A 42-Mile Long Letter from Smash Hits:

That was the length of a letter sent to Hanson by one mad group of fans! As the fellas warmed up for their first UK date since the Poll Winner's Party, we asked them about the other odd stuff that happens when you're famous....

SH: How do you feel when girls cry and throw themselves at you?

TAY: Sometimes it's a good thing

IKE: You reach a few girls that way, hahaha! Hopefully they're not crying too much or freaking out. We're just excited about it. Without fans who are enthusiastic like that, we couldn't do what we do. We couldn't do concerts and have the same amount of fun we're having playing our music.

ZAC: We appreciate our fans.

TAY: Yeah, I mean, without the fans we're totally just floating along. We can't do anything more unless they're enjoying it. When the fans enjoy our music, we can go ahead and play shows or put out new songs for them.

SH: Talking of shows, how come you're only performing one concert in England?

ZAC: You know, this is really just before we get the second proper album out. We just wanted to get out there and perform, for us really. You know, go around to a few places really quick.

IKE: We had personal need to go out and play. It's been quite a while since we had an opportunity to get out there and do bunch of shows.

TAY: We're just going to get out there and play! The next album is a priority too. So we want to do as many shows as we possibly can until we have to stop and begin work on the next album.

IKE: If we didn't have to think about making another album, we would do a million more shows..

TAY: Yeah, so once the next album is out, we'll do a big tour.

SH: So, fellas, any girlfriends yet? (for the one millionth and second time NO!!!!!!!!)

TAY: People are always asking us that, and the sad story is that none of us has a girlfriend.

IKE: That's not always a bad thing. We do look a lot!

TAY: Yeah, looking is a good thing. It would be really hard at this point to have a girlfriend, though.

SH: Why? Because she might like you for the wrong reasons?

ZAC: I think you know if she likes you for yourself.

IKE: I can see what you mean, though. In extreme situations, that has happened. It hasn't happened in a girlfriend way, but with some friends it has. Like people you're acquainted with - all of a sudden, when you're famous, they want to be with you...

ZAC: Yeah, they go, "Hi! How are you?" and you go, "I don't know you", and they'll say, "Sure you do, I'm your new best friend."

SH: Have you been hanging out on the Internet a lot recently?

TAY: Well, there are a lot of people impersonating us these days...

ZAC: Yeah, like we were walking through the airport the other day and this lady comes up to us and says, "Oh, my daughter talks to you all the time. Her on-line address is blah, blah, blah.." And we're like, "What?!"

IKE: It's true. We have chatted with fans before, but the only official-mail address for us where that would happen is Mmmbop@aol.com.

TAY: If the one you've been talking to has another address, it's not us.

IKE: But you must spell the address right because it's case-sensitive. It's a big M followed by two little ms and bop. Someone tried it withthree capital Ms, but that won't work. There are people out there with very similar addresses, so watch out! Someone wrote it MMM13op and it really looks like MMMBop, unless you look at it closely, so we could seehow someone may think that's us, but it's not. And you've got to be pretty careful, because some people may ask you for your password and then start getting you into trouble.

SH: We heard that some South American fans wrote you a letter that was 42 miles long!

ZAC: I just want to know one thing - how many rainforest trees did they kill? That's a lot of trees...

IKE: It's nuts, but we get a kick out of it. We get some of the coolest artwork, but people paint portraits of us and that's kinda weird. Why would I want a picture of me?