Girls Aloud unlock the vault, and unleash three-previously unreleased songs featuring vocals from the late founding member, Sarah Harding.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of What Will The Neighbours Say?, the British and Irish pop favorites drop three freshly-unearthed cuts, “Disco Bunny, “Baby When You Go” and their cover of Chris Isaak’s 1989 hit “Wicked Game,” which was slated for release as a Girls Aloud single in 2005, but was replaced with “Long Hot Summer.”
The group’s second LP peaked at No. 6 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart following its release in 2004, one of their six top 10 albums, a tally that includes two leaders. Brian Higgins, founder of the British songwriting and production team Xenomania, which produced the original collection, returns for the 20th anniversary reissue, which gathers B-sides “History” and “Androgynous Girls,” TV performances, rarities and several covers.
Girls Aloud was a record-setting, pop juggernaut through the 2000s, collecting four Official Chart U.K. No. 1s singles and 21 top 10s. Twenty of those top 10s were consecutive — a feat no female group has come close to matching. The singers etched their place in the record books, the Guinness World Records, which in 2011 declared Girls Aloud as the “Most Successful Reality TV Group”.
The BRIT Award-winning group was assembled for the U.K. TV talent show Popstars: The Rivals in 2002, and released five studio albums (each is platinum certified with 300,000-plus units), before announcing a split in 2013.
Tragedy truck in 2021 when Harding succumbed to breast cancer, at age 39. The surviving members, Cheryl, Kimberley Walsh, Nadine Coyle, and Nicola Roberts, rallied behind their bandmate and friend and kept her memory alive with several campaigns and fundraisers.
The group will play the hits when they embark on an arena tour throughout the U.K. and Ireland this May and June.
Stream What Will The Neighbours Say? (20th Anniversary Edition) below.