Observations: Hollyoaks band play it for real

It's a case of art imitating reality, which ends up imitating the art. Only the other week on an episode of Hollyoaks, the fictional band Dirty Diegos, featuring the TV series' characters Michaela, Josh, Sasha and Amy, were competing in a battle of the bands, and Josh had a dream in which they were performing to a packed crowd at the Dog in the Pond. The band have now released the song on a real label. "Play" (the one they performed in the battle of the bands) is their first official single via Fascination Records (on Polydor), which also represents the Saturdays, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Girls Aloud.

The band describe their influences as Arctic Monkeys and The Killers. Though that's on the generous side; there may be the dirty guitar riff driving the single, but the vocals by Michaela (aka Hollie-Jay Bowes) are unavoidably more teen soap actress than rock star. You can, if you really want to, download the single from their MySpace page.