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Believe it or not, it's just over a year since THE SATURDAYS touched down on Planet Pop and quickly set about redecorating it in the neon shades of their sparklingly fluorescent hyper-pop.

Since then a combination of nifty, killer tunes, super-tight performances and pure, hard graft has taken Frankie, Mollie, Rochelle, Una and Vanessa from bright-eyed pop ing'enues to permanent fixtures on the UK charts. Whatever scepticism and lazy comparisons greeted them initially have simply been swept away by a tireless ethos of getting on with it. The fact remains, since their debut last summer, THE SATURDAYS have had more hits than any other girl group in the land, racking up no less than five smash-hit singles and one platinum-plus certified debut album, thank you very much.

"Everything's moving so fast, I can't believe we're on our second album already - it's like everything we've ever dreamed of," enthuses Mollie. "When If This Is Love went top ten it was incredible, and then UP did ever better! Each single kept charting higher than the last. I had to keep pinching myself!"

"People keep saying we've come out of nowhere, but we were together for well over a year before our first record," adds Frankie. "But now we've got this attention it's come really fast. It's not often that pop acts that aren't from a reality TV show do well, and what's more we've done it all off our own backs."

And if THE SATS - as their dedicated and ever-growing legion of fans want to call them - have just kept getting bigger and bigger, now so is their music. Their new single Forever Is Over- a hyperactive headrush of rollicking guitars, bittersweet euphoria and a huge panoramic chorus - introduces the spanking new sound of THE SATS Phase 2.

"It's a definite step up," enthuses Una. "It's still THE SATURDAYS, but a bigger, cooler sound. And you know I love singing rock, so this song is a dream. It's what I'm really into, more angsty, a few guitars and a giant chorus."

The song - co-written by old Busted alumnus James Bourne - heralds the girls' much-anticipated new album 'Wordshaker', an album that's brimming over with sparkling, pop pearls. Dramatic windswept ballad (not to mention vocal showcase) Here Standing ("we'll definitely need a wind machine for the video," jokes Vanessa) nestles up against sassy supercharged electro-pop nugget Ego (a feisty kiss-off to a conceited lover: "don't tell me that we've gone as far as we go, you need to have a sit down with your ego" warn the girls) and the likes of Wordshaker - already a fan favourite from their sell-out "Work" tour this summer.

"Going to LA to record the album was a-maz-ing," beams Frankie. "Frank Sinatra and Michael Jackson had actually recorded in one of the studios we were in. How cool is that?" Working with red hot pop-meisters THE JAM (Lady GaGa, Mariah Carey) and THE RUNAWAYS (Jordin Sparks, Leona Lewis) in Los Angeles - "those guys were dead cool," says Rochelle - THE SATURDAYS have created a cool, state of the art modern pop gem bound to keep them at the top of the charts through 2010 and beyond.

"When we played the festivals this summer we were worried people might throw bottles cause they only wanted indie bands, not five girls doing pop. But they were absolutely up for it," Una thrills. "At T In The Park I could see Lily Allen at the side of the stage jumping up and down to our set! She came up after and said 'you were the only act I could be bothered to see.' That was such a thrill."

Now it looks like everyone's getting Saturdays Fever. UK's hottest new rapper Chipmunk coolly name-checks the girls in his current smash Oopsy Daisy ("I know!" shrieks Mollie. "Go Chipmunk! He came to our gig in Hammersmith'") and MTV have just nominated them for Best New UK Act alongside the likes of LaRoux and Florence & The Machine.

"There used to be this snobbishness about pop, but now I think people just want to have a good time," says Frankie. "This is the best time ever to be in a girl band and we're gonna make the most of it. Try and stop us if you're hard enough!"