The Boys In The Band

"Full length, drama / 9 m / interior"--P. [4] of cover.

The New York Times–bestselling debut story of four superfan friends whose devotion to their favorite band has darkly comical and deadly results. Just know from the start that it wasn’t supposed to go like this. All we wanted was to get near them. That’s why we got a room in the hotel where they were staying. We were not planning to kidnap one of them. Especially not the most useless one. But we had him—his room key, his cell phone, and his secrets. We were not planning on what happened next. We swear. Praise for Kill the Boy Band “Moldavsky’s sharp, shocking debut is like no other.” —Entertainment Weekly “Fiercely entertaining . . . One of the smartest YA releases of the year.” —New York Daily News “Misery for the Belieber generation.” —Observer.com “Boy bands gets the Heathers treatment in this madcap macabre . . . A sendup of the artificiality of the fame-making machine from both sides, the novel’s humor is mercilessly black, and no one comes up smelling like roses.” —Kirkus Reviews “Wickedly funny.” —NPR.org “Bitingly satirical.” —Publishers Weekly “[For] anyone who’s ever had the fortune-or misfortune-of being a fan.” —Booklist “Hilarious . . . A must-have.” —School Library Journal

Best friends Matt and Eric are hatching a plan for one big final adventure together before Eric moves away: during the marching band competition at a Giant Amusement Park, they will sneak away to a nearby comics convention and meet their idol—a famous comic creator. Without cell phones. Or transportation. Or permission. Of course, their final adventure together is more than just that—really, it's a way for the boys to celebrate their friendship, and their honest love and support for one another. That's exactly what we love so much about The Boys in the Back Row: it's an unabashed ode to male friendship, because love between boys, platonic or otherwise, is something to celebrate. And of course, because this is Mike Jung, we'll be celebrating it with hilariously flawed hijinks and geekiness galore!

An entertaining, provocative novel, a fresh look at male bonding and our sense of kinship, by a young, high-flying political consultant. Living in neighbouring houses on a tough estate in Lancashire, Adam and Kevin were childhood best friends. Kevin - child of a problem family, revered fighter and footballer - was definitely the leader, while Adam - puny, bookish and sensitive - rode on the coat-tails of his dominating friend. However, Kevin's football career is wrecked by a knee injury, leaving him at 18 unemployed with a wife and two children to support. He takes refuge in drink and drugs while Adam, complete with a new set of well-heeled friends, lands a high-flying job in London. The stretch between Strangeways prison and the hallowed cloisters of Cambridge, between the estate's Working Men's Club and London media life, becomes too much for even the best of friends. But when Adam and Kevin lose the people that mean most to them, they - back in their home town again - are forced to confront what their roots really are and what means success to them - and in doing so they come to know what separates the men from the boys. Touching, funny and completely unputdownable, Philip Collins's novel of life, love and loss is the unforgettable story of a new generation. Peopled with wonderful characters and vivid scenes from closing mines to university quads, from unemployment centres and hopeless estates to the upwardly mobile, fast-stream Islington lifestyle, The Men From the Boys is also rich in the questions it poses. Readers of Roddy Doyle, Tony Parsons and Nick Hornby will enjoy The Men From the Boys.

After more than thirty years, the characters from Mart Crowley's 1968 breakthrough drama, "The Boys in the Band "retook the stage in "The Men from The Boys." The famous circle of gay friends (minus one) assemble again in Michael's New York penthouse, this time for a memorial. Keenly observant, unabashedly bitchy, hilarious, and honest as it's predecessor, the sequel and the original, as presented in this volume, provide a then and now look at gay lives from Stonewall to today. Mart Crowley is the author of five plays, including "Boys in the Band "which was made into the 1970 film of the same name. He is also the author of several screenplays for television and was the producer of the TV series "Hart to Hart."

This nostalgic, fully-illustrated history of boy bands -- written by culture critic and boy band stan Maria Sherman -- is a must-have for diehard fans of the genre and beyond. The music, the fans, the choreography, the clothes, the merch, the hair. Long after Beatlemania came and went, a new unstoppable boy band era emerged. Fueled by good looks and even greater hooks, the pop phenomenon that dominated the '80s, '90s, and 2000s has left a long-lasting mark on culture, and it's time we celebrate it. Written by super fan Maria Sherman for stans and curious parties alike, Larger Than Life is the definitive guide to boy bands, delivered with a mix of serious obsession and tongue-in-cheek humor. Larger Than Life begins with a brief history of male vocal groups, spotlighting The Beatles, the Jackson 5, and Menudo before diving into the building blocks of these beloved acts in "Boy Bands 101." She also focuses on artists like New Edition, New Kids on the Block, Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, One Direction, and BTS before ending with an interrogation into the future of boy bands. Included throughout are Tiger Beat-inspired illustrations, capsule histories of the swoon-iest groups, in-depth investigations into one-hit wonders, and sidebars dedicated to conspiracy theories, dating, in-fighting, haters, fan fiction, fashion (Justin and Britney in denim, of course), and so much more. Informative, affectionate, funny, and never, ever fan-shaming, Larger Than Life is the first and only text of its kind: the ultimate celebration of boy bands and proof that this once maligned music can never go unappreciated.

They were almost The Pendletones--after the Pendleton wool shirts favored on chilly nights at the beach--then The Surfers, before being named The Beach Boys. But what separated them from every other teenage garage band with no musical training? They had raw talent, persistence and a wellspring of creativity that launched them on a legendary career now in its sixth decade. Following the musical vision of Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys blended ethereal vocal harmonies, searing electric guitars and lush arrangements into one of the most distinctive sounds in the history of popular music. Drawing on original interviews and newly uncovered documents, this book untangles the band's convoluted early history and tells the story of how five boys from California formed America's greatest rock 'n' roll band.

The Boys in the Band’s debut was revolutionary for its fictional but frank presentation of a male homosexual subculture in Manhattan. Based on Mart Crowley’s hit Off-Broadway play from 1968, the film’s two-hour running time approximates real time, unfolding at a birthday party attended by nine men whose language, clothing, and behavior evoke a range of urban gay “types.” Although various popular critics, historians, and film scholars over the years have offered cursory acknowledgment of the film’s importance, more substantive research and analysis have been woefully lacking. The film’s neglect among academics belies a rich and rewarding object of study. The Boys in the Band merits not only the close reading that should accompany such a well-made text but also recognition as a landmark almost ideally situated to orient us amid the highly complex, shifting cultural terrain it occupied upon its release—and has occupied since. The scholars assembled here bring an invigorating variety of methods to their considerations of this singular film. Coming from a wide range of academic disciplines, they pose and answer questions about the film in remarkably different ways. Cultural analysis, archival research, interviews, study of film traditions, and theoretical framing intensify their revelatory readings of the film. Many of the essays take inventive approaches to longstanding debates about identity politics, and together they engage with current academic work across a variety of fields that include queer theory, film theory, gender studies, race and ethnic studies, and Marxist theory. Addressing The Boys in the Band from multiple perspectives, these essays identify and draw out the film’s latent flashpoints—aspects of the film that express the historical, cinematic, and queer-political crises not only of its own time, but also of today. The Boys in the Band is an accessible touchstone text in both queer studies and film studies. Scholars and students working in the disciplines of film studies, queer studies, history, theater, and sociology will surely find the book invaluable and a shaping influence on these fields in the coming years.