FEATURE:
Call the Shots
IN THIS PHOTO: Girls Aloud’s Nadine Coyle, Cheryl Cole, Kimberley Walsh and Nicola Roberts/PHOTO CREDIT: Fascination Management
Why the Pop World Needs the Return of Girls Aloud
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I normally hate it when …
PHOTO CREDIT: BBC/PA
a journalist uses the word ‘return’ when talking about an artist releasing a single or album. Their first new material in a matter or weeks or months is not a ‘return’ – it is, in fact, them doing their job! It does seem very dramatic. The pressure artists have to constantly put out music leads to this rather strange use of the word ‘return’. That said, in the case of Girls Aloud, that might be appropriate. The fact is that their last album was released in 2008.Out of Control was a commercial success. A great album from the quintet. In 2021, Sarah Harding died. It was a massive blow, not only for Girls Aloud but the entire music industry. Part of this incredible and hugely important group, it is understandable that there was doubts about them coming back and touring. I am going to come to a recent live review. There are hopes that there might be new material. I guess it is a conflict putting out new material without Sarah Harding. Even so, Cheryl Cole, Nadine Coyle, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh are on the road and are back together. There is another article from The Guardian that I want to get to. A reason why we need Girls Aloud back in a fuller capacity. However, prior to that, they were at a recent tour date in Dublin and shared their opinion:
“Eleven years have passed since Girls Aloud performed together as a five-piece for the final time, but adoration has endured in the interim – perhaps even intensified in the glow of 00s nostalgia. The group not only hauled themselves out of TV talent show Popstars: The Rivals, but then had 20 back-to-back UK Top 10 hits, four of them chart-toppers. As well as the strength of their voices, and their bubbly and even occasionally lairy personalities, their acclaim came from collaborations with Xenomania, the production team who took 60s girl group tropes and kitsch, and warped them through 21st-century sonics.
One of the quintet, the effervescent Sarah Harding, died of complications from breast cancer in September 2021, at the age of 39. Devastated by the death of their bandmate and friend, plans to mark Girls Aloud’s 20th anniversary were paused.
But hard-won celebration rather than sober mourning is the central mood of 30-date arena tour The Girls Aloud Show. The jubilant audience, a sea of twinkling sequined outfits and parents dancing with their Girls Aloud-inculcated children, eagerly anticipate the four-piece who are fashionably late. The curtain falls, revealing Nadine Coyle, Cheryl Tweedy, Kimberly Walsh and Nicola Roberts on tall podiums, as the latter takes the lead with Untouchable, taken from their fifth and final album, Out of Control (from 2008).
An unexpected opener – the only one of their singles not to go Top 10 in the UK – it quickly makes sense as visuals of Sarah Harding appear on enormous screens watching over the arena. In light of the group’s grief, several songs, including this one (“I need you here again to show me how”) feel all the more relevant to their story. Its roaring reception intensifies when the beat of The Show drops and the foursome are lowered to the stage, launching into a lively routine. It’s a strong first act – with the exception of some first-night vocal jitters from each member – featuring thrilling performances of Something New, Love Machine, Can’t Speak French and Biology.
Those early nerves soon dissipate, with Roberts’ solos proving to be the strongest and Coyle’s the most show-bizzy. Walsh and Tweedy also do well in their moments in the spotlight, but the group remain at their best when they come together to belt out irresistibly harmonised choruses. Along with playful banter from Tweedy (warning fans in the pit they might need to catch her if she falls off stage) and heartfelt appreciation from Walsh to the Irish crowd, the first show sets off firmly on the right foot.
Harding continues to be present via the screens that act as large-scale digital scrapbooks of their music videos. With Whole Lotta History, Roberts tells the crowd how they had “no idea how poignant this song would become in our journey,” when they recorded it back in 2005. In the song’s final moments, a montage of Harding plays with the four members facing her, embracing before exiting for the first of four costume changes. The tribute ends with the message: “The darkest nights produce the brightest stars”.
I do think that there is a void in music right now. Pop music is not in trouble, though there is this moment of transition. Huge artists like Taylor Swift and Dua Lipa are selling massive units and producing brilliant music. In terms of the new crop coming through, there is this mixture of TikTok artists and something quite modern. Very few stand out as competitors and future icons. I do love a lot of rising Pop artists. There is a feeling that something is missing. It might be that girl group connection. Spice Girls have toured since their split, yet you feel they will not return to the studio. That is a real shame. Same with Sugarbabes. You’d love to hear a new album from them, as they are one of Britain’s greatest groups. There is not a lot in the way of new girl groups that can compete with the legends. The chemistry between the Girls Aloud members and their incredible catalogue means that there will be a desire for them to return. The Guardian wrote last year about how Girls Aloud’s return was a beneficial thing for Pop:
“Along with the Shangri-Las and the Runaways, Girls Aloud are one of the greatest girl bands of all time. As someone born in 1989, it was probably the Spice Girls that I should have been obsessed with. Sure, I had the collectible photo album now doing a brisk trade on eBay. I could do the signature leg-kick of fellow scouser and ardent LFC supporter Mel C. But the Spice Girls never spoke to me.
That Girls Aloud did, a group born from a music talent show I did not watch, at a time when I was a moody mid-teen more accustomed to listening to Interpol’s Specialist for the 15th time in a row, is testament to a seductive combination of brilliant music and charismatic personality.
The band were never meant to be the breakout stars of Popstars: The Rivals, ITV and Simon Cowell’s twist on their previous show, Popstars (whose underdogs would also go on to enjoy surprise success in the form of Liberty X). The format reboot was simple: the show’s boyband and girl band would go head-to-head for the 2002 Christmas number one slot.
It initially looked as though the excruciatingly named One True Voice would win. But that seemed less likely when their insipid cover of a not-amazing-to-start-with late Bee Gees album track was chosen as the boys’ contender, while Girls Aloud came bursting out the gate with the surf riffs and drum’n’bass pulsating energy of Sound of the Underground (with a gritty video shot in a cavernous abandoned warehouse to boot). The latter song hit No 1, and would stay there for four weeks. Girls Arrived.
Much of the band’s phenomenal success and longevity – 21 Top 10 singles, four of them No 1s – was, undoubtedly, down to the genius production outfit Xenomania. Responsible for Sound of the Underground (apparently inspired by late-90s dance hit Addicted to Bass and nursery rhyme The Wheels on the Bus), Xenomania, founded by producer Brian Higgins, would go on to become permanent collaborators.
In Higgins’ hit factory (actually a Grade II manor house in rural Kent), he, the group and chief songwriter Miranda Cooper would squirrel away, recording songs as glorious and experimental as Biology (which kicks off with a sample of the Animals, eschews the usual linear verse-chorus structure, and changes direction three times); Love Machine (recorded in 18 parts, melding rockabilly and 80s synth sensibilities); and the frankly batshit Sexy! No No No (electro-punk with a Nazareth sample).
But it’s lesser-known album cuts that hold a special place in my heart. The barmy Miss You Bow Wow on their final album, Out of Control, or its stablemate Love Is The Key, which goes from creepy hymn intro to line-dancing country swagger to a harmonica solo played by Johnny Marr. Or Graffiti My Soul, which sounds like Run DMC and Aerosmith’s Walk This Way performed by Willie Nelson in the Hacienda, then remixed by the Prodigy.
Even the so-called flops, such as Long Hot Summer, which still reached No 7, were a cut above most chart fare, and the songs which weren’t as avant garde (the Spector-inflected The Promise, written in seven minutes; the ballad Life Got Cold) were nevertheless outstanding examples of their respective genres.
But the “girls” themselves were crucial. Though sometimes hesitant in the face of Xenomania’s more outre instincts (Nicola Roberts worried about Sound of the Underground because “we didn’t have drum and bass up north at the time”) they have multiple songwriting credits, including on four of the best tracks from Out of Control. As evidenced by their jump-through-hoops talent show origins, each could actually sing, possessing distinctive vocal styles that complemented Xenomania’s jigsaw-like process”.
It is not only about girl groups. There is some of that. They are practically non-existent now. I don’t think it is because there is not a call or space for them. It is maybe a lack of decent enough writers or sounds that catch public attention. Even if the members of Girls Aloud are in their late-thirties/forties, that is not to say that they would need to change their sound. The sort of ageism and misogyny that you get when women of that age release music. Perhaps not capturing the buzz that they had at their peak, they could still create some really wonderful albums. It might be that conflict of recording without Sarah Harding. The fact that their current tour is getting such positive reviews and ecstasy shows that there is this love and demand. This absence of anything like Girls Aloud is very telling. They are a legendary group that still has a lot in them. A clear reason they are touring together. Not only honouring Harding, there is love and affection between the members. I may have missed any announcement. I don’t think any firm plans have been made regarding a new album. The fact is that girl groups can reform and enjoy a really successful second stage of life. I don’t feel that Pop music is reserved for artists in their teens and twenties. The live performances Girls Aloud are embarking on proves they are still at their peak. Pop music does need them to come back. They have potential anthems left. Songs that can rival Sound of the Underground and The Promise. There is this aching and desire. Great to have them on stage and performing hits to the fans. What comes after that?! Maybe there are reservations and reasons. Perhaps there is music and plans in the back of their minds. If Girls Aloud released a new album and came fully back into music, they would be welcomed…
WITH opened arms.