THEGAYUK

Tag: OTown

  • Ashley Parker Angel Has Been Giving Us Some O Faces!

    When it’s so cold outside here in the UK, there’s nothing better than seeing hot guys… hot topless guys… hot topless famous guys… enjoying the sunshine. Ashley Parker Angel of O-Town is providing today’s warming thoughts for us cold Brits!

     

    Taking to Instagram, Ashley promises that the last person to leave a message will get a “private” video message from him. Quite how private he doesn’t say, but we can imagine.

    And then there’s the obligatory, It’s so hot I need to stand in a pool shot…

    It took us ten minutes before we realised there was a dog here…

    And after a long hot day of course you’re gonna sleep on top of the duvet… Alone we see…

  • O TOWN: Erik Michael Estrada Shows Off His Junk… But Asks You Not To Look

    So so so… OTown’s Erik Michael Estrada has stripped off and is looking great!

    But it’s a little ‘Look At Me… Don’t Look At Me…’

    Captioning his topless picture Erik said, ‘Support the cause. But what ever you do don’t look at my abs. Or how low under wear is. Or my junk. #seriouslysupportthecause’

    We’re looking and liking.

    OTOWN who recently stopped by to chat with THEGAYUK, in issue 5, are riding high on the success of their independent record Lines And Circles.

    OTOWN first turned up on our radios in the early noughties with their mega hit Liquid Dreams.

  • INTERVIEW | O Town

    They were the last of the boy-band gold rush back in the day. Finding fame on MTV’s Making The Band, O-TOWN became an overnight talking point with their debut single Liquid Dreams. So when we heard that 11 years later the lads had teamed up again to tour and release a comeback single and album, we had to find out about their nocturnal secretions.

    So how are you finding London?
    Erik: Well we brought the LA weather with us! [But unlike LA our weather changes daily!]

    Have you been to the UK much?
    In the past yeah, we were in the UK all the time. But it’s been about 12 years though!
    Yeah it’s been a while since we’ve been back.

    So it’s been a while since you last put out a record, has the music industry moved on much?
    Trevor: Yeah definitely! There’s a lot that has changed, business wise and musically with us and our band just in general. I mean with Twitter, Instagram and social media, we can really put ourselves out there and you don’t have to rely so heavily on radio play, a lot of things have changed and we’re taking it in. We’re taking it in our stride and learning as we go, but it’s a cool process, because we’re doing everything internally, the 4 of us. We don’t have the big machine or Clive Davis this time – it’s very grass roots. Picking the album cover, the logo design… Everything we’re doing is our stamp, so that’s what’s really cool this time around that we didn’t have last time – and we’re older and maturer. (laughter).

    This maturity, how is it manifesting itself – especially with artistic disagreements?
    Jacob: There’s always artistic differences and disagreements, but we’re more mature in handling it. We’ve kinda got our business practices set to alleviate any kind of stress like opinions on music – now it’s what’s best for the song and whose voice is best for the part. We’ve been pretty diplomatic about doing that and knowing that we’re not being personal. We all do love each other’s voices and song writing, but we’re trying to do what’s best for O-Town. So far it’s been happening really smoothly.

    Are you getting new fans or are you reconnecting with old fans?
    Erik: We like to call them the Town Folk. (They) are the fans that have been around since the beginning, but hopefully now that this new song (Skydive) is out that we can garner some new fans. Everything is just so new.

    Have you noticed any of the old faces in the crowd?
    Dan: Yeah! Yesterday we got off our flight at the airport and we saw a bunch of faces that we recognised that were just 10-years older. They were showing us pictures they had from 10 years ago. People got to know us from our TV show, Making The Band, and they’re personally invested in our struggle because they’ve been there. They saw the ups and downs. So that’s why they’re there. They’re still interested in what we’re doing. If along the way we can bring some more people who weren’t aware of us the first time – that’s awesome, because we think we do okay sometimes! We think we’re alright! So it’d be nice to get some more people interested.

    Do you write your own music now?
    The first album was done so quickly; it was done in less than two months. It was already pre-chosen predestined for us. The second album we had a little bit more say in, but I don’t think as writers we were there yet. I think the beautiful thing about this process is that we’ve had 10 years to become individuals and really hone in on our different talents. As much as we were all about writing before, I don’t think we’re all necessarily so into the writing process now. I know that Dan for the most part is really personally a lot more excited about the design of everything, so everyone’s education has set us up to take our specialities, the things that we’re good at and really explore them and bring them out. I’ve been writing, Jacob’s been writing – so we submitted a bunch of songs on this album. Anything that’s not submitted by us definitely has our thumb print on it.

    If you were superheroes:
    Jacob: I just wanna fly. I don’t even care, I just wanna fly.
    Dan: I would like to be invisible, because I don’t like all the extra attention, I prefer to go unnoticed. I’d just take off the invisibility cloak when it was time to go on stage and then I’d put it back on.
    (ha ha … that’s so true.)
    Trevor: First off I’d say flying, but Jacob already said that so, my second choice, I’d be Batman, he has so many cool gadgets and toys…
    Erik: I’d be Iron Man. I pick Tony Stark, because he’s just the best. He has a cool suit and he always dresses really well…

    When you split first time round there was an email to all your fans saying amongst other things there were financial difficulties – what happened there?
    Dan: It’s pretty well documented that we were heavily involved with Lou Pearlman, so there was a lot of things going on with him and our contracts were tied to him. It was never really about financial troubles with us, but our contracts were such that we weren’t really getting a fair shake at things sometimes. So when we had the opportunity to get out of our contracts and just move aside, we felt it was a good time to do that. We were all just so worn down by the grind of the years we had put in which were just hectic, we worked so hard. It was probably the hardest I ever worked in my life those four years. Four years of not a lot of time off and a lot of travel.
    Erik: And it was the end of an era. When we knew we were going to end, we knew we were the last boy-band out of the box. When we were on the 2nd album, Justin (Timberlake) was already on his solo career. The whole movement was at an end. The fact that we actually had success during the time we did when that whole movement was coming to an end we felt lucky to have that. We knew that if we were ever going to do it again it would have to be on our own terms. We didn’t think it would be ten years later – or at least I didn’t, at least we’re staying true to our word – because 10 years later it is on our own terms.

    Is it easy to make money from music now compared to 10 years ago?
    Jacob: You have to be a lot more creative I think. To compete with the majors if you’re not with a major, if you have a smarter business plan. We’re doing a lot of the work here ourselves by hiring outside consultants to do our radio and our merchandise. When it all boils down it’s interesting. We haven’t done a show in 11 years, the last time we did a show we had All Or Nothing on radio, and now 11 years later by doing a lean operation like we are, we’re able to make about the same amount of money as we were back then, which is just shocking.

    Your first single, Liquid Dreams, was an interesting concept… Are you still having liquid dreams and who are you liquiding about?
    (Laughter) –
    Trevor: I am a man. So I’m liquiding about Katy Perry,
    I think our liquid dreams this time round would be a little different.
    Jacob: Emily Ratajkowski (the girl from Blurred Lines video)
    Dan: I’m still liquid dreaming because I have a kid. It’s not a dream, it’s very real, (laughter), It’s very very very real…
    Erik: Jennifer Laurence, Miley Cyrus, Beyoncé…

    In our new album on one of the songs there’s a portion where we do touch on who our current liquid dreams are, so if you buy the album you can hear our current liquid dreams.

    You can read the FULL interview in our latest issue of TheGayUK Magazine. Subscribe today for ONLY £1.99. Available on Apple and Google Play stores.

  • ALBUM REVIEW | Lines And Circles, O-Town

    ★★★★ | Lines And Circles, O-Town

    O-Town’s decade out of the pop limelight is a long time. In fact, some might say it’s a lifetime. Countless wannabes have flounced in and out of the charts, Mega stars have been created and wasted, sales have plummeted, and everything is starting to sound like everything else. The music industry is nothing like it was back in 2003. It was before the iPhone and iPod. People still bought CDs, and a band, arguably the last ‘out of the box’ boy-bands, O-Town went their separate ways, breaking the hearts of girls and gays worldwide.

    Well, boys and girls, they are back, with their best, most honest and commercially viable album for a world that is unrecognisable since their last output.

    What you’ll notice is that Lines and Circles is a straight-up pop record, crafted with strong melodies and a grownup sensibility in its production. No tricks needed. These guys have spent the last 10 years honing their craft and each of these tracks is a gem and deserves radio play in its own right. Their voices, with ten years of living, have become soulful, chilled; yet still retain a power and sexiness that made the lads successful in their formative years. They are back and this time it’s on their own terms.

    If you’re looking for teeny boppery hyped up crap, this album isn’t for you. If you’re looking for boy-band or rather man-band 2.0, then O-Town have excelled in bringing this to you in the shape of Lines And Circles.

    Highlights: The epic Skydive, the stripped back and unexpected Buried Alive and the anthemic Lines And Circles.

  • Why Are Boy Bands So Gay?

    Why Are Boy Bands So Gay?

    So the thought of 3, 4 or 5 exuberant lads together making sweet music is one undeniably interesting prospect. One, I imagine causing many a nightly stirring whilst staring at your latest pinup poster of One Direction from Smash Hits. Hang on does Smash Hits still exist? Yes, apparently it does. Jolly good. It gets the mind-boggling, doesn’t it? How on earth do 5 guys share a tour bus, hotel, swanky lads pad in North London without straying to the gay side?

    Putting aside the cluster f**k images I wonder why on earth boybands are so gay. And I don’t even mean in a ‘that’s so gay’ way. It’s like everything they’ve been marketed to be is actually Gay with a capital G. “Researching” for this article I stumbled upon The Wanted’s homepage and delved into their personal info. Every member had an innocuous homo whispering (from favourite colour pink) to the to the blatant holla (favourite movie Brokeback Mountain and loving Gok Wan.) Now I’m not saying a HetroBoy shouldn’t like cowboy cock films, but it does seem a bit odd. Doesn’t it?

    THE OVERTONES

    3 out of 5 men prefer lads… These stats speak for themselves and we salute you for coming out so early in your careers. Plus these pretty boys look like they’re fresh out of a D&G advert so we’re pleased that the window shopping could possibly turn into purchases!

    BUY THEIR MUSIC

    WESTLIFE

    There’s only so much pastel wearing and bleaching of hair a boy can get away with before the gay police come knocking. There’s something about the way those boys hopped off their bar stools at the key-change that reminds me of my youth – when a Britney tune came on. Plus one of the lads is a fully fledged ‘one of the boys’ – so they all gotta be – it’s gay science.

    BUY THEIR MUSIC

    THE WANTED
    Five lads that between them enjoy Sex And The City, Brokeback Mountain, the colour pink, Steps, Michael Barrymore, America’s Next Top Model and Gok Wan. Don’t know about you but my Gaydar has just burst into flames. Now I’m not making assumptions and I’m not someone to point my gay finger at anyone, nor cast dispersions on anyone’s sexuality – but as Mr Clary would say it’s Uncanny and Unnatural. The only heterosexual lighthouse in the midst of all this Gay is the song ‘Glad You Came’ which I know is a common relief that a lot of straight men crave.

    BUY THEIR MUSIC

    TAKE THAT
    These men just get a little sexier every time I see them. At first, it was all bondage and lighting fires with Lulu but now it’s a stronger bond. 20 years on, a little more rugged, fathers, old mates, comrades of the pop machine – hanging around a campfire remembering the good ole days when they could wear jockstraps and cream themselves in music videos… Gay right?

    O-TOWN
    Christ the first single was called Liquid Dreams. Enuff said.

    BUY THEIR MUSIC

  • Hot Hunks From 2000 – 2009

    Ah the decade that was the noughties maybe behind us now, as we step into an Olympic 2012 but the decade certainly had its fair share of boy hotness we take you on a little trip down memory lane for some boys you may remember and what they’re up to now!

    15 Phixx

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    First in our line up of hot dudes from the 2000s is the boyband Phixx, we can’t really choose one, but they were hot and they formed in 2003 as runners up from the UK talent show: PopStars The Rivals. Usually topless and sporting a rather vampiric look, long before Twilight was a twinkle, Phixx huffed and puffed their way through 4 top 20 singles in the UK before disbanding in 2006.

    14 Joshua Rafter.

    With bated breath the nation watched Josh enter the Big Brother house in 2001, back when people watched the ailing non-celebrity version of the show. Muscles entered the building first eventually followed by his rather cute face. There was a moment of ‘would they, wouldn’t they’ with the already impounded Brian Dowling, the eventual winner of the series, but alas it was not to be. The property guru took no time to get his pecs out and our summer was complete. Joshua can be found hocking homes for the LGBT community (and everyone else for that matter) on Old Compton Street and life has been kind to his face, as he’s still a stunner 11 years on.

    13 Jake Hook.

     

    We first saw Jake in his seriously hot and rather (for the time) edgy music video “Smooth” in 2003, it even had boy on boy snogging, which we thought was pretty noble! His single went to #32 in the Belgium Singles chart and he pretty much fell off the radar after a run of live tours with Phixx and Jamiela – that is until 2009 when he wrote and produced Coming Home a Double Platinum Smash Hit by The Soldiers. Since then he’s been steadily working in his studio has now produced and written for over 18 top 45 albums and singles.

    12 Kieron Richardson.

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    Openly gay actor from the hit British soap Hollyoaks. Richardson was inspired to come out by Joe McElderry (what an inspiration he is too) and he did so in a blaze of glory on This Morning in September 2010. Kieron has played the part of Ste Hay on the soap since 2006, after being briefly written out Ste has returned to our screens as a full-time character. Hurrah. You can listen to his sultry tones on the online radio station Gaydio.

    11 Mitch Hewer.

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    We nearly fainted when a Mitch skipped on to Skins in 2007. After Skins he went to star in ‘Never Forget’ a musical based on the songs of Take That. In 2008 Hewer provided a defining moment in his career when he got his kit off in Cosmopolitan magazine to bring attention to testicular cancer.

    10 O-TOWN.

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    Okay, this may turn into an orgy, but we just couldn’t decide on which boy to chose from this boy-band turned Man band. Take N-Sync add Backstreet Boys, slightly soil and wrap them in plastic looking costumes and you’ve got O-TOWN, why this band never succeeded the first time around I’ll never know. Their first single was called Liquid Dreams – how much more homoerotic do you want!

    9 Doctor Christian Jessen.

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    Have you seen this man’s body? No seriously. We almost fainted when Doctor Christian appeared topless in one of his eat good/get naked/stand in a hideously lit white box room programmes for channel 4. Christian is rarely off Channel 4’s airwaves now.

    8 Scott Maslen.

    He’s been voted as one of sexiest men on television. He is mostly notable from the long-running BBC soap Eastenders. Maslen is actually an east ender in real life, born in Woolwich in 1971. He originally signed up to be a marine, however, after an injury he became an ‘international’ male model. Yes, the link is very obvious to us too! However don’t get too excited lads, the man is a ladies man, married to his long term lady, after nine years together.

    7 Michael Chad Murray.

    It was until 2005 that Michael Chad Murray came into general consciousness but it was Paris Hilton’s infamous film House of Wax that catapulted Michael into our hearts! Google Image search him and you’ll get to see why Michael’s star remains brightly lit – the enduring image is of a naked Michael with only a basketball between our lustful eyes and his modesty. Mostly recently Michael has been portraying the character Lucas Scott in the hit drama series One Tree Hill.

    6 Duncan James.

    Tousled dirty blonde hair, killer abs thing going on. James was in the decades arguably most successful boy band Blue, who reigned supreme from 2000-2004. After

    Tousled dirty blonde hair, killer abs thing going on. James was in the decades arguably most successful boy band Blue, who reigned supreme from 2000-2004. After Blue Split, James released Future Past his only solo work to date which reached a rather poorly 55 in the UK charts. James along with his Bluey cohorts had a little bit of a comeback with Eurovision with the song I AM which reached #16 in the UK Charts. In 2009 the sun-kissed king came out as bisexual to the now defunct News Of The World and then as gay in Feb 2014.

    5 Daniel Radcliffe.

    It’s almost wrong to put Dan on this list as he almost feels like our little brother. We’ve grown up with him since 2001 when Radcliff and his wizardly crew stormed the film scene with the Harry Potter franchise, but it wasn’t till he got his kit off for Equus that we actually saw that Mr Radcliffe has some serious sexy potential. Oh, the queens lined the street for a sneaky peak at Harry Wand! Daniel is one of the world youngest millionaires which is always giving someone a certain magmatism.

    It’s almost wrong to put Dan on this list as he almost feels like our little brother. We’ve grown up with him since 2001 when Radcliff and his wizardly crew stormed the film scene with the Harry Potter franchise, but it wasn’t till he got his kit off for Equus that we actually saw that Mr Radcliffe has some serious sexy potential. Oh, the queens lined the street for a sneaky peak at Harry Wand! Daniel is one of the world youngest millionaires which is always giving someone a certain magmatism.

    4 Justin Timberlake.

    So Mr Timberlake wasn’t strictly born of the decade that was 2000, but in 2001 a pert 22-year-old ex N-Syncer rocked our world with his debut solo album: Justified. The ups and downs of his relationship to Britney and his legendary topless shoot with Rolling Stone kept the gay boys Crying A River. Justin Timberlake is now a film star, with his role in Social Network really bringing his acting into the limelight. A Hollywood producer and even has his own line of Tequila as well as whole host of other business ventures!

    3 Barrack Obama. Now this name is what we like to call a game changer. Barrack bowled onto the world’s screens, radios and hearts in 2008 when he began his race to the presidency in the US. No child was left

    Now this name is what we like to call a game changer. Barrack bowled onto the world’s screens, radios and hearts in 2008 when he began his race to the presidency in the US. No child was left un-kissed, no photo opportunity was missed, including a topless shoot in a candid holiday shot, which quite frankly changed our minds about the hottest president since JFK. Houseflies everywhere went into hiding, whilst Obama was on the trail for the premiership. Barack ranks number three in our list of hotties from the noughties, never underestimate being the leader of one of the world’s most powerful countries.

    2 Randy Harrison. Oh, those pillow lips, the big puppy eyes and the floppy blonde mop and with a name like Randy how can anyone resist this openly gay actor from the American version of

    Oh, those pillow lips, the big puppy eyes and the floppy blonde mop and with a name like Randy how can anyone resist this openly gay actor from the American version of Queer As Folk. Playing the part that Charlie Hunnam took in the UK version, we get to see Harrison in a variety of eye-opening ways.

    1 ZAC EFRON.

     

    Oh Zac Zac Zac. When we first saw you we felt naughty stirrings which we thought we probably shouldn’t. However looking your most recent pictures we’ve come to the conclusion we were absolutely right. With a string of high grossing movies: Hairspray, 17 Again, and High School Musical. He was “The Hair” before Justin Bieber. In fact you never see the two in the same room at the same time. Just a suggestion but perhaps Justin is actually just the cut offs from Efron’s hair. It seems there is nothing this boy can’t do: Act, Sing and look good, move over Andrew Stone Zac is the real triple threat. Little might you know but Zac has had 8-charted songs in the UK and 10 the US! He’s reportedly worth a cool $10.8m. Step over Brad Pitt I think we’ve found our new Man for the decade.