Posted onWritten bySarahIsABabeComments Off on Night Sky Nightwear range from Primark
The PJs and nightshirt are on Primarks website, you can’t order online but you can check the stock in your local Primark
These PJs are a stargazers dream! Made from comfy cotton, this long sleeve pyjama set features a button through shirt and wide-leg trousers with an elasticated waistband and drawstring ties. We love the all-over starry night print and the baby pink piping, as well as the thoughtful quote featured on the back, stating that ‘the darkest nights produce the brightest stars’, which we think finishes them off beautifully. They’re a wintery night essential we wouldn’t be without. Time to relax in ultimate comfort.
This product is part of an exclusive two-piece pyjama range, available in the UK and Ireland. Dedicated to the memory of Sarah Harding, 50% of the sales from these products will go to the charities, Cancer Research UK and The Christie Charitable Fund. Proceeds will raise awareness, and fund research and support services for those affected by cancer.
Posted onWritten bySarahIsABabeComments Off on Girls Aloud Primark
Cheryl said: “Before Sarah passed away, we promised her we would fulfil her wish of raising money for vital research to help determine young women between the ages of 29 and 40 who could be at risk of breast cancer with no genetic history. This campaign with Primark will raise a significant amount of money to help us achieve our promise to her.”
Kimberley added: “It feels really emotional the four of us coming together to honour Sarah’s fundraising wishes. We really hope we can do her proud and raise as much money as possible. As well as raising funds, Cheryl, Nadine, Nicola and myself will continue to do everything we can to help raise awareness and encourage people to have regular check-ups.”
Nadine said: “We’re grateful to Primark for this opportunity and for all the money they will be donating in Sarah’s name. Sarah would have loved this nightwear range so much and we hope the Girls Aloud fans will too. We miss Sarah every day and we’ve come together to support this crucial cause because it will always be something close to all of our hearts.”
Lastly, Nicola expressed: “The overwhelming donation from Primark has meant we are well on our way to achieving our promise to Sarah. We feel a sense of responsibility to honour her wish to raise money that could prevent other women finding themselves in the terrifying situation she was in. To take on this baton is nothing short of a privilege. We really hope everyone loves the nightwear collection and will join us in raising as much money as possible.”
Sizes range from XS to XL and retail between £14 to £18, which is a bargain! So head down to your nearest UK and Republic of Ireland Primark stores from Sunday, 1 October, and grab yourself a new set of pyjamas for the long winter months ahead while also spending your hard-earned cash on a good cause.
50% of proceeds from the Primark collaboration will go to supporting Cancer Research UK and The Christie Charitable Fund for Sarah Harding. A minimum commitment of £500,000 will be given in equal portions to these charities to support funding Dr Sacha Howell’s vital research project at Sarah’s request.
Dr Sacha Howell, Sarah’s doctor, said: “Sarah spoke to me many times about breast cancer research and was keen for more to be done to find out why some young women are diagnosed when they have no other family members affected by the disease. We want to find out why young women in their 30s like Sarah might develop breast cancer so we can more accurately identify people with a higher risk and improve their chances of survival.”
That’s not all, as Primark will also donate £100,000 to Breast Cancer Now in the UK as part of the broader Breast Cancer Awareness campaign. At the same time, in Ireland, the budget high street retailer will support The Irish Cancer Society, with 50% of sales of the Girls Aloud nightwear being donated and a €50,000 donation to The Irish Cancer Society to help fund cancer awareness, services, and research.
Posted onWritten bySarahIsABabeComments Off on Nadine Tweets More Support For Sarah
Nadine took to twitter again last night to show support for Sarah, its so nice to see one of the GA girls making the effort to support Sarah and her journey in CBB.
I am so far behind on Sarah’s show. What is happening? I need a major catch up session!! Xx
Sarah looked and sounded amazing and she seemed to really enjoy herself, Sarah has such love for the LGBT community and that really did show on Sunday.
Posted onWritten bySarahIsABabeComments Off on Girls Aloud: the surprising stories behind 8 of their biggest hits
With an astonishing 20 consecutive top ten hits, 4.3 million singles sold and 4 million albums, Girls Aloud are the biggest-selling girl group of the 21st century.
But what are the stories behind the band’s biggest hits? Who was offered their breakout hit ‘Sound of the Underground’ first? Which Girls Aloud single gave Cheryl Cole “goosebumps” and which hit nearly didn’t make the album? We’ve delved deep into the group’s history to find out some surprising facts…
1. ‘SOUND OF THE UNDERGROUND’
Following their formation on Popstars: The Rivals, the girls were pitted against fellow contestants One True Voice for the 2002 Christmas No. 1 spot. From those first whirring guitars and the faux drum-and-bass beats, it was clear which song would nab the crown: it catapulted Girls Aloud from reality-show winners to a fully fledged pop entity.
What you may not know about the song is that the track had, in fact, already been recorded by short-lived London-based girl group Orchid, whose vocals are allegedly still present in parts of the chorus. And according to Cheryl Cole: Her Story, an unauthorised biography of the Geordie singer, Samantha Mumba turned down the opportunity to record the song, too.
Her loss, as ‘Sound Of The Underground’ spent four weeks at the top of the charts, selling over a half a million copies in the process.
2. ‘NO GOOD ADVICE’
Released as the follow-up to ‘Sound of the Underground’, ‘No Good Advice’ continued down the trajectory of scuzzy guitars, pop production and spunky vocals that would pepper the band’s discography throughout their career. However, this wasn’t always the case. In fact, originally the song was set over a rave backing track and mutated after some tweaks from the Xenomania musicians.
The track originated in the late ’90s, when Xenomania’s Brian Higgins and Miranda Cooper, under the moniker Moonbaby, were signed to London Records, the home of All Saints. However, shortly after being signed, things went pair shaped, and the label went bankrupt. The song’s lyrics deal with the strained relationship between the duo and the defunct record label, which, strangely, would later mirror Girls Aloud’s own relationship with their then manager, Louis Walsh.
However, Cooper and Higgins aren’t the only writers to feature on ‘No Good Advice’. In fact, Lene Nystrøm, from the Danish-Norwegian group Aqua, also has a co-write on the track.
3. ‘LIFE GOT COLD’
The Oasis-like track nearly didn’t make the group’s debut album. Producer and writer Brian Higgins claimed that he didn’t think that the band could master such an emotive song, but changed his mind once he heard their version, claiming: “They really nailed the melancholic aspect of it, and it sounded beautiful.” The song was one of the final few added to the group’s debut album and, according to Nicola Roberts, was the group’s favourite song on the collection.
4. ‘LOVE MACHINE’
Released as the second song from Girls Aloud’s sophomore album What Will The Neighbours Say, ‘Love Machine’ is perhaps one of the group’s most distinctive and memorable songs, and even got indie thumbs up from then-newcomers, Arctic Monkeys.
According to the liner notes of the mighty Girls Aloud Singles Box Set, ‘Love Machine’ was written via a method Xenomania have of writing songs where they would sing nonsense lyrics over a backtrack and see what became of it. The Smiths supposedly inspired the backing track.
In Girls Aloud’s autobiography, Dreams That Glitter: Our Story, Nicola Roberts recalls how the song was recorded in 18(!) parts over three days, and how there was debate around releasing the now iconic song as a single (Sarah Harding wanted ‘Deadlines & Diets’, apparently).
In an interview with trendy fashion magazine Ponystep, Brian Higgins claimed that Girls Aloud’s label requested that Xenomania write and produce all of Girls Aloud’s second album, otherwise they weren’t “going to do this group any more”.
5. ‘BIOLOGY’
Without doubt, ‘Biology’ is the song that woke the rest of the world up to the power of Girls Aloud. In fact, The Guardian called the track “the best pop song of the last decade”, while notoriously indie US music site Pitchfork placed the song at 245 on the ‘Top 500 Tracks of the 2000s’, despite the band never truly achieving success in the United States.
Speaking of the song’s conception, Miranda Cooper said: “‘Biology’ was just that little piano hook at the beginning, but I remember it probably took two years to work out how to come out of that intro, what it would go into.” Similarly, the song’s line about “Wicked games”, was actually inspired by a discarded cover of Chris Isaak’s iconic melancholic song ‘Wicked Game’, which Girls Aloud had recorded. It also takes nearly two minutes for the song to reach its chorus.
In 2006 Brian Higgins claimed that ‘Biology’ was his favourite Xenomania track. Speaking to trade publication MusicWeek, he said: “I heard the intro and I knew that was a hit, although it was only five seconds.”
6. ‘SEXY! NO NO NO…’
Ever wondered why ‘Sexy! No No No…’ sounds like three songs mashed together? Well, that’s because it is. However, according to Brian Higgins, “‘Sexy! No, No, No’ sounded ridiculously challenging because we thought that radio wasn’t going to play them anyway. It was like two fingers up to everybody. You’re not going to play them on the radio, anyway, so we’ll give you something that you couldn’t play.”
7. ‘CALL THE SHOTS’
In a list compiled by Billboard, Girls Aloud’s ‘Call the Shots’ was named the most underrated song by a girl group. Despite this, the song still managed to peak at number three in the UK. Originally intended as the lead single from the group’s first greatest hits collection The Sound of Girls Aloud, it was deemed too “downbeat” and was eventually released as the second single from Tangled Up, the band’s fourth album.
Speaking to The Guardian, songwriter Miranda Cooper stated that ‘Call the Shots’ was inspired by an article named after Miranda Hobbes from Sex and the City, which investigated how women were earning more than men.
The track was begun during a sojourn Xenomania took in Paris while Girls Aloud were off filming their fly-on-the-wall TV show The Passions of Girls Aloud, but took nearly two years to finish.
8. ‘THE PROMISE’
Released in the latter half of 2008, ‘The Promise’ was only the second Girls Aloud lead single to debut at number one. Somewhat helped by Cheryl’s stint as a judge on The X Factor, the song was a sonic departure for the group, and won them their first BRIT award.
The instrumental for the track was co-written by two Australian writers from camp Xenomania, Jason Resch and Kieran Jones. Speaking of the writing process, Cooper said: “Brian was so sure it was going to be a huge hit that we literally planned the day that we would be writing this ‘number one’. I think that was obviously when we’d had a lot of success and we were very confident.”
The song was written in seven minutes on a sunny Thursday, but the day before the song was due to be submitted to the label they re-recorded the entire backing track. Cutting it pretty fine…
