Promoter recalls Cheryl Cole’s road to stardom

Mar 7 2010 by Lisa Hutchinson, Sunday Sun

“Cheryl was getting work all over the North East by this time. She was loving it and everyone loved her. She was a natural.

“At the age of about 14 or 15 she did the Smash Hits Roadshow at Newcastle City Hall. She was great again. She started to bill herself as just ‘Cheryl’ and she was getting better and better known in the area.

“I left the company after that but I know at this stage promoters from elsewhere in the country were getting interested in her.”

Rod remember’s Cheryl’s mum Joan as a strong, determined woman who was determined to give her daughter the best start in life.

He hopes the confidence she learned from her mother will help her through her current marriage problems.

He said: “I’m sure she will get through it, I sincerely hope so. She should surround herself with her proper friends and her mum. Together they will pull through.”

Another of Cheryl’s supporters when she was young is ex-model agency boss Pat McIntosh.

Pat, who won the Miss Great Britain title as Pat Morgan in 1978 and ran the Pat Morgan Model Agency in Jesmond, Newcastle, had Cheryl on her books as a youngster.

Even as a toddler Cheryl was a professional and never let Pat down when she was needed on modelling jobs.

“Cheryl was on my books between when she was four and eight years old, right up until I closed the agency,” said Pat, 49, of Ryton, Gateshead.

“You could tell that Cheryl was going to be a star, right from day one. She was brilliant at fashion shoots because she was great in front of a camera. She wasn’t one of those kids that would cry half way through or would change their minds and didn’t want to do it any more.

“I knew she was going to make it big, not in modelling because she was tiny, but she was a fantastic dancer and a great singer.

“Because of her striking looks she would stand out when clients were looking for a child for modelling jobs.

“Her mum was great too. She always got her to the jobs on time, with no fuss, they were always so professional.”

Pat, who is club champion at Tyneside Golf Club in Ryton, added: “Cheryl is a fighter and she will get through her marriage problems. It is a shame she has to do it in the glare of publicity. But you have to take the good with the bad I suppose when you are in the spotlight.

“She obviously loves him but it seems his love isn’t as strong for her. It appears that a cheating husband is a hazard of marrying a footballer.”