Girls Aloud promise a ‘magic’ reunion tour – but say shows will ‘never be the same’ without Sarah
Girls Aloud have said their shows will “never be the same” without bandmate Sarah Harding – but they will make their reunion shows “magic” in her memory.
In an emotional interview with Sky News, speaking about their newly announced plans for a 15-date arena tour in 2024, Cheryl, Kimberley, Nadine and Nicola said there will undoutedly be emotional struggles on stage as they perform without Harding, who died from breast cancer in September 2021, for the first time.
“It will never be the same again, we accept that,” says Cheryl, “but we’re going to make a new type of sparkle with her in it.”
Girls Aloud star Sarah Harding died in 2021. Pic: AP/MJ Kim
The stars have said their performances, which mark 21 years since they first formed, will be dedicated to Harding.
“You’re reminded so constantly that she isn’t here,” says Nadine. “She is very much a part of who we are still, a huge part.”
Girls Aloud are back: (L-R) Cheryl, Kimberley Walsh, Nicola Roberts and Nadine Coyle
One of the strangest things, according to Cheryl, has been announcing the news of the tour to press, pausing during interviews at times when Harding would have made jokes.
“Some of the questions we get asked… there are moments like that all day, she’s never far from us.”
‘The fans have lost Sarah as well’
Pictured at the Brits in 2009
Rearranging songs to perform for the much-anticipated tour, they know won’t be easy. Harding was an integral part of their harmonies.
“Fans have lost Sarah as well,” says Nicola. “It’s going to be strange for them to see us as a four, it’s going to be strange for us to be a four, but, well, we’ve got to take it one day at a time. We’re going to make it magic for her.”
While the planning of who will sing which lines won’t officially get under way until the New Year, Cheryl says there will be tears once they get back in a rehearsal room.
Read more:
Sarah Harding obituary
Girls Aloud star’s life in pictures
“When we initially start looking at what we’re going to do, how we’re going to do it, how we’re going to sing the song and what that looks like, we’ll have to get all our emotion out then, so we can be strong for the fans.”
“There will be times, I’m sure, that we struggle,” adds Kimberley. “But that’s another great thing about having each other. Hopefully we don’t all struggle at the same time.”
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At a time when music was dominated by male indie bands, Girls Aloud shook up the noughties with a raucous energy, producing some of the best pop singles of the 21st Century, including Love Machine, No Good Advice, Biology, Call The Shots and The Promise – and of course their debut, Sound Of The Underground.
After the band originally formed on ITV reality show Popstars: The Rivals in 2002, they quickly became tabloid fixtures. Dealing with fame and the paparazzi was a traumatic experience for the then teenagers.
“We were children,” says Nadine. “And these are grown men, lying down on the floor as you step out of a car.”
“We were 16, 17 years old,” adds Kimberley. “So wrong.”
Something Kinda Ooooh: Celebrating the legacy
They say they had little choice but to learn to ignore the frenzied level of interest in their personal lives.
This time around, after an 11-year break, the tour will be a chance for their own children to now understand what their mums are famous for.
“It’s going to blow their brains!” says Cheryl.
As for Glastonbury rumours, the band insist they haven’t been asked. They also deny tabloid claims that a new album is planned.
“That’s not what this is about,” Kimberley says. “It’s definitely about celebrating the legacy.”
“Ooh, I like that word,” Cheryl chips in. “Legacy!”
Before Kimberley can question whether what she’s said sounds too grand, Cheryl proudly confirms: “We’ve earned it, two decades in!”
Twenty-one years after the start of it all, I put it to the band that their back catalogue of insanely catchy pop has aged incredibly well.
“A bit like ourselves!” quips Nadine, causing her bandmates to errupt into laughter.
They’ve been through a lot.
While tears on tour seem inevitable, as a band they are determined not to lose that sense of joy and silliness – making sure they give it everything “to celebrate Sarah”.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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Will Trump address parliament on UK state visit?
This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
The Salt Path author Raynor Winn’s fourth book has been delayed by her publisher.
It comes amid claims that the author lied about her story in her hit first book. Winn previously described the claims as “highly misleading” and called suggestions that her husband had Moth made up his illness “utterly vile”.
In a statement, Penguin Michael Joseph, said it had delayed the publication of Winn’s latest book On Winter Hill – which had been set for release 23 October.
The publisher said the decision had been made in light of “recent events, in particular intrusive conjecture around Moth’s health”, which it said had caused “considerable distress” to the author and her family.
“It is our priority to support the author at this time,” the publisher said.
“With this in mind, Penguin Michael Joseph, together with the author, has made the decision to delay the publication of On Winter Hill from this October.”
A new release date will be announced in due course, the publisher added.
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Winn’s first book, released in 2018, detailed the journey she and husband took along the South West Coast Path – familiarly known as The Salt Path – after they lost their family farm and Moth received a terminal health diagnosis of Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD).
But a report in The Observer disputed key aspects of the 2018 “true” story – which was recently turned into a film starring Jason Isaacs and Gillian Anderson.
Raynor and husband Moth (centre) with actors Jason Isaacs (L) and Gillian Anderson (R). Pic: Steve Tanner/Black Bear
Experts ‘sceptical of health claims’
As part of the article, published last weekend, The Observer claimed to have spoken to experts who were “sceptical” about elements of Moth’s terminal diagnosis, such as a “lack of acute symptoms and his apparent ability to reverse them”.
In the ensuing controversy, PSPA, a charity that supports people with CBD, cut ties with the couple.
The Observer article also claimed the portrayal of a failed investment in a friend’s business wasn’t true, but said the couple – whose names are Sally and Tim Walker – lost their home after Raynor Winn embezzled money from her employer and had to borrow to pay it back and avoid police action.
Anderson played Winn in a movie about the couple’s journey. Pic: Steve Tanner/Black Bear
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It also said that, rather than being homeless, the couple had owned a house in France since 2007.
Winn’s statement said the dispute with her employer wasn’t the reason the couple lost their home – but admitted she may have made “mistakes” while in the job.
“For me it was a pressured time,” she wrote. “It was also a time when mistakes were being made in the business. Any mistakes I made during the years in that office, I deeply regret, and I am truly sorry.”
She admitted being questioned by police but said she wasn’t charged.
The author also said accusations that Moth lied about having CBD/CBS were false and had “emotionally devastated” him.
“I have charted Moth’s condition with such a level of honesty, that this is the most unbearable of the allegations,” Winn wrote on her website.
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