It’s the Sunday Roast, and today it’s four times throbbier than normal! Not that we’re ever normal around these parts. These parts right here… Where was I? Oh, right! Throbbing. In the 60’s you had The Monkees (who were musically under-rated IMHO). In the 80’s you had Milli Vanilli, who were at least stunning to look at. And in 2026, we have BoyThrob, which may actually be nothing more than a four-headed practical joke. Yes, in These Trying Times™ even manufactured bands have evolved. Morphed. Mutated.  These pleasant-looking lads come to you from the hellmouth known as TikTok, where they have gone viral, more for their backstory than for their music (which is pleasant enough, I guess). For four part harmony you need, yes, four people. And BoyThrob IS four people, but there’s a problem. Three of them are American:  Anthony Key, Evan Papier, and Zachary Sobania.  One of them,  Darshan Magdum,   is Indian. And trying to bring him to the US to perform with hi...

In 1991, I was an executive with a NYC and London-based company and on a business trip in Los Angeles. Me and my assistant, both of us staying at The Mondrian, were rolling calls in my room when the day took a grim turn. First, we heard sirens, then the sound of running outside the door. Thinking there was a fire, we stepped into the hallway and heard the shocking news. Robert Pilatus, one half of the disgraced Milli Vanilli pop group, had jumped to his death from his room in the hotel.  When we went to the lobby, we learned from staff that this wasn't quite true. Yes, Pilatus had indeed tried to jump - after taking pills and slashing his wrists - but was talked down by police. He wouldn't be so lucky next time. In 1998, he was found dead in a hotel room near Frankfurt, Germany from a fatal overdose of pills.  That day in 1991 was the first time in which I didn't regard Pilatus and his Milli Vanilli partner, Fabrice Morvan, as some sort of pop music joke, or a silly ...