Pop Go The Pipettes

Drawing influence from the girl bands of the early sixties, The Pipettes aim is to consider the musical timeline that would have occurred if "the Beatles had never happened." Drawn to the "stylistic and musical discipline," of bands led by several female singers, The Pipettes claim to have "manufactured ourselves," from a concept hinged around the "feeling of a three minute pop song."

Their irresistible pop, sung by three beautiful girls in polka dot dresses, is, according to singer Gwenno, a conscious attempt to be rid of "the seriousness of a lot of music that claims to be pop these days." Based around a concept from the beginning, the band had their image, dance moves and musical style sorted before they even played a gig. Famous for their charmingly amateur dance moves and fifties style pop songs, The Pipettes only intention is to make "little pop nuggets about love, dancing and kissing." The Brighton based band, made up of "seven songwriters," is led by a desire to "have a fresh approach, aware that we're rehashing the past but doing it in an original way." They regard pop music, so scarred by Simon Cowell and his cronies, as essentially "escapist," and hope to make "songs that you can't resist dancing to."

Such a strong aesthetic and musical intent, seemingly untainted by irony, is a reflection of an "arty preoccupation," to the girls. After a mad MySpace rush, getting on the Radio 2 playlist and selling out gigs across the UK, The Pipette's eagerly anticipated first album of "lovely teenage pop songs" will make their songs the best hairbrush microphone sing-songs heard since the sixties.

Now they're reaching the big time, The Skinny asks Gwen if they'll be hiring choreographers to make their act more slick: "Nah, I think that DIY, slightly ramshackle approach is what people like about us, we'd lose something if we became too polished." Audiences for the band have ranged from teeny-bopping indie girls to blokes that are a "bit pervy, though not nasty," won over by the refreshing simplicity and unadulterated pop ambition of the girls. They say that "we're not being pushed by any huge publicity company so we're pretty free to do what we want." They haven't strayed too far from the template as yet, but with such effortless, frothy pop songs already written, they won't need to bother.