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IN THE FRAME: Girls Aloud at last year's Beaulieu Pops

IF someone held a gun to my head and told me to sing a Girls Aloud song or they'd pull the trigger I'm afraid my life would undoubtedly be over.

Equally, if I ran into Cheryl, Sarah, Nicola, thing or whatshername in the street I wouldn't have a clue who they were.

I suspect their management would be rather pleased about this. It shows that the curious science of media management and targeted marketing works with ruthless efficiency.

The simple fact is that they don't want, or need, to appeal to middle-aged blokes like me.

Music business gurus know that with "product" like Girls Aloud the trick is to get the youth market in the bag. The media simply follow.

Which is why, earlier this week, in my capacity as this newspaper's entertainments editor, I was exchanging emails with the band's marketing manager. With a photographer on standby, I asked for a photo-pass for one of their two concerts at the BIC tomorrow and Sunday.

Acutely aware that around 8,000 fans will see the girls performing in Bournemouth I wanted to ensure that Monday's Daily Echo carried not only a review but a picture of them on stage too. His reply was swift and succinct: "Sorry no photos allowed."

For the fact is that bands like Girls Aloud may give every appearance of being photographed endlessly, plastered across celebrity magazines and newspaper gossip pages but most of the pictures are carefully contrived.

Their collective image is, I am sure, controlled by a team of marketing people who try and ensure that the girls are packaged to perfection for magazine and TV consumption.

Everything from their hair, clothes and make-up right down to their posture and facial expressions will be considered before their carefully lit images are released to the media.

And if you're wondering about all those mobile phone shots snapped by fans?

That's just a risk they have to take. The image-makers are happy in the knowledge that most end up as blurred unusable smudges.

7:04pm Thursday 8th May 2008

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