Cheryl Cole: Her Story - the Unauthorized Biography (8 page)

So where did that leave the rest of the girls? Kimberley’s version of Diana Ross’s ‘Chain Reaction’ had gone down a storm, with Louis declaring it a ‘fantastic performance’ and Geri likening her to J.Lo, while Nicola’s lively take on The Pointer Sisters’ ‘I’m So Excited’ received great comments from the panel, including ‘You walked it’ from Pete and ‘She’ll make the band’ from Louis. Sarah’s enthusiastic performance of ‘Holding Out For A Hero’ also got her the thumbs-up from the gang, with Geri summing up her appeal by describing her as a sexy girls’ girl.

And what had they made of Cheryl’s tender take on Richard Marx’s ‘Right Here Waiting’? Well, Louis simply said, ‘Vote for her!’, while Geri described her as ‘gorgeous, photogenic and emotional’. Cheryl picked up on the fact that Geri had not referred
to her vocal performance, and Pete too avoided mention of her singing prowess, and instead praised Cheryl for being one of the nicest kids and said he ‘felt for her’. He felt for her? Did that mean he didn’t hold out much hope for her in the show?

What made it worse for Cheryl was that if her performance on the night wasn’t enough for her to win, she’d also be disappointing her family and friends who had spent the week campaigning on her behalf. Among them was her pal John Mulroy, who had gone out of his way to produce a forty-foot-long banner that bore the words ‘Vote For Cheryl,
Popstars: The Rivals
’. After having a word with Newcastle City Council he was given permission to hang his work from the Tyne Bridge so that motorists driving along it knew what they had to do that following Saturday. ‘It’s great Geordies support their own,’ he said. ‘We all want Cheryl to do us proud. And we’re sure she will. But it’s down to the viewers to make a difference.’ And it wasn’t just close friends who were drumming up support for the local celebrity. So too was the
Evening Chronicle
, which produced its own ‘We’re Backing Cheryl’ banner. One thing was for sure, Cheryl wasn’t alone in her fight for fame.

But the time for fighting and self-reflection was over. Davina stood, ready to announce the final line-up: behind her on stage were five stools that the band members would take, just as Jamie Shaw, Daniel Pearce, Anton Gordon, Keith Semple and Matt Johnson had done one week previously, forming One True Voice. Just a matter of minutes stood between Cheryl and one of those seats or a tearful journey home.

The tension in the studio became unbearable. The giddy audience were chanting the names of their favourites. From where she was sitting, a nervous Cheryl could make out lots of
shouts for Nadine and Javine, but she wasn’t sure if she could hear her name as much. Looking into the crowd she could see her mum and family waving and shouting, doing their part to get behind her.

Before Davina reeled off the names of the five lucky girls she asked the judges for their final comments. Louis was first to speak: ‘I’m looking for a good pop band like the Spice Girls – there’s no others out there.’ Pete reassured the girls that whatever happened they were ‘all winners’ and all had careers. Geri merely advised the girls to enjoy their future journey and relish it as ‘it’s a precious time’.

In her seat next to Javine, Cheryl knew that in the next few minutes her life could be changed for ever. As Davina readied herself to announce the first name, Cheryl squeezed Javine’s hand. ‘And the first person in the band is …’ Cheryl swallowed hard as she waited for that all-important name. It had to be Nadine or Javine, for sure, she told herself. Who else could it be? But Davina had a surprise in store as the first name called was ‘… Cheryl.’

Shooting to her feet, the triumphant Cheryl punched the air, hugged Javine and locked eyes with her jubilant mum bouncing up and down in the audience. She couldn’t believe it. The dream had come true: she had made it into the band. The public had decided that they wanted Cheryl Ann Tweedy in the country’s newest girlband. She couldn’t believe what was happening. This kind of thing only happened to other people, not wannabes from Heaton.

As she tottered across the stage to be congratulated by Davina, tears welled in her eyes. What was going to happen to her next? How would her life change now? How would
she cope moving away from home and living with a bunch of strangers?

But these questions had to wait; Cheryl was desperate find out which of the girls would be joining her on her amazing journey. And she didn’t have to wait long. The next name Davina called was Nicola, who got to her feet looking rather shell-shocked, followed by Kimberley, who smiled broadly with glee. This just left Nadine, Javine and Sarah on the edge of their seats. As Nadine and Javine had proved so popular with the judges over the weeks, would Sarah be the one to wave goodbye to her dream? The next name called was Nadine, and it was looking more and more likely that Sarah was the wannabe set to go.

Davina called Sarah and Javine out to join her on stage. Before she put them out of their misery, Davina asked the judges what they thought about the way things had turned out. Geri sat on the fence: ‘I love both girls – let the public pick who they want,’ adding, ‘These two gave their strongest and most confident performance – both can have a solo career.’ Pete summed up the dramatic evening perfectly: ‘It’s a hell of a way to finish the series.’

So now the moment had arrived. Was it going to be Sarah or Javine joining Cheryl and the girls in the band? Adding to the tension, Davina announced that everyone would have to wait until after the commercial break to find out who the final member of the girlband was. Over the next four or five minutes, the successful four held each other close, happy that they had been chosen but also gutted that they were about to lose a good friend. Cheryl was very close to both Javine and Sarah. With Javine she’d spent hours talking through the nights over the past
few weeks; with Sarah Cheryl had had loads of fun, because Sarah was wild, witty and always larking about. Whichever one went home, she’d be upset for either girl not to make the band.

Commercial break over, there was no more pussy-footing around and Davina revealed that the final person to make it into the band was ‘… Sarah.’ The gasp of shock from the studio audience could be heard by viewers at home, and Sarah instantly dissolved into tears, while a dazed Javine merely stared blankly ahead of her. The revelation had come as a shock to everyone, most of all the soulful Londoner who had been told time and time again she had a guaranteed place in the band. Even Davina was shocked by the results and told her, ‘I don’t understand this – you are too good for the band. You are a star in your own right.’

While Sarah went to join her new bandmates, with tears still streaming down her cheeks, members of Javine’s family ran up on stage to comfort their girl. However, even as their friend was coming to terms with losing out on this great opportunity, the chosen girls had to start looking to the future as Davina revealed that the name of the new band would be Girls Aloud, and that one of the songs making up the Christmas double A-side would be a cover of the East 17 classic ‘Stay Another Day’, which happened to be the first single Kimberley had ever bought!

Later, after the girls had celebrated backstage with their families and friends, Cheryl and the band were whisked to a nearby hotel. The following morning they had to be briefed, meet the press and appear at their first photo-call, which would involve them standing in front of a big poster bearing the ingenius slogan ‘Bye Boys Buy Girls’. As she crawled into bed exhausted, Cheryl could sleep soundly knowing that, after
all these years of working so hard, she was now one-fifth of a pop band that had been signed to a major record label. And with Polydor behind them, she knew success was pretty much guaranteed.

For the time being, however, Cheryl and her Girls Aloud bandmates had another battle to prepare for – the fight to gain the Christmas number one spot. The press said the boys had the battle all sewn up because they had legions of girl fans, and traditionally boybands do better than girls. But the girls were willing to work hard and it just so happened that their first single would turn out to be a surprise secret weapon that would eventually blow the boys out of the water.

It was 16 December 2002 – the day that One True Voice and Girls Aloud were set to go head to head in the charts. The boys’ debut song was a Pete Waterman-produced cover of a Bee Gees song called ‘Sacred Trust’, which was to be backed with a more soulful-sounding original song called ‘After The Love Has Gone’, which had been co-penned by band member Daniel Pearce.

So confident was Pete that the boys would triumph with their double A-side that he pledged, ‘If this song gets to number two, I will commit suicide. I have got to beat Louis Walsh.’ Meanwhile, it emerged that Girls Aloud’s lead single would be a drum ’n’ bass-inspired dance track called ‘Sound Of The Underground’, that Samantha Mumba had turned down, with ‘Stay Another Day’ as the B-side. The girls were stunned when they were first played the track, as Nadine recalled. ‘The first time I heard it, I was like, what the **** is this? It had a drum ’n’ bass beat, these mad wee surfie guitar bits. It wasn’t like a pop record. We had to be taught how to sing like that.
Not to leave anything spare.’ Kimberley agreed that the sound was closer to the underground than to the pop charts but was pleased that it didn’t have that cheesy Steps vibe to it. However, she did have concerns that perhaps the song might be a bit too cool for the pop-buying public. ‘I think we all thought it was ****ing crazy!’

When the records were released to radio, the public were finally able to make their choice. The boys’ tune was universally lambasted as lacklustre and sounding closer to Pete Waterman’s eighties output than anything in the charts at the time, while the girls’ efforts stunned the nation with its catchy melody and credible, stylish and distinctive sound courtesy of production team Xenomania. While it was clear that the girls had the better of the two songs, they wondered if the record-buyers were indeed ready for such an unusual pop tune. Would young female fans vote with their hormones and buy the boys’ record with the cute guys on the cover? The girls thought so and decided just to enjoy the ride and take pleasure in the fact that their song was considered cooler.

With just days to go before the singles’ proper release, the girls discovered just how much hard work went in to being a popstar when they were told they had to shoot a video for the single in a freezing cold, disused London warehouse at 5 a.m. sharp. When they arrived, Cheryl and her fellow bandmates were surprised to see how large the production crew was. As they wandered inside, tired but with eyes as wide as saucers, it felt as if they had just walked onto a Hollywood film set. Crew members were busy erecting a metal cage covered in light bulbs inside the warehouse, while wardrobe assistants were busy setting out costumes for the twenty-two-hour shoot.
Meanwhile, director Phil Griffin strolled around trying to find the best angles for shots while runners asked record company reps if they fancied any refreshments.

The girls, who were so not used to this way of life, took it all in, open-mouthed, before they were taken to one side and told what was required of them during the day. They were told that they would be filmed as a group singing and dancing along to a backing track in the bulb-lit cage. Then each of the girls would be shot separately for the cut-aways. The girls were then packed off to hair and make-up to be transformed into popstars.

The shoot itself was hard and tiring, but once their initial awkwardness at being in front of the camera had passed, the girls really got into the swing of things. Although she was nervous at the prospect of filming a real music video, Cheryl enjoyed everything about the day, aside from the early start and 3 a.m. finish. And she knew for sure that the long day had been worth it when she saw the finished results: the video was stunning, especially when compared to the boys’ video which had them walking numbly through London’s Docklands and sitting on an escalator that – rather tellingly – was going nowhere.

The week the singles hit the shelves, the battle between the two bands intensified. Both groups did the rounds of TV shows, but it was the girls with their stunning looks who landed the more high-profile interviews, including a seven-page feature in
OK!
magazine. ‘The boys were dead in the water,’ one journalist who would work with the girls over the years at a leading teen mag said. ‘The styling was atrocious, the song a dreadful eighties throwback and just a lazy misjudged disaster. The thing is, the boys weren’t to blame. Pete Waterman was the one who chose the song and gave it such an out-of-date sound … Of
course, it doesn’t help that the girls were a lot more polished. Their styling was sassy and superior, the song extraordinary and their marketing campaign clever and memorable. The boys just didn’t stand a chance!’

When it was revealed that midweek sales figures had the girls a little way ahead of the boys, the gloves really came off and the competition got personal. The boys, who had thought success would come easy to them, resorted to name calling, branding the girls a bunch of talentless singers.

‘Girls Aloud can’t sing,’ Anton sniped to the
Sun.
‘So they are using their bodies. Suddenly the clothes have fallen off. They are doing everything they can to get to number one but they are making themselves look stupid.’ Bandmate Daniel Pearce, also talking to the
Sun
, didn’t hold back either and made his opinions very clear about what he thought of their performance that he’d seen at London clubnight G-A-Y, at the Astoria. ‘They sounded so flat, they just can’t sing. They can’t harmonize. They tried to rescue it by getting Bryan McFadden on stage. We sing live every time. For us it’s all about singing well and harmonizing. The proof will be when we tour. We will show the girls up for what they really are.’

Cheryl responded to the newspaper: ‘The fans at G-A-Y were chanting “number one” to the girls and the boys weren’t too happy. If they can’t even sell themselves to gay men, well, it says it all, really.’ The boys’ mentor Pete Waterman then waded in by saying he thought the girls ‘had the style and the look, but not great voices’, to which Louis hit back saying that One True Voice were little more than a Westlife tribute act.