The biggest show in town this week is the Pussycat Dolls and Lady Gaga at Vector. If you're thinking "who?" Scott Kara offers a guide to the naughty girls of pop
They could just as well be known as Nicole Scherzinger and some back-up dancers. You see, the Dolls phenomenon and Doll Domination Tour is pretty much "the Nicole show' - she's the main singer, the hoochiest dancer, and often wears the least clothes.
She is also the only member of the group to get songwriting credits on both of their albums.
TimeOut was meant to interview the group's 30-year-old leader last week, but twice it didn't happen.
Hey, she's busy, what with the Dolls' video shoot for Hush Hush; Hush Hush running over time. And then she had to leg it to Spain to see her 24-year-old beau, Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton, place a distant ninth in the Spanish Grand Prix.
If the song I'm Done, off latest album Doll Domination, is anything to go by then it really is love between these two. As Nicole so sweetly puts it in the liner notes: "Lewis, God brought you into my life and now you are the reason 'I'm done'. I love you."
She was born in Hawaii, to a Filipino father and a Russian/Hawaiian mother, and in recent years has put her plans for a solo career on hold. But the groups latest chart-topper Jai Ho (You Are My Destiny) is curiously listed as being by "The Pussycat Dolls featuring Nicole Scherzinger," which doesn't exactly quell rumours of her rebooting a solo career some time soon.
However, the Dolls' live show would be nothing without fellow singer Melody Thornton, and the others - Ashley Roberts, Jessica Sutta, and Kimberly Wyatt. They started out as a burlesque troupe - the brainchild of choreographer Robin Antin and actress Christina Applegate (Kelly Bundy from Married ... with Children), who dreamed up the idea of the Dolls in the mid-90s. In 2003, with singers Scherzinger and Thornton on board, Antin reinvented them as a pop group.
Gaga, as her many famous mates now call her, could feel a little miffed she's not headlining the Vector show on Saturday. Based on current statistics, she's the one doing the dominating.
Her album, The Fame, with hits like Just Dance and Poker Face, has sold nearly 30,000 copies here, whereas Doll Domination has only just broken 6000 (though the group's first album PCD sold more than 30,000).
Gaga also wrote some of Pussycat Dolls' early songs, along with material for many other artists before launching her own career.
But now, Gaga is big. In fact, it was a year ago this month that TimeOut interviewed her in Los Angeles where, in between pulling up her bustier, she revealed her grand plans for world domination, which seem to be working.
Though it's hard to know whether her international success is based on her catchy pop tunes or her habit of forgetting to put her pants on whenever she goes out.
To be fair to Gaga, it's probably a bit of both.
Pussycat Dolls
WHO: Nicole Scherzinger, Melody Thornton, Ashley Roberts, Kimberly Wyatt, and Jessica Sutta
WHAT: Striptease pop
FORMED: Originally 1995 in Los Angeles, but current line-up in 2003.
Lady Gaga
WHO: Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta
BORN: March 28, 1986, New York (age 23)
WHAT: Self-styled pop starlet and hit-maker
DEBUT: The Fame, released August, 2008.
