Cheryl Cole: Her Story - the Unauthorized Biography by Gerard Sanderson Page A

tried to rescue it by getting Bryan McFadden on stage. We sing live every time. For us it’s all about singing well and harmonizing. The proof will be when we tour. We will show the girls up for what they really are.’
    Cheryl responded to the newspaper: ‘The fans at G-A-Y were chanting “number one” to the girls and the boys weren’t too happy. If they can’t even sell themselves to gay men, well, it says it all, really.’ The boys’ mentor Pete Waterman then waded in by saying he thought the girls ‘had the style and the look, but not great voices’, to which Louis hit back saying that One True Voice were little more than a Westlife tribute act.
    Not to be outdone, Pete then accused the girls of not actually singing on the record and told Neil Fox on his Capital breakfastradio show, ‘It’s a smashing pop record but unfortunately they are not on it. I’ve had that record since September. The version I’ve got is no different. It’s just got four other singers on it. Just listen to the choruses – they are session singers.’ First Louis threatened to take legal action if Waterman continued to spout such rubbish, then Cheryl let loose at the producer in the Sun: ‘How did he think he was going to get away with that when people heard us sing on TV for ten weeks?’
    Hurt by the personal comments made by One True Voice, she added: ‘They’ve called us tarts and said we can’t sing or dance. It’s taken it beyond a joke but we’re not going to sink that low. I don’t know why they have taken it to this extent. They’re insulting all the people who voted for us to be in the band so they’re not doing themselves any favours.’
    And the battle didn’t just stay between the bands. The Sun then seemed to support Pete Waterman by stating that ‘Sound Of The Underground’ had actually previously been recorded by another girlband called Orchid and that the original band could still be heard on the record. The record label responded, pointing out that they had never hidden the fact that the girls could be heard singing backing vocals – and their names, Eve Bicker, Giselle Somerville and Louise Griffiths, were credited. Girls Aloud themselves added: ‘Everyone uses backing vocals; Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston use them and they just make the song sound better. We’re not denying it and we never did.’
    The bitterness between the two bands became so ferocious that they couldn’t actually bring themselves to say anything nice to each other when they came face to face on TV shows or at functions. All this saddened Jamie Shaw of One True Voice,who blames the feud on over-zealous PR: ‘As soon as the rivalry started there was a dramatic change in the girls’ attitudes but I know for a fact that their management and PR offices had a lot to do with it. It was from that point that we started to lose contact with each other. Which was very sad for me as I still fancied Cheryl.’
    On 22 December, the results were through. The two bands returned to the Popstars: The Rivals studios to discover where on the charts their songs had entered. The midweek results were expected to be repeated, with the girls beating the boys, and Cheryl and the rest of the band were confident. Standing on stage looking a lot slicker and more styled than even a week before, the girls relished the fact they were to be told that they were number one at Christmas and that they would beat their rivals on live TV. But it wasn’t yet confirmed, so Davina crossed to DJ Neil Fox, who was presenting the Network Chart Show and asked him to put the country out of its misery.
    As expected, the girls had triumphed, having shifted 213,000 copies compared to the boys’ 147,000. The girls exploded with joy, as they were showered in ticker tape, while the boys had to half-heartedly comfort each other. But the girls had little sympathy for their cocky rivals. ‘The boys had been bigged up so much and then they didn’t actually get it,’ Nicola