andPOP - Pop Culture With Substance

They’re back and, according to fans, still bringing “the right stuff.”

New Kids On The Block played their first gig in 15 years on Friday, drawing an estimated 4,000 fans to New York’s Rockefeller Plaza for their performance on “The Today Show.”

The turnout is one of the largest in the history of the morning show broadcast.

The group’s performance featured a medley of past hits including “You Got It (The Right Stuff),” “Hangin’ Tough” and “Step by Step,” as well as new single “Summertime.”

Fans braved wind and rain to watch the performance; some waited in the streets for two days to catch the best view of the stage.

The boy band, who has sold more than 70 million albums worldwide since forming in 1984, broke up in 1994.

The five members – brothers Jordan and Jonathan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Danny Wood and Donnie Wahlberg – announced last month that they were reuniting for a new album, due this summer, and a fall tour which will include stops in Canada.

’80s teen heartthrob New Kids on the Block are continuing toward their previously announced reunion.

The band has announced the date of its official return – May 17 – for the band’s first performance in almost 20 years.

The performance will be at radio station Z100’s Zootopia concert in New York, featuring a number of other musical stars.

The band also has promised a full reunion tour across the country, and new New Kids merchandise to be released with the tour.

After months of rumours, boy-band phenom New Kids On The Block have officially announced they are reuniting after 14 years.

The five original members — brothers Jordan and Jonathan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Danny Wood and Donnie Wahlberg — appeared on “The Today Show” show Friday amidst hundreds of screaming fans and confirmed they will embark on a tour this fall in support of a new album.

“We weren’t going to announce it yet but People (Magazine) leaked it so we thought we should make the announcement official,” said Wahlberg.

The group revealed they began working on the record in August, and the tour will include both new material and old favourites.

Tour dates have yet to be announced, but their first performance will be on “The Today Show” on May 16.

NKOTB sold more than 70 million albums worldwide between 1984 and 1994, marketing million of dollars in merchandise and even inspiring a Saturday-morning cartoon.

Since disbanding in 1994, Jordan Knight, McIntyre and Wood have released solo albums, while Jonathan Knight became a real estate developer and Wahlberg took on an acting and producing career.

While the Backstreet Boys are reportedly on the verge of getting dropped from their record label and while NSYNC seems like nothing but a distant memory, the group that started it all may be back to fill the boy band void.

New Kids On The Block, the boys that gave teen girls plenty to scream about in the late 80s and early 90s sent a message to fans – via their recently revamped website – that an exciting and ground-breaking development is in the works.

Accoring to E! Online, People magazine has reported that the development is that all five New Kids (Jordan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg, Jonathan Knight and Danny Wood) will soon be returning to the pages of teen magazines as they put back together the once-fractured group.

There has been no official word by the group but the site seems to state the obvious. As a fuzzy television set flickers on and off, different photos of the group flash by.

“They rose from the streets of Boston,” the site says. “To become the biggest band in the world. They influenced a generation. They sold over 70 million albums and grossed more than one billion dollars. Five multiplatinum albums, 10 top 10 singles, five number one singles. Then they walked away from it all. Millions of fans around the world await their return. Are you ready?”