Is It 1999 Again?

The last boyband to make any kind of impression in the charts, V, was two years ago, and they were good-looking, had a knowing sense of humour, and pop songs produced by man-who-can-do-no-wrong, Brian Higgins. And they still flopped.

Like it or not, the era of the traditional boyband looks to be well and truly over. So why on earth would anyone think the whole concept of the truly awful US5, a boyband who couldn't sound more late 90s even if they teamed up with Lou Bega, Ann Lee and Eiffel 65 for a cover of Livin La Vida Loca, is a good idea.

This German-based boyband is made up of two Aaron Carter lookalikes, a token ugly "alternative" one, a token "urban" one, and somehow a poor British guy, who I can only assume joined the group with the thought that it was extremely unlikely that a German boyband would try and crack the UK and that he would be spared the embarrassment of his family and friends knowing he's in the world's most ill-conceived and misjudged pop act since Clea, the Lidl version of Atomic Kitten.

Their awful new single, Maria, which has surprisingly been all over the music channels lately, is out in a few weeks time and it's going to be fascinating to see whether anyone, bar a few teenage girls whose idea of musical heaven is a transatlantic version of O-Town, will buy it.