Sunday, April 17, 2011 at 1:05 AM

'My father is dead to me - I can't forgive him': The world according to Sarah Harding

By Piers Hernu

Last updated at 2:20 AM on 17th April 2011

The Girls Aloud singer on family rifts, working hard, why her partying days are behind her and fighting Boy George

'I have my regrets over the past - I have behaved recklessly before,' said Sarah Harding

As one-fifth of the UK’s most successful ever girl group – Girls Aloud – Sarah Harding has been a fixture in the charts and newspaper showbiz columns since winning a place in the band in ITV’s Popstars: The Rivals in 2002.

Brought up in Staines and then Stockport, Greater Manchester, Harding stopped going to school at 15 after her session-musician father left her mother. Working in a succession of dead-end jobs, she pursued her singing ambitions at night, performing in clubs around the North West, until she decided to audition for the ITV talent show.

Twenty consecutive UK top ten singles (including four number ones) later, Girls Aloud are currently on hiatus while each member pursues her own interests. For 29-year-old Harding this has meant acting – most recently in St Trinian’s 2 – embracing her entrepreneurial side by opening a nightclub and getting engaged to her DJ fiancé, Tom Crane.

Fame is popping into M&S to buy a sandwich, and looking round to see the window covered with big camera lenses.

I love performing, but I don’t like the fame that goes with it. Fame is more intense than anyone expects. I remember a particularly difficult day when I was filming a scene for St Trinian’s at Liverpool Street Station. The place was packed and every two minutes I had camera phones thrust in my face or people trying to get my autograph between takes. On top of that there were lots of paparazzi too, trying to get pictures of me in the hot pants I was wearing for the scene. There was nowhere to escape from the public glare and I felt really overwhelmed and started freaking out.

Anyone wanting to be famous needs to think long and hard about it.

You have to be a very strong, positive character to deal with all of the knock-backs on the way up, and you have to take them all as part of the learning curve that will ultimately help you succeed. If you do become famous then your whole character will be open to scrutiny, and if you’re not strong enough to handle the pressure then the results can be quite horrible.

'You have to be a very strong, positive character to deal with all of the knock-backs on the way up, and you have to take them all as part of the learning curve that will ultimately help you succeed'

I’ve always been a proper grafter.

I’ve been a barmaid, a hairdresser, a pizza delivery girl, and I even worked in a car park once. But whatever job I did I always had my head in the karaoke songbook, learning songs to sing in the evening. After work I’d drive to a club and belt out a few standards for 45 minutes, get paid £30, which would just about cover the petrol and hiring the PA, then drive home and be back at work the next morning. You have to work hard to get anywhere in life – nothing will be handed to you.

My father is dead to me – I can’t forgive him.

After he and my mother divorced, he wasn’t a very nice person, and what’s done is done. Looking back, I think the split was more destructive and destabilising than I realised, because I started bunking off school and getting into trouble. I know it’s harsh, but I have no place in my life for someone like that. I came close to being in contact with him again, but he talked to the press and tried to sell pictures of me as a young girl. He’s a very selfish man and as far as I’m concerned he’s gone.

I’ve grown tired of all the partying.

Nowadays I only go out in London maybe once a month – the rest of the time I lock myself at home with my dog and cat and I cook. I have my regrets over the past – I have behaved recklessly before. I’m a social animal, I love an audience and when I’m out and about I play up when people egg me on. I was just doing what most girls in their twenties like to do – the only difference was that I was getting photographed all the time. Most of the pictures people see are horrible ones from the end of the night – there are some nice pictures out there, but they don’t often get shown.

'One reason Girls Aloud were so successful was that we were a bit outspoken. I think people respond to that. Bands today are too scared to speak their minds'

If I was trying to be a successful singer today I wouldn’t stand a chance.

It’s much harder to make it these days than when I auditioned for Popstars ten years ago. For a start there are many more people looking to become famous, and there are also many more programmes along the lines of The X Factor looking to discover new talent. I think this has really upped the ante in terms of quality, and if I were to go back and do it all again I probably wouldn’t stand out enough.

It’s not very rock ’n’ roll, but I now grow my own vegetables.

It’s not until you grow your own tomatoes that you realise how good they can taste. Since moving out of London I’ve become very much a healthy countryside kind of person, and last year I even started a vegetable garden. I got hold of some old wooden barrels and filled them up with leeks, carrots, tomatoes, lemon and lime trees, raspberry plants, garlic, shallots, peppers and chillies. They tasted fantastic. Then the snow arrived early and completely ruined it.

'He's a very selfish man and as far as I'm concerned he's gone': Sarah on her father John Hardman

One reason Girls Aloud were so successful was that we were a bit outspoken.

I think people respond to that. Bands today are too scared to speak their minds. I’m confused by today’s music scene: where have all the guitar bands gone? It’s all very R&B at the moment. When I hear bands being interviewed these days they just say what people want to hear the whole time. I like to see a band going against the grain.

I’m proud I had the courage to have a fight with Boy George.

He had a go at Girls Aloud at a music awards ceremony, saying, ‘They’re just a bunch of pretty girls – I don’t know why they’re here!’ Then we played our last show in Moscow and some of us decided to stay up late in the hotel bar for a celebratory drink. Suddenly in walks Boy George, and because I’d had a few I said, ‘Why don’t you come along to one of our gigs if you’re not too busy sweeping rubbish off the streets of New York?’ I think he found it quite funny as he sat around and had a few drinks with us afterwards.

There’s a lot of suspicion when someone tries to make the transition from singing to acting in this country.

I’d like to act again, and I’ve already had a role opposite an Oscar winner. Colin Firth was in the second St Trinian’s film with me, and I was so pleased that he won an Oscar, because he was a real sweetheart on set. I also did a few scenes with David Tennant, who played the baddy, and I’d always assumed that he was English because of his accent on Doctor Who, so I couldn’t believe he was really Scottish.