The tried and tested formula of picking our new pop bands is all set to be repeated once again this weekend when Popstars:The Rivals takes to our screens.

After scouring the country for young hopefuls to embarrass themselves on national TV once more, the Geri Halliwell show will humiliate and torture the talentless wonders until they are turned into talentless wonders with their faces on the front of every magazine cover.

Believe it or not, pop music is in crisis so I suppose that explains why we need so many of these search for a popstar type shows, or maybe because it makes a lot of money.

Simon Fuller, the man behind ITV's Pop Idol, marketed the show around the world and is expected to manage the winner and runner up of American Idol. He is reportedly worth around £50m now.

But, pop music has moved on - albeit slowly - over the last 12 months, and while pre-pubescent kids might like listening to the tones of Gareth Gates, Atomic Kitten and Hear'Say, there is a more mature music buying public who want to hear something different.

All we'll get over the coming weeks is pony-tailed youngsters from stage school sporting fixed grins bouncing around the audition hall.

What we won't get, and what we all want is a creditable pop act singing decent songs that can transcend the boundaries of the utter drivel we have to endure in the charts at the moment, take music and the nation by the scruff of the neck and shake it hard.

What we need is another Beatles, another Sex Pistols, another Duran Duran - someone who can change the face of the music we listen to forever and take it down a whole new road.

The only band out at the moment looking like they might nearly take us there is the Sugababes, but they've still got a long way to go yet.

And they are being a little premature hitting out at other bands for not writing their own tracks. Their last number one Round Round took a mammoth 12 people to write, OK Mutya, Keisha and Heidi were three of those 12, but with help like that I could write a number one hit!