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don't look down
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This interview will be printed in tomorrow's Mail on Sunday, in the You supplement, with images from her New Look campaign (dailymail.co.uk
Aloud and proud: Why Kimberley Walsh likes to keep it real
Millions of records sold and millions in the bank, star-studded parties, celeb boyfriends…The life of a Girls Aloud star must be a blast. But you won’t find Kimberley Walsh spilling out of the latest hotspot at 3am. The down-to-earth singer (and business brains of the group) tells Liz Jones why she craves a ‘normal’ life.
Kimberley Walsh is describing the moment she needed the loo halfway up Mount Kilimanjaro and the guide had to help out. ‘My hands were so cold I couldn’t pull up my pants properly, so he had to help me. By then I was past caring.’
Was this the hardest challenge she has ever faced? Trekking up a mountain, not being able to go to the loo in private, suffering from the cold and altitude sickness? ‘You can’t get any harsher than that, but we did it. It was amazing. Before we went I had insomnia with the worry. And that’s not like me.’ What kept her going on a trek that, in the end, raised £3.4 million for Comic Relief? ‘It was Cheryl.’
As you get higher the altitude sickness kicks in. I’m a strong person emotionally, I’m not one of those people who cries – if I do it’s a sign something’s really wrong. But on the mountain I was an emotional wreck. I lost my phone, which didn’t even work up there, but it felt like my life had ended. Cheryl was going, “Please calm down because you’re making me more scared.” We helped each other through it. Cheryl and I have been through so many things over the past seven years that climbing the mountain almost felt normal because we were together.’
I wonder what on earth made her agree to the challenge in the first place. ‘It was Gary Barlow. I used to share a room with my older sister and she had all these Take That posters on the wall. When I told her I’d met him she said, “He’s the only person I really care about that you’ve met since you became part of Girls Aloud.”’
Kimberley was too young to be a Take That fan, a fact that makes me feel as old as the hills. ‘Gary is so lovely, he’s really funny. You almost don’t want to make him feel old by saying, “When I was young we had your picture on our wall.” A few times on Kilimanjaro I looked at Gary and thought, “I really want to push you off this mountain for making us do this,” because he was moaning as well, saying, “I can’t believe this, it’s awful, isn’t it?” and I was like, “It was your idea!”’
I wonder, too, how she and Cheryl, surely the most over-made-up, hair-extension and acrylic-nail wearing, miniskirt-donning young women in Britain, coped with not being able to wash their hands, let alone apply eyelash glue. ‘All that had to go. There was no point caring. Try to imagine walking on a piece of vertical concrete, zigzagging for seven hours at minus 30 degrees, the wind nearly blowing you over. It makes you want to cry.’
I tell her I’ve long been a critic of Wag culture, which has surely reached its zenith in Cheryl. I’ve always felt the scantily dressed, over-made-up uniform flies in the face of 40 years of feminism, and makes young women appear weak and girlie. She shakes her head, a mass of 40s-style curls, liberally enhanced with the prerequisite extensions.
‘We dress up because we’re in a band, it’s part of the performance. I never wear a scrap of make-up at home’
‘We dress up because we’re in a band, it’s part of the performance. But just because we look the way we do doesn’t make us weak. I know young girls copy us but that doesn’t mean we think being beautiful is more important than having a personality. I never wear a scrap of make-up on holiday or when I’m at home. My boyfriend [former boy band member Justin Scott] sees two different people: the me with the make-up and the hair, and the normal me.’
It must be hard, though, being unable to leave the house or sit on the beach without fear of being photographed. ‘I was in Hawaii for ten days recently and there was a photographer there the whole time and I had no idea, which I am glad about because it didn’t spoil my holiday. But at the same time I’m like, “God, maybe I should have made a bit more effort,” but you can’t live your life like that.’
Kimberley might look like a glamour puss, but she is no fool. After all, she looks after the finances of the band, as secretary and director of their official company, which, given that they have sold 2.2 million albums, with all their singles reaching the top ten, is a huge undertaking. ‘I am a little bit of a bossy boots, but it’s for everybody’s benefit.’
I do still wonder, though, about the cult of the TV talent show, where young working-class men and women believe their only way out is not through education or years of paying their dues, but by winning a competition. So often, someone of 18 or 19 wails that winning is their last chance, which is ridiculous, given how young they are.
Kimberley got her big break on Popstars the Rivals, an antecedent of The X Factor, in 2002. ‘Before I auditioned for Popstars I was in my third year studying English at Leeds University, but I was always bunking off to go to auditions [she didn’t complete the degree]. If I had felt every audition I went to was my last chance, I wouldn’t have carried on. You have to get used to knock-backs. When I was voted off Popstars, I went back to my job as a waitress. I was only picked in the first place after another contestant was disqualified for being too old. So I know what it feels like to be told no, and I would have carried on trying.’
Kimberley knew she wanted to perform from the age of five, but never felt show business was an easy option. She always had a good work ethic: aged 13, she cleaned a bakery in her home town of Bradford every Saturday from 6am to 2pm. Her dad John used to be in a band, while her mum Diane (her parents are divorced) was a music teacher.
‘My two sisters are actresses and my brother acted a bit when he was younger. I was a quiet, laid-back child, very placid, but when it came to performing I had no fear at all. I had the two different sides.’
Is fame all it’s cracked up to be? How does she manage to stay normal? ‘I’ve got one friend from school, Alix, who is still my best friend. She has supported me throughout my career and she keeps me sane. And I still do normal things such as get the tube, but I get told off.’ By whom? ‘The girls and by the management. They think it might be dangerous, but sometimes I just want to. I took the train the other day up to Leeds to do a breast cancer “high-heel-athon”. Obviously I didn’t dress up and I kept my sunglasses on – and it was fine.’
