With Amy Winehouse at the top of the pop hierarchy right now, her retro stylings have forced me to revisit some of those classic girl groups of the 60’s, as memorable for their fashion, hair and makeup as for some incredible records.

The early sixties were strange days indeed. The rock and roll boom of the fifties had all but subsided; many of its major players were out of action – Elvis joined the army and sanitised his sound, Little Richard turned to the church, Chuck Berry was in prison and - even worse than that - Jerry Lee Lewis started making country records. An alarming number had been killed in air and road accidents. The payola scandals had hit the record industry hard, and labels were seeking to wrest back control of their artists, and quell the rebellious impulses of those early rockers. Sideburns and sexual swaggers were out, clean cut teen idols and safe instrumental groups were in.

And then there were the girl groups. Hit-making factories such as the Brill Building in New York had teams of staff writers churning out hits. Gerry Goffin and Carole King, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield – all writers with hit-writing pedigrees who supplied record companies with songs that would then be matched to new singers. With the right arranger and producer, a hit was made. Out of this formula came scores of hit records, for the likes of The Chiffons, The Chantels, The Shangri-La’s and the Shirelles.

Labels signed young girls who could be manipulated and wouldn’t rebel against the system, but this formula ultimately proved unsustainable and usually resulted in no more than two or three hits. As the sixties wore on, and self-sufficient groups who wrote and performed their own material rose to prominence, the heyday of the classic – and usually black - girl group came to an end.

Their influence on music, though, and the music business, is indelible. The format of 3-4 girls singing catchy pop has never gone away. The psychedelic movement of the mid sixties had The Cake, a New York trio who mixed Motown sounds with trippy production and off-kilter singing. Early seventies glam brought forth all-female groups as hairy as their male counterparts, such as Fanny. New Wave girl groups such as the Go-Go’s and the Runaways continued the tradition, and the Bangles and Spice Girls led similar trends in the eighties and nineties respectively.

Amy Winehouse, though a solo artist, has appropriated and updated the sounds and styles of those classic girl groups, even recording her own version of the Shirelles Will You Love Me Tomorrow. Her throwback style has proved hugely popular, and, with producer Mark Ronson, she has redefined the sound of those early pop-soul classics.

‘I’ll Do Anything’ is a TV show devised by Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber to discover new stars for forthcoming musicals he intends to present on the London stage. It was recently criticised as a thirteen week advert for Lord Webber’s shows by the BBC and the critic, Kevin Spacey, wondered when they were going to do the same for plays.

That aside, the show has attracted enormous support from a large audience of theatrical musical lovers keen to express their views about what makes a star on the London musical stage. Even Lloyd Webber has conceded that he is hearing a greater range of voices than he would have heard from the old more conventional approach to auditioning.

This year’s show is about finding two characters for a new production of Oliver, produced by theatre impresario, Cameron Macintosh. They want an Oliver and they want a Nancy. Nancy was the girl who befriended and protected Oliver when he was being led astray by Fagin, Bill Sykes and their crew, a tragic figure and a lovely person who had been fallen by the wayside. 

The search began with regional auditions during which vast numbers are eliminated until a shortlist of a hundred Nancies and a dozen Olivers is produced. The Nancies all go off to London to perform in front of a panel comprised of Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, Denise van Outen, TV presenter, Big Breakfast anchor and leading lady in the London production of ‘Chicago’, and ex-Doctor Who and leading man in many a stage musical, John Barrowman.

The chosen few of about forty girls then go to ‘Nancy School’ where they learn singing, acting and dancing. More are eliminated at this stage until a handful remain to join the TV show where they perform songs each wee and are subject to a vote by the public which eliminates one each week from the contest. At this stage, sports betting fans are predicting which one will be the one to go each week.

The Olivers, about fifty of them, aged between nine and fourteen years old, work with music theatre professionals to polish their skills before performing in front of Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh. Twelve are chosen to go onto the live TV show where they are face elimination at the hands of the panel rather than viewer voting. Each week they sing songs from the show or perform as a group with their fellow contestants.

The show is very popular and attracts a lot of interest from betting enthusiasts, with sites such as Blue Square and William Hill offering odds on the different contestants. Lloyd Webber treats the thing very seriously and regards the show as an important new way of discovering talent he wouldn’t normally come across - and it gives YOU the chance to be a talent scout and spot the next big thing. Bear in mind though, that this show is only partly about singing. The judges will be looking for characters that can make an audience love them and want to look after them and not just carry a tune or be wonderful dancers.