Poor sales force axing of Popstars tour

The joint tour of Girls Aloud and One True Voice has been axed because of poor ticket sales, it has been revealed.

The bands, formed in the ITV1 show, Popstars: The Rivals, were meant to be performing 12 concert dates together next month.

But last night Girls Aloud manager Louis Walsh – who was involved in a public spat with the boy band’s manager Pete Waterman over the race for Christmas number one – admitted the tour had been cancelled.

He said the girl band would tour on their own later this year.

He said: “The tour is cancelled but Girls Aloud are doing their own tour at the end of the year without One True Voice.

“Being associated with One True Voice was not doing them any favours.

“They were meant to be touring with One True Voice and the others from the programme, but it wasn’t selling, nobody was buying the tickets.”

The UK-wide tour, which included Wembley Arena, was due to kick off on March 1 at Birmingham NEC.

Girls Aloud’s four-week reign at No 1 was put to an end last month when Fame Academy winner David Sneddon stormed to the top of the singles charts.

The bands were picked by the public to battle it out for a Christmas number one.

While the girls went straight in at the top with their Christmas hit, Sound of the Underground, the boys were comprehensively trounced as their single, Sacred Trust/After You’ve Gone, slipped down the charts.

Today Walsh said: “It looks like the girls are going to be really, really big, internationally as well as the UK.

“Girls Aloud are doing brilliantly and they don’t need to be supported by anyone else.

“The association with the boys was letting them down. The boys are not looking good at all.

“The girls are absolutely delighted. They’re going to be massive. They’re the only Popstars that are going break outside of the UK.”