contrived, brainwashed or molded by anyone but my, parents. I'm nobody's puppet.

I think a lot of critics see us as Maurice Starr's brainchild and any success we have is ... not due to us. He writes songs. I wrote two songs on the album. I've written on every album. Jordan and myself produced two songs on Tommy Page's album.

"I feel like I shouldn't have to sit here and bring these things up and say I've done this and that to get critics' respect. If I don't write and produce every song, why does that irk people so much'? Most actors don't write and direct their movies.

"If they say. 'These kids have no talent,' that's totally untrue. ... We have Maurice Starr, but every group has a mentor and started from an idea.

"U2 was somebody's idea. Starr isn’t on stage every night. We work. To take so much heat and flack, sometimes it annoys me.

"I read reviews of the show and the first line says, ‘those annoying girls.’"

Wahlberg, who says he reads newspapers every day, wants it known that he’s interested in important things.

"The issue I find myself dealing with most is racism. America isn’t a racist society the way it used to be, but racism is still flourishing in our society.

"The most important thing anyone can do today is try to be open-minded and try to educate themselves on things like racism."

New Kids often receive the same criticism as Elvis Presley, who sang black performers' songs and became far more famous than those who first performed them, such as Big Mama Thornton and "Hound Dog." But he paid to cut his first record, in the style he liked to sing, as a present for his mother.

Wahlberg says the New Kids grew up listening to black radio stations in Boston.

"I respect the roots of the music I perform," he said. "I feel like I'm not stealing it. The music I do is music I grew up listening to."

Adolescent girls loved Elvis in the 1950s, the Beatles in the '60s and the Rolling Stones in the '70s; now they adore the New Kids.

But times have changed. Drugs and promiscuity are no longer in. The New Kids sin about romance, lasting love and self-reliance. Wahlberg says from the stage, "Thank you for staying drug free."

Three books about the band are on paperback best-seller lists, and fans salivate for every nuggets about the quintet’s personal lives. Wahlberg isn’t in love at the moment. Jonathan Knight has the same girlfriend he had before the group started.

The story of New Kids on the Block dates back to 1985 in Boston where Maurice Starr worked. He was a man of ideas as well as a facile songwriter, and had put together groups before, none meeting with wild success.

First he thought he and his brothers could be another Jackson 5. Then he heard four young singers called the New Edition, signed them and shepherded them through their first album. They sued him for their release and won, on the basis that they were minors when they signed.

Starr put together a trio and managed a funk quartet. Next he had the idea that a white group, singing music like the New Edition, with choreography like the Motown groups in their heyday, could appeal to white as well as the New Edition's black listeners.

He found four boys in Boston high schools, none of them aiming toward a show business career. He found 12-year-old Joe McIntyre last, younger and smaller than the rest, the Michael Jackson of the latter-day Jackson 5 idea he never abandoned.

New Kids wasn't an overnight success. Its first record was marketed by Columbia Records to black radio. which wasn't crazy about it.

A station in Tampa, Fla., aimed at white listeners picked up on 'Please Don't Go, Girl" from the second album, "Hangin' Tough," in March 1988, and the group took off.

New Kids on the Block are prisoners of their own fame when they're on the road, but Jonathan Knight says he doesn't mind.

"We can't leave the hotel because it’s so crazy outside. We usually sleep most of the day, wake up around 2 and get dressed and lounge around. The sound check is usually around 4.

"After the show we’ll all party pretty much all night, eating and watching a movie. It depends. Sometimes we’ll go crash in somebody’s else’s room or in our own."

If the next concert is in a different town, they’ll sometimes get on the bus and travel all night.

"We sightsee out the window, that’s about it," Jonathan said. "We have our own busses custom built for us, with beds and TVs and bathrooms and microwaves. We buy microwave pizzas and pre-made stuff.

"Everywhere we go, girls are out in front. We have jealous boyfriends pull up in front of our houses at 3 in the morning, screaming at the top of their lungs. We learn to live with it. The good things far outweigh the bad things."

During the two-week vacation before going to Europe, Wahlberg worked on producing two new groups, the North Side Bays and Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, the latter his 18-year-old brother, Mark, who was in New Kids for six months then dropped out because he was more interested in basketball. Wahlberg also has three sisters and four brothers older than himself.

"We all still live with our families. We want to have our families benefit from what we’ve accomplished. I helped one sister buy a car. Donnie bought a house and Danny, I believe, bought his parent’s house form them and redid it for them. Joe still lives in an apartment building with his mom.

Joe McIntyre, who has one more year of high school, travels with a tutor who also gives classes to anyone who wants them. Knight studied computers and Wood studied nutrition.

"We’ll be together for a while," Knight says. "Old Kids on the Block."

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Donnie Wahlberg takes a poke and Chips another piece off the New Kids On The Block image

And in this corner, from Dorchester, Mass., wearing jogging sweats and tennies…Kid Donnie Wahlberg!

Er, make that New Kid Donnie Wahlberg, 21, the latest member of the Boston-based quintet with the ivory-clean image who seems to have been relying on his mitts instead of his music. As a result, Harvard junior Benjamin Dattner has become the latest nonfan who probably wouldn’t mind seeing the band renamed New Kids on the Cellblock.

Dattner, 20, says he was assaulted by Wahlberg during a Sept. 2 plane flight from Salt Lake City to Atanta. According to Dattner. a Harvard Crimson reporter. Wahlberg strolled back to the coach section from his first-class seat and ordered him to move from his napping perch across three seats. Dattner returning from a two-week Outward Bound excursion, refused and in the blink of an eye found his right eye blinking-thanks to a two-finger poke from Wahlberg. During the fracas that followed, Wahlberg says he was kicked in the midsection; Dattner claims he was held down and pummeled. A police report was filed after the plane landed in Atlanta, and Dattner is now talking about a possible lawsuit.

Wahlberg is not the only member of the group having problems aging gracefully. On Aug. 3 17-year-old New Kid Joe McIntyre was involved in a Quincy, Mass., bar argument with a patron, during which some of his companions allegedly chipped two of the victim's teeth and left him in need of seven stitches. Five days later, in an Atlanta nightclub, New Kid Jonathan Knight, 21, was accused of hitting a young woman, and his bodyguard of assaulting two male friends who had come to her defense. That very afternoon Wahlberg had a confrontation with some Georgia Tech students after suffering a near-miss from their Frisbee while he was riding a motorcycle.

"All kids get in fights. We’ve gotten in fights the last 20 years." says Wahlberg. "The fans know who we are. They know that Donnie Wahlberg would rather not fight but they also know that Donnie Wahlberg is not going to get walked on."

Barry Rosenthal, the bands lawyer, called the incidents "regrettable" and said "steps have been taken to prevent repetition which may include altering their public lifestyle." Wahlberg, however, admitted the latest incident "is not something I'm proud of," but wasn’t ready to take more than half the blame. Dattner is "as much at fault as me," says Donnie. "He just didn’t win."

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With a hit single and soon-to-be-released album, Joe McIntyre shows he's not the same old New Kid

by Sarah Rodman

"Six months ago, I couldn't get arrested," Joe McIntyre said matter-of-factly. "It's a tough business."

The artist formerly known as Joey, the youngest and most baby-faced fifth of Boston boy-group sensation New Kids on the Block, admits he has floundered a bit since the multiplatinum, supermerchandised, prefabricated group disbanded in 1994.

"I've had the last couple of years just to chill," McIntyre said on the phone from a San Francisco hotel, where he's resting in between promotional radio appearances for his forthcoming album "Stay the Same," due in March.  "I've got a place in New York, too, and I walk down the street and no one knows me, and I know how much of a blessing that is."

McIntyre admits, however, that after the maniacal teenage girls, whirlwind touring and hard work in the late '80s and early '90s, his recent anonymity "took me awhile to get used to."

The 26-year-old Jamaica Plain native and current Brookline resident also has done plenty in the past five years of which he's proud, including acting in a film version of the Broadway musical "The Fantasticks," which has yet to be released, and a Gloucester Stage Company production of Israel Horovitz's "Barking Sharks."

But after "scraping bottom" on New York's humbling audition circuit and toying with making a swing album, McIntyre really wanted to try his hand at pop music again, writing his own songs and working on his own terms.

McIntyre received some prodding from former fellow New Kid Donnie Wahlberg, who produced two of the album's tracks. So McIntyre hired manager Jerry Jaffe, and started formulating a plan to get back on the block.

"I decided, `I'm going to put out an album myself, and I'm going to book some live dates, because I want to get out there and perform and do what I do, and not just be some sort of artist that sits back and sees what happens."

What did happen was McIntyre then had lunch with KISS-108 Music Director "Kid" David Corey who'd heard his demo.  "He loved the record," McIntyre said, "and he said, `I'll play it tonight.' "

McIntyre was flabbergasted. He convinced Corey to hold off so he could get some kind of publicity plan and production company in place.  "So a week later, he started playing it and it became a No. 1 request. And then all of a sudden everybody's calling - you know, all the record companies - and it just started going crazy. We ended up with Columbia, which is wild," said McIntyre with another bemused laugh, since the imprint was the former home of the New Kids, "and in this business, you would think that was baggage."

McIntyre said the album, which was unavailable for review, will sound akin to the slow jam, r & b vibe of the current single "Stay the Same." His improved vocals during a short set at the recent KISS-108 Jingle Ball show off his dedication to his continuing voice lessons.

In other words, don't expect the music to bear much resemblance to the cutesy bubblegum funk of such New Kids hits as "Hangin' Tough" or "The Right Stuff" or even the frothy pop of today's boy bands such as Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync.

Speaking of whom, McIntyre said jokingly, "I can't tell them apart on the radio,'' but said, "I can tell you who my favorite is, 'N Sync. I think they have that honesty and sincerity going for them and they're good guys.

"We didn't own the patent on five guys dancing and making a fool of themselves, but we paved the road for those guys because we took a lot of hits (critically) and the Backstreet Boys didn't do anything different and they got nominated for a Grammy."

As for any reunion plans with the other former NKOTB members, fans shouldn't hold their breath, McIntyre is focused on the present, which is looking good. His Web site has gotten more than 145,000 hits, hordes of over-15-year-old girls are showing up at his radio appearances, and he's sold out two shows at the Paradise.

McIntyre's understandably cautious about any return to the spotlight. ``I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop," he said with a laugh, "because everything is going really well."

Joe McIntyre plays the Paradise Monday and Tuesday night. Both shows are sold out.

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As a singing pinup boy in the late 80's, former New Kid on the Block Jordan Knight had all the right moves, making thousands of girls squeal in unison.  But after New Kids broke up in 1994, their former teen idol found himself uncharacteristically overcome by stage fright.  "I was nervous about suddenly performing by myself," says Knight.  In 1997, to overcome that fear, he began singing in a piano bar around the corner from his home in Boston during open-mike nights.  "I was under an assumed name, and I wore a baseball hat and glasses," he recalls.  The disguise worked: "A couple of people said, 'You sound pretty good.  You should see what you can do about going in that career path.'"

  Now, his performance willies a thing of the past, Knight, 28, is back on the block.  His debut solo album, Jordan Knight, is due May 11, and its first single, a slice of hip-hop funk called "Give It to You," is already sprinting up Billboard's Hot 100.  "I missed entertaining people," he says.  "going onstage in front of 15,000 people and getting a reaction out of them is the best.  I'm excited to be back.:   And not a moment too soon, says his pal Robin Thicke, 22, the son of actor Alan Thicke who helped write and produce the album: "He was not as eager to be seen again as he was eager to be seen in the right way.  He was willing to take his time and do it right."

  That has meant spending the past five years quietly writing songs, staying out of the spotlight and outgrowing his old Tiger Beat image. Ironically, his comeback coincides with he return of ex-New Kids Joey McIntyre, 26, whose single "Stay the Same" is a Top 10 hit.  With New Kids, they sold more than 50 million records while outrunning overzealous girls.   "We had this joke," says Knight, "where we'd turn to each other in a real stuck-up way and say, 'The Beatles.  We're the Beatles!'"

  The attention kept their social lives bustling.  "We had a button that said, 'Seeking meaningful overnight relationship,'" recalls Knight.  But life on the tour bus had its bumps.  "IT was like living in a submarine," he says.  "Some went to bed early.  Some snored.  Some liked to blare music early in the morning to wake themselves up.  There were all these differences that we had to deal with.:

  More objectionable was having their mugs plastered over everything from lunch boxes to pillowcases.  "I never liked the way our merchandising went," says Knight.  Perhaps, but that didn't stop the multimillionaire from parlaying his share of the profits into lucrative investments.  Eventually, though, the groups legion of fans grew weary of them.   By 1994 the Kids were reduced to playing 1,000-capacity nightclubs.  That year they split up, much to Knight's relief.  "I thought, 'Let's ;leave feeling good together,"'" he says.  "'Let's accept that we're moving our separate ways.'"

  What moved Knight as a bot was music.  Growing up in Boston, the youngest of six children of Allan Knight, an Episcopal priest, and Marlene, an avid horse breeder, Jordan made his vocalizing a family fixture.  "He'd sing all day long," says brother, 30, a former New Kid who is now a prosperous real estate developer.  "It would get on everyone's nerves.   It was like, 'Shut up.'"

  In 1984 the Knights - along with Donnie Wahlberg, Danny Wood and McIntyre - were recruited by producer Maurice Starr, who wanted to create a white version on New Edition.  As New Kids on the Block, they were signed to Columbia Records in 1986.  Although their 1987 debut album flopped, they broke out the following year with their second effort, Hangin' Tough, which spawned the hits "You Got It (the Right Stuff)" and "Please Don't Go Girl."

  Now that he's famous again, Knight, who never went to college, is playing it cool.  He recently moved into a four-bedroom house in Milton, Mass., with his boxer Shane, and for the past five years he has been in a relationship with a woman he has known since he was 12. (He declines to give her name.)  As for the 'N Syncs and Backstreet Boys of the pop world, Knight, who remains tight with his old groupmates but has no interest in a reunion, has some advise : "Just enjoy yourself.  Make the best of it and have fun with it.  Take it seriously."  The, pausing, he adds, "But not too seriously."

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Teen pop stardom is the ultimate sugar rush: sweet, disorienting and followed by an abrupt crash.   "At one point six months ago, I was really down," says Joey (formerly Joe) McIntyre, ex-member of Eighties all-boy sensation New Kids on the Block. "I couldn't even get meetings with managers. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't get arrested." Now that the pendulum has swung back to boy-band pop, however, McIntyre, 26, and fellow former New Kid Jordan Knight, 28, are launching solo careers. McIntyre has returned with Stay the Same, a new album of croony contemporary pop, slated for a March release. Knight's album leans toward uptempo R&B. "I wanted to get away from the pop-R&B thing" Knight says. "Although that's where I ended up."

After the New Kids split in 1994, Knight signed a deal with Interscope Records, but a deal was all he got. "They gave me free rein," he says. "But I didn't have anybody that was hands-on at the record company. I'd just come in with new stuff and they;d say, 'That's good, but try some more songs. We'll see you back in a few months.' I was like, 'Alll righty!'" At the end of 1998, the singer took matters into his own hands. He co-financed a collaboration with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and got a copy of his album to a Florida radio station. It began to play the Jam-Lewis track, "Give It to You," a song that Knight describes as Timbaland meets Sgt. Pepper's, which got the ball rolling.

McIntyre employed similarly grass-roots techniques. After a failed attempt attempt at an acting career, he set out to record big-band music. "Not like Brian Setzer," he says. "More like Frank Sinatra and Nat 'King' Cole. I always liked that stuff." But he scrapped the idea on the advice of ex-Kid-turned-indie-actor Donnie Wahlberg and finances solo pop album. After no record company showed interest, McIntyre sold 2,000 copies of it over his Web site and scheduled a few club gigs. "For a while I woke up telling myself, 'I sold 35 million records, man. I don't need to do this!' But that doesn't matter. It's like, what have you got now?" After a radio station in his hometown of Boston started playing the album, McIntyre returned to the New Kids' label, Columbia Records.

Now both singers are back on the block, so to speak. "The pop market is wide open right now," McIntyre says. "I don't mean to sound egotistical, but there's a void, just like there was for New Kids ten years ago." Of course, the big question in these revivalist times in whether the New Kids will reunite. "Hee hee!" chuckles Knight. "We always joke about it." Adds McIntyre: "I wouldn't rule our a reunion, but we're not gonna dance around like we used to. Everyone can rest easy."

The unbridled success of boy bands like Backstreet Boys and 'NSync would certainly support doing anything different than we did, McIntyre says. "I walked into a Backstreet Boys show and did a double take."

If the New Kids reunite or Knight and McIntyre continue as soloists, one thing is certain: These two don't want to drive down Tiger Beat boulevard again. "I'm looking forward to having a normal life and watching the big decisions this time," says McIntyre. "I'm not gonna have any Joe McIntyre marbles or bedsheets made."

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