VBirds - 'Virtuality' (2003)

D:Lin (green hair), Boom (pink), Bling (blue) and Wow (red) were the ladies who made up British virtual girl group, VBirds. They were the stars of an animated television mini-series of the same name, which only had six, one-minute episodes, and was shown on Cartoon Network between 2002-03. Essentially, a promotional tool to keep kids watching during the ad breaks, the concept was originally dreamed up by Star Company Productions (a large team of designers, producers and musicians), and proved very popular. The VBirds' backstory involved the group being exiled from their home planet of Planet V by its ruler, King He:Lin. Having refused to participate in his dance farms on their planet, he had them shrunken down in size and put into a dance machine bound for Earth, where humans could play with them as long as they wanted. "Enjoy yourselves while you can, VBirds. For you will never escape your dance machine prison!", rang out King He:Lin's parting threat.

The band's only single, 'Virtuality', was released on EMI/Liberty Records in early 2003 and reached #21 in the UK Singles Chart. The cassette format featured the B-side, 'Dance With Me', which used the much-sampled "Woo! Yeah!" break from 'Think (About It)' by Lyn Collins (#66 USA Hot 100, 1972) plus a remix, whilst the CD single added an enhanced video section and free poster. To promote the release, the VBirds characters were interviewed on 'SM:TV Live'. In the interview, Bling and Wow compared their music to that of fellow girl groups Destiny's Child, Mis-Teeq and Sugababes. Although no further recordings were released, a new spin-off TV series of dance tutorials, 'VBirds: Perfect', was shown later in 2003.