Toff Pop

By CATHRIN SCHAER

She's British pop's latest pin-up and it shows. Back in her homeland the tabloids are keeping Sophie Ellis-Bextor, the woman behind hit singles Murder on the Dance Floor and Groovejet (If This Ain't Love), very busy indeed.

They say she's going to be the next Bond girl. That she's pregnant. That she's posing in a bunny suit for Playboy. That her forehead is huge and that schoolfriends used to call her "rhombus face".

They also report that there's a feud between her and Victoria Beckham, aka Posh Spice. Apparently Kylie Minogue is singing her song. And Robbie Williams says she has "a face like a satellite dish".

And there's another story circulating that relates how, in a frightfully rock'n'roll move for someone who went to a private girls' school, she stole Prince Edward's video of Grease.

Actually that last bit is true. Ellis-Bextor's father, Robin Bextor, is a director who used to work for Prince Edward's television production company.

One day when she was visiting his office, Ellis-Bextor spotted her favourite movie amid a large pile of videos that the Prince had obviously been given.

"I couldn't really picture him using it," says the 22-year-old laughing. "And I'd always wanted to own a copy of it on VHS. Because I love it. Grease is still the word. Anyway," she laughs even harder; "he's never asked for it back."

As for those other stories, the ones about the pregnancy, the Bond role and the Playboy shoot, they're a teeny bit inaccurate, to say the least.

It's true she met the casting director of the new Bond film, Die Another Day, but she also decided that none of the parts were suitable for her.

And although she's lived in London with her three goldfish and her thirtysomething boyfriend, lyricist and DJ Andy Bond, for several years, she's not expecting.

And yes, the thinking man's dance floor crumpet has posed in titillating outfits for men's magazines like FHM and Loaded, having previously told reporters: "You've got to use every available tool to set the context for your music". But she hasn't gone there with Playboy quite yet.

So let's talk about the supposed feud with Victoria Beckham then - because there's definitely something to that one.

To do so properly we'll need to go back to the beginning of this particular chart sensation's career to clear it all up.

Ellis-Bextor is a longtime performer. Although musically she might resemble the love child of Pulp's Jarvis Cocker and Geri Halliwell, her mother is Janet Ellis, a former presenter on British children's TV show, Blue Peter. Her dad, we know already, is a director. So showbiz was always in her blood.

"And I've always been a bit of a showoff," Ellis-Bextor admits. "Do you have pantomimes in New Zealand?" she asks, "Over here at the end of a pantomime they always get a few kids from the crowd up on stage to sing. And I was always halfway out of my seat before they even said anything."

In her youth she tried acting classes, but never with much success. It wasn't until she thrust her demo tape into the hands of a musician while at a groovy London nightclub that Ellis-Bextor managed to get a starring role of her own.

At the tender age of 17 she became the lead singer of British indie band theaudience (the name apparently resulting from a malfunctioning space bar on a typewriter). Ellis-Bextor was described as a "teen temptress" while she sang wannabe-intellectual songs such as A Pessimist Is Never Disappointed and If You Can't Do It When You're Young, When Can You Do it? in a bored voice.

It was back then that Ellis-Bextor acquired one of her major trademarks - she was told by other band members "sing with disdain". Clearly, she has taken the advice into her solo career hits like Murder On The Dancefloor. Even the happy songs on her album, Read My Lips, where she shares co-writing credits with artists like Moby, are coated in glacial cool. No matter what, she always sounds bored.

"It's something I always used to do anyway, sing in that icy way," explains the woman who sounds a lot younger and sweeter on the phone than you would ever expect from her videos or songs. "I think it's something to do with feeling powerful, with asserting yourself over the audience. It's a bit like, 'Listen to me'."

Since her old band theaudience imploded - Ellis-Bextor says the breakup was "fraught and very Spinal Tap" - she has travelled a fair distance from their credibility and critical acclaim. While selling limousine-loads of records, this self-styled sophisticate of pure pop now gets mixed reviews at best.

Such as this one: "To the more cynical observer, the cheekbones in heels known as Sophie Ellis-Bextor is a triumph of style over content, but to legions of 'real' pop fans (ie under-12s and gay men) she is a shimmering beacon of glamour in an era of trampy troubadours."

Ask the cheekbones in heels herself about that change from alternative to pop and interestingly she doesn't even think it's such a big deal.

"The difference isn't as great as it might first appear," she explains optimistically. "On theaudience album there was an 80s influence and there are similar elements - electric keyboards and strings. And if you're making modern pop it's going to involve dance beats. It was really with Groovejet that I began to see myself capable of this kind of music."

After theaudience broke up she did a bit of modelling to cover the rent, but hated it. Then Italian DJ Spiller asked if she would sing the vocals on a track he was producing. Although she didn't like it at first, that track - Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) - eventually took the former indie singer and her unlikely new companion to the top of the charts, both here and in Britain.

Enter Posh Spice. At the same time that Groovejet was released, Victoria Beckham put out her own new single. The British tabs pounced on this musical contest, naming it "Real Posh v Fake Posh".

Real Posh - Ellis-Bextor - won. She went to number one and was eventually
nominated for best female solo artist at this year's Brit Awards.

Since then Mrs Beckham has reportedly wanted nothing to do with her, even though Ellis-Bextor's people have approached Beckham's people at various awards parties to make an introduction.

More importantly though, is this Real Posh really posh? After all, Ellis-Bextor does throw those haughty looks around, she speaks in a distinctly upper-middle class accent (the hoity-toity way she says "DJ, gonna burn this goddamn house right down" on Murder on the Dancefloor is about as far from the ghetto as you can get) and she belongs to a book club together with her mother and a woman called Camilla.

But as she told an English journalist: "I'm no aristocrat. I think having a double- barrelled surname has a lot to do with it, but I assure you I have no blue blood in me at all. But there's really nothing wrong with being called posh. All it really means is classy."

What she really doesn't seem to like as much though is being compared with other singers - such as Posh or Kylie Minogue, for instance.

Word recently got out that songwriter Cathy Dennis, who wrote Minogue's recent worldwide hit Can't Get You Out Of My Head, first offered it to Ellis-Bextor. She turned it down.

"But I haven't really been compared to those people," Ellis-Bextor says, mildly annoyed about being compared yet again. "It's just that they put their songs out at the same time as I did. Anyway I really don't feel there's any other singer doing what I am doing at the moment. I am trying to do something different and I think that comes from my musical background. My reference points are different. It's not all indie, but it's not all disco dancing either."

So there. But wait, Sophie, before you go off in a huff, we still need to scotch those last few rumours, Robbie Williams being rude to you for instance. "The Robbie Williams stuff is old news. I don't bear a grudge anymore."

And what about your looks? Apparently schoolfriends used to call you "rhombus face". Is your forehead really that wide? "It is our flaws that make us unique," replies the new princess of pop, her answer dripping with the haughty irony her fans have come to know and love, before going back to her plans for world domination and packing her bags for a New Zealand promotional visit.

She says she's keen for some shopping while here. She will not be bungy jumping.