It's funny that I have always loved Girls Aloud but it is only now that I truly appreciate them.

In terms of girlbands, I personally (in my own opinion - not saying its factual) are the best girlband to ever come out of the UK.

Little Mix is coming a very close second for me atm because I think their new album is perfection.

Watching the Tangled Up Tour, Out of Control Tour and Ten Tour, I am just in awe at how amazing their shows are. Not only did they have amazing tunes, but they also knew how to put on a proper SHOW.

I like The Saturdays music but they have never wowed me when I've seen their tours. Girls Aloud are on a whole other level.

I agree 100%. They were the most popular they had ever been, their biggest selling single since their debut, their best selling album to date, a sell out 32 date tour that they had to extend from 10 dates due to demand. I believe a new album in 2009 would have led to a stadium tour in 2010.

I don't think it was ever a break either to be honest. They knew they wouldn't be back until 2012 for the anniversary and then announce the split. The "break" was just so they didn't look stupid reuniting after three years

I watched their last tour when it was on a few months ago and it was terrible. I've always thought Nadine was the best but even she was bad.

A bit like The Saturdays and One Direction, they were more known for their celebrity and Daily Mail column inches than their actual music.

To be fair to them they started their career in that strange early 00s period where people had started to download music illegally, but the music industry hadn't created a credible legal download service. We will never know how many sales the acts of that era 'lost' due to illegal downloads. And then when the downloads really took off by the end of the decade, Girls Aloud went on hiatus, which was badly timed IMO they could have at least got another 2 albums out before the Greatest Hits and break-up.

I agree. It still sounds great even though it came out at the end of 2002, when Windows XP and lampshade iMacs were state-of-the-art technology (and XP still is for many people; over a third of computer users are still using it ). Shame most X Factor winners' singles have been crap since. Alexandra Burke's version of Hallelujah is the exception though.

It's a shame as I feel they never fulfilled their maximum potential as their popularity and sales were really shooting up from Tangled Up to Out Of Control. It was no coincidence that they started to emerge as a more mature, slick girl group at this time too and they transformed from "naff" to "credible" as it suddenly became cool to like GA.
They should have released another studio album a year after OOC and it would have likely been their biggest seller (obviously not counting a greatest hits compilation)