WHERE IS THE LOVE for 21st Century Girls?

21st Century Girls were Simon Fuller's first attempt at that girl band malarkey after the Spice Girls.

They weren't as succesful.

His leftfield beyond all recognisable belief idea was that (and remember what the charts were like in 1999, children) what the world needed now was four teenage girls making a half-riot grrrl, half glam-pop racket.

The band were given the same half-slow burn, half-ubiquity approach that served the Spices (and Westlife, for that matter) so well, even going as far to make the first time I ever saw them, as with the Spice Girls, on Surprise Surprise. I never understood how a band that haven't had a single out yet could count as a surprise, but nevertheless.

Anyway, the kids didn't go for them. As with certain contemporary popular beat combos (yes, Fightstar, that's you), they were quite keen to demonstrate their credibility to the world by appearing in Kerrang (and Rock Sound, if we had Rock Sound then, I forget). Kerrang readers weren't overly impressed, but it did reveal to the world that, in the midsts of his spat with Daphne and Celeste and Fred Durst, Brian Molko found the time to give the girls make-up advice.

The single stalled at 16, and there was no follow up or album released. Except in, inevitably, Japan, where there was both a follow-up single (written by Cathy Dennis!) and an album, both of which are now out of print, and fetch around £30 on internet sites.

Googling the girls now, two of the first sixty mentions of their name are Popjustice pointing out that they were never famous, and also the revelation that the 3 track single of "21st Century Girls" featured a Paul Oakenfold dub remix.

Maybe a fire that extinguished too soon? Discuss.