Cheryl Cole: Her Story - the Unauthorized Biography by Gerard Sanderson Read Free Book Online Page A

choreographer, the boys and girls were tested on how good and fluid they were on the dancefloor. At the end of that, a second handful of unfortunates was culled.
    Thankfully, Cheryl, with her years of dance expertise, sailed through easily. However, over the next day, her confidence was given a knock when Geri decided that she and fellow hopeful Emma Beard were too similar-looking to be in the same band. The girls were asked to show off their dance skills to see which one could bring more to the future band. Emma commented afterwards that she thought she stood no chance against Cheryl, who she knew had been taught dance from an early age. Both performed so strongly, however, that for the time being the pair were both allowed to carry on through the competition.
    For the next two days, the competitors underwent further intense vocal and dance training, then eventually Pete, Louis and Geri sat down and decided which of the lucky few would make the all-important final thirty. The week had proven to be a tough one for Cheryl, emotionally and physically. Even though she had excelled at dance and shown herself to be a capable singer, she couldn’t help but think that perhaps thejudges would see something else, something more in one of the other contenders.
    The nervous fifty were called in to see the judges one at a time. Each had to enter one of two rooms, where either Pete Waterman or Louis Walsh would be waiting for them, and make an agonizingly long walk to take a seat in front of a judge, in what was referred to as the ‘green mile’. Then Pete or Louis would pass judgement, either crushing or giving life to the dreams of the eager youngsters.
    When Cheryl strode across the room, tears were already streaming across her face. ‘It’s been so emotional,’ she explained to Louis as she sat down in front of him. After a little beating about the bush, Louis broke the news she’d been dying to hear – she was through to the final fifteen girls. Cheryl was ecstatic and no longer cared that tears were rolling down her cheeks, because now they were tears of joy. But still she didn’t let herself lose grip of reality. She knew the journey wasn’t quite over yet: the fifteen girls had to be further whittled down to ten, a decision that the judges would make between themselves, based on the auditions so far.
    With the week of workshop auditions finally over, it was time for everyone to say their goodbyes to each other, not yet knowing which goodbyes were for good. And what better way to do so than by throwing an end-of-week party. Of course, this wasn’t their first night of partying. All through the week, a handful of hardcore contestants had taken to commandeering someone’s room at the Thistle Hotel near Hyde Park in London and cracking open a few beers.
    ‘The parties were wild,’ contestant and eventual member of One True Voice Jamie Shaw recalls. ‘There weren’t any drugsinvolved but plenty of booze. And everyone was sexually frustrated so there was lots of snogging going on behind closed doors.’ The young pop wannabes partied hard, sometimes drinking straight through to the morning. However, as a result of their wild late-night revelry, many would wake up the next morning with sore heads and croaky voices; the guilty were always detected by the judges who could spot a hangover a mile off.
    But this final night was a massive blow-out. Without a care in the world, the rowdy gang, relieved that they no longer had to prove themselves to the judges, hijacked the hotel bar and in a few hours practically drank its contents. Cheryl was just so pleased that she could finally relax and not have to worry about learning dance moves or hitting the right notes until she found out whether she had made it through to the next stage.
    As the evening progressed and the booze continued to flow, Cheryl caught the eye of fellow contestant Jacob Thompson. A handsome carpet-fitter from Leicester, Jacob was a popular competitor who, with