Girls@Play were a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English ...

five-piece

girl group A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female pop music singing groups, many of who ...

, consisting of Vicky Dowdall, Lisa-Jay White,

Rita Simons Rita Joanne Simons (born 10 March 1977) is an English actress and singer from London. She is best known for playing Roxy Mitchell in the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders'' from 2007 to 2017, when her character was killed-off, alongside her on scre ...

, Lynsey Shaw and Shelley Nash.Girls at Play
, ''Music Moz''. Retrieved 2007-05-28. They were signed to GSM Records and produced by Stock & Aitken ( Mike Stock and

Matt Aitken Matthew James Aitken (born 25 August 1956) is an English songwriter and record producer, brought up in Astley, Greater Manchester, best known as the creative force behind the 1980s and early 1990s songwriting/production trio Stock Aitken Waterman ...

). Each member of the band played a different character in their music videos. Dowdall played a

cowgirl A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the '' vaquero ...

, White an executive, Simons a

mechanic A mechanic is an artisan, skilled tradesperson, or technician who uses tools to build, maintain, or repair machinery, especially cars. Duties Most mechanics specialize in a particular field, such as auto body mechanics, air conditioning and ...

, Shaw a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

traffic cop and Nash a

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

. This gimmick led to Girls@Play being described as the female version of the

Village People Village People is an American disco group known for its on-stage costumes and suggestive lyrics in their music. The group was originally formed by French producers Jacques Morali, Henri Belolo and lead singer Victor Willis following the rel ...

History

The group released two singles: "Airhead" on 12 February 2001 and a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song relea ...

of " Respectable", originally by

Mel and Kim Mel and Kim (stylized as MӗL & KIM) were an English pop duo, consisting of sisters Melanie and Kim Appleby. Originally managed by Alan Whitehead, they achieved success between 1986 and 1988, before Melanie died of cancer in January 1990 at th ...

, on 1 October 2001. "Airhead" reached number 18 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

on 18 February 2001, while "Respectable" reached number 29 on 7 October 2001.everyhit.com
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, ''Mobius' Music Home Page''. Retrieved 2007-05-28. They also supported

Hear'Say Hear'Say were a British pop group. They were created through the ITV reality TV show ''Popstars'' in February 2001, the first UK series of the international ''Popstars'' franchise. The group, who were signed to Polydor Records, originally con ...

and

Steps Step(s) or STEP may refer to: Common meanings * Steps, making a staircase * Walking * Dance move * Military step, or march ** Marching Arts Films and television * ''Steps'' (TV series), Hong Kong * ''Step'' (film), US, 2017 Literature * ...

on their arena tours in 2000 and 2001. The announcement of Girls@Play's disbanding was made on 18 November 2001.

Possible reunion

In January 2014, it was announced that the band's management were in talks to reform the band. They were also in discussion to reunite the band for the second series of

The Big Reunion ''The Big Reunion'' is a British reality-documentary series that began airing on ITV2 on 31 January 2013. The show featured chart-topping bands who were big in the UK pop music scene between the 1990s and early 2000s, and the programme followed ...

; however, the band have never materialised since.

has hinted the band may reunite in the future. In March 2016, it was announced that the band were again in talks about reforming, but nothing came of it. In 2019, Girls@Play again came to the streaming service

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

with previously unreleased material from their unreleased album, including "When Love Takes Over You", "Outta My Head", "Forget About Love", "Everything I Need", and "Brand New Car".

Members

* Victoria "Vicky" Dowdall (born 23 January 1979 Gateshead,

Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newcast ...

)
Vicky Dowdall grew up in Heworth, Gateshead and studied at Reavley Theatre School in Gateshead. In 1999 she was one of three session singers recruited by

Pete Waterman Peter Alan Waterman, (born 15 January 1947) is an English record producer, songwriter, radio and club DJ, television presenter, president of Coventry Bears rugby league club and a keen railway enthusiast. As a member of the Stock Aitken Waterm ...

to sing on a remake of "

That's What Love Can Do "That's What Love Can Do" is a song by American female pop group Boy Krazy, written and produced by British hitmaking team Stock Aitken Waterman, and first released in 1991 as Boy Krazy's debut single. Lead vocals were performed by group member ...

" credited to Toutes Les Filles. Upon Girls@play's dissolution Dowdall joined her schoolfriend Camilla Romestrand to form a pop duo originally known as Neway and subsequently as Honeytrap, Honeybeat, and in 2003 - taking a more rock music focus - Purple Patch. Eventually Dowdall moved into artist management founding VDM Management based in London. * Shelley Nash (born 13 January 1978)
A professional singer from age 11, Shelley Nash formed Friday with Nash and Simons upon Girls@Play's disbanding. She earned a BMus honors degree from the

Guildhall School of Music and Drama The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a conservatoire and drama school located in the City of London, United Kingdom. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jaz ...

in 2005 and focus her career on classical music. * Lynsey Shaw (born 15 June 1980) Loughborough Leics.)
Lynsey Shaw studied fashion in Loughborough and London before making singing the focus of her career. Subsequent to Girls@Play disbanding she took part in the 2002 televised auditions to replace

Kym Marsh Kimberley Gail Ratcliff (''née'' Marsh, previously Ryder and Lomas; born 13 June 1976) is an English actress, television presenter and singer. In 2001, she won a place in the band Hear'Say as a result of appearing on the reality television ser ...

, being eliminated in second place. Shaw made a 2010 move to Los Angeles where she ran a boutique record label Big Finish Records. *

(born 10 March 1977, in

Whipps Cross, London Whipps Cross is an area of the districts of Leytonstone and Walthamstow in the London Borough of Waltham Forest in London, England. It is most famous for Whipps Cross University Hospital. The area The name Whipps Cross specifically applies to t ...

)
Upon Girls@play's disbanding Simons joined Nash and White to form Friday, then in 2002 joined a new girl group named Charli. In 2002 Simons ended her singing career to focus on acting and portrayed the character

Roxy Mitchell Roxanne "Roxy" Mitchell (also Slater) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera, ''EastEnders'', portrayed by Rita Simons.BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

'' EastEnders''. * Lisa Jane "Lisa-Jay" White (born 23 May 1979)
After joining Simons and Nash to form the group Friday upon Girls@Play's disbanding, Lisa-Jay White has evidently retired from performing.

Discography

Singles

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Girlsplay English pop music groups English girl groups Musical groups established in 2000 Musical groups disestablished in 2001