News Flash: Forbes Magazine reports that the highest-paid entertainers in 1990-'91 were the New Kids On The Block, with gross earnings of $115 million. Thanks to income from concerts, reocrdings, royalties, and a mamoth merchandising empire, the teenyboppers from Boston raked in more dough than Bill Cosby or Madonna, and made as much as Michael Jackson and the Rolling Stones combined. Wow.

So ... does their backup band see much of this money? "Not really," says David Dyson, 26-year-old bassist and musical director for the New Kids. "I'm making more than I did as a freelancer, but it's really just a matter of security, I guess. A certain amount is comming in every week. Production and management and the New Kids themselves -- that's where the money is going."

Still, it must be great to work with such a well-known act, playing for huge audiences all over the world. Right? "A lot of people don't even know the New Kids have a band," sighs Dyson. "It's been hard to get recognition and the respect of our peers. When I was freelancing, I was playing for educated listeners who came to hear progressive music -- but for the last two year, it's been screaming little girls."

To please the screamers, Maurice Starr -- the mastermind behind the New Kids -- has cooked up a series of million-selling pop confections like "Please Don't Go Girl," "Hangin' Tough," and "Step by Step." At first, Joey, Jordan, Jonathan, Danny, and Donnie performed the tunes live to prerecorded backing. But by mid-1988, as the New Kids' popularity began to explode, Starr decided it was time for a real backup band. One of the first players he hired was Dyson.

Maybe you've stumbled across a New Kids concert video on the Disney Channel. Or maybe your little sister has dragged you to a concert. If so, you must have noticed Dyson, up there on the back of the stage, beyond the smoke and the lasers and the flying teddy bears, laying down strong, supple lines and occasionally flashing his state-of-the-art slapping chops.

"It's like a big playground onstage," says David. "Believe it or not, the show is very spontaneous. One time, Joey stopped a tune because a girl threw a stuffed animal at his head and he wanted to scold her right quick. Then he just started singing again! The band was all looking at me, so I did a quick count and we fell back in. Another time, a girl jumped about 15 feet from the balcony onto the stage and almost took out the guitar player. And there might be guys in the audience who don't particularly like the show. One of the New Kids -- the most aggressive one, whose name I won't mention -- sometimes challenges them to come up on stage. It can get extremely wild."

As musical director, Dyson is responsible for keeping the tunes glued together, no matter what happens. It's a job he's well prepared for, one that requires both musical savvy and a cool head. David grew up in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, where he was exposed to a rich musical mix. "My parents took me to concerts all the time: Earth, Wind & Fire; Billy Preston; Rufus with Chaka Khan; Parliament with Bootsy on bass -- the list goes on and on. At home, I'd listen to the Jacksons, Kool & the Gang, Sly & the Family Stone, Graham Central Station, and jazz, too. What first geared me toward jazz was Herbie Hancock's Headhunters [Columbia]; I was nine years old when I heard it, and it knocked me out."

Dyson got a beginner bass for Christmas when he was 11 years old. Within a year, he had moved up to a better instrument and started to play with school and church groups. By the time he was 16, he was doing studio work with gospel groups and absorbing the sounds of Jimi Hendrix and the early funk and fusion bands. "One milestone was hearing Louis Johnson; then Stanley Clarke opened up a new door for me. I was a Stanley clone for a while, until a guy came up after a show and said, 'That was killin' -- but you sound just like Stanley Clarke. You need a sound of your own.' That was the best thing that could have happened to me, and I immediately started looking for my own sound."

Dyson's search took him to Boston and the Berklee College of Music, where he received a B.A. By the time he graduaed, he had established a reputation as one of the school's hottest bassists. "The only problem," he recalls, "was that I was getting calls mostly for funk gigs. I liked doing them, but I could barely pay my rent. Fortunately, thanks to people I knew from school, I was able to hook up with some jazz cats. After that, I got all kinds of work: rock, Latin, weddings, even gigs in Portuguese clubs. I also played with [saxophonist] Walter Beasley, and I made a couple of videos with his quintet that were on VH-1."

In the fall of 1988, Dyson got a call from a friend who told him Maurice Starr was looking for musicians. "I went down to Maurice's studio expecting to read charts, but he just asked me to play 'Please Don't Go Girl.' I didn't know it, which was kind of embarrassing, and I was thinking, 'Uh-oh, I blew it right there.' But Maurice said, 'That's cool. Just play some R&B stuff, some Stylistics, some O'Jays.' I ran off a few things, and he said, 'Okay, you got the gig.' "

Within three months, Dyson was on tour with the New Kids; by the end of the year, he had been appointed musical director. "I've been doing the rhythm arrangements almost since I joined, and I have other responsibilities, too, like letting everybody in the band know when sound check is. I also asked Maurice if the band could get introduced and maybe do some solos. It's important for us to be recognized as musicians." Dyson has also contributed to the New Kids' reent studio efforts, helping out with production and playing some key bass lines. (If your little sister has a copy of Step by Step [Columbia], check out "Games" and "Stay With Me Baby.")

Dyson's favorite bass is a custon 4-string made by Wolf Ginandes of the Musical Instrument Service Center (M.I.S.C.) in Boston. "When I pulled it out, everybody started calling it 'the Gumby bass,' because it's green. It has an ash body, three pickups -- two EMGs and a Ken Smith in the middle -- and a Ken Smith preamp." Onstage, David also uses his black Ibanez 4-string (a late-'70s Jazz Bass copy) and a new Tobias 5-string. He prefers Dean Markley Blue Steel Strings, medium gauge, and his amp rig includes a Gallien-Krueger 800RB head, an Ashly compressor, two Hartke 4x10s, and a Peavey 2x15. When effects are called for, he stomps on Boss octave-divider and chorus pedals and a Morley wah-wah.

As he gears up for another tour with the New Kids, Dyson feels he's approaching a crossroads. "I've had a lot of fun over the last two years, but it's been very limiting musically. I'm working on some things of my own, including a solo bass project, and there are a lot of gigs I'd like to do -- I'd love to play with someone like Sting. I'm ready for more of a challenge."