Girls Aloud and Sugababes are, without a doubt, the two biggest girl groups in the UK right now. They have crosses genre divides and grabbed fans from all walks of life and are both talented and able pop groups.

While I may like both groups, many fans have chosen to stay loyal to just one of the two, and a rather unhealthy rivalry has cropped up between Girls Aloud fans and Sugababes fans. This is despite the two groups getting along fine, at least on the face of it.

Some would argue that there is enough in-fighting in both camps that an inter-band fight would be over-the-top. And that would seem to be the case. Bizarrely, it’s a couple of video clips on YouTube which has prompted one of the groups to speak out.

The two videos are embedded below. As you can see they show a very badly animated Cheryl Cole and Keisha Buchanan arguing over the merits of their albums with each other. With the monotone speech it’s like South Park meets Stephen Hawking.

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Ever since Top Of The Pops was canceled in 2006, there has been some high profile campaigning to get the show brought back. After all, TOTP successfully ran for 42 before being axed, and would still be with us if the BBC hadn’t started paying so much attention to viewing figures.

I originally covered the story in October, 2008, after The Ting Tings made clear their desire for the show to be brought back. I was against the show coming back, feeling it had had its time and the world had moved on. Although, I did appreciate the Christmas Special the BBC reinstated after pressure from Simon Cowell and others.

In November, Mark Cooper, head of music entertainment for BBC TV suggested the campaign had worked, and that TOTP would indeed be returning to our screens at some point but since then, no official word has leaked of the whens and hows.

Now, music industry plugger, Dylan White, has spoken to Music Week about where he thinks the show would fit in the schedules, and how it could be tweaked to make it more of a success this time around.

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Girl Power may have started with The Spice Girls but this new video for No Can Do shows that Sugababes are the natural successors to the idea of women being in charge and in control of men everywhere.

With former member Mutya Buena currently ensconced in the Celebrity Big Brother house, oh how the mighty have fallen, I thought it fitting to make this song the first I reviewed here on Brit Music Scene in 2009.

And I’m glad I did because it’s just the kind of song I need to cheer me up in this post-Christmas lull we all experience every year. No Can Do music video and review after the cut.

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2008 has been dominated by groups reforming and getting back together. But not many have split. 2009 could see the two trends switch places though, with more British bands splitting than reforming. But which are likely to break up?

The bookies are rarely wrong, mainly because it’s their job to be right, with an incorrect verdict when setting odds costing them money. Paddy Power, an Irish bookmaker who specializes in bizarre or out of the ordinary bets, has published its odds on which bands are likely to part ways next year.

The two biggest girl bands in the country, Girls Aloud and Sugababes are top of the pile, while there’s an influx of boy bands, two of which have only recently reformed, not far behind them. Two rock giants complete the list.

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I think my conversion to pop music lover is now complete, as for the first time ever, I am willing to admit to loving a Girls Aloud song. I still love my indie, rock, and metal, real music where a band play instruments and everything, but Will Young, Sugababes, and Take That are turning me on to pop in a big way. Maybe I’m just getting old.

I’ve never been anti-pop as such but when I younger I was in to dance music, then heavily in to hip-hop, before finding the true and righteous of guitar music. But pop seems to have evolved now, with some songs actually being worth more than one listen.

As it is with the new single from Girls Aloud, a group manufactured a few years ago on Popstars: The Rivals. They’ve always released catchy songs but The Promise has to be their catchiest yet. And while I know they didn’t write it or anything, I can’t help liking it.

Video and review after the cut.

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The Futureheads are one of my favourite British bands ever, and one which deserves a lot more credit than they currently get. So when they announced a new UK tour back in March, I nabbed some tickets before they all sold out.

It’s been a long two month wait for the gig to finally come around, but yesterday finally gave me the chance to see the band play live for the first time since they last played Manchester back in 2006. And they have lost none of the magic from those days, and in fact seemed even more energetic than last time I saw them, a tall order indeed.

Maybe it was the small(er) venue which did the trick, as they were playing Academy 2, a compact venue for a band of this magnitude. At one point, the band even acknowledged how good it was to be in a smaller venue and how it helps to see in to the eyes of their notoriously loyal fans. If last night’s show was anything to go on, I’d recommend they play smaller venues more often.

This is the fourth gig I’ve been to this year, with a real mixed bag of artists so far, comprising of Megadeth, The Feeling and Sugababes. They’ve all been brilliant, but this was the best so far, despite being too short for my liking. It was also the complete opposite of the Sugababes gig, with no props, and no costume changes, just out and out good music played at a frenetic pace.

The band came on at about 9.20pm, and apart from the huge cheer, there was no fanfare, no impressive light show or anything. These guys just let their music do the talking, and that’s all the fans need.

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After going to see The Feeling at the beginning of March, and loving it so much, me and my friends were on the lookout for the next big gig to buy tickets for and attend.

A quick search on GigsandTours.com later, and we decided to purchase tickets for the Sugababes at the Manchester Apollo on the 2nd of April.

Even though the tickets had been on sale for months, there were a few remaining, and we struck lucky.

I approached the gig with part excitement, part trepidation, as it was to be the most “Pop” concert I’ve ever been to. In fact, before this The Feeling was probably the most mainstream.

We arrived just as the girls came on stage, and they immediately had a presence which filled the venue, and drew the attention of every set of eyes watching them.

The audience was a bit of a shock to me, someone who hasn’t really attended quite so mainstream before, with a lot of young kids in attendance, one of whom fell asleep on the floor in front of me half way through the set.

The gig consisted of run-down of their greatest hits, with a few tracks from their current album thrown in for good measure. They started with Hole In The Head and Round Round before mixing it up a bit for the first of numerous occasions.

Unlike an Indie or Rock band, the Sugababes, with their lack of instruments, aside from their gorgeous voices, have to rely on more than just the music to leave punters satisfied with a good show.

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The Sugababes, surely the sexiest British girl band ever (Destiny’s Child beat them hands down, but they’re American, so they don’t count) have apparently indulged in a spot of pole dancing at an after-show party in Manchester on Wednesday.

The girls have been on a tour of the UK for the past few weeks, and arrived in Manchester for two sold out shows at the Apollo on Tuesday and Wednesday.

I actually attended the Wednesday show, and will be giving my review of it tomorrow here on Brit Music Scene.

But forget that for now, as thinking about the girls pole dancing is much more interesting than actually seeing them perform… so to speak.

The girls are apparently big fans of exotic dancing, and so decided to kick off their shoes and give it a go themselves when they visited the Boutique gentlemen’s club following their after-show party at Manchester’s Red Rooms.

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A few of us here on the b5 music channel have decided to get together and talk about our favourite gigs. I’ve been to far too many to list them all, so instead, I’ll focus on my experiences of the last year.

I have quite a broad taste in music, loving everything from Bjork and Joanna Newsome, through the Arctic Monkeys and Bloc Party, up to Megadeth and The Hives, so my gig history is kind of fragmented.

My first gig was the Stereophonics back in the day (when they were good, or at least better than they are at the moment), and that kind of set the tone for my experiences since then.

All I remember about that gig was not being able to hear anything afterwards, and wondering why. Now I’m used to it, and know that my hearing will be relatively back to normal the next day.

Since I’ve started writing Brit Music Scene, I’ve reviewed the gigs I’ve been to, except Megadeth earlier this year because I didn’t know how interested my readers would be.

For the record, it was mind-blowingly good. It was my first metal gig, and one I’ll never forget. From seeing the master, Dave Mustaine, have the crowd eating out of his hand, to getting drenched in sweat that came flying from the long haired goon standing in front of me every time he rocked out, it was an unforgettable night.

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The Feeling are a band who are never going to be cool, never going to get on the cover of NME, and never going to be the next big thing.

But you know what? None of that matters, as they put out some incredibly well written, and well composed pop songs, and after seeing them live, I know they’re fantastic in the flesh too. I’d even go as far to say they push Muse for title of Best Live Band in the UK right now.

This is actually the second time I’ve seen The Feeling live, the first being in the Manchester Apollo early last year, when the band were touring on the back of awesome début album Twelve Stops and Home.

This tour is their first since second album, Join With Us, was released last month, and if anything, they were even better this time around than last. I suppose that’s what touring constantly for a year does to you.

I entered the venue excited, and that excitement was paid back in full by a group at the absolute top of their game. From the moment they came on stage, the whole band had the crowd eating out their hand, with front man Dan Gillespie Sells being the main conductor of the 3,000 strong audience.

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