Hair Today… gone tomorrow. Back in about a month. The Hanson boys return…

1 March 2000

Even the name sends tingles down the backs of anyone that remembers their spectacular arrival on Planet Pop. It was almost three years ago to the day that Hanson came crashing into our lives in an explosion of hair, geetars and poptacular choons. MMMBop took the three bruvs straight to the top of the charts and straight on to the cover of Smash Hits. The boys stayed on Planet Pop for about a year and then…nothing, bar the odd transatlantic phone call, for nearly two Hanson-less years.

But in April, Zac (now an all grown-up 14), Taylor (16) and Isaac (19) return with a stomper of a single, If Only, so Smash Hits jumped on the first plane to LA to find out what they’ve been doing all this time. “We did a US tour in ’98, and played a few shows in Europe, including one at Wembley, but once we’d finished the tour,” explains Taylor. “We’d been going for basically two years solid.” Two years? Time for a break then. Or not. “Then straight away we started working on music for the new record,” Ike continues.

The boys did manage to fit in a small holiday, as Zac tells us. “We chilled for a little bit, we went skiing with the family, but pretty much, we didn’t stop.”

And the new record? Well, it’s different. “The sound has got a bit more rock ‘n’ roll,” admits Taylor, “this time around it had to be big, when that chorus comes in it’s got to knock you over!”

And knock you over it does – the new album will have you headbangin’ even if you’re not a rocker.And the other difference…”No!” cries newly-shorn Isaac, shaking his head. “No, we didn’t make a conscious decision to change our hair! It just sort of happened.” Just sort of happened, eh? Well, Ike, you tell us who did it and we’ll get ‘em for you…

Source: Smash Hits

• Tags: hair, Hanson, if only, smash hits, this time around