See the moment New Kids On The Block caused hysteria among Geordie fans in their 1990 heyday

It will be exactly 30 years ago on Monday that US boyband New Kids On The Block received this hysterial reaction in Whitley Bay

(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)

It was a night that fans will remember forever. The moment that one of the biggest bands in the world stepped out onto stage at Whitley Bay Ice Rink 30 years ago has gone done in local music history.

Back in 1990, they didn’t come much bigger than New Kids on the Block. The American boyband were at their peak at the time and they could not have had a more enthusiastic welcome when their tour brought them to the North East.

(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)
That spring night – April 27: a remarkable three decades ago this Monday – the New Kids On The Block’s fans had queued around the block to watch them perform the first of their two sell-out shows in Whitley Bay.

And seeing the pop heroes – brothers Jonathan and Jordan Knight and bandmates Joey McIntyre and Donnie Wahlberg – in the flesh was clearly too much for some in the crowd of around 4,500 fans who packed out the rink.

(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)
Despite the fifth member, singer Danny Wood, being absent – apparently due to spraining his ankle on a cuddly toy thrown on stage by a fan in Manchester – there was nothing that could ruin show for fans.

Cue mass hysteria, screaming and – regardless of the recently-proved perils of throwing items on stage – an airborn bra which landed at the feet of the lads from Boston, Massachusetts, who were the ultimate boy band decades before One Direction claimed the crown.

(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)
With their hits such as I’ll Be Loving You and Hanging Tough making up the soundtrack to teenagers’ lives at the time, local police had been forced to warn young pop-lovers not to play truant in order to gather at the rink in the build-up to the gig.

They pointed out: “The New Kids – Donnie, Danny, Jordan, Jon and Joey – will not be at the ice rink during the day”.

That did nothing to calm fast-beating young hearts, as witnessed by The Chronicle’s reporter who reviewed the gig at the time.

(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)

Summing up the atmosphere, he revealed in his review: “They screamed, wept, fainted, cheered, some threw flowers, one threw a bra.

“It was hard to tell whether they were listening to the music or just screaming.”

He added: “The heaving mass of teenage hysteria that greeted the arrival on stage of New Kids On The Block managed to sustain itself right thorough their one and a half hour set.”

(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)
He went on: “A wobble of the hips here, a flash of chest there, and another dozen youngsters had to be carted off – these boys should carry a government health warning.”

But it seems the reporter himself was rather less seduced by the charms of the award-winning band.

He said: “While the New Kids are long on teeny sex appeal, their show didn’t amount to much.”

(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)
And he added: “By the length of time they spent teasing screaming admirers between numbers, it soon became obvious that the New Kids were a bit short in the songs department.”

But the fans themselves simply could not get enough, to the extent that around 150 of them had to be treated for fainting and hyper-ventilation within the first hour of the show, according to the St John Ambulance workers who had to attend to the fevered masses.

Just four years after their Whitley Bay gigs, the New Kids on the Block split up to widespread dismay.

But then in 2008 came news that they were to reunite – causing almost as much hysterical excitement as had been generated back in 1990’s Whitley Bay.

So Geordies were able to catch up with the band once again when they came back to the region in 2014 to play Newcastle City Hall at a time when they – and apparently their fans – were both older and wiser. And this time it proved a more restrained gig all round.