The Saturdays are ready to be Britain’s No1 group

With Girls Aloud out of the picture, it’s The Saturdays who look set to take control of the charts and install themselves as Britain’s new No.1 girl group.

“Obviously, because Girls Aloud aren’t up to much right now, we’re the only girl band about at the minute,” says Frankie Sandford.

“That’s great for us, of course.”

But though everyone close to the group is geared up to do battle for Girls Aloud’s top spot, she takes care to rubbish reports of any conflict.

“Everyone assumes there’s some sort of rivalry between the bands,” she says, “but I think there’s definitely room for both of us.”

You can’t blame The Saturdays for getting fed up with the constant comparisons though, of course, they do share similarities. But there are some big differences too, they insist.

The most significant one is that The Saturdays are something of an old-school pop rarity – a group who didn’t come to the nation’s attention by pirouetting in front of Simon Cowell on prime-time TV.

“I’m actually very proud of the way that we haven’t come from a reality show,” Rochelle Wiseman tells A-Listed.

“When we first started in 2007,” she adds, “it was hard. Our only fans were our parents. We didn’t have the backing of millions of people who had been watching us and voting for us week in, week out.

“We didn’t have any of that, and I think – these days especially – we’re lucky that people have caught onto us and gotten behind us without it.

“Our fanbase has grown by word of mouth, people telling their friends, who go on to tell their friends, and so on.”