I love watching the story of Stonefoxx as it unfolds – I first heard about them in September 2007, and they still keep in touch.

With the music press talking more and more about the rise of new girl groups like The Saturdays, it seems record companies are on the hunt for marketable pop princesses. Stonefoxx might just fit that description.

They’ve toured with Shayne Ward, and they’re lined up to support Sugababes in concert this Saturday in Butlins, Minehead. Better still, rumours of a record company bidding war are hotting up:

"The Saturday’s have shown there’s room for fresh pop music at the top of the charts", commented Stonefoxx group member Stacy Burton, 23, from Mansfield. "But every single girl group are on the Universal label. Now it’s time for EMI, Warners and SonyBMG to take a slice of that pie, and they’re all looking to us!"

If you want more Stonefoxx goodness, check out this BBC feature on the band and meet the people behind the scenes styling and working for them.

They’ve also got a Facebook fan page where you can stalk them, and of course the de rigeur MySpace page.

The band are hoping to have signed a deal by Christmas, and then hopefully the British public will get to see what we’ve been raving about. We’ll keep you posted about the latest Stonefoxx news as we get it!

There’s never been a better time to remind you about Stonefoxx – a girl group we first wrote about last September. The girls have been great about keeping in touch with us ever since, even inviting us along to their gig supporting Shayne Ward in Belfast a couple of months ago.

Although we couldn’t make it that night, we got sent a brilliant showcase DVD and CD featuring some of their music. Given the woeful state of British pop music and the fact that Girls Aloud may disintegrate over the next 12 months, and you’ll start looking for the next big UK pop group.

Stonefoxx – Gem Allen, Stacy Burton and Lizzy Williams – have been on the scene for a couple of years, and are steadily working their way up the fame ladder here in the UK – Gem was pictured alongside a young Amy Winehouse and Billie Piper when they went to school together.

As we mentioned above, they’ve just finished supporting Shayne Ward on his UK arena tour, and as a result, Louis Walsh has invited the girls to open “Live at the Marquee”, one of Ireland’s biggest music festivals.

PopJustice also featured their song Crystal Clear as their song of the day a while back and ran a front page feature on the group. And they’ve also been picked by Nintendo to launch a new video game – Battle Of The Bands – which is helping to bring them to a whole new audience.

As you know, we’re big fans of Stonefoxx at Unreality Music, so we strongly suggest that you check out their music on MySpace. Hot Summer and Crystal Clear are fantastic tracks, but conspicuously missing is the best track of all, Pop Music which is a really unique, quirky pop song. You’ll love it!

The market isn’t exactly flooded with girl bands these days, so there might be room for an act like Stonefoxx. Their style is very much pure pop, listening to tracks like Butterflies and Dirty Your Hands confirms this. Occasionally they get into some funky rock chick territory, as you’ll hear on Interference. Nice bass groove and crisp understated guitar.

Those of you wondering about the Spice Girls reference in the title – the girls have Spice-esque nicknames: Rock Foxx, Funky Foxx and Pop Foxx. Having said that, the Spice Girls could be their grannies!

The girls are signed to Indie label Nut Records, and seem to be on a bit of a PR blitz at the moment (are we expecting a single soon?). They did a performance during the week at Sound in Leicester Square, which unfortunately I couldn’t make. Take a look at their MySpace page and marvel at the number of pop stars they’ve hung out with. Except Duncan James. Poser.

If I have one concern about the group, it’s in the strength of their material. It’s a wee bit too generic. For instance, when the Spice Girls exploded on the scene in 1995, they bucked a lot of girl group trends at the time. So did Sugababes and Girls Aloud. From listening to the songs on Stonefoxx’s profile, I’d like to hear something a bit more engaging. More along the lines of Interference.

The challenge for Stonefoxx is to do that without sounding derivative of the other acts I mentioned. I think they can do it – they’re gorgeous girls (Rock Foxx, you’re my favourite), they’re good singers, and they seem to have a lot of good connections. Maybe a collaboration with another major British act would be enough to launch them into the public eye?

Anyway, good luck to the girls. I’ll be hoping to see you all in the charts very soon.