Fluffy did nothing? Or was that Brassy? or possible Minty? I get very confused.

AND WILL EVERYONE STOP YARKING ON ABOUT THE CUNTING SUGABABES NOW PLEASE? I missed them off, but just because you've all been told by your fucking Guardian music monthly that they're a decent group doesn't mean that British girl groups begin and end with Sugababes, alright? Broaden your minds, brothers and sisters.

Chicks. Does anyone remember the Chicks? One utterly brilliant EP. Nothing else. They were Irish if memory serves?

Tampasm anyone? Period Pains?

what about linoleum, or the gym slips, elastica, skinned teen or huggy bear.... lush?

ut were from ney york, i don't think they are english.

I thought one of Ut was British?

Linoleum were great... I've not heard gym slips, are they worth checking out?

No love for All Saints?

you mean, the poor man's spice girls?

i remember when the hipsters were, in the late 90's "ohh, the spice girls are a prefabricated, sugar coated bunch of bollocks; now all saints are so cool because..."

Poor man's Spice Girls?
All Saints at least had a song I liked... which is more than I can say about The Spice Girls. Sugababes were better though.

true, they were all shit, but the thread gets boring if we'd all give that as an answer.

yeah, i probably also like one song by all saints.

Electrelane rules all. They just make music that moves me beyond anything right now.

correct me if i'm wrong, but don't girl groups supposed to be formed exclusively by girls?

Notice that Vanilla never made the list, or even been mentioned so far. Hardly greats but their only hit-of-sorts 'No Way No Way' helped usher in that whole chav thing before it was even CALLED chav. They really were a salad of fat ankles and 'Croyden Face-Lift' hair-dos.

Bananarama are another vital one. In the early 80s they ushered in a more shambolic attitude. This ws eventually contained by management but in their early days they really were quite the Chicks on Speed of their time.

And let's not forget the Cookie Crew: Britain's answer to Salt n Pepa. Actually no, let's forget about the Cookie Crew asap.

Narrows it down to Bananarama or Sugababes for me, probably siding ultimately with Bananarama, if only for 'Robert DeNiro's Waiting'.

what about shampoo, shakespeare's sister and alisha's attic?

the one single i have by them is pretty good, it's a song called pie n mash and it's all girl oi, there's a myspace for them but it has all this horrible synthpop stuff on it.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...id=143 886089

All good suggestions, two of which mentioned by me already. Lolita Storm if Shampoo are included.

I nearly put Vanilla in, to Mr R. 666, but I couldn't for the life of me remember their name.

I think we can safely conclude that there are far too many decent girl pop groups and perhaps girls making pop is a better idea than boys making pop except for the Cribs whose song Man's Need is excessively good for a band of people who shouldn't really be making songs that brilliant. Agreed?

SPICE GIRLS!

i would have voted elastica if you had put them, but...spice girls.

Fuck that poll. Au Pairs. Birmingham!

I can't see Men's Needs as anything other than a rather festival-friendly sing-a-long. Not a bad thing, as such, but clearly no 'Sound of the Underground'.

If we're to talk of the boy band as a concept rather than just as a, er, band consisting of, er, boys then the only real greats have to be Take That who, from very early on in the career, proved themselves quite staggeringly good. 'Back for Good', 'Pray' and their comeback single 'Patience' are some of the best pieces of pop created in the last fifteen or so years.

shakespeare's sister! that's a name i haven't heard in a while.

yes, take that have some ace songs.

good call

maybe, e.g. shonen knife, no group of males could ever come up with stuff comparable to their early records, although maybe i think pop is best when played a group of mixed gender, cf Os Mutantes.