Remember the early-mid 90s? You couldn't turn around without tripping over a new boyband of varying quality - bad boys inc, take that, east 17, big fun, brother beyond, worlds apart, etc. Heck even when they faded away we were left with boyzone, backstreet boys, westlife, five and A1... But since Blue split up (yes that worked out well for Lee and Anthony) there has been a boy band deficiency.

I initially laid my hops on V and Phixx being the saviours of boy band pop. V had the insanely catchy tunes, the dance moves, the obligatory disco cover version and it seemed like they couldn't fail. But sadly for the future of boy bands, they did :( Once their better than Westlife ballad You Stood Up failed to top the charts, they were history and their brillo album track Earth Wind and Fire never got to see the light of day...

MP3: V-You Stood Up Acoustic
MP3: V-Earth Wind and Fire

Phixx did even worse. Rising out of the ashes that was the embarrassment known as One Poo Voice, they wisely chose to become Boys Aloud and go in a electropop direction. Hold On was a corker of a track, they couldn't be worse the OPV and one was an out and out gayer so what could go wrong? A dodgy cover of Duran's Wild Boys later, slimmed down from quintet to trio and their debut album remains unreleased. Which is kind of a shame, cos while its not great, there are a couple of good tracks on there that would have set gay dancefloors alight everywhere...

MP3: Phixx-Original Sin
MP3: Phixx-Superstar

Everyone blamed the failure of these two bands on Busted and McFly with their guitars and ability to write their own sometimes dubious lyrics. I did and still do adore McFly, but can't say I was too upset when Busted self imploded. Charlie went all serious (his musical *integrity* is directly related to the bushiness of his eyebrows) and one of the ugly ones went on to Busted2 or Son of Dork as they like to be called. Mercifully, the British public seems immune to their (lack of) charms and they are likely to alienate their fanbase (all 3 of them) even further with this track which mocks teeny boys in bands. Hello Kettle? Its Pot here. You're Black.

MP3: SonofDork-Boyband

So who is left? Veto Silver are still hanging around there somewhere. They are like an ElectroBusted (but obviously better) and aren't ashamed of their boyband status. And! In a recent interview, one of them confirmed they like a pounding in the ring. Well, who doesn't. Debut single (below) is tres hummable and second single is rumoured to be Stay Young Stay Beautiful which reminds me a little of Soft Cell...

MP3: VetoSilver-When You're With That Girl
MP3: VetoSilver-Stay Young demo version

And hoping to charge their way into the charts next week are norweigan trio Lorraine who, if you are to believe the papers, take their influences from Pet Shop Boys, Erasure, New Order, A-ha and um, Heaven 17... I Feel It is all over music television and you can buy it in England from April 10th so i ain;t gonna ruin their chances by posting it here. Check out this rather gorgeous track instead...

MP3: Lorraine-Transatlantic Flight

And! Don't forget Rooster! They are a bit rubbish and well out of their depth at last years V Festival, but they were my guilty pleasure of 2004. They have a new album out in June and you can get a free track from it at their website if you log on on April 24th...