For the love of our Girl Sarah
Aloud foursome in tribute to singer lost to breast cancer
Girls Aloud shared their personal memories of late bandmate Sarah Harding as they admitted they miss her “electric and wild” side while on the road.
The remaining four members – Cheryl Tweedy, Nadine Coyle, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh – are on tour for the first time since 2013, and the Mirror told last week how they celebrate Sarah, who died from breast cancer at 39 in 2021, as part of the show.
Sarah’s mother Marie Hardman was in the audience as the group paid a heartfelt tribute to her daughter at their Manchester gig last Friday.
Speaking on a two-hour BBC Radio 2 special, the girls all say the one thing they wish they could change was having Sarah back with them now.
Cheryl says: “There’s little moments that you would share with her individually on stage on tour. Where there’s no more Sarah then in that moment and I can’t describe… like, nobody else would know her that way, other than us four.”
Recalling her favourite memory of friend Sarah, 42-year-old Kimberley adds: “For me, I just love, I can see it in my mind whenever I want, seeing her perform Footloose on tour.
“To me, it just epitomises everything about her that was just so electric and wild. And the way she moved, like everything! If I need to feel Sarah that’s what I watch.”
And Nadine, 38, says of memories of Sarah: “Do you know, I had so, so many.
“So many tour ones, so many nights out, so many mornings after the nights out where we would just look at one another like, ‘Are you all right?’
“But, not that long ago… recently I went to see her in Manchester. We went for a night out and I was making friends outside with people and she was banging on just saying, ‘What are you doing just talking to strangers, you can’t be just going talking to strangers!’ I was like,
‘Sarah it’s fine!’
“And then we sat outside just talking to strangers and I sat on her knee.
“I was like,
‘You sit on my knee now’, so we took turns. And we had the best night, just such a laugh, really like old times again. Even though she wasn’t well, she was just so, just Sarah.”
Nicola, 38, says: “I have a really really early one. We were still in the Popstars: The Rivals house. It was bonfire night and me and Sarah desperately wanted to go back up North. We had like one day off the next day. We were like “please”, begging production, so they were like, ‘Fine!’ They got us a car, took us to Euston, I got on my train, she got on her train, and we were like, ‘Bye I’ll see you in a day or so’.
“And then my train stopped at Crewe, pulled up at Crewe and I looked out the window and Sarah was on the platform with her suitcase, and I just looked at her, she looked at me.
“She started waving her arms around,
she was like, ‘Help me, my train!’ And I was like, ‘I’ll help you!’ And then my train slowly starts driving off and I was like, ‘I can’t help you!’ It was just so her to be flustered and in a panic.”
Nadine added: “She was full of energy. She was just so dynamic, she was really loud. She would jump around and run around so you couldn’t not see her.
“Everyone else I think was more shy and reserved and Sarah was like, ‘Let’s get it, let’s do it, let’s go!’”
Despite being incredibly close now, the band think it took several albums before they felt a proper togetherness, having been created as part of the TV reality show in 2002.
Cheryl, 40, says: “Even now, this time around, it’s like us three are mothers and a couple of us are 40...
“You get to know each other in a different way again. I don’t think that ever stops, that evolving.”
Radio 2 host Rylan Clark also asks them about memorable moments on tour, the foursome tell an extraordinary story about how they could have been killed on a previous show.
They were in a piece of staging called The Cage, Nadine recalls, adding: “We were just attached by tiny little seatbelts, holding on to tiny wee bars. And we were like dangling for our lives, and we were like, ‘Is this it, is that where it ends?’
Cheryl adds: “It was the first one, the first arena one [tour]. We were hanging 20 foot in the air.”
And Kimberley explains: “It was like a cage platform thing that lowered. And in the tech, one side lowered and the other didn’t… terrifying.”
Nicola adds: “Because the music was so loud, we were screaming over the mics and no one in production could hear. Kimberly’s hand was sweating and slipping out of mine.”
On the new tour’s opening night in Dublin all four girls visibly struggled with their emotions as they honoured their friend Sarah on stage, singing ballad I’ll Stand By You as footage of her played on screen.
Since Sarah’s death, the girls have raised €1.2million for cancer charities – including The Sarah Harding Breast Cancer Appeal. They play Manchester this weekend and tour through June with gigs in London, Liverpool, Glasgow and other cities.
■ The Girls Aloud Takeover with Rylan, 2-4pm is on Monday, May 27, on BBC Radio 2 and BBC Sounds.
Nadine
She was full of energy, she was just so dynamic... really loud
Nicola
She was like, help! It was just so her to be flustered, in a panic
Cheryl
Moments on tour... no one else would know her that way
Kimberley
I can see it in my mind whenever, her performing Footloose