Cheryl Cole: Her Story - the Unauthorized Biography (10 page)

A panicked Polydor rep issued a hasty statement explaining how Cheryl deeply regretted getting into the fight and that she was shocked and absolutely distraught when what she was supposed to have said to the toilet attendant emerged. Although the record label appeared to be standing by her, rumours were rife that Louis Walsh and record chiefs were seriously considering
dumping Cheryl from the band, bearing in mind the band’s young fanbase.

However, Louis stepped forward to stand by his charge. ‘She made a mistake and didn’t handle things very well,’ he acknowledged in the
Mirror.
‘But there are two sides to every story. It’s very easy to point the finger and accuse the famous person of being in the wrong. She knows what she did was wrong and I have spoken to her about it but I’m not giving her the boot from the band. I have told the girls that they have to be on their best behaviour from now on because they are in the spotlight.’

One True Voice mentor Pete Waterman used the incident to lay into Girls Aloud, no doubt still smarting that Louis’s girls had beaten his boys in the charts. ‘It’s bad behaviour, of course it is,’ he said to the
Mirror.
‘There’s absolutely no need for it. If you go to a nightclub and have too much to drink you’re fair game and people will have a go at you. You just don’t go to those places if you can’t handle it.’

Luckily for Cheryl, the rest of the band pledged to support her and had no intention of making her leave them. ‘We’ve made a pact to stand by Cheryl, regardless of what happens,’ Sarah told the
Daily Star
after Cheryl appeared before magistrates in Guildford on 25 March 2003 accused of racially aggravated assault. ‘We never once considered that we were going to throw Cheryl out of the band and no one else could make that decision. We’re really strong in our belief that no one can take it away from us. It was really hard for Cheryl because it has gone on so long. But all you can do is be there and support her and hopefully things will go for the best.’

Kimberley would later admit on
The Frank Skinner Show
in November 2003 that the incident had rattled the band considerably
but said that they had believed in Cheryl all the way. ‘At the time, it scared us, we were like, “Oh my God, this is really bad,” especially as we’d only just released our first single … At the point we found out we hadn’t heard from Cheryl, but we believed Nicola’s account of the story. When we saw her, we discussed what happened and we supported her from there. We always knew the race issue was going to be cleared so we never ever thought about that too much. I have to admit I was shocked when I heard that Cheryl had got into a fight, cos she had never done that before.’

Unfortunately for Cheryl, and with the trial still pending, the next few weeks would see her name continuing to hit the papers for all the wrong reasons, but this time due to her family.

A couple of weeks after Cheryl’s arrest, her brother Andrew and sister Gillian found themselves in big trouble after a drunken argument turned into a street brawl. The merry siblings had enjoyed a night out on the town. Tipsy after a few drinks, they started to bicker outside the Raby pub near the pair’s home in Byker. The argument became so rowdy that other revellers joined in, resulting in a brawl. When the police arrived, the fight was broken up, but more trouble ensued when the Tweedy kids got into another argument with a young couple on their way to Byker Metro station. Police were called to the scene where they found the brother and sister involved in a brawl with the couple. Gillian and Andrew were arrested and later bound over to keep the peace for twelve months and fined £100 each by Newcastle magistrates.

Cheryl couldn’t believe what was happening. Just a month after experiencing the highs of winning a TV search for a star
and landing a record deal, not to mention enjoying four weeks at number one with ‘Sound Of The Underground’, Cheryl felt as if her world was falling down around her. It seemed that the press had it in for her. Yes, she had a temper, just like the next person, but she wasn’t a bully nor was she a racist. It had all been a big mistake. She knew that but how could she persuade the rest of the world reading the newspapers that she wasn’t the same person they were reading about?

But things were to get worse for Cheryl. A little while later she was unceremoniously thrown out of the Baja Beach club in Gateshead after being accused of starting a water pistol fight with a group of Newcastle United footballers. Again, mum Joan, who was actually with Cheryl on the night out, was quick to defend her daughter. ‘There was a bunch of Newcastle players there and they came to talk to her,’ she told the
Evening Chronicle.
‘She was just standing with them. Some of them were playing with water pistols, but not Cheryl. I saw it all happen and I was horrified. The bloke who asked her to leave looked in a real strop. We were all there just to have a good time, minding our own business. I don’t know what his problem was.’

No sooner had that incident passed and Cheryl’s brother Andrew was in trouble again, this time for allegedly breaking into a stolen car. The press of course had a field day, using his arrest and court appearance as an example of how dysfunctional they thought Cheryl’s family was, and a pack of journalists and paparazzi was waiting at the magistrates court in Newcastle when he arrived. His lawyer, Lewis Pearson, attacked the press for hijacking Andrew’s case and trying to use it against his sister. ‘Andrew apologizes unequivocally for his behaviour,’ Pearson told a court. ‘What upsets him is the fact that the press
are here. His sister is a member of a pop idol band and they wish to use his conduct to shame her.’

Things were looking bad for Cheryl. Would she be able to shake off all this bad press and continue to grow and succeed in Girls Aloud? Or would all the negative stories destroy all she had achieved?

As the controversy surrounding Cheryl and her family continued to rumble in the press, Girls Aloud were still hard at work carrying out promotional duties for their chart-topping single, as well as planning to move to London full time. They were excited about the big move but anxious, too, as they knew it would mean that they’d have to say goodbye to their friends and family for a long period of time. But they knew if they wanted to be successful and make a go of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, certain sacrifices had to be made.

Their new home, after a brief spell in a block of flats in Westminster, was to be in a housing complex favoured by the rich and famous. Situated in the far north of London, it was a prime location; easily accessible for the city centre, but secluded enough for the girls to live in peace away from the prying eyes of the paparazzi and fans keen to get a glimpse of their idols. The secure gated development of four hundred luxury apartments was favoured mainly by sports stars and
celebrities, and, in keeping with the flamboyant lifestyle of the famous, residents only had to step out of their doors to find facilities such as tennis courts, a health club, a swimming pool and a private bar and restaurant.

When the girls first stepped through the gates into the lavish complex, they couldn’t believe that this was going to be their new home for the indefinite future. Only in their dreams had they imagined themselves living in such a plush place. However, as Cheryl took in her surroundings, she hoped and prayed that recent events wouldn’t mean she’d have to say goodbye to it all too soon.

Life at the complex was fun for the girls, and when they were able to find the time, they’d make the most of the facilities on site, taking a dip in the pool or having an early morning workout at the gym. Choosing who would live with whom was easy, applying the popular maxim, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. So just as they had in the
Popstars
house, Kimberley and Nadine shared one flat, Cheryl and Nicola another, while Sarah chose to live alone, which as an only child and a self-confessed ‘Monica from
Friends
’, was the way she liked it.

Cheryl and Nicola had become very close during the series, but since Cheryl’s recent brush with the law, the pair of them had formed an even tighter bond. In fact, Cheryl admitted that her ginger bandmate made life more bearable through that tough time. ‘I couldn’t be in the band without Nicola,’ she told
Top of the Pops
magazine in 2004. ‘When we first met I thought she was shy but now I know different. Nicola is hilarious, I’ve never met anyone like her. Sometimes in the morning when I try to get her out of bed to go to the gym, she just grunts at us. She just growls like a dog. All she eats is McDonald’s, Burger
King, Wimpy but she never puts a pound of weight on. It makes me sick – she does my head in, she’s so lucky.’

However, there were some downsides to living with Nicola – not only was she a messy girl who’d leave her floor covered in clothes and fake tan smeared all over the bathroom, she had a habit of borrowing things from Cheryl and never giving them back! Cheryl revealed to the
Top of the Pops
magazine: ‘She takes whatever you lend her – tweezers, lip liners, anything. You have to go into her room to look for things.’

But the girls didn’t exclude their bandmates from their close friendship. They always found time for each other when they weren’t working. The girls would enjoy hosting dinner parties for each other, where they’d serve up such tasty delights as a big Greek salad, tomato, avocado and mozzarella salad and chicken kievs, followed by lashings of Häagen-Dazs ice cream. While the public had been given a one-sided portrayal of Cheryl in the press, Kimberley had been captivated by the real Cheryl: a sensitive, funny Geordie who could ‘talk for England’.

‘She likes to laugh,’ Kimberley once commented on her pal in
Smash Hits
magazine. ‘Once she’s telling a story she’ll tell it thread to needle – from beginning to end – and you’ll not be allowed to move a muscle.’ She also described Cheryl as ‘cute and sweet’ and admitted that she always wanted to mother her. ‘When I first met her I thought she looked young, sweet and innocent … That’s not entirely the case – she’s not that innocent. She’s a bit of a party animal; when she goes out she has a good time.’

But there weren’t many opportunities to party at that point in time, as the girls were busy recording their debut album. Not that anyone expected much from the results. With ‘Sound
Of The Underground’ still riding high in the charts, rival stars readily stepped forward to predict a short-lived career for the group. Duncan James, who had met Cheryl backstage at
CD:UK
during the
Popstars
programme, reckoned they’d go the same way as their predecessors Hear’Say. ‘Their first single will be their highest-selling song,’ he declared in the
Sun.
‘It will be the peak of their career and if you start at the top the only way is down. It’ll be exciting for the first six months, but after that, they’ll be isolated, insecure and paranoid, not knowing who they can trust.’

Whether that warning was based on his own experiences was unclear, but the girls ignored his negative comments and believed that they could achieve whatever they wanted to and outlive the original
Popstars
band. ‘It really p***es me off when people keep going on about what happened to Hear’Say,’ Cheryl said in the
Observer.
‘Gareth [Gates], Will [Young] and Darius and Liberty X are all doing okay. We’re doing okay. Hear’Say are the only ones that failed.’

But could the naysayers be right? An eleven-date UK tour planned for March, which would have seen One True Voice and Girls Aloud travel around the country’s arenas, had been scrapped due to poor ticket sales. Was this a sign that the girls were already on the wane? Not in the slightest, Louis Walsh argued. He blamed the lack of interest on the fact that no one wanted to pay good money to see Pete Waterman’s dated boyband. ‘Being associated with One True Voice was not doing the girls any favours,’ Louis was reported as saying on the BBC news. ‘Girls Aloud are doing brilliantly and they don’t need to be supported by anyone else.’

And so the girls banished that setback from their minds and
threw themselves into what they hoped would be a spectacular first album. Based on the success of the debut single, which had surprised critics with its cool, cutting-edge sound, producers Xenomania began to piece together a collection of songs that would push the boundaries of traditional girlband music.

Brian Higgins, the brains behind the outfit, and his team of songwriters are well respected in the industry, having produced many chart hits for stars such as Dannii Minogue, the Sugababes, Cher and Saint Etienne. They were determined to ensure that Girls Aloud were not going to be one-hit wonders or sneered at for releasing tinny disco hits. Brian Higgins had loftier ideas. ‘What we stand for,’ he said in the
Observer Music Monthly
, ‘is everything about the interesting side of music but with tunes that the postman will whistle.’ And that’s exactly what he produced for Girls Aloud.

The album certainly wasn’t like any other pop album around at the time. The second single, ‘No Good Advice’, sounded nothing like the previous hit but was just as ground- breaking. Gone were the drum ’n’ bass beats, and in their place was a punky, attitude-filled sound. Elsewhere on the album, there was an acoustic-sounding ballad called ‘Life Got Cold’, which the tabloids would later suggest had been heavily inspired by a musical phrase in Oasis’s ‘Wonderwall’, and a Hi-NRG disco track called ‘Girls Allowed’, which came courtesy of Westlife’s Bryan McFadden. Nineties popstar Betty Boo, aka Alison Clarkson – who had penned Hear’Say’s mega-selling debut single, ‘Pure And Simple’ – was called upon to write and produce tracks called ‘Boogie Down Love’, ‘Love Bomb’ and ‘Mars Attack’, while former B*witched singer Edele Lynch had a hand in co-writing ‘Some Kind Of Miracle’.

By March 2003, the single ‘Sound Of The Underground’ had gone platinum, selling 600,000 copies, so whatever followed had a lot to live up to. But those worries were forgotten when the record label heard the finished album. They loved it and knew they were onto something big. In spite of what their critics thought, Girls Aloud would be no flash in the pan, they had that something special that previous reality stars – or most pop bands around, come to that – didn’t have: sass, style and that all-important X factor.