Sugababes mania is in the air as Britain's most successful girl group heads for Bournemouth and a sell-out concert at the BIC tonight.

The band is, of course, a masterpiece of music biz and media manipulation - a carefully constructed combination of contrivance and chart-savvy.

They look great, play well in the celebrity-driven world of multi-media tittle-tattle and, refreshingly, make excellent pop records. How many other girl bands have been invited to record with Jools Holland and his Ryhthm and Blues Orchestra?

Having talent and a curious combination of street-cred and fashion model style has served them well. In the past seven years the 'babes have sold two million singles, had four number one hits and released three triple-platinum UK albums.

They've had more Top 10 singles than the Spice Girls, All Saints, Destiny's Child or Bananarama, and more chart hits with original songs than any girl group since The Supremes.

They've also of course survived two major line-up changes, showing precisely why, in the cynical world that is the 21st century music industry, a strong brand is prized above all else.

The trick, of course, has been a management that has a clear understanding of the publicity game, an ability to turn the loss of an apparently vital member of the band into acres of positive spin.

We saw it at the end of 2005 when, out of the blue new girl, Amelle Berrabah was head-hunted to replace Mutya Buena who, in what must have been a pop world first, suddenly announced that she was leaving Sugababes to spend more time with her infant daughter, Tahil Maya.

The timing - Christmas - the glowing words of praise for the hitherto unheard of Amelle and the lavish good wishes for Mutya and her decision to devote herself to her daughter were masterfully delivered.

With glossy new band pictures and the fairly swift realisation that the hand-picked Amelle fitted the bill in both sound and vision and the episode was firmly established as just another development in the ongoing Sugababes story - a scene in the inevitable movie.

Interestingly, as Amelle, Heidi Range and Keisha Buchanan - aka the 2006-2007 'babes - hit the road last week, Mutya's departure suddenly became talking point again, 15 long months after the event.

No sooner had the Sugababes Greatest Hits Arena tour fired into action at The Point in Dublin last Tuesday than the internet was alive with blogs and entertainment gossip sites claiming that the poor girl (often it has to be said portrayed as a miserable cow) had left the group because she'd been suffering from post-natal depression.

The 21-year-old singer was quoted as saying that she'd been forced to choose between her daughter and the band, adding "everything became a downer... I couldn't take any more."

Elsewhere it was claimed that had her former group-mates been more supportive she might not have had to leave the band at all.

However things move on and Mutya is currently busy launching a new career. There's a solo album, Real Girl, due out this summer and rumours galore that she is in discussion with Brit winner Amy Winehouse over a collaborative project.

As for her former Sugababes colleagues, Mutya says: "I don't read what the girls say anymore, I'm not that interested."

Which reminds me of what Amelle Berrabah told me recently about some of the more condemning tabloid news that haunts the band. "You just have to ignore it.If you start believing the negative publicity you're in real trouble."

How ironic that a band that would suffocate without the oxygen of publicity also lives with the constant risk of being poisoned by it.

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