What's 16 hours of waiting in the cold and freezing rain when you're, omigod, in love.
Fueled by hormones and the hope of catching a glimpse of A.J's foot, Nick's shadow or Brian's behind, a thousand shrieking prepubescent girls began lining up yesterday at 3 a.m. for a 7 p.m. performance by the Backstreet Boys at MuchMusic.
Red-faced girls - clutching teddy bears and waving signs that professed their love for the Orlando-based quintet of baby faced crooners - planted themselves in front of the music station's Queen St. W. headquarters.
When Backstreet Boys finally took the stage for a live "intimate and interactive" performance for viewers across Canada, the crowd really went nuts.
The shrieks and screams were so loud, police and Much Music staff had to wear earplugs.
During the 1½-hour lovefest, dozens of girls had to be plucked from the front of the crowd by police and security guards after the mob kept pushing forward.
One teen who was trampled in the crowd at the end of the concert was whisked away in an ambulance with a suspected neck injury.
Queen Dt. W. was closed to traffic between John and Duncan Sts. for most of the day, forcing the TTC to ferry street car passengers around several blocks by bus.
Parents keeping watch over their kids during the marathon wait filled coffee shops, sat in idling cars and called home to tell family of the frenzied atmosphere.
"What teeny-bopper band is in today?" grumbled one man, taking in the spectacle.
A very wealthy teeny-bopper band, given to slick choreography, sugar-coated lyrics and adequate harmonies, whose members range from late teens to mid-20s.
The biggest fan support for the latest a-la-New-Kids-on-The-Block teen sex idols is here in Canada. The boy singers (they don't play instruments) have been together for six years and have sold close to 2 million CDs to Canadian kids.
Elizibeth Turner, 11, has the CDs, the T-shirts, the teen mag articles and, like the others gathered outside MuchMusic yesterday, a major case of puppy love.
"I really like A.J. McLean because I like his personality and I don't judge people from what they look like. He's not the cutest out of them, but he's sorta cute," gushed Turner, who made the trip down from Brampton with her best friend Michelle DaSouza and her mom, Roxanne, to see the boys.
"They got me out of bed with a cold," said Roxanne, stomping her feet to keep warm.
"Can you get me in to meet them?" pleaded Turner, who had A.J.'s initials scrawled on her cheeks. "I cry just watching their music videos."
Lindsey Griffin, 15, of Scarborough lined up before 9 a.m. Prior to the Boys arrival, their images flashed on television screens facing the street, and Griffin, like many others, burst into shrieks and lost it.
"Yes, I'm crying. Because I love A.J. McLean from the Backstreet Boys so much. He's been my favourite since 1995," blubbered Griffin, after finishing a teary cell phone call to her mom.
Laura Birrington, 16, escorted her 14-year-old sister down early in the morning to join the queue and found a crowd of out-of-control girls.
"Omigod. It was massive crowds, it was freezing. I tried to get her up in the crowd, but, omigod, it was unreal. There were a couple of people just crying," said Birrington, who lined the sidewalk across the street with other bewildered parents ans chaperones waiting for the whole thing to be over.
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