The golden rules of Pop Babylon ... A cynical insider's guide to manufacturing a boy band

For anyone thinking of putting together a boy band or a girl group, there are three golden rules.

First and foremost, being able to sing is not essential. But looking good while appearing to sing is.

As long as you have one or two good voices that can carry the rest of the group, you are halfway there.

The ones with little or no talent - Victoria Beckham in the Spice Girls, Jason Orange in Take That or nearly all of Boyzone - are known as 'passengers'.

Golden Rule Number Two is: Make sure your band has five members. The accountants prefer four as they are cheaper to shove in one taxi. But don't listen: five is the magic number.

This way you're covered when one of the band members leaves. It means you can carry on regardless, like Westlife after their bust-up with Brian McFadden.

Take That are actually doing better than ever now they don't have to carry the increasingly heavy weight that was Robbie Williams.

Sadly, Boyz II Men, a quartet, didn't look the same after one of them left. They carried on as a three-piece but never quite filled the stage in the same way.

And finally, Golden Rule Number Three: Hire working-class kids who will do what you say.

As my business partner Paul says: 'What you want are working-class boys from council estates who want to be famous and who are prepared to put in the work.

'You don't want stage-school kids. They're too clever and not at all sexy.

'You don't want rich kids. You don't want spoilt kids. You don't want middle-class kids who answer back.'

Tony Mortimer, the songwriter and singer with East 17, couldn't even afford the bus fare from Walthamstow to his manager Tom Watkins' house in West London. But he was so desperate to become a pop star that he walked there - about 12 miles - clutching his demo tape.

Before becoming a manager, I wanted to be a pop star. For years, I played bass in a band until I realised I wasn't talented enough to make it.

I spent my late 20s managing my friends, and then, eventually, in my 30s I struck lucky, presiding over the rise of two successful groups. They made me a wealthy man.

And despite all the predictions of the demise of the music industry, there is still money to be made: you just have to know how to go about it. So here is my step-by-step guide to manufacturing a boy band.

Artículo completo: Dailymail.co.uk