Michael Harwood almost gasps and gags all the way from London's Warner Music when he hears that suggestion. "We write our own music, play instruments and sing!" Harwood is heard explaining over the phone. "We don't dance and we don't do backflips," he says and suggest boy bands use dance routines and gimmicks to conceal their lack of musical ability.

But what about Ultra's vocalist James Hearne riding a BMX on stage? Harwood concedes. "we have to compete with boy bands and we've got to remember that sometimes young girls who come to concerts like to see a show and we have to do stuff like this," admits a sheepish Harwood. "But we were not put together by an advertisement," says Harwood, obviously unimpressed with boy bands that are manufactured by marketing manipulators and managers.

Their manager, however, is none other than Tony Gordon. Remember Culture Club and Curiosity Killed The Cat, a band made up of pretty-boy male models? "Gordon just sticks to the business side of things and steers clear of packaging Ultra," says Harwood, who is very aware that they can send Gordon packing if they choose. "We are not going to have a marketing manager tell us what to sing, what to wear and all that," he stresses.

Ultra are Buckinghamshire lads James Hearne on vocals, Michael Harwood on guitar, Jon O'Mahoney on drums and Nick Keynes on bass. Ultra first got the attention they needed after opening for Boyzone, 911 and Louise. "We've simply been overwhelmed by the response to our music and the screaming girls," says Harwoood.

With only a debut album, their first and second single have received unexpected radio airplay, with the latter (Say It Once) making it to the A-list. Their debut single Say You Do, entered to the UK charts at no.11, and they've just completed their third single, The Right Time, which Harwood sings praises of. With only three singles to their name, Ultra are already vocal about being different, and they speak their views without any prompting from an inventive manager. "We had our band together while we were in school, and we played at nightspots during breaks, we did our demos---like most other self-respecting bands---without waiting to be manufactured," says Harwood. "That was a lot of hard work," he remembers, stressing that Ultra has probably paid their dues.

Riding bicycles on stage and other antics aside, Ultra do take their music seriously. "The music's got to come before anything else. We won't compromise on it."

"We expect our music to fill up Brit-pop's vacant '90s slot," says Harwood, whose musical influences include Duran Duran, ABC, Spandau Ballet, The Beatles, Stereo MCs, Wham! And Sade. "Boy bands pop-up all the time but there hasn't been a Brit-pop band since the New Wave explosion. There have been boy groups but no bands," insists Harwood.