C4's Sex and the City-style girl band
The new band will be like a cross between OutKast (above) and Prince and the Revolution (below), but with girls
Polydor are to launch a new girl group using a Sex and the City-style Channel 4 drama series about the band's exploits. The 13-part series, called Totally Frank, will follow the travails of four 21-year-old girls - together called Frank - as they struggle their way through the music business in London, trying to find gigs and survive in a cut-throat environment. The series launches in September, the band will start playing gigs and releasing records early next year.
Polydor's joint managing director Colin Barlow describes both band and series as "very cutting edge".
"Pop's moved away from the shiny, squeaky clean stuff," says Barlow, "and the band and the series will reflect that." The Polydor man describes Frank as a cross between OutKast and Prince and the Revolution, "but girls".
The idea originated when the songwriter Brian Higgins (who has written for both Sugababes and Girls Aloud) wrote some electro- funk based songs and played them to Barlow, who suggested finding a band. At the same time, a scriptwriter at Endemol-owned production company Initial had the idea for the series. Four actors were recruited who could play instruments and also contribute to songwriting. The first to be unearthed was bassist Jah Wobble's acting and drumming daughter, Hayley.
Initial's chief executive Malcolm Gerrie sees the series as dealing with "serious issues" by following four "sassy" girls' adventures and frustrations in the metropolis. The obvious historical precedent is the hard-hitting 1980 film Breaking Glass, which made a real-life pop star out of Hazel O'Connor. Barlow has similarly high hopes for Frank.
"The programme's going to deal with proper issues concerning young women," Gerrie told Music Week. "It's not high gloss, like Pop Idol. If it connects it's going to really make a splash."
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