Hanging with HANSON

CHINESE FOOD!

"I wonder what the food's like in Asia?" ponders Taylor out loud, with his mouth full of chocolate chip. "It'll be a total culture shock when we go there next month. The food here is pretty similar to that in the US but, like, in Asia Idunno..." adds Isaac licking his vanilla ce. "Yeah. like, we have Chinese food back home in Tulsa but i n Asia it won't be Americanised Chinese food it'll be, like, HARDCORE Chinese food!" gasps Zac.

But there's no more timre for culinary wonderment, it's time to prepare to appera live on Geld oder Lieve! The boys whizz back to the studios to wait in the wings while watching the presenter make the whole audience laugh. (He's a Noel Edmonds lookalike, but tubbier!) R
"I wish I could speak German," whispers a curious Isaac. "It's a craaazy tv show!" explains a behind-the-scenes TV lady in almost perfect English. "You see, zair are sree boys and sree girls..." Too late for explanations, Missus. The boys are hurried behind a silver screen, the screen lifts and there they are, belting out MMMBop live to Germany.

Live TV means you have to keep your cool when things go wrong. So when Zac drops one of his drumsticks, he keeps on drumming with the other one until the camera swoops away from him. Then he gets up from his tiny drumkit and runs off to pick it up. A true professional! "Zac knew what he was doing," says Isaac proudly, after their song has gone down a storm. "Yeah, but I was panicking inside," admits Zac. That's not the only trauma for Zac though - on the way to their car, he runs out of the studio ahead of his minder much to his manager's annoyance. "You don't know what's out there Zac, you could have been shot!" says manager Chris, which is enough to reduce Zac to tears. "I shouldn't have said that," says Chris later, "but I worry about them. Poor Zac, he must be really tired." To top off the evening, Taylor opens his mouoth to reveal he's whacked his front tooth on his microphone and chipped a piece off! Oh dear - it's been a long day!

DENTIST!

Back at the hotel, Eva ushers the boys safely upstairs to bed. Meanwhile, Daddy Hanson is in the hotel lobby frantically looking for the number of a dentist in Cologne. Suddenly he is accosted by another famous dad - Daddy Kelly. The Kelly family are huuuuge in Germany, also have long hair and write their own songs but that, according to the Hanson, is where the similarities end. Mr Kelly has been waiting in the hotel all day to speak to Mr Hanson and give him some advice about running a family band. Mr Hanson politely puts him off and scuttles off to check on his middle son's teeth.

PIZZA!

Taylor shows off his fixed tooth the very next day. "It was a nice dentist," he grins through pearly white gnashers, chewing confidently on a large slice of Margherita pizza. The guys are chilling out on the bed eating drawing and joking around with Eva while their dad is rushing around packing things together ready for their flight back to the US. "I'd say the travel is the only real way our live have changed," says Isaac. "We're flying around the world doing interviews and stuff now." "But the cool thing is that when we go home everything's the same - we're back in our nice quiet town and we can be normal kids again. It's good to go home, it's not like New York and LA where we get mobbed and stuff," grins Taylor. But it's not in New York and LA that there is an offical Hanson Day, it's in the boys' home state of Oklahoma... "It's cool," says Zac, "May 6 is officially Hanson Day..." "...It's just like the state saying, "We support you guys!" interrupts Isaac. "...It's not a holiday or anything, but if it was up to us we'd make sure everybody was off school on Hanson day and then everyone would move to Oklahoma so they could have a day off!" says Zac rebelliously.

The boys may say their lives haven't changed but a pop star devil-may-care attidtude is definitely in the air. "Listen to this then..." whispers Zac. "The night we left for Europe we were up until three in the morning drawing!" "Yeah, we go to bed whenever we want now!" says Taylor, with a quick glance at Eva and his dad standing not too far away. Eva wearily rolls her eyes and helps Daddy Hanson with the packing while the three pop stars lie back on the bed grinning. Not bad this pop star lark, is it?