They waited five years to release a new album, which sold 10m.
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Their 1999 album Millennium had sold 30m copies worldwide its 2000 successor Black & Blue sold 24m. Pop's onward march is merciless, though, and even the biggest institutions fall: in 2006 Smash Hits closed and Top of the Pops broadcast its final programme, and things were not looking good for Backstreet Boys at this point either. The band are keen to point out that they never stopped recording so are not, strictly speaking, making a comeback, but when they talk about their peak period, the reference points – Smash Hits, Top of the Pops – give away the fact that they rose to fame in a different era.
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"Now they've got kids and want a good excuse to get in their cars with their girlfriends and come and see us." "We created memories and moments for a generation," Howie explains. Backstreet Boys sold 130m records, making them the bestselling boyband in history, while their 2001 world tour grossed more than $100m (£66m), and their longterm partnership with the mind-bogglingly brilliant songwriter Max Martin has littered the past two decades with numerous heavy-hitting masterpieces, one of which, I Want it That Way, remains a strong contender for one of the greatest moments in pop history. Searching for a way to explain to the Backstreet Boys quite how big they were, he adds: "You were One Direction big."
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We move upstairs for an interview with the Star on Sunday. "You would say that, you freak!" AJ guffaws. "Blow it in mine!" shrieks one fan in her late 20s. "I don't want to blow smoke in fans' faces," he tells the huddle of girls. At one point, hanging around outside the building with fans, he briefly moves away to light a cigarette. Howie Dorough, meanwhile, is almost disgustingly polite and friendly, but the hero of the band seems to be AJ McLean, who is hiding behind a baseball cap, sunglasses and an improbably large beard. In a minute, showbiz writer Dan Wootton will arrive for a chat Brian Littrell uses the time to ask if someone can find him some toenail clippers, while Nick, who will spend most of the day absent-mindedly strumming an acoustic guitar, knocks out the Beatles' Day Tripper. I have joined the band for a day of TV, print, radio and website interviews. Like most pop bands who fight through the mid-career desire to be taken very seriously indeed ("and we were way serious," Nick Carter says later) and come out the other side, the 2013 version of Backstreet Boys are incredibly laidback. "This," announces the cameraman, "is the best band interview I've ever done." Suddenly, there is a fire drill, the alarm sounding like a sci-fi laser noise, and the band start firing imaginary space guns at each other. It is particularly evocative for Kevin, he explains: his pre-Backstreet job at Disney World required the daily deployment of a Ninja Turtle costume. This is not, it should be stated very clearly, Backstreet Boys' new single instead, the band are recording a nostalgic piece for a Daybreak social action campaign.
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They open their mouths and belt out a perfectly harmonised chorus: "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – heroes in a half-shell!" "We've got to get the harmonies right." They exchange solemn glances, and instinct takes over. He and his band may be celebrating 20 years in pop this year, but they still require focus. "W ait – stop!" Backstage at ITV's Daybreak, Kevin Richardson, the most tidily goateed of the Backstreet Boys, is calling for order.