Product Description

Musicians who find fame on reality TV shows are supposed to provide a bit of entertainment and then fade away - they're not supposed to have three UK top 10 albums 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 shoe 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 On True Voice. They were the boys. And they were easily beaten by the girls, who crushed their offering with the Christmas No 1 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 whose job it is to belittle 'manufactured' bands, Girls Aloud were jailed as a proper group with the critical and popular 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 it 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 has a documentary series made about the and they are rarely out of the papers, with personal lives as colourful and glamorous as anything they come up with on stage. Now read their full story!!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #286756 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 276 pages

About the Author
Jen Crothers is an entertainment journalist and is currently an editor at World Entertainment News Network Ltd. Jen hails from Belfast, Northern Ireland, where she first unveiled her celebrity reporting techniques and love of girl bands. She moved to London in 2004, completing a postgraduate course in magazine journalism from City University before entering the showbiz fray. Jen is 24 and lives in east London.

Customer Reviews

Entertaining, but nothing you don't know already
I take it that this isn't an official biography? I ask because there is very little inside knowledge of the band, and it seems as though most of it has been put together from magazine and newspaper interviews. There's even parts that have been included from 'alleged' comments in tabloids - and everyone knows how untrust worthy they are! I also noticed that large parts of 'dialogue' had been taken straight from the TV series Off the Record. It just seems as though the author sat down for a few days with some DVDs of Popstars: The Rivals, TV interviews, and a load of press cuttings and compiled a book from that. Which basically means that if you're even half interested in the band, you're going to read this and think "yes, well, I knew all of that anyway."

Saying that though, the book is an entertaining read for a few hours and will definately pass the time on a long flight, train journey or on a pool-side lounger. It's also quite amusing in parts and I got the feeling that the writer was being a little tongue-in-cheek about the girls' success a few times.

Light distraction? Yes. Source of juicy information? No.

Spectacular
Much like the girls, this book is sparkly and amazing. It charts the life of the girls individually and as a group throughout the ages and has a wicked picture section. I love it!

Functional and pretty enjoyable biography of Britain's best girl band
Barcode: 9781844544585

So, in October we're getting the Girls' very own autobiography in the form of Dreams That Glitter, but until then, this book does a fair job of documenting their story from 2002's Popstars: The Rivals to superstardom. As the other reviewer said, it is pretty much on the functional level - fans of the band will easily be able to pick out the newspaper/magazine articles and DVDs the info in here has been sourced from so don't expect much you don't already know.

The exception to this is the first part of the book, where chapter by chapter the book details each of the Girls' lives pre-fame. It's a fascinating look at their childhoods and how all of them, coming from relatively working class backgrounds up north followed their dreams, pursuing singing, dancing and acting from a young age to finally see those dreams fulfilled. It's an inspiring story and this section is without a doubt the most enjoyable part of the biography.

After this things pretty much follow a by-the-numbers account of their chart success. One element i found quite annoying is that suddenly, halfway through the account of their career, the book breaks up into the chapter-per-girl format again to document the ups and downs of their various relationships when it would have been far easier just to work this into the main biography at the relevant point. Thus, you get a fair few points repeated throughout the book.

That said, i did enjoy this book though, and it's a good one to dip into to remind yourself of all the fantastic achievments (and rivalries too! there's a great section in here on that) the Girls have clocked up over the years. And plus, you've got the lovely pic of the five girls themselves on the front cover. So, all in all, this is one of the better unnoficial biographies i've read and if you're a fan of the band then it's well worth getting.

I once heard someone on the radio call Girls Aloud a national treasure and you know what? It's true. There's something almost heroic about how amongst everything else around them they have remained, an unashamedly British pure pop group, nearing 6 years in the charts now and they have won such unprecendented praise from everyone. So, to Cheryl, Nadine, Nicola, Kimberley and Sarah we say thank you. They are truly magical.