Cheryl Cole: Her Story - the Unauthorized Biography Read Online Free PDF Page B

right life to lead.’
    While her honesty shocked the media, John’s mum was only too proud that Cheryl had spoken out and was backing her campaign to stamp out drugs.
    ‘To hear her speak out about drugs like that was fantastic for us and I just wish more celebrities would do it because they’re role models to people,’ she told the Chronicle. ‘This just shows how down to earth she is and how she’ll never forget her roots. She’s done well for herself and lives down in London but made sure she got in touch when he died. As she said, heroin is the devil’s dust, and that’s why we decided we had to do something. We said from the start that if we could save one life by starting the campaign it’d be worth it.’

_____ Chapter 5
WANNABE POPSTAR
    As Cheryl reached her late teens, romance was beginning to play a larger part in her life, but, ever ambitious, she remained focused on becoming a star. At sixteen she decided the best way she could concentrate on kicking off her career was to leave school and forget about further education; a decision that her father Garry wasn’t all that happy about. ‘I told her that I thought she should go to college so she had something to fall back on,’ he remembered on the E4 documentary series Girls Aloud: Off the Record in 2006. ‘But she said I would be eating humble pie when she got on Top of the Pops and I have to admit I’m eating a big slice of humble pie now.’
    Cheryl was determined to prove to her father that she’d made the right decision. She knew that she had what it took to make something of herself; she just needed a lucky break. Fortunately, things seemed to go well for her as she was swiftly signed to a management company at Metroland in Newcastle (attached to the Metro Centre), the largest indoor funfaircomplex in Europe. While it might not sound like the most prestigious of venues, the Metroland was the perfect place for breaking in new talent, with up to 20 million visitors a year. The complex was also the place where local kids could get to see their favourite music acts on stage, as well as offering up-and-coming local talent the chance to perform in front of an audience. Having been signed up by the company’s management team, Cheryl was now on the way to fulfilling her dream of singing.
    Over the next few months, the plucky songstress gigged at the complex on a regular basis, running through a couple of new songs a night. Singing to as many as a hundred people at a time, she took her job very seriously and planned her stage routines meticulously. In the daytime, she’d spend hours rehearsing at the Newcastle Dance Centre so that her moves were tight and slick. The centre’s principal, Michael Conway, who had first taught Cheryl when she was ten, knew that she had what it took to take her talent to the next level. And as the man who had previously taught such superstars as Ant & Dec and Donna Air, he clearly knew talent when he saw it. ‘Cheryl always wanted to be a star,’ he told the Mirror. ‘She had charisma and lots of talent but she also worked very hard to learn her routines.’
    Michelle Heaton, who found fame in the original Popstars TV show and was one-fifth of the band Liberty X, remembers meeting Cheryl several times on the Metroland circuit. ‘I first met Cheryl when I was about eighteen and in a band called Inside Vision,’ Michelle recalls. ‘We’d both been signed up by the same management company at Metroland so we used to cross paths whenever we were gigging at the same time. She wasvery cute, and of course gorgeous, and you could see the boys in the crowd going wild for her whenever she performed. She sang all the latest R&B and hip-hop tunes that were popular at the time. She loved R&B and she’d wear dungarees and trainers and look very much the fly girl.
    ‘Needless to say, with her gorgeous face and big smile, she went down a storm at shows and when she supported boy band Ultimate Kaos, she managed to outshine them and