Record Label Dropped Pop Sensations, allSTARS

Teen band allSTARS have been dumped by Universal Island after their debut album flopped in the charts.

Despite starring in their own hugely successful TV show, ‘STARStreet’, the band failed to set the charts alight with their string of singles, which included ‘Best Friends’ and the Cathy Dennis-penned ‘Back When’.

However, the five-piece did enjoy some chart success with their singles ‘Things That Go Bump In The Night’ and their cover of the Bucks Fizz classic, ‘The Land Of Make Believe’.

However, the nail in their coffin came when their self-titled album, which was released in May, scraped into the chart at No. 43.

Speaking to the press recently, the band explained that they were disappointed that some of their earlier singles hadn’t performed as well as they’d hoped.

“I thought it would be completely different,” Sam Bloom said. “I thought we’d go straight in there, have a top 5 hit and be hugely successful.”

Thaila Zucchi, meanwhile, blamed bad timing for their lack of chart success. “Hear’Say were launching at the same time even though we’d been together for longer. I think in a way it was a bit of a hindrance for us.”

Fans are angry about the way allSTARS have been treated, with one devotee, 23-year-old Alan Burt, accusing Universal Island of neglecting the band. “The label only have themselves to blame. They hardly ever promoted allSTARS. When was the last time they appeared on ‘CD:UK’? Or ‘Top Of The Pops’? It’s a crime really. Their album is one of the best pop albums of the year and it’s a shame it was killed off by their label.”

The band are still due to appear at London’s Mardi Gras on the 6th of July.

allSTARS To Sing In A Cube And Also Slam The British Press

Sparkly teen sensations allSTARS are set to bring Central London to a standstill later this week when they perform tracks from their approaching album in a glass cube, believe it or not!

Fans and passers-by will be able to see the elegant pop-5-piece doing what it is they do best, performing good quality pop numbers that is, all outside the HMV store in London’s Covent Garden on May 2nd at 11am encased in Nintendo’s seven-foot Clear Cubes.

There, allSTARS, which consists of Sam, Thaila, Ashley, Becky and Sandi will execute some of their biggest hits, as well as their gorgeous newie, ‘Back When’, plus one or two sneak preview tracks from their self-titled debut album which is released on May 13th.

The first 30,000 copies of the album sold will include a second CD of remixes.

The event also marks the release of Nintendo’s latest games console that’ll punch into stores the following day, May 3rd.Meanwhile, allSTARS seem to be all over the news these days, including them dissing the British press about the way the press writes write-ups. It has now looked like the tabs write anything they can dream up in the hopes to garner more readers and hence sales, be it the stories are false and damaging.

Thalia said “When you’re walking down the street and all those people have read something about you, they’ve perceived you in a certain way, which is completely false to the way it is, that can turn out nasty. It’s not fair.”

Luckily, allSTARS haven’t reached that stage in their career yet when the tabloids are tracing their every move and Becky divulged that she’s glad about it, saying “It’s nice to be successful like we are. Like carrying an ironing board across Ealing Broadway like I did this morning. You can do things like that without getting the papers saying ‘Oh my god!!! She bought an ironing board for GBP8.49’. So it’s cool not have to deal with any of the bad stuff that comes from being really famous.”

Well, it looks like that relative obscurity is all about to come to an end as their brilliant Cathy Dennis-penned single, ‘Back When’, settles itself onto a respectable slot in the Top 20 region of the British single chart this weekend.

allSTARS Talk About Pop Music

Happy popsters allSTARS have said they think it’s unfair that over-hyped bands like The Strokes get all the critical acclaim when groups such as themselves get ignored by radio stations.

Speaking on the eve of the release of their brand new, Cathy Dennis-penned single Back When, Becky Hunter raged: “There’s a lot of bandwagon-jumping. It’s kind of sad that a lot of the time only one person decides ‘right we’ll play these songs, but we won’t play that’. And that’s from one person’s opinion. It’s unfair. There’s a big, big audience for every kind of music. I think that just about everbody is a closet pop fan but just don’t posess the damn guts to say it out. Pop croons are irrestitably catchy and often has hooks you simply can’t get out of your head. With stuff like that around, pop croons appeal to all and not just kids, teens and young adults.”

However, when it comes to bands like The Strokes or The White Stripes, the allSTARS gang aren’t too impressed with all the hype, suggesting that their own shiny, happy hits are just as important, whether they receive plaudits from the music press or not.”You wouldn’t get a kid sitting at home listening to The Strokes,” Becky said. “Kids have to have something to listen to, so if they’re listening to us, why is that not as important as a 40-year-old or a 30-year-old listening to music?”

However, Ashley also pointed out that youngsters are always pressured into listening to cool music by their pals at school and are rarely allowed to openly enjoy pop trash like allSTARS: “At school, kids either decide they like grunge music or whatever, and if they do they’re not allowed to like anything else. There’s a rule that it’s not cool to like pop. There’s a minority who are bigoted about it, usually the ones who say ‘this is proper music’ or ‘that is proper music’. If you talk to a lot of people who like pop or dance, everyone is quite open-minded. All my friends listen to all sorts of things. If it’s a good song, it’s a good song.”

But it was allSTAR Sam Bloom who summed it up best: “Music is a brilliant thing and I don’t see why everyone has to be so fussy about it. It’s music. If you don’t like it, you don’t like it. That’s the end of it.”

Back When, which comes backed by the track We’re Going All The Way, is released today, April 29th.