Pop News Update...16th May 2001

Hello pop fans! Welcome to the second Pupiline Pop News Update, I hope you enjoy it. In case you hadn't guessed from the title, my job is to inform you on all the latest goings on in the pop music world.

Last fortnight, I told you about the Smash Hits TV channel, but now I can tell you about www.smashhits.net, the fantastic website! It is one of the best websites for pop music, and includes news, reviews, links, games, pictures, polls, interviews and much more.

Backstreet Boys fans had a bit of a scare this week, when rumours spread saying that the boys' current world tour will mark the end of the hugely popular band. Luckily, this is not the truth and the band are nowhere near splitting up. They are, however, planning to take a break to start solo careers, but they will be back with a new album in 2003. Howie Dorough is planning a festival in aid of his Lupus charity and may release a solo album, while Nick Carter is reported to be heading for Hollywood.

As you probably know, Ronan Keating's tour began this week, but to quite poor reviews! The fans were angry when Ronan performed a few Boyzone numbers, even though he won't go on tour with them. His bandmate, Stephen Gately was in the news recently, disapproving of the work Ronan's having done on his teeth to break the US pop industry, so Boyzone fans were especially cross when a backing singer sang one of Stephen's parts. It almost seemed as though Ronan wanted people to forget about the rest of Boyzone. The majority of the fans were not impressed with the songs Ronan performed from his next album, saying they sounded no different from anything he'd done before.

If you were one of the millions of Popstars fans, this next piece of news will undoubtedly interest you. In association with Smash Hits, spot cream brand, Oxy are on the look out for young people to join the latest pop creation. They are travelling around the country between May 12 and June 9, stopping at Newcastle, Edinburgh, London, Swansea and Leeds along the way. They have to sing one of ten songs, including Steps, Westlife, S Club 7, Robbie Williams and the Backstreet Boys. It's too late now to audition yourself, but look out for coverage of the final in August on Newsround and visit the website, www.oxyband2001.co.uk.

Rumours from America suggest that AJ from the Backstreet Boys, who recently split up with his girlfriend, is now seeing Nicole Appleton look-alike, Anastacia. Here in the UK, Natasha Hamilton from Atomic Kitten is engaged to a bodyguard and the big news story concerns Chris Evans and Billie Piper. The controversial couple secretly got married on Sunday 13th May in Las Vegas, but some people say it is all a publicity stunt. Someone even noticed that there was an expiry date on the wedding certificate - very suspicious!!

After their massive fall-out last year, All Saints are beginning to reappear. Melanie Blatt will be working with Artful Dodger, as well as releasing a single in French. Meanwhile, Nicole and Natalie Appleton are reinventing themselves as a duo, and are currently recording their first album with Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics. The album includes a cover of the Eurythmics classic, Who's The Girl, and the first single is rumoured to be called Blow My Mind.

Pop Picks

Every fortnight I will tell you about a great UK pop music website that I've found. This fortnight, I have chosen http://www.aloud.com. Whenever I want to buy tickets to a concert, I always look here first. You can get tickets to all performances from Steps and S Club 7 to Mel C and Stereophonics.

I've got to go now, but I'll be back in a fortnight with more of the latest pop news. If you can't wait that long, check out my personal pop music website, http://website.lineone.net/~poptastic. Enjoy it!