They are charming, polite and definitely cute! 
Although they wouldn't mind if you called them a boyband, 
they much rather be treated as bona fide musicians.
Get ready for the dashing lads from UK - BBMak! 

When Christian (23), Ste (21) and Mark (21) arrive to meet us, 
they apologise profusely for being late. 
It wasn't their fault, but even if it was, I can't help feeling that they're 
so charming and courteous that I'd have forgiven them for anything.

The guys have been playing together since early 1996. 
Before that, they were members of different bands and used to do
gigs at the same venues in and around Liverpool. 
They soon became good friends and realised that they were more serious then their contemporaries about carving our musical careers. And so BBMak was formed. 
Ste came up with the name - by taking the first
letters of Christian's and Mark's surnames 
(Burns and Barry respectively) and add the first part of his own (McNally).

Influenced mainly be Stevie Wonder, the Beatles, the Jackson Five, 
the Eagles, The BeeGees and Donny Hathaway, 
BBMak is a totally refreshing sound on the pop scene. 
The guys themselves are completely unaffected by their own success (the British press has hailed them as "The hottest new trio in Britain" 
and further commented that "Back Here (their first single) will make BBMak a household name"), remaining easy-going, 
fun and genuinely pleasant. 
Oh yeah! They're not bad looking, either.
 

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR MUSIC?
Christian: It's acoustic pop - guitar based pop with lots of harmonies. 
It's fresh - different compared to a lot of the pop that's coming
out of the UK at the moment. We've got our own style.

THERE'S A MUSICAL TREND AT THE MOMENT TOWARDS BOYBANDS.
DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELVES A BOYBAND?
Mark: Not at all. We just happen to be three lads in a band. 
We don't dance, we write our own music and we play our own
instruments. We've produced two of the tracks on the album as well. 
You don't get many boybands doing all that, so that separates
us from them. If we are a boyband, then we are the 
most credible boyband ever.
Christian: We're not just about singing and dancing, but if people 
want to call us a boyband, we don't have a big problem with it. As
long as they buy the music and they enjoy it, 
they can call us whatever they want!
Ste: We've got a lot of male fans as well. 
That's where we're different from most boybands.
Christian: That's right. A lot of boybands go on stage and 
get booed off by guys. But we go on stage and there are guys 
there getting into it - enjoying what we're doing.

BEFORE YOU SIGNED WITH TELSTAR, YOU USED TO GO AROUND 
TO THE BIG RECORD COMPANIES BUSKING. 
HOW DISHEARTENING WAS THAT?
Christian: To be honest with you, it wasn't disheartening. I've done door-to-door sales and that was disheartening! 
But busking forrecord companies - they actually generally liked it. 
That's why we had some of the main companies in England wanting to sign us,because not only did we have the songs and the guitars, but we had the cheekiness to go out and do it as well, and they liked that.

WHAT MOTIVATED YOU TO KEEP GOING?
Christian: Our families. Our families were a big support to us. 
They really believed in us. We just wanted it so bad and if you want
something really bad, you know you'll get it eventually.

TELL ME ABOUT THE SHOWCASE AT THE LOMEX THEATRE IN LIVERPOOL. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?
Ste: That was after we went round the record companies busking. 
We set up our own showcase in Liverpool. We did it with a radio
station because they knew we were a new band and they were helping us out. We had no manager at the time - we organised it with
them. We invited all the companies down and there was this room 
just full of guys from Telstar, Sony, EMI - all the big names in the
music industry. We were terrified but we put on a good show and 
they loved it! The next day, the phone was ringing like mad.

YOU PLAYED FOR TWO YEARS THOUGH, BEFORE YOU GOT SIGNED, WAS THERE EVER A POINT WHERE YOU THOUGHT
YOU WEREM'T GOING TO MAKE IT?
Mark & Christian: Yes.
Ste: Loads of times! I'd say it and…
Christian: Mark and I would say 'No, no, no, come on,
of course we can do it. Or I'd say it and…
Mark: …we'd go 'No, no, no - we can do it, we can do it'.
Christian: That's the good thing about being in a band. 
If we were solo artists, maybe we would have given up by now.

HOW IMPORTANT IS MUSIC TO YOU?
Mark: Music is the most important thing to us at the moment.
Christian: Then the image and whatever else. 
The music definitely comes first.

WHAT WOULD YOU BE DOING IF YOU WEREN'T IN A BAND, THEN?
Mark: I'd be a fireman now. I was training to be a fireman 
at college before I joined the band.
Ste: I'd be a brickie (bricklayer), but before I was in the band, 
I was a security man.
Christian: If I wasn't in this band, I think I'd probably be a car salesman. 

WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELVES IN 10 YEARS' TIME?
Christian: We hope that we'll still be around, still making records.
Ste: Still making music that people like.

STILL TOGETHER?
All: Yes.
Mark: It's a lonely road when you're solo.

MARK, WHAT'S THIS ABOUT YOU AND THE BAGPIPES 
AND ROD STEWART?
Mark: I started playing the pipes 10 years ago, and did loads of competitions - I was four times English champion. So I played the
pipes when I was 13 at Old Trafford in front of a few thousand people with the pipe band. We played a few tunes before Rod Stewart
came on.

SO HOW WELL ARE THE RECORD SALES GOING 
IN THE UK AT THE MOMENT?
Mark: We were really surprised because when we released 'Back Here' in the UK, we were still recording the album at the time so
we didn't get a chance to do as much promotion 
as we would like but it still went into the Top 40.

THIS IS YOUR FIRST TIME IN ASIA. HOW DO YOU LIKE IT?
Mark: Fantastic!
Christian: We've been to Thailand, Japan and Singapore and everyone's been really friendly; the fans have been great and the food is
fantastic! I was really surprised at how well behaved the fans are. 
They respect your privacy and don't run after you, and they let you
know that they're there, but they don't go overboard.

WHAT WERE YOU EXPECTING WHEN YOU CAME TO ASIA?
Mark: I was expecting to meet loads of really nice, 
really good-looking Oriental girls. And I did!
Ste: Spicy food. That's what I expected. I love spicy food.

WHAT DO YOU MISS MOST ABOUT HOME WHEN YOU'RE AWAY?
Mark: My mum's cooking and my own bed. 
There's nothing like going to sleep in your own bed.
Ste: My friends - just seeing them and going out and 
having a drink with them.
Christian: The local pub, my friends and family.

I NOTICE NOBODY MENTIONED GIRLFRIENDS THERE. 
ARE YOU ALL STILL SINGLE?
All: YES!
Ste: We're just too busy to have a girlfriend. 
Mark: It would be very difficult to keep a relationship going, 
because we're never in one place for long. We're from Liverpool, 
but we live in London and we spend a lot of time abroad.

DO YOU HAVE A FAN CLUB?
Mark: Yes. We have a web site - www.bbmak.co.uk

WHO GETS THE MOST FAN MAIL?
Christian: It depends. Because Mark plays different instruments, me 
and Ste play the guitar, different people have different questions
to ask us. We got a lot of male fans as well - often young guys just learning the guitar who want to know about different tunes or
ours. It's not just all girly-girly stuff!!

DO YOU READ ALL YOUR FAN MAIL?
Mark: Yes.

AND DO YOU REPLY TO IT?
Christian: Yes, all of it. What happens is our manager prints all the 
stuff off of the Internet and makes us sit down and read through it
and write responses. Then someone else keys our replies onto the Internet. So all those answers are actually what we've written.

< This article was taken from the December 1999 
issue of Teenage Magazine Singapore >