Archive: Looking back at Attitude issue 251 from 2014, featuring Cheryl Cole, Victoria Beckham and Olly Murs
Our pop-themed extravaganza landed in December 2014 and was bursting with exclusives from British music royalty
Few Attitude cover lines have been as explosive and attention-grabbing as “Nadine’s full of shit”.
The year is 2014, the month is December, and Cheryl Cole – or, as she was then known, Cheryl Fernandez-Versini – or as we affectionately refer to her in the interview, Cheryl Tweedy Cole Fernandez Versini, Toon Princess – is hot off her fifth number one ‘I Don’t Care’, following Girls Aloud’s (second) split the year before.
“When we interviewed Nadine [Coyle] a couple of months back, she said how she hadn’t wanted to break up the band but everybody else broke it up,” we told The X Factor judge.
“She’s full of shit” – Cheryl Cole on Nadine Cole speaking to Attitude in 2014
“She’s full of shit,” replied an outspoken Cheryl, very much in her ‘I Don’t Care’ era. “She was the one who wanted to make a solo record. Which is why we took the hiatus. OK, so do you want us to tell the truth? She wasn’t going to make another Girls Aloud record until she got a solo deal. I feel she held us to ransom. And then made her solo record deal.”
Look: band dynamics are complicated. Look at the Spice Girls. Look at Oasis. Thank the Lord, then, that the girls were able to put aside their differences after band member Sarah Harding was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020. Following Sarah’s death in 2021, the band embarked on The Girls Aloud Show in 2024.
Olly Murs appeared on the cover of Attitude in December 2014
Issue 251 of Attitude, ‘The Pop Issue’, certainly pops: our cover stars were newly minted Rear of the Year award-winner Olly Murs (“I’m looking forward to seeing Dermot O’Leary and rubbing it in his face”) and solo career-forging Jonas Brothers star Nick Jonas (“All my gay friends came to me when I was making my music and said: ‘Your gay fanbase is huge, you should do something to embrace that.’” That he did.)
The issue also chronicled the third annual Attitude Awards the previous October, which were attended by the likes of supermodel Naomi Campbell, Culture Club frontman Boy George, late Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher, ‘Stone Cold Sober’ singer Paloma Faith and TV presenter Jonathan Ross. (The latter two, of course, were recently reunited on The Celebrity Traitors.)
Tom Daley received Attitude’s Man of the Year award at the 2014 Attitude Awards
Accepting the award for Man of the Year, Tom Daley reflected on coming out publicly. “I was tired of people asking questions,” he said. “Hopefully in 10 years, no one will ever have to do this.” We’re not quite there yet, Tom, but we’re getting there!
Elsewhere in the issue, Spice Girls icon Victoria Beckham penned a special message for Attitude readers on a very important topic.
“I want to lend my voice, raise awareness, and raise funds to assist in the fight against HIV” – Victoria Beckham speaking to Attitude
“A few weeks ago, during the United Nations General Assembly, I was honoured to accept the role of UNAIDS Global Goodwill Ambassador,” said Posh. “I want to lend my voice, raise awareness, and raise funds to assist in the fight against HIV and AIDS. On World AIDS Day, 1 December 2014, let us remind ourselves that zero discrimination, zero new infections and zero AIDS deaths will bring us an AIDS-free future. Please be safe, respect yourselves and protect each other.” Well said, VB!
Our favourite feature in the issue came courtesy of Eurythmics legend Annie Lennox, who was actually interviewed again only recently on the Attitude website. She served gravitas and depth in an intensely cerebral interview in which she gives possibly the least generic response of any gay icon ever to the label, before waxing lyrical on the illusory nature of labels generally.
“It really doesn’t matter what your orientation is sexually” – Annie Lennox speaking to Attitude in 2014 about sexuality
“It’s certainly not offensive to me. I will take the compliment, but at the same time, it’s reductive, because I think, ultimately, we all need to be liberated from these labels that say whether we’re gay or straight or whatever. I would like to see a world – which is coming more than it was 20 years ago – where it really doesn’t matter what your orientation is sexually. That’s the planet I live on; it makes no difference to me what a person’s sexual orientation is. There’s a funny evolution that will have to take place, from my perspective, in the so-called gay world, where you don’t even need to say gay or straight anymore because it really doesn’t matter.”
But who should have stolen the issue but your mum’s favourite, James Blunt? Scoring 84 per cent in our ‘How gay are you?’ test, he gamely reflected on all the most insulting tweets he gets.
“I’ve received masses. ‘James Blunt gets on my tits’ stands out as one I get a lot. I replied: ‘and finishes in your mouth.’”
We’re not gonna lie, we’re a little turned on.
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