Girls Aloud

Muscians who find fame on reality TV shows are supposed to provide a bit of entertainent and then fade away - they're not supposed to have three UK top 10 albus and more than ten UK top 10 singles. Maybe someone forgot to tell Girls Aloud the rules. The band were put together in 2002 for a TV show called Popstars: The Rivals. Cheryl Tweedy, Nicola Roberts, Nadine Coyle, Kimberley Walsh and Sarah Harding were managed by the legendary Louis Walsh and their rivals were One True Voice. They were the boys. And they were easily beaten by the girls, who crushed their offering with the Christmas No1 smash 'Sound of the Underground'. By the following summer, One True Voice had broken up and, much to the surprise of many sneering types in the music industry and the music press, Girls Aloud were hailed as a proper group with the critical and popualr hit 'No Good Advice'. Four and-a-half years on, they are still the best, with a succession of brilliant image changes and a clever development of their unique sound sealing their reputation as one of the greatest girl bands of all time. But is hasn't always been straightforward for the quintet. There was extensive reporting of Cheryl Tweedy's conviction for assaulting a toilet attendant in a nightclub in January 2003, but after the singer apologised, the band came back better than ever. They have since had a documentary series made about them and they are rarely out of the papers, woth personal lives as colourful and glamorous as anything they come up with on stage. Now read their full story