Lancashire all-girl band bid to top charts
It all started as a piece of college coursework.
Now five students are being backed by the best in the music business in their bid to top the charts.
Lauren Ward, 20, Romi Hutton, 18, Erin Blackburn, 17, Sophie Morgan, 16, and Coral Boardman, 18, are girlband P5.
And they have the support of the music experts behind Beyonce and the Backstreet Boys, as they aim to become the first college band to make it to the top of the pop charts.
Their debut single, Crawling Back To You, is produced by Fred Jernberg who wrote Backstreet Boys' 30-million-selling hit More Than That and produces stars from Britney Spears to Rihanna.
And the girls have just signed a management contract with Marshall Arts, who also handle Cher, Elton John, Paul McCartney and George Michael. Their TV plugging is handled by Matt Connolly from Stay Tuned who also looks after Beyonce and Justin Timberlake.
After hearing the single, he was so impressed by the girls, who all study at Preston College, that he offered his services free.
And it's already paid off. The girls will appear on BBC1's The One Show in May.
Their radio plugger is Plug 'n' Play, who also promote JLS's singles. And the single was written by Steve Forster, who also writes for Jordan Knight.
P5 have played to a crowd of 25,000 when they supported Lancashire-born chart star Little Boots at Sheffield's Christmas lights switch-on last year.
They found themselves signing autographs when they played a Children In Need schools tour in September, winning more than 1,300 fans in a week, and closing with a gig to 1,500 on Blackpool's North Pier.
The five, who are all on the dance course, won auditions to be chosen for P5 from all the students at Preston College's music and performing arts campus at Moor Park.
At first, the band was merely intended as a coursework project. But they were so good that teachers and course leaders soon decided they could go all the way to the top.
Lecturer Jason Turton said: "It was just supposed to be an outlet for girls to get experience on the dance course. But they were actually very good so we decided to see what we could really do with it."
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Although only Lauren, Romi and Coral knew each other before, they bonded during the schools tour and long hours practicing their singing and dance routines – all fitted around their course.
Lauren said: "A lot of the stereotypical girlbands do simple step-click routines, but we are trained dancers so we can do full routines.
"P5 are not like anybody else. We are just . . . WOW!"
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Weather for Preston
Wednesday 23 May 2012
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