Things can only get better for Nikki

The 20-year-old from Bradford is poised for stardom as one-fifth of the new pop group Girl Thing.

Great things are expected of the all-female band, who are being touted as the new Spice Girls, when their debut single Last One Standing is released on Monday.

Nikki, who went to Birkenshaw C of E First School, Birkenshaw Middle School and Whitcliffe Mount School in Cleckheaton, was snapped up for Girl Thing last year. But she has been performing ever since she can remember.

"I started dancing when I started going properly to the Stuart Stage School in Heckmondwike at the age of four. It's run by my aunt Jill Stuart," said Nikki. "Basically I went there till I was 16 and then I went to college.

"I remember when I was at school I was the one who was doing little dances and getting everyone together. At middle school we started to do plays and I was in The Boyfriend. I have always been interested in the performing side."

It is four years since Nikki moved away from Bradford to take her first tentative steps in the world of showiz.

"When I was 16 I left school and went to the Performers Dance School near Basildon in Essex. It's a three-year course which covers all areas of dance, drama and singing," she said.

"The great thing was I went with my best friend Lucy Barber who I had been to dance school with. She's in Spirit of the Dance and is in Italy at the moment. It was brilliant. We lived together in digs and then we had our own house in our third year.

"People go into doing plays, musical theatre, pop groups, commercial dancing, TV work and all areas. People have gone off and branched out into everything. It's a good overall training. There are a lot of people who have left there and done really well.

Nikki says she owes a lot to the Stuart Stage School for giving her a good start. "They were the ones who did enough to get me to the standard of even getting into college," she said.

"I've got to remember where I started. There are a lot of local kids from that school who want to do what I'm doing. I do owe a lot to them."

Auditioning for Girl Thing was a whole new world for Nikki.

"I had always liked pop music but I never thought about doing it," she said.

"The night before the audition I was thinking 'What am I going to wear for something like this?' it was all new. I felt like a little kid thinking about getting dressed up.

"Fifteen of us from college went to the audition and I had such a scream. I wasn't particularly nervous about it and the reason was that I didn't know anything about it. There were about 2,500 girls auditioning and they were out to pick five."

Ironically, before she was offered the chance to be in Girl Thing, she landed a dream part in a top London show. "Grease offered me a job and I did six months as Donna Sue at the Cambridge Theatre," said Nikki.

"At 19 years of age that was a massive achievement for me. I just couldn't believe it. It was what I had always wanted. I believe that if you want something bad enough you will get it. I had much determination and enthusiasm. My heart was in it so much."

In December 1998 she was finally offered the chance to join Girl Thing and officially became a member of the group three months later.

Nikki and the other girls have only been together for just over a year but she is very excited by the variety of songs that Girl Thing have written. "You feel strongly about certain issues and you just write about those teenage issues and then sometimes we just write party tracks and vibey stuff," she said.

"Last One Standing is a pop song but it's got our own sound to it. It's full of attitude and it's a big vibey track. I'm sure it will do quite well. I feel quite confident."

There has already been a fair bit of hype about Girl Thing but Nikki is doing her best to keep her feet on the ground.

"I'm thrilled to bits that I am doing this, that's the exciting thing, and going to places that I've never dreamt about going to," she said.

"I'm aiming for the Top Ten but if we don't get there we won't be giving up.

"We all live together in a house in Surrey and we have such a scream. It's absolute mayhem. We've become such good friends because we've lived with each other for 18 months.

"You've got to have a bond with everyone for something to work and we have."

She is also realistic enough to realise that her life will change if Girl Thing do become household names.

"It's a bit bizarre really. You don't think about it when you're doing it because you're enjoying what you're doing," she said.

"Because we're not out there yet you don't know actually what it will be like. When I do think about it I sometimes think it's going to be really exciting. If someone sees you in the street it might make them smile.

"There are negative sides to it but I will cross that bridge when I come to it. I feel like one of the luckiest girls in the world to have done what I have done in 18 months."

e-mail: simon.ashberry@newsquest.co.uk

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