No, not a reference to my ever-expanding waistline. I was schmoozing with this lot last night, eating Jamie's chips and chatting with them backstage after they performed at the Nightingale. A very friendly bunch of boys and girls, Pop! were touted on yesterday's CD:UK as "Pete Waterman's replacement for Steps", which will probably strike fear into those of you who weren't aware that such a concept was needed. Besides, I thought Scooch were the replacement for Steps, or was it the A*Teens? I forget now. Judging from the reaction to their two song PA last night though, Pop! will certainly have a certain audience eating out of their hands. Besides, they all autographed a postcard for me, so I now officially love them.

The funny thing is, both of the boys in Pop! have Eurovision connections. To be precise, they've both performed in A Song For Europe. I was aware that Pop! were about to be launched on us, but nearly choked on my Weetabix yesterday when I heard Cat Deeley comment over the video that one of their members was Glenn "who was a dancer for Kylie". That's Glenn who was a dancer for Mimi at last year's A Song For Europe then, who I chatted to and photographed at the aftershow party. Glenn who later appeared dancing with The Cheeky Girls in their video for 'Take Your Shoes Off'. Glenn who, much to my great envy, was last seen waving neon lighting tubes around Princess Kylie's nether regions every time she performed 'Slow' on TV. Yes, that Glenn.

Imagine my delight then, when I consulted the Nightingale's website just before going out last night and discovered that Pop! were due to appear. Cue frantic ransacking of my photo folders, taking out some of the pics of Glenn from last year to give to him. He seemed very grateful.

The other guy in Pop!, Jamie Tinkler, was in A Song For Europe a year earlier, in 2002, under the name Level Best. That's the only ASFE in five years that I haven't been to. (I was in Australia.) He was at a disadvantage from the start though, because the song which he'd been asked by the writers to sing, had only been squeezed into the televised last four at the last minute. After the Radio2 listeners' vote had narrowed down the songs from 8 to 4, Jamie's song, 'Every Step Of The Way' didn't get through. However, one of the four that did was soon disqualified because it had been released before, on a compilation album. Harsh, but fair. Level Best were then brought in as the replacement, which meant everybody knew it had come fifth, whereas no one knew the positions of the other three, just that they had all beaten Jamie. Also, as he pointed out to me last night, all the other three acts were known TV faces; Jessica from Pop Idol, Tricia Penrose from Heartbeat and Jonathan Maitland from various TV progs. Bearing all that in mind then, he did really well to finish third.

Eighteen months later, Jamie resurfaced as a top 50 contender on Pop Idol 2, and received quite a bit of favourable publicity. Unfortunately even the goodwill and televotes of Eurovision fans who had recognised him couldn't get him any further, because he ended up in a strong group.

So, Pete Waterman has put together two girls with a male dancer who hasn't sung before and a singer/songwriter who hasn't danced before. An interesting gamble. The girls, Jade and Hannah, were both really friendly too, and I discovered that Hannah, originally from Bromsgrove, and I have a mutual friend and we both used to go to the same club; the Steering Wheel, at its peak.

The single, Heaven And Earth, will be flying out of records shops from 17th May.
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