Kimberley Walsh

January 2013

IT is a silly idea but she’s up for it.

“When I next go to Nottingham I’m going to ask the driver to go via Kimberley,” laughs Kimberley Walsh, who promises to tweet a photo of her next to the town sign.
“I have heard of it because someone on Twitter mentioned that it was an actual place. I need to go and check it out.”
The Girls Aloud singer has been this way numerous times with the girl group but even before that she made trips down to the city from Bradford.
“My best friend went to uni there so I stayed with her a few times. I like Nottingham a lot. You can have a good night out there.”
Does she remember any?
“Well they wouldn’t be that good if I could remember them, would they? And these were in my student days so... not really.”
She adds: “Obviously we toured there every time we went out and always had great experiences.”
It’s the reason she will be back in March, for the Girls Aloud tenth anniversary.
“We always knew that we were going to come back, we just didn’t know when it was going to be,” says the 31-year-old, who hadn’t toured or recorded with Cheryl Tweedie/Cole, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Nadine Coyle since the group announced they were taking a year off in 2009.
They had planned to return a year later but apart from two shows supporting Coldplay with Jay-Z at Wembley Stadium, it wasn’t until the end of last year that they announced another greatest hits album and tour, along with Something New, the official charity single for Children in Need.
“I guess we’ve been lucky enough to be able to pick and choose when that would be,” she says of the reunion.
During the extended sabbatical, each of them pursued solo projects, from music and acting to, well, becoming a brand, in Cheryl’s case.
“I stayed in touch with all of them but I probably see Cheryl and Nicola the most,” says Kimberley, who spent the break from the group working in musical theatre.
“Cheryl lives nearby and Nicola and I do a lot of dinners. We make the effort to see each other, I guess. We’re quite sad, really,” she laughs.
“You’d think we’d have seen enough of each other.”
The 21 date tour, dubbed Ten: The Hits Tour, which comes to the Capital FM Arena on March 19, isn’t necessarily the first of many, she says.
“We will do the tour and see how we feel. If we want to do another album, we will. If we want to take a break and do stuff on our own again, we will. That’s how it’s always been for us. It’s not a bad position to be in. We’re quite lucky.”
The girls were put together on Popstars: The Rivals in 2002, an X Factor style ITV show that resulted in the creation of a girl group and a boy band.
Their debut singles were then pitched against each other in the race for the Christmas No. 1. Girls Aloud won with Sound of the Underground. Close behind them at No. 2 were One True Voice with Sacred Trust/After You’re Gone.
While their boy band rivals disappeared before the Easter eggs were hitting the shelves, Girls Aloud went on to become the biggest girl group of the decade, with 22 hit singles, two No. 1 albums, sell-out arena tours and numerous awards.
Rehearsals for the tour started this week.
“We’ve had more than 20 hit singles so it will be a really strong show,” says Kimberley.
“Every song that we do, everyone will know.”
There are no plans for any of the girls to include their solo material in the set.
She says: “I think it’s a novelty, us being back together, so it’s best to just keep it to all of our hits.”
Cheryl Cole (now calling herself simply Cheryl since her divorce from Ashley Cole), had the most success, selling ten million copies of her three solo albums, two of which topped the UK chart. She brought her debut arena tour to Nottingham last October.
Roberts reached No. 17 with her album, Cinderella’s Eyes, while Coyle’s album, Insatiable, failed to reach the UK Top 40.
Although Harding contributed three songs to the soundtrack of the film St. Trinian’s 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold, in which she appeared, she concentrated on acting and lingerie modelling.
Next month Kimberley will release her debut solo album, Centre Stage, a collection of songs from hit musicals.
Why not pop or death metal or dub reggae?
“Hardcore or rap, I know,” she says.
“The most obvious choice would have been to do a pop album but I feel like I’ve had the most amazing experience doing pop music with the girls, so I wanted to leave that where it was.
“And I didn’t really feel I had any burning desire to try and find my own sound. I didn’t really feel like I had that in me.”
Aside from the recent stint on Strictly Come Dancing, Kimberley has spent the last few years in musical theatre.
“When we took the break I went in to the West End and that kind of unleashed the musical beast in me again. That’s where the album came from.”
It was where she started as a child.
“I went to stage school and did a lot of musicals so I really got the bug from a very young age.”
It was while playing Princess Fiona in Shrek in the West End last year that she was approached about recording the album.
“Vocally, I improved a lot and strengthened my voice,” she says.
“The record label came to watch the show and when they suggested this album it felt right.”
The album includes Memory (Cats), Somewhere (West Side Story), On My Own (Les Miserables) and One Day I’ll Fly Away (Moulin Rouge).
“They are all my favourite songs,” she enthuses.
“And I know my stuff. I am a proper fan.”
Vocally it recalls the softer side of Madonna.
“Do you think?,” she says. “That’s not a bad thing.”
There is a possibility she will do a solo tour to promote the album later in the year.
She says: “I would love to do something live but it would need a big band, a mini orchestra and full on Hollywood glamour. I’d want razzmatazz.”
More musical theatre is another possibility.
“I’m happy to do the pop thing and I love what Girls Aloud are about. We really go for it on tour because there are no boundaries. But I’d also love to go back in to the West End at some point and maybe do a bit more acting.”
She appeared alongside Burton Joyce’s Mathew Horne in the 2011 film Horrid Henry, playing Prissy Polly.
“He’s a nice guy,” she says.
He’s from Nottingham.
“Yes, I could tell that from the accent. And he was funny. On film sets there is a lot of waiting around and we managed to entertain each other.”
No, not like that... Kimberley has a long-term boyfriend and the couple only recently returned from Barbados with her family. It was her treat.
“It was their Christmas present,” she says.
“I said ‘I’m sorry, I haven’t had time to get any presents and they were like ‘yeah, I think I’m all right with that’,” she laughs.
“We got a big villa together and it was nice family time.”
Talking of which... marriage and children?
“I’m sick of the peer pressure about the clock ticking!” she laughs.
“I’m not that old really.
“It’s something that I want to do at some point. Kids are important to me, so I’m not going to leave it too long but it’s not really the right time just now.”

Girls Aloud appear at the Capital FM Arena on Tuesday, March 19. Tickets are £42.50 from the box office, call 0843 373 3000 or go to www.capitalfmarena.com.
Centre Stage is released on February 4.

To sound from underground

April 2009

HE hates to say it because it sounds like media schmaltz but Girls Aloud are a nice bunch.
"They're brilliant, they're normal people," says Neal Allen.
"It's a cliche that they're lovely but they are. All very down to earth – they want to do a good job and work hard."
Since the end of last month the 42-year-old has been working with the pop princesses eight hours a day, seven days a week, in a studio in London.
He's their sound engineer and will be with them on their UK tour, including two shows at the Trent FM Arena on May 11 and 12, next month.
Out of sight, Neal will be at the side of the stage controlling the sound that the girls and band hear in their earpieces.
"This is the biggest tour they've ever done and all the dance moves are brand new," he says.
"You're talking 20-odd songs with all new choreography. It's a lot to take in."
And how are they doing?
"The ones that are probably a little bit chatty need that little bit more work when they're doing the choreography," he says, diplomatically.
Neal has also been the sound engineer for the quintet on tour front of house, controlling what the audience hears.
"Out front is easier because you've got one mix. I've got 24. There's the five girls, seven members of the band, and each instrument has its own lines. For example, there are six for the drums alone. So I'm working twice as hard as normal."


Neal Allen, right

Neal has toured the world with likes of Girls Aloud, Estelle and Jamelia as sound engineer but with his PA hire company Merlin, clients have included "everybody bar Kiss".
Westlife, Bryan Adams, Sugababes, Jools Holland, Blondie, Blue, Status Quo... but Kiss is his dream job, having been a lifelong fan.
"I first saw Kiss in 1980. If I ever met Kiss that would be the only time I'd be lost for words, I think."
He toured Australia with James Brown and Estelle.
"He was hilarious," he says of the Godfather of Soul.
"They'd push him everywhere in a wheelchair. Then once he was at the side of the stage it was like he'd had an injection in his feet. He was suddenly really quick on his feet.
"What surprised me was he was quite small. I'm 5'6" and he was smaller than me."
So how did a lad from Hucknall end up working with major names in rock and pop?

His story starts down the mine.
"I was a mining engineer for 15 years and I really enjoyed. If they hadn't shut the pit I'd still be doing it now."
He was an apprentice at Calverton Colliery then Moorgreen and Annesley.
"Then I went all round the country mending machines. Everyone knew me as Merlin, after a band I was in at the time."
When Annesley Colliery was closed he invested money into a PA system and within six months was working with a fledgling opera singer opera – called Russell Watson.
"I wish he'd stuck with opera," he laughs.
"I think he's missed his calling."
Watson was teamed up with Ray Lewis of The Drifters and a DJ and toured around the UK and Europe, with Neal handling the sound production.
"We did Paul Burrell's 40th birthday party, Dennis Irwin's testimonial, we did all sorts. The only time I've been star-struck was meeting David Beckham at Dennis Irwin's testimonial."
One of his apprentices, who had graduated from the sound engineering course at Confetti Studios in Nottingham, was Graham White. He now handles former Destiny's Child singer Kelly Rowland.
Since March 21, Neal has been working with Girls Aloud.
"We haven't had a day off."
He gets back to Hucknall to his wife and six children, aged three to 25, when he can.
On Sunday, he'll be in Nottingham handling the sound at the Concert For Life, the Rock City gig in aid of The Julie Cotton Foundation.
It's to raise money for Billy's Appeal, a charity project to renovate a house near the QMC for families to stay over when their children are undergoing treatment for cancer.
Neal knows only too well the devastation that cancer can wreak on a family having lost his mum to the disease.
His dad, a former miner, was diagnosed with it in September. And his wife has also had treatment.
"A couple of years ago she was in hospital being treated for cancer.
"The same day my son Dylan fell on to a radiator valve that split his eye. So while my wife was in the operating theatre in the City Hospital, Dylan was on the operating theatre in Queen's. And the next day I was working on an INXS gig at Newmarket racecourse."

His wife, Sue, is all clear but still having scans while Dylan is still being treated for the damage to his eye.
"Sue's mum died of cancer. And her dad was one of 11 children who all went the same way."
The concert features Sam Beeton, The Modfathers, The Phonics and many others, including Neal's former band, the Bon Jovi tribute outfit Blaze Of Glory.
It's through the band that he met Mark Cotton from the Julie Cotton Foundation and became involved in the annual fund-raising gigs.
"My biggest dream is a three-day festival at Wollaton Park to raise £1m for cancer charities with bands like Whitesnake and Madness, Girls Aloud and Kylie, then a classical day on the Sunday."
Does he know Girls Aloud well enough to get them to play?
"I'd be surprised if they said no."

Concert For Life at Rock City on Easter Sunday features Sam Beeton, Blaze Of Glory (Bon Jovi), Basketcase (Green Day), The Phonics (Stereophonics), Modfathers (Paul Weller) and Baggy Trousers (Madness), Nottingham's 13th Hour, who won The Confetti Battle of the Bands, The Joe Strange Band, original punks Resistance 77, plus Pistola Kicks, Silent Film Project and Against Spoken Words. Tickets are £10 in advance from Rock City (0871 310 0000), The Old Volunteer in Carlton and Foreman's Bar in Forman Street. £12 at the door. Doors at 5pm.