IT’S been two decades since Louis Walsh created Girls Aloud on Popstars: The Rivals – but today he reveals: “I never wanted them.”
The talent show veteran claims all-female bands are dogged by friction, body obsession and — in a thinly veiled dig at his long-time nemesis Cheryl Tweedy — a desperation to become Wags.
Louis, 69, was a judge on the 2002 ITV series that saw hundreds of hopefuls battle to win places in a girl group and boy band, before the two were pitched against each other in a race for the Christmas No1.
He said: “I thought I was going to get a boy band — I was convinced.
“And they gave me the girls. I didn’t want them.
“Girls don’t like each other in bands — it’s very simple. They all want to be the lead girl.
“They all want to go out with the footballer. They all want to be the skinniest.
“Just look at the Sugababes, any line-up they had, and they were brilliant. So I had these five girls in Girls Aloud and we thankfully found this great song, Sound Of The Underground.”
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Popstars: The Rivals was hosted by Davina McCall and included DJ Dr Fox, former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell and Pete Waterman as judges.
Super-producer Pete was charged with moulding Girls Aloud’s rival boy band, One True Voice, but the lads’ track, Sacred Trust, was beaten to top spot by the seminal Sound of The Underground.
Louis said: “Pete thought he was gonna win with his band . . . he hasn’t really talked to me since.
“He took it really badly. He’s not a good loser.”
The Irishman, who had already managed huge bands including Westlife and Boyzone, took things less seriously.
He only signed up for the TV talent contest when a producer offered a juicy pay deal.
He said: “I didn’t want to be on TV, I was happy managing bands. I was making good money as a manager.
“Then he offered me a load of money and I said yes. It was to do something that I liked doing anyway.”
The stark honesty of Louis and his fellow judges was key to ensuring the show was huge hit.
But Louis reckons the days of telly talent shows are numbered.
Speaking on the White Wine Question Time podcast, he said: “The shows are never going to be as good as that again. It was real, it was funny, it was everything.
“Everything is too woke and too perfect now. Everyone is afraid to have an opinion.
“I couldn’t do it because I don’t have a great filter, I like to say it as I see it.
“You know the people at home are thinking the very same thing as you.
“It’s boring now — everyone is wonderful and you’re going to be a star and all that.
“I mean, they’re not going to be a star, you know?”
“I think people have to be honest. I like to say it like it is. People either have it or they haven’t got it.”
While One True Voice quickly faded into obscurity after the show ended, Girls Aloud proved they had genuine star power.
Cheryl, 38, Nadine Coyle, 37, Nicola Roberts, 36, Kimberley Walsh, 40, and Sarah Harding, who died of cancer last year aged 39, had seven hugely successful years.
They enjoyed 20 consecutive Top Ten hits — including four No1s — and sold more than 4.3million singles and four million albums in the UK.
The limelight also turned Cheryl into a superstar in her own right.
After marrying former footballer Ashley Cole, 41, in 2006, she launched a solo career.
In 2008 she joined the ranks of TV judges too — alongside Louis on The X Factor, a show Popstars: The Rivals helped spawn.
If viewers thought Popstars was harsh, the new show was often plain brutal — and there was not much love lost between the Irish manager and Cheryl, either.
In a sign that such shows struggle to exist in our politically correct world, ITV last year confirmed The X Factor has been officially axed.
But Louis defends the no-nonsense approach of a series loved by millions, and the approach of its leading star, Simon Cowell.
He said: “The one thing about Simon, he was honest.
“People might not have liked that, but it’s very hard to make it in this business even if you’re good.
“Working with Simon was fun. He’s fun — and not just the way he dresses. And the hair.”
But he says that even Simon — once the most feared panellist on the show — has mellowed in his old age.
And anyone who watched him on Britain’s Got Talent would agree he does not seem quite as mean as he used to when The X Factor launched.
Louis, who has known Simon for decades, believes the change is down to his relationship with fiancée Lauren Silverman, 44, and becoming a dad to son Eric, eight.
He said: “Lauren has been really good for him and she’s kept him on the straight and narrow. She’s looking after him. I think having a baby helped an awful lot, too.
“I thought he was good at the weekend on Britain’s Got Talent, he’s got his mojo back.
“He’s a force of nature and there’s nobody like him.”
Louis still laments the passing of X Factor, which saw him develop an incredibly close relationship with fellow judge Sharon Osbourne.
But the programme, which last aired in 2018, was often criticised for trying to appear “real” when so much of it was thought to be orchestrated.
He said: “It was all real. Everyone thought we were in on who was getting voted out and what category.
“We didn’t know anything and that’s what made the show so amazing.
“At the end of the night, it was, ‘Who’s in the bottom two? Who’s going to be voted home?’.
“I mean, we took it so seriously, and it was great — we had a brilliant time.
“Sharon and me, we bonded. Simon kept to himself, he was the big star, it was his show, but it was an amazing time.”
Even if The X Factor era is over, Louis still hankers after creating more artists, just as he has for more than half a century.
It is hard for him to go cold turkey on managing bands when he worked with two of the biggest pop groups of recent times.
Westlife, who Louis formed with Simon in 1998, have sold more than 13million albums in the UK and had all seven of their first singles go to No1.
Meanwhile, Boyzone, who were launched five years earlier, had five No1 albums.
So after two years going stir crazy at home during the pandemic, Louis is now trying to create a new boyband in his native Ireland.
He said: “I auditioned over a thousand people and ended up with five amazing young boys and they all sing and they’re really, really brilliant.
“I don’t even have a name for them.
“They’ve been in the studio with (producer) Brian Higgins and he did Sugababes and Girls Aloud.
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“We think we’ve got five or six hits already.
“I’ve had a great life so far but I don’t want it to end yet — I want some more hits.”
GIRLS ALOUD
Heyday: 2002 – 2009
Record: Most successful British girl group of 21st Century
High: Winning a Brit Award in 2009
Low: Splitting up acrimoniously in 2009
Outstanding lyric: “You may be disinclined, to find the love we’ve left behind. So kiss me then make up your mind.”
Solo star: Cheryl Cole – five No 1 singles, now worth £20m
ONE TRUE VOICE
Heyday: Dec 2002 – Aug 2003
Record: Shortest-lived boyband of the the 21st Century
High: No 2 with Sacred Trust
Low: Splitting up after two singles and zero albums
Outstanding lyric: “If I had Shakespeare’s way with words, I would write a sonnet, put your name upon it.”
Solo star: Matt Johnson – who sang in jails to inmates handcuffed to chairs
