And if that's the case then their dreams have been answered, because New Kids On The Block are back!

After a few months of sly non-commitment, New Kids On The Block are expected to officially announce their reunion on Friday's Today show. And, as an appetite-whetter, New Kids On The Block have released the first group photo of the reunion. At least that's what we think it is – it could just be a page ripped out of Middle-Aged Weekend Father At A Court Appearance magazine that someone published as a belated April Fool joke. Who knows?

What with war and recession and global warming and Jessica Simpson's stinky piss, the world needs cheering up. And there's no group of people more likely to do that than New Kids On The Block. Not because New Kids On The Block are cool or good or anything, but because it will make the entire world briefly come together in a universal sense of brotherhood and think "Whew! It doesn't matter how bad things get for me, because at least I'm not in New Kids On The Block."

Quiet murmurings of a New Kids On The Block reunion started in January, quickly followed by a snatch of a new song. But then everything suddenly went quiet. We'll admit that part of us hoped that the New Kids On The Block reunion had come to a premature end, possibly because they all started punching each other until one was dead and the others had dislocated jaws. But more fool us, because New Kids On The Block are definitely back and raring to go.

All of them – Mark Wahlberg's Brother, Captain Dungaree, New Geek On The Block, Frankenstein and Generic Other are all set for their big comeback. And that's a comeback that starts on Friday's Today show, where the group will make their first joint televised appearance in an age – to announce a new album and tour to mark the 20-year anniversary of Hangin' Tough.

But Friday is, like, so long away! We want to see a decade of failure etched across their old faces now. Lucky, then, that Yahoo has published the first group photo of New Kids On The Block since before all of them had pubes, or something. And from the sight of it, you'd think that they've all spent the last 14 years hanging out in Marks And Spencer trying to land a job as a catalogue model instead of appearing on British reality TV shows with the skinny one from Little And Large.

What hints about the reunited New Kids On The Block can we glean from this new photo? Well, all five of them are wearing suits instead of ridiculous bandanas and nasty Michael Jackson-style leather jackets, so that probably means that they want to be taken seriously as mature singer-songwriters this time around. Plus four of them have their hands in their pockets, so it looks as if one of them may have become a pickpocket in the years since the band split up.

What else? Nothing. That's literally it. For other clues, we'll all have to watch New Kids On The Block on Friday's Today show. But we've heard one of them now has a voice like Estelle Getty from The Golden Girls and at least two of the others loudly whistle every time they try to pronounce a word with an 's' in it thanks to their ill-fitting dentures. 

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New Kids On The Block release first group photo in 15 years - Yahoo