NEW THE GIRL GROUP THAT TOOK OVER THE WORLD

T H E S T O R Y O F T H E

SPICE
GIRLS
100% UNOFFICIAL

TH
25
ANNIVERSAR
Y OF
D
SPICEWORL
100% UNOFFICIAL

Edition
Digital
EDITION
FIRST

PROFILES | GIRL POWER | LEGACY | & MORE

 WELCOME TO
T H E S T O R Y O F T H E

SPICE
GIRLS
It has been over 25 years since the Spice Girls
- Baby, Ginger, Posh, Scary and Sporty - burst
onto the pop scene and changed it forever. The band
quickly became a global phenomenon thanks to their
catchy and empowering songs, with their message of ‘Girl
Power’ influencing an entire generation. From the early days
to the height of their superstardom and beyond, Story of the
Spice Girls celebrates the extraordinary career, music and legacy
of the all-time best-selling girl group! So, what are you waiting for?
It is time to zig-a-zig-ah!
T H E S T O R Y O F T H E

SPICE
GIRLS Future PLC Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA

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 In the Beginning, page 10

Superstars! Page 42

8
t h e A c t ion, page 6 Going Solo: Geri Halliwe
ll, page 84
A Break in

Reunion & R
evitalised, pa The Legacy, page 116
*6* ge 102
*6*
CONTENTS
008 CHAPTER ONE
THE BEGINNING
010 .................................................................... IN THE BEGINNING
020 ................................................................................. EMMA BUNTON
024 ............................................................................ GERI HALLIWELL
028 ........................................................................... MELANIE BROWN
032 ...............................................................MELANIE CHISHOLM
036 ....................................................................... VICTORIA ADAMS
040 CHAPTER TWO
GLOBAL SUPERSTARS
042 ........................................................................................ SUPERSTARS!
054 ......................................... LET’S GO TO THE MOVIES
058 ..........................................................................................................................SPICE
062 ............................................................................................ SPICEWORLD
066 CHAPTER THREE
A NEW ERA & HIATUS
068 ........................................ A BREAK IN THE ACTION
074 .......................................................................................................... FOREVER
078 CHAPTER FOUR
GOING SOLO
080 ................................................................................ EMMA BUNTON
084 .......................................................................... GERI HALLIWELL
088 ......................................................................... MELANIE BROWN
092 ............................................................. MELANIE CHISHOLM
096 .......................................................... VICTORIA BECKHAM
100 CHAPTER FIVE
REUNION
102 .......................................... REUNION & REVITALISED
110 .................................................................................... GREATEST HITS
114 CHAPTER SIX
LEGACY
116 ................................................................................................ THE LEGACY
126 ...................................................................................... SILVER SPICES
*7*
Image Alamy / Brittany Smith.
CHAPTER
ONE
THE BEGINNING
CHAPTER 1

IN THE
BEGINNING
Let’s take a look at the early days of the
Spice Girls – before fame and fortune struck

Words Dave Smith

W
ANTED: R.U. 18–23 with the ability to sing/dance?
R.U. streetwise, outgoing, ambitious, and dedicated?
Heart Management Ltd. are a widely successful
music industry management consortium currently
forming a choreographed, singing/dancing, all-female pop act for
a recording deal. Open audition. Danceworks, 16 Balderton Street.
Friday 4th March. 11.00am–5.30pm. Please bring sheet music or
backing cassette.” (Advertisement in The Stage, 1994.)
Every phenomenon begins with a vision, and in the case of the
Spice Girls, that vision belonged to a pop manager called Bob
Herbert. An accountant who had been working in the music industry
since 1985, Herbert and his son Chris had come tantalisingly close to
scoring a major hit with the twins Matt and Luke Goss, better known
as Bros. Although the duo quit the Herberts’ organisation, Heart
Management, before going on to experience brief – but spectacular –
fame at the end of the Eighties, Herbert senior was convinced that a
Together in Bali, 1997
space still existed in the market for a major new pop act. By 1994 – a
rather different era, musically speaking, to the previous decade – it
was apparent that that space could be successfully filled by an all-
female group.
Roping in an investor called Chic Murphy, the Herberts placed an
ad in a trade paper, The Stage, stating that they would be auditioning
for a new girl group. The audition, which took place at London’s
Danceworks studios on 4 March 1994, was attended by around 400
wannabe (pun intended) pop stars.
You can imagine how the process worked if you’ve ever watched
The X Factor or American Idol: indeed, the only difference between
those shows and the real-life auditions that formed the Spice
Girls was that there was no audience or celebrity judges. Heart
Management ran groups of ten applicants through a dance routine
accompanied by a playback of ‘Stay’ by the girl group Eternal, before
asking the singers to perform solo.

n a m e during a
and
p g o t their b Angeles
u s
The gro o tour in Lo
* 10 * pro m
 Images (LHP Top Down) Getty Images / Avalon. Getty Images /Joe Sohm/
Visions of America. Getty Images / John Stanton.

different
It’s hard to

could have been

imagine that the
lineup of the Girls

* 11 *
IN THE BEGINNING
 CHAPTER 1

Victoria Adams, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm and Michelle

Stephenson all made it through the first stage, and were invited back
for a second audition in April. Some of the girls knew each other
already from previous, unsuccessful auditions: they were joined by The final lineup
Geri Halliwell at the second round, who persuaded the Herberts to of the Spice Girls:
see her perform although she hadn’t been at the first audition. Geri, Victoria,
Emma, Mel B
After round two, Geri, Victoria, Mel B and Michelle performed one and Mel C
more audition at Nomis Studios in Shepherd’s Bush, joined by Mel
C at the last minute when another singer dropped out. They sang
‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours’ by Stevie Wonder as a band and
then solo, and were confirmed as the successful new members of a
band called Touch.
You’ll have heard the famous story about how the five girls then
moved into a three-bedroom house on Boyn Hill Road in Maidenhead,
Berkshire, which is about an hour’s journey from central London. The
rest of 1994 was key to the brand-new group’s evolution, with their
first songs written for them by Bob Herbert’s associates John Thirkell
and Erwin Keiles, although these were soon discarded. They also
recorded demos at South Hill Park Recording Studios in Bracknell,
produced by the studio owner Michael Sparkes and the songwriter
Tim Hawes, and rehearsed dance routines at Trinity Studios in
Woking, Surrey.
This required a lot of effort, and Stephenson was soon fired by Bob
Herbert for what he described as a lack of commitment. “She just
wasn’t fitting in… she would never have gelled with it, and I had to tell
her to go,” he said. Stephenson went onto a sporadic music and TV
career and contested his claim, stating that she had been distracted
by her mother’s cancer treatment during her time with Touch. The
group’s vocal coach, Pepi Lemer, recommended a former student,
Images (Left to right) Shutterstock. Alamy / TBM / United Archives GMBH.

Mel B auditioning for the new

band

* 12 *
IN THE BEGINNING

* 13 *
 E m m a in 1996
and
Victoria

In Bali, the last stop on th

eir
* 14 * far eastern trip in ‘97
 Emma Bunton, who auditioned for the Herberts and was recruited in
Stephenson’s place.
Although we know now that the classic quintet was in place, the
future must still have seemed uncertain for the members of Touch.
There was occasional progress, for example when they wrote a song
called ‘Sugar And Spice’ with Hawes and changed the group’s name
to Spice, but there were a fair few obstacles, too. When they added a
rap section to one of Thirkell and Keiles’ songs, the latter songwriter
is said to have been furious and ordered the girls to learn to write
songs correctly.
A bigger problem was the relationship between Spice and Heart
Management. Looking back a few years later in an interview with
Rolling Stone, Mel C said; “They had an idea. They just didn’t know
what to do with it,” while Mel B added, “If they’d listened to our ideas,
then maybe it would have been a different story. Our ideas were
flowing so fast.”
Images (LHP Top Down) Alamy / Pictorial Press. Getty Images / Eric Robert.
Victoria chuckled at Bob Herbert’s dress sense, recalling: “Stop
hip-thrusting in your Miami Vice suit… He walked in one day, and he
had a bright-blue suit on and a white shirt and a medallion and some
bright-blue loafers.”
Getty Images / John Stanton. (RHP) Shutterstock.
Herbert himself was interviewed for the same article, and
explained his view of the process: “They’re trying to make out that
they’re ‘girl power’ and made it all themselves, but it’s like cooking.
That’s the analogy I like to use. We put all the basic ingredients in:
provided them with the studios, a house to live in, dance tuition,
writers, paid their expenses. But to make the ingredients work, you
have to get five spices together.”
ABOVE The group during their final showreel to record companies
LEFT Having fun while in Paris
Looking to take the next step in Spice’s career, Heart Management
set up a showcase event at Nomis Studios in December 1994 to
attract songwriters and publishers to the new band. At the event,
the girls met songwriters Richard Stannard and Matt Rowe, and a
creative relationship began. The songs ‘Wannabe’ and ‘2 Become 1’
came from sessions in January ’95, along with ‘Say You’ll Be There’,
courtesy of a third songwriter, Eliot Kennedy.
As Bob Herbert confirmed, the singers all contributed to the new
material: “I think it’s fairly equal. They’d all got ideas for lyrics and
melodies and subject matter. Geri got the idea for the rapping side.
Keeps her away from singing.”
In March 1995, the inevitable split with the Herberts took place. The
Spice members had never signed a contract with Heart Management,
having been advised not to do so, so they simply walked away.
Although they subsequently maintained that the split came because
the managers refused to listen to their ideas, Herbert later revealed
that “it was just one of those business relationships that wasn’t
working” and also that he had been planning to fire one of the group,
who was aware of her fate.
“They may have been a strong enough character to persuade the
other girls,” he said. “You always find the least talented is the biggest
danger in the group” – and although any speculation about who that
* 15 *
CHAPTER 1

Photographed at one of th
e many press events

* 16 *
 IN THE BEGINNING

was building
Excitement for the Spice Girls
before they released their debut

person might be would be beneath us, it’s impossible not to wonder

who Herbert had in mind.
An unresolved nuance is that the group allegedly stole the master
recordings of their songs from the management offices. Tim Hawes
The Spice Girls reportedly said that Geri told him that the singers needed the master
eventually signed
with a new
tapes for rehearsals, and that he never saw them again. This claim
manager, has never been proven.
Simon Fuller The Heart Management phase of Spice’s career finally came to a
close when a new manager, Simon Fuller of 19 Entertainment, paid
the Herberts a settlement, said to be in the £50,000 range. The exact
details were never revealed, and are unlikely ever to come to light:
after enjoying some success with the boy band 5ive, Bob Herbert died
in a car accident in Windsor in 1999.
The day after the split with Heart, Spice met Kennedy and agreed
to write more songs: shortly after, they connected with a record
production team called Absolute. New demos were recorded, and
these were the songs that brought the group to Fuller’s attention.
Now that he was on board, word spread rapidly among record labels
in London and Los Angeles: a five-album deal was signed with Virgin
Records in July 1995.
While on a promo tour of LA, where the group were meeting
industry personnel, band and manager noticed they were being
Getty Images / Dave J Hogan. Alamy / Brittany Smith.

referred to as “the Spice girls”, as in “the girls from Spice”. The name
Images (Left to right) Getty Images / John Stanton.

stuck, and soon they renamed themselves accordingly.

All the new band now needed was a killer first single – a song that
stated, loudly and with total conviction, what they were all about.
Fortunately, the Girls and their songwriting team already had the
perfect song, ready to go.
The question was now simple. Would the public “really, really want”
to hear it?

* 17 *
 The Spice Girls
became the face for
‘Cool Britannia’ – a time
during the ‘90s when
the UK was thriving
both economically
and culturally
Image Alamy / Columbia Pictures/ Courtesy Everett Collection.
 CHAPTER 1

EMMA
BUNTON
Discover more about the life of Baby Spice, from her childhood
and relationships to her charity work and business venture

Words Emily Staniforth

T
he youngest member of the Spice Girls, Emma Bunton
(also known as “Baby Spice”) replaced Michelle
Stephenson, an original member of the band, to become
the fifth member of the girl group. Having been exposed
to the limelight from a young age, it seems as though Bunton was
always intended for a life in the entertainment industry.
Emma was born Emma Lee Bunton on 21 January 1976 to her
parents, Pauline (a karate instructor) and Trevor Bunton (a milkman).
She was their first child, and she later became an older sister to the
Buntons’ second child, Paul James. Emma, Paul and her parents lived
together in North London until her parents divorced when she was 11
Images (LHP Top down) Alamy / Pierre Barlier / Abaca Press. Getty Images / JMEnternational. (RHP Top down) Getty Images /

years old.
Tim Roney. Getty Images / Jeff Spicer. Alamy / Moviestore Collection. Alamy / Spice Productions. Alamy / Ben Curtis.

Seemingly destined to be a star, Emma quickly displayed an

aptitude for being in front of the camera when her good looks
won her a competition, at the age of three, to become the new
face of retailer Mothercare. After that, Emma modelled for several
companies during her childhood.
Emma attended St Theresa’s Roman Catholic School in Finchley,
North London, before she enrolled in the prestigious Sylvia Young
Theatre School, which specialises in performing arts and is notorious
for churning out successful actors and singers. Notable alumni of
the school include singer Amy Winehouse, McFly’s Tom Fletcher and
actress Billie Piper. During her time at the school, Emma met the
future actress and BAFTA nominee, Keeley Hawes, with whom she
went on caravanning holidays.
While a student at Sylvia Young’s, Emma began to audition
for acting roles. She had small parts in both The Bill (1993) and
EastEnders (1992), but would not become a successful actress until
much later in her career. In 1994, Emma became the fifth member

* 20 *
 EMMA BUNTON

Emma is th
e youngest
of The Spic member
e Girls

ABOVE LEFT Emma

was named as a UNICEF
er,
erm partn
UK ambassador in 2014

e r lo n g - t
BELOW Expect
ried h
something pink or Emma mar ones, in July 2021
sweet when it comes to
Baby Spice merch!
Jade J

Emma is a presenter on He
art London radio

* 21 *
 Emma has
co-hosted
various sho
ws

ms
o u r s o lo studio albu
* 22 *
released f
Emma has

of the Spice Girls and her acting career was put on hold. Her singing
career rocketed as the Spice Girls became more and more successful.
Despite the group splitting and getting back together between 1994
and 2008, Emma continued to release music in a solo capacity.
Emma has been romantically linked to a few high-profile
celebrities since she was catapulted to fame. Throughout her time
with the Spice Girls, rumours circulated that Emma had engaged
in a romantic relationship with the group’s manager, Simon Fuller.
Both parties denied that anything had ever happened, although the
allegations might have contributed to the group sacking Fuller. In
1997, Emma was in a brief relationship with the frontman of the boy
band 911, Lee Brennan. A year later, Emma was linked to singer
Jade Jones, a member of the R&B band Damage, for the first time.
Emma and Jones split for a short while, during which Emma is
Image (LHP Top down) Getty Images / Tristan Fewings / Disasters Emergency Committee.
believed to have dated footballer Rio Ferdinand, who she had been
Getty Images / Dave Hogan. Alamy / Moviestore Collection. (RHP) Alamy / Yui Mok.
introduced to by Victoria. Emma and Jones rekindled their romance
in 2000, but split for a second time in 2002. In 2004, they entered into
a relationship once again and Emma announced her first pregnancy
in 2007. The couple’s first son, Beau Lee Jones, was born in August
of that year. In 2010, Emma announced her second pregnancy and
gave birth to another son, Tate Lee Jones, in 2011. Emma and Jones
became engaged in 2011 and were finally married a decade later on
13 July 2021.
Alongside her involvement in the entertainment industry, Emma
launched her business Kit & Kin in 2017. Kit & Kin sells eco-friendly
baby products that are suitable for the sensitive skin of children. The
business’ website states: “We want to take away the stress and worry
EMMA BUNTON
parents often experience when trying to choose the best products for
their family”. Emma has also been involved with several philanthropic
projects that centre around children, including attending the launch
of an anti-child abuse campaign by the National Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) in 1999.
She was later involved with Children in Need when she recorded
and released a charity single, entitled ‘Downtown’, to raise money for
the annual BBC telethon. Emma was made a UNICEF UK ambassador
in 2014 after helping to launch the “Every Parent’s Dream” campaign
in collaboration with Pampers. The project focused on vaccinating
mothers and babies in some of the world’s poorest countries against
tetanus. As part of this campaign, Emma visited Madagascar in 2014
to see the success of the initiative for herself. In 2019, Emma also
launched the tenth annual five-kilometre RBC (Royal Bank of Canada)
Fun Run for Great Ormond Street Hospital, a children’s hospital based
in London.
Emma has also spoken about her experience of endometriosis, a
life-long condition which can cause debilitating pain and infertility.
She was diagnosed at the age of 25 and was told she may not be able
to have children. She told Stella magazine: “That nearly broke me. I
knew I had the right partner; I knew I wanted to be a mum.”
LEFT Emma recording the video for the official 1998 Fifa World Cup song,
‘(How Does It Feel To Be) On Top Of The World’
BELOW Emma attended The Sylvia Young Theatre School in London
* 23 *
 CHAPTER 1

GERI
HALLIWELL
The woman behind the most famous strawberry
blonde locks in the world
Words Dave Smith

I
t’s a fair bet that the staff of Watford General Hospital in
Hertfordshire had no idea that on 6 August 1972, their
town’s most famous resident was about to be born. Perhaps
Ana María Halliwell, a Spanish woman, was a slightly
unusual admission that day, when you consider the resolutely British
demographic of this Home Counties commuter town – but apart from
that, the arrival of her daughter, Geraldine Estelle Halliwell, was just
like that of any other kid.
Geri has cosmopolitan roots: in addition to her Spanish ancestry,
her father, Laurence Halliwell, was of Swedish, Finnish and French
Images (LHP Top Down) Alamy / Isabel Infantes. Getty Images / Dave Benett. (RHP Top Down) Getty Images / Mark Thompson. Alamy /

descent. Her parents divorced when she was young, and she and
Columbia / Courtesy Everett Collection. Getty Images / Tim Roney. Getty Images / Julian Finney. Alamy / Chris leachman. Alamy.

her older siblings – Max, born in 1967, and Natalie, born in ’69 –
appear not to have grown up in luxury. “We had an outside loo, and I
remember waiting outside for my turn to go, and I was staring at an
apple tree. I remember writing my first story about this apple tree,”
she told the Guardian of her council-estate upbringing.
Holidays were few and far between as her mother didn’t have
much money, so Geri added that; “Reading was escapism when
everybody else went on holiday. My parents didn’t go away, so I got
CS Lewis, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Other children went
somewhere else – I just went to Narnia.”
Still, Geri got a decent education, passing the 11-plus exam in 1983
and attending Watford Grammar School for Girls before moving on to
the Camden School for Girls in north London. After completing her
A-Levels in 1990, she spent the next four years looking for a break in
show business, travelling around Europe and doing occasional stints
as a podium dancer, aerobics teacher and barmaid.
The best-known of these short-lived gigs was her role as a TV
host on the Turkish game show Seç Bakalım, the equivalent of
the American show Let’s Make a Deal. She also modelled topless

* 24 *
 GERI HALLIWELL

Geri with her husband,

Christian, and her
three children

ew
ld m o v ie – just a f
Spice Wo r
From the uit
n t h s la t e r, Geri q
mo

Taken while the Spice Girls were in

Paris, September 1996

Geri is pic
tured here
pe
2012 London rforming at the
Olympics

* 25 *
CHAPTER 1

Geri’s later life has

been a relatively
tranquil one of
charity work, TV
jobs and writing

* 26 *

Geri shaking hands wi
th the Queen,
December 1997
i, with her posing
Photoshoot of Ger
ay
as an island castaw
Geri took part in a special epi
sode of
Great British Bake Off in aid
of Comic Relief
GERI HALLIWELL
for the Sun, with the pictures seized upon by the media after she
became famous, and reproduced endlessly ever since. Sadly, her
father Laurence died in 1993, missing out on his daughter’s rise to
superstardom by three years.
Fame appears to have suited Geri, once it appeared, but that didn’t
stop it from taking its toll. When she announced her departure from
the Spice Girls on 31 May 1998, one of the reasons she cited was
depression. Body issues have plagued her from time to time, as is
unfortunately common among young people who live their lives in
the public eye: when she returned with her first solo album in 1998,
she had lost a noticeable amount of weight. She later discussed her
struggles with bulimia: it’s thought that the singer Robbie Williams,
with whom Geri was briefly in a relationship, advised her to seek
medical advice about this condition. In later life, however, she has
resolved these problems.
Geri has done a lot of work for charity, starting with her first
autobiography, 1999’s If Only, whose profits were donated to breast
cancer charities. She has also been a Goodwill Ambassador for the
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) since 1998, and appeared in
a BBC documentary in 2000 called Geri’s World Walkabout, detailing
her work with the UN, where she gave the opening address at that
year’s UN Youth Summit.
In 2005, she began a relationship with the screenwriter Sacha
Gervasi, a British-American filmmaker and musician whose best-
known movie is a comedic documentary about the Canadian heavy
metal band Anvil. While the couple didn’t stay together long, they had
a child together, a girl named Bluebell Madonna, who was born in
May 2006. Victoria and Emma are her godmothers. As we went to
press, Geri and Bluebell had recently appeared on social media, with
the former congratulating her daughter on her GCSE results.
By 2014, Geri had met and begun dating Christian Horner, the team
principal of the Red Bull Racing Formula One team. They announced
their engagement in November of that year and were married on 15
May 2015 at St Mary’s Church in Woburn, Bedfordshire. A year and
a half later their son, Montague George Hector Horner, was born,
named partly in tribute to Geri’s friend George Michael, who had died
at the age of 53 the month before Montague’s birth.
Although another tragedy came on 17 November 2021, when
Geri’s older brother Max died suddenly, her recent life as a mother,
singer and author seems to have been fairly tranquil. Geri turned 50
just as we compiled this publication, and is often seen advocating
for women’s rights, as with her recent partnership with a new,
diverse Barbie doll range from Mattel. Although the crazy days of
the Nineties are receding fast, as they are for the rest of the Spice
Girls, whatever she does next – creatively or personally – will be as
Image (LHP) Getty Images / Tim Roney. (RHP Top Down) Alamy / PA Images.
interesting as ever.
Getty Images / Tim Roney. Getty Images / Comic Relief.
* 27 *
 CHAPTER 1

MELANIE
BROWN
Scary Spice has been through it all – and survived.
Hats off to Mel B…
Words Dave Smith

O
f the five Spice Girls, it’s safe to say that Melanie Brown
– who we all know as Scary Spice, but who has also
been known as Mel B, Mel G and back to B again – has
had the most turbulent ride through fame and fortune.
Sure, she’s the loudest and most opinionated Spice, but you know
what? Those very qualities have helped her through tribulations that
would defeat the rest of us.
Born in Leeds on 29 May 1975, Melanie Janine Brown had a British
mother, Andrea; a father, Martin, from the West Indian islands of
Images (LHP Top down) Getty Images / Mick Hutson. Alamy / Fiona Hanson. (RHP Top down) Getty Images / Tim Roney. Getty Images /

Saint Kitts and Nevis; and a younger sister, Danielle, born in 1981.
Essentially a self-made woman, Mel B has often explained that her
roots were important to her, recently telling the Guardian that “I’m
Comic Relief. Getty Images / Jason LaVeris. Alamy / Columbia / Courtesy Everett Collection. Alamy / Ben Curtis. Alamy.

just a working-class girl from Leeds at heart. Always have been,

always will be; money and success hasn’t changed that. I was born in
Harehills, an inner-city suburb of Leeds, and later we lived in another
part of the city, Burley, but I left home in my early teens and I learned
about life by myself. My first job was dancing in Blackpool.”
A decade or so later, Mel B had become one of the most
recognisable women in the world. Unfortunately, that meant
her personal life soon became a regular feature of the tabloids.
Although a relationship with an Icelandic businessman called Fjölnir
Thorgeirsson in 1996 to ’97 went nowhere, when Mel dated and
married a Dutch dancer, Jimmy Gulzar, in September 1998, it was one
of the weddings of the year. She changed her stage name to Mel G
and bore a daughter, Phoenix Chi Gulzar, in February 1999.
Sadly, Mel B’s married bliss didn’t last, and after she divorced
Gulzar in 2000, a sequence of more or less unfortunate developments
followed. First, the former Mr Scary Spice was prosecuted for
threatening Mel B and attacking her sister Danielle. However, a court

* 28 *
 MELANIE BROWN

Mel B pictu
red in Par
is, Septem
ber 1996

ef
a t io n a t Comic Reli
On lo c

three daughters,
The singer with her
and Madison in 2013
Angel, Phoenix Chi

From the Spice World movie

, in 1997

* 29 *
 CHAPTER 1

r e y t o tabloids
p
M e l B ’s life being
sulted in
Fame re
Mel B with
her mother
, Andrea B
rown, in 20
* 30 *
17
 later cleared him after determining that he had lifted his daughter
Phoenix from the ground by the neck to protect her from her mother’s
“scratching hands”, rather than in anger.
“I can now finally say I have justice,” declared the relieved Gulzar.
“Since the moment I came here in England and married Melanie,
I have not had one moment of rest. I have been judged, I’m in the
media, and nobody knows anything about me.”
A two-year relationship with the actor Max Beesley followed, after
which Mel B enjoyed a relationship with a female film producer,
Christine Crokos, co-habiting with her in Los Angeles until 2006. The
media wrote endlessly about this, but to her credit, Mel B shrugged
off the gossip, saying: “It wasn’t experimentation. I fell in love with a
woman for five years. An experiment doesn’t last five years… People
call me lesbian, bisexual or heterosexual, but I know who’s in my bed
Courtesy Everett Collection. Getty Images / Tara Ziemba. (RHP) Alamy / Yui Mok / PA Images.
and that’s it.”
Image (LHP Top down) Alamy / Columbia / Courtesy Everett Collection. Alamy / Columbia /
On the subject of her sexuality, Mel B also revealed that she and
Geri had enjoyed a moment of intimacy while in the Spice Girls. “It
just happened, and we just giggled at it and that was it,” she said.
A relationship with the actor Eddie Murphy led to the birth of
Mel B’s second daughter, Angel Iris Murphy Brown, in April 2007,
although Murphy required a court-ordered DNA test before he
accepted paternity. The same year, Mel B embarked on an ultimately
disastrous romance with a film producer called Stephen Belafonte,
and in September 2011, Madison Brown Belafonte arrived.
Divorce came five years later, with Mel B accusing Belafonte of
emotional and physical abuse: he had, she said in court, punched
her twice in 2012, on one occasion after the Spice Girls played at
that year’s London Olympics. He also threatened to leak sex tapes in
ABOVE Mel B is made an MBE by Prince William at Buckingham Palace
LEFT Often thought of as the most opinionated of the group, Mel B is now
using her platform to talk about PTSD and other issues
which she appeared, and on top of all this, she was faced with a huge
tax bill in the USA – having, claimed Belafonte’s lawyer, “wiped out all
her Spice Girls money – approximately $50 million”.
It’s little wonder that Mel B sought treatment for PTSD after these
events, turning to alcohol for relief. “Sometimes it is too hard to cope
with all the emotions I feel. But the problem has never been about
sex or alcohol – it is underneath all that,” she said in a statement.
“No-one knows myself better than I do. But I’m dealing with it. I love
my three girls more than life itself.”
Of course, we wouldn’t define anyone simply by their relationships.
Mel B has weathered the storm and come out the other side stronger
than ever, earning an MBE in 2022 for services to charitable causes.
As she put it on the Truth Hurts podcast: “If I can shine a light on the
issue of pain, PTSD and the things men and women do to mask it, I
will do… I have ADD, ADHD, dyspraxia, there’s a reason why my brain
functions differently. I’m very open and I’m very vulnerable, and that’s
got me into certain situations in relationships.”
She added: “I’m not a fearful person. As long as I’m not being
mean to anyone in my immediate circle or harming anyone, people
out there can have judgement, it doesn’t affect me. I’ve always been
an independent person. ‘Fearless’ puts somebody in a box… I’m
just me.”
* 31 *
 CHAPTER 1

RIGHT Sporty by name,

sporty by nature… Mel
C has always been a
naturally athletic person

MELANIE
CHISHOLM
The troubled but ultimately triumphant times
of the Spice Girls’ most accomplished singer

Words Dave Smith

O
ur early life experiences shape us permanently, and
the divorce of elevator fitter Alan Chisholm and his
wife Joan in 1978 left their daughter Melanie, born
on 12 January 1974, determined not to follow in their
footsteps. “I have a complicated family, with half-brothers and half-
sisters,” she later said, referring to the children that her mother had
on remarriage, one of whom is the racing driver Paul O’Neill. “My
parents divorced when I was very young, and marriage is a weird one
for me. Both my parents remarried, but I was scarred very early on.
Images (LHP Top down) Getty Images / Dave Hogan. Alamy / Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix. (RHP Top Down) Alamy. Getty Images / Samir Hussein.

Marriage does not appeal.”

Still, the senior Chisholms didn’t need to feel too bad: Mel C’s
mother Joan had been a singer in various groups since her early
Getty Images / Tim Roney. Alamy / Columbia / Courtesy Everett Collection. Alamy / Ben Curtis. Getty Images / Comic Relief.

teens, which would have had a similarly profound – but positive –

impact on their daughter. Growing up in Widnes, Cheshire, Mel C
went to school in Runcorn and in her home town before attending the
Doreen Bird College of Performing Arts in London, where she began a
diploma course in dance, singing, drama, and musical theatre: clearly
the maternal showbiz tendency was already apparent. She also
studied tap and modern theatre dance with the Imperial Society of
Teachers of Dancing – skills that came in handy when megastardom
came calling at the age of 22.
As is the case with Mel B, media focus on Mel C has tended to
concentrate on her mental health and her relationships, which is just
as shallow as it sounds. However, there has also been an unpleasant
obsession with her weight, which – as with most of us – has
fluctuated over the years.
A naturally athletic person, Mel C gained her ‘Sporty Spice’
nickname for a reason, but she took her fitness too far, she revealed.
Talking to ContactMusic, she said “I hammered the gym for three
hours a day. It was a way of running away, not thinking. I felt like a

* 32 *
 MELANIE CHISHOLM

Mel C gave birth to

her daughter,
Scarlet, in 2009

Bird College of
Mel C attended the Doreen
Performing Arts in London

t
na l li fe h a s received a lo
o
Mel C’s pers media attention
of

Mel C has supported

Sport Relief for many
years

* 33 *
CHAPTER 1

The singer
has suppor
over the la ted many charities
st two dec
ades

* 34 *

robot. When the papers started calling me ‘Sumo Spice’, I was only a
size 10. But I was so upset by all the criticism, it got worse and I went
up to a size 14.” This led to a prescription for anti-depressants: as she
told the Mirror, “It’s an illness and nothing to be ashamed of. I hope
that I can dispel the stigma attached to this condition.”
The Sun once wrote that Mel C’s “battle with depression and
eating disorders” was connected to a row she had had with Victoria.
“Managers threatened to kick her out of the band months before they
shot to stardom, when she told Posh Spice to “f*** off” in a boozy
off-stage row at the Brits in 1996,” burbled the tabloid, although the
accuracy of this is open to speculation.
Relationships have never been easy for Mel C, as indeed they
haven’t been for any of the Spice Girls. A fling with Robbie Williams
– who says, jokingly or otherwise, that he had slept with three of the
band – was, she recalled, “really nothing to write home about”: an
affair with record producer Jake Davies in 1998 was more serious.
“I have sort of met someone,” she told Cosmopolitan at the time.
Image (LHP Top down) Getty Images / Dave Hogan.
“His name is Jake Davies and we met in a recording studio in Dublin.
Alamy / DPA Picture Alliance. (RHP) Dave J Hogan
We’re having fun together, but it isn’t serious. The problem is, I only
have to be seen with someone and the papers are marrying me off…
I think of myself as still young, free and single and I know Jake won’t
be upset to read that.”
The same year, Mel C connected with the Red Hot Chili Peppers
singer Anthony Kiedis, who wrote a song called ‘Emit Remmus’
(‘summer time’ backwards) for his band’s 1999 album Californication.
MELANIE CHISHOLM
“The couple met after the American rocker turned up at one of the
Spice Girls gigs in Los Angeles,” said the ever-reliable Sun. “Wild
Anthony, who once dated Madonna, asked Mel C out and has been
bombarding her with phone calls ever since.” Still, Kiedis was soon
superseded by Jason ‘J’ Brown of the boy band Five, with whom Mel
C enjoyed a sporadic relationship.
By 2009 Mel C was in a partnership with property developer
Thomas Starr, with whom she had a daughter, Scarlet. “Being a mum
was so liberating,” she told the BBC, “because for the first time in my
adult life, it wasn’t all about me. It made me not only realise I had a
huge responsibility to her but I have a huge responsibility to myself.
In being her teacher, I had to treat myself better.”
Although that relationship eventually ended, and Mel C was then
connected romantically with her manager Joe Marshall for seven
years, she’s a singleton as we go to press. She has more important
things to worry about, anyway: she’s now an ambassador for Sport
Relief, a clean water campaign in Africa and homeless charities. Who
needs a high-profile relationship, anyway?
LEFT Out of all the Spice Girls, Mel C is the one who has had the most
success when it’s come to a solo career
BELOW Mel C with her dad, Alan Chisholm, and her stepmum, Carol
 CHAPTER 1

VICTORIA
ADAMS
Explore the life of Posh Spice from her childhood to her status
as a fashion mogul and matriarch of the Beckham family
Words Emily Staniforth

O
f all the members of the Spice Girls, Victoria Adams
(now better known as Victoria Beckham) may be the
most famous for her life outside of the group. With a
range of talents from dancing to modelling and fashion
design, Victoria’s career since the band and her high-profile marriage
to her famous footballer husband has made her a powerful and
influential figure in the celebrity world.
Victoria was born Victoria Caroline Adams on 17 April 1974 in
Essex to parents Jacqueline (a hairdresser and insurance clerk), and
Anthony (an electrical engineer). She was the eldest child and has
two younger siblings: her brother, Christian, and sister, Louise. From
a young age, Victoria wanted to be involved in the entertainment
industry so her parents sent her to a dance and theatre school where
she studied ballet.
Images (LHP) Alamy / Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix. (RHP Top Down) Getty Images / Dave Hogan. Alamy / Landmark Media.

At the age of 17, Victoria gained a place at the prestigious Laine

Theatre Arts college in Surrey, where she studied modelling and
dance for three years. Other alumni of the famous school include
Alamy / Curtis / PA Images. Getty Images / Dave Hogan. Getty Images / David M. Benett. Alamy.

the actors Warwick Davis and Sarah Hadland, and the West End
performer Ruthie Henshall. During her time at Laine, Victoria became
a member of a band called Persuasion. After finishing at Laine, she
moved to London, where she successfully auditioned to be a member
of the Spice Girls.
In 1997, during the heyday of the Spice Girls’ career, Victoria
met England footballer David Beckham for the first time. She had
previously dated the Canadian actor Corey Haim for a short while in
1995. Beckham had known of Victoria before they met after seeing
her in music videos. The couple met at a charity football match and a
year later, in 1998, they became engaged.
On 4 March 1999, Victoria gave birth to the couple’s first child,
Brooklyn Joseph Beckham. Their son’s unusual name provoked
media comment, and sparked a rise in the popularity of the name for

* 36 *
 VICTORIA ADAMS

Victoria married footba

ller David Beckham in 19
99

d a n c e a n d modelling
in
ia h a d a background or the band
Victor f
auditioned
before she

Victoria turned to the world of

fashion after leaving the band

Victoria ha
s been a lo
Elton John ngtime sup
’s AIDS fo porter of
undation

* 37 *
 e is
t a nt t o V ic t oria, here sh
is impor Comic Relief
Charity work ’, in a id o f
‘double
alongside her

her
si ng er an d de signer received
T he William
* 38 *
OBE from Prince
 babies around the world. Victoria married Beckham in a star-studded
and lavish ceremony at Luttrellstown Castle in Ireland four months
later. Victoria changed her name after her wedding and has since
been known as Victoria Beckham.
The Beckhams announced that they were expecting their second
child in 2001. Again, the couple decided to plump for another unusual
name for their next son. Romeo James Beckham was born on 1
September 2002. A third son, Cruz David Beckham, was born on 20
February 2005.
The family moved from the UK to Los Angeles in 2007 while David
played for LA Galaxy. During their time in the US, the Beckhams
decided to expand their family. While trying to conceive again,
Victoria was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (commonly
abbreviated to PCOS), an endocrine condition which has a range of
Image (LHP Top Down) Getty Images / Comic Relief. Getty Images / Tim Roney.
symptoms, one of which can be infertility. At the time, Victoria spoke
to Now magazine about the couple’s struggles. She said: “Actually,
Alamy / Yui Mok / PA Images. (RHP) Getty Images / Darren Gerrish.
I’m struggling with infertility because of my PCOS, so my husband
and I have been through several fertility treatments. No baby yet, but
it’ll happen soon!”
Beckham announced her fourth pregnancy at the beginning of
2011, and on 10 July she gave birth to their first daughter, Harper
Seven Beckham. David confirmed that Harper was named after the
author Harper Lee, who wrote Victoria’s favourite novel To Kill A
Mockingbird, and that her middle name referenced the number on the
back of David’s shirt when he played for Manchester United.
Aside from her music career, Victoria has become famous for
ABOVE Victoria and David with their children, Cruz, Harper, Romeo,
Brooklyn, and Brooklyn’s wife, Nicola
LEFT Always dressed in the sleekest clothes, it’s no surprise that Victoria
went on to set up her own fashion label
her success in the fashion industry, modelling for brands such as
Rocawear and Marc Jacobs. She was an ambassador for Dolce &
Gabbana before launching her own fashion label in 2008. The Victoria
Beckham fashion brand quickly became a multimillion-pound
business and earned her a prestigious status in the world of fashion.
She has remained committed to using faux and synthetic furs for her
fashion brand and in 2019, confirmed she would also be banning the
use of exotic skins in her clothing and accessories. In 2017, Victoria
was appointed an OBE for her services to the fashion industry.
Victoria has also used her individual and joint affluence with her
husband to support several charitable causes over the years. She has
been a patron of her longtime friend Elton John’s AIDS foundation
and has helped to raise money for the charity by designing a limited
edition t-shirt in 2020. She also acts as an ambassador for The
Prince’s Trust, a charity established by the then Prince Charles in
1976 to help young people get access to training and employment
opportunities. Victoria also set up her own charity along with her
husband in 2005. The Victoria and David Beckham Charitable Trust
was established to help sick and disabled children.
* 39 *
Image Alamy / Featureflash Film Archive.
CHAPTER
TWO
GLOBAL SUPERSTARS
CHAPTER 2

SUPERSTARS!
From 1996 to 1998, the Spice Girls were one of the biggest bands in the world…
Words Dave Smith

A
quarter of a century after the Spice Girls’ career
peak, we can finally draw an accurate perspective on
what the group meant musically, culturally and even
politically. For just under two years – from the release
of ‘Wannabe’ to the departure of Geri – they were unstoppable, a
relentless force of energy whose upbeat optimism tied in somehow
with Britpop and New Labour without actually being defined by either
of those movements.
Indeed, it’s essential to understand that the Spice Girls stood in
proud opposition to the idiotic lad culture of the day, offering hope to
anyone sick of Loaded magazine and monobrow guitar rock. Their
brand burned brightly and lucratively, but at the same time, burning
brightly also tends to mean burning briefly – and although the
famous fivesome reached stratospheric heights in double time, they
were unable to remain there for long. Maybe it was better that way.
Quitting while you’re ahead always makes sense, after all.
Not that the idea of quitting was on any of the Spice Girls’ minds
on 8 July 1996, the day that ‘Wannabe’ was released as a CD single
and cassette (remember them?). On that date, D-Day for any fan
of the band, the single finally got a physical release after weeks of
tantalising showings of its video clip on the TV music channel The
Box. A phenomenally entertaining clip, full of energy and showcasing
the infectious charisma of the five members in unforgettable fashion,
Images (LHP) Alamy. (RHS top) Getty Images / Ann Summa. (Bottom) Getty Images / Dave Hogan.

the video is pretty much impossible to separate from the song itself,
such was its impact.
‘Wannabe’ was a monster hit, going straight into the UK singles
chart at number three and jumping to number one within a week,
where it stayed for seven more weeks. Pop fans around the world
understood it instantly, lining up to buy it and sending it to the top of
the charts in 36 countries.
The statistics portray the impact of ‘Wannabe’ most accurately,
notably that it became not only the best-selling debut single by an
all-female group but also the best-selling single by an all-female
group of all time. Consider what that means: the sales records of
the Supremes, Sister Sledge, the Pointer Sisters, the Bangles and
dozens of other huge-selling girl groups stood no chance against the ABOVE Girl Power! Live in Istanbul was a two-night concert organized by
irresistible charms of the Spice Girls. Pepsi and later released on video

* 42 *
 SUPERSTARS

ABOVE Pictured in
New York City in
February 1997, The
Spice Girls ended up
travelling the globe

BELOW The girls

together in a recording
studio c.1998

* 43 *
 ber 1997
o n M a n d e la in Novem
ith Nels
Victoria w

* 44 *
 SUPERSTARS

An early press interview for Top Of The Pops magazine made the
Girls much easier to market to the public, simply by awarding each
member a memorable nickname. Credit for this goes to the then-
editor, Peter Loraine, who suggested the nicknames to the singers
over lunch in London.
“I simply said it would be a good idea if they had some nicknames,”
he recalled. “The girls liked the idea, so I had an editorial meeting
back at the office and about four of us started thinking of names.
Posh was the first one to be thought up because Victoria looks pretty
sophisticated. The rest were pretty easy, really, because the girls’
characters were already really strong. The names jumped out at us.
We laughed the most when we came up with Scary… because Mel
B was so loud and had tried to take over our whole photoshoot. We
ran the names for a couple of issues, and the first time the girls saw
them they thought it was funny. Then the newspapers started picking
up on the names, and they cropped up everywhere until they were
fully accepted by everyone.”
Thus Victoria became Posh Spice, Mel B morphed into Scary Spice,
Emma evolved into Baby Spice, Mel C turned into Sporty Spice, and
Geri was now Ginger Spice, although that last one didn’t show quite
as much imagination as the others.
The dread spectre of the ‘one hit wonder’ could easily have made
its presence felt at this point, but Simon Fuller and his team weren’t
about to let this happen. In October, the Spice Girls released a second,
totally convincing single in ‘Say You’ll Be There’ – to their credit, a
song in a less relentlessly adrenalised format than ‘Wannabe’ but
still a finely-judged crowd-pleaser. The new fanbase responded with
alacrity, sending the new single to the top of the charts again, just in
time for a perfectly-timed third strike with arguably the best Spice
Girls song of all – ‘2 Become 1’.
With this third single, a perfect Christmas ballad which took the
seasonal top spot with ease, the Spice Girls cemented their place in
British culture of the Nineties. It was the fastest-selling single of the
year and gave the group three of the year’s five best-selling songs.
The year 1996, or 1 S.G. as future pop historians will probably call
it, wound up with the release of the Spice Girls’ debut album, simply
and perfectly titled Spice. It sold close to two million copies in the UK
alone in its first seven weeks on sale, making the group the fastest-
selling British act since the Beatles. The Spice Girls wound up the
year in front of a crowd of 500,000 people when they switched on the
Christmas lights in Oxford Street, London.
By now the press were in full Spice mode, referring to the band’s
impact as ‘Spicemania’: the phrase ‘Girl Power’, which felt so exciting
against the backdrop of tracksuit-wearing, mostly male Britpop
Image (Left to Right) Alamy / Landmark Media. Getty Images / Pool / Tim Graham

bands that had overrun the charts since Oasis arrived in 1994, was
the media term of the year. Tabloids and broadsheets alike drove the
excitement along – remember, this was a time when the internet
was regarded as a cute hobby for nerds, and mobile phones barely
deserved the term ‘mobile’. Academics debated whether the Spice
Girls really represented any form of power for women, a debate
Picture Library. Alamy / Landmark Media.

which continues today: however, most of the kids buying the music
didn’t care, and simply enjoyed its hedonism, its humour and its
confrontational nature.

LEFT Geri and Mel B infamously kissed Charles during a celebration for
The Prince’s Trust

The girls with Prince Charles and Prince Harry in 1997

* 45 *
ABOVE The Spice Girls performing at the 1997 Brit Awards
RIGHT The energetic, optimistic tone of the Girls spread around the world
As 1997 dawned, Spice had become the best-selling album of
all time in the UK by a female group, qualified for a respectable
ten platinum awards, and topped the charts for 15 weeks. It sold a
further eight million copies in mainland Europe. What next? Only the
rest of the world.
In retrospect, Fuller’s business strategy with his new hot property
– to hit the UK market hard with a sequence of singles, then an
album, then enter the USA before consolidating with a film and other
projects – was both so obvious and so clever. “On the first day I sat
down with the girls, before we had a deal, and it was agreed that
we would go for it on a worldwide basis,” he said, not only putting
his money where his mouth was, but also putting other people’s
money in the pockets of his five famous clients – by cutting massive
sponsorship deals for the Spice Girls with Pepsi, Walkers, Impulse,
Cadbury and Polaroid.
If 1996 was the year that the Spice Girls overtook the UK, then
1997 was the year that they invaded America. The obvious opening
gambit was to release ‘Wannabe’ in the USA, a quaint concept all
these years later when simultaneous global releases are not only
expected but unavoidable, given the ubiquity of streaming platforms.
Back then, as readers over 35 will remember from first-hand
experience, if you wanted to hear a song that had been released
in another country, your only option was to invest in an expensive
imported CD or try to tape it off the radio or MTV.
* 46 *
Given those restrictions, the arrival of ‘Wannabe’ as a domestic
American release was set up for success – and as expected, it was
hugely popular, with the sheer energy and charisma of the Girls
overcoming the suspicion that some Americans feel about foreign
pop music. Although the song entered the Hot 100 Chart at a merely
respectable number 11, it soon rose to the top and stayed there for
four weeks. In doing so, ‘Wannabe’ became the highest-ever debut
single by a non-American act, surpassing the record set by the
Beatles with ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ 33 years before.
The Spice album followed in February and was the real indicator of
American acceptance, because it hit number one, went seven times
platinum – each platinum award denoting a million copies, unlike the
relatively meagre 300,000 sales that the term means in the UK – and
became the USA’s best-selling album of 1997. By the time the rest
of the world had caught up, Spice had sold an astonishing 23 million
Images (LHP) Alamy. (RHP Top Down) Getty Images / Ann Summa. Getty Images / Avalon.
copies, warranting inclusion in the Recording Industry Association of
America’s Top 100 Albums of All Time list.
Not a bad performance for a debut album, then – and the Spice
Girls were just getting started. Awards started pouring in, with two
Brit Awards – Best British Video for ‘Say You’ll Be There’ and Best
British Single for ‘Wannabe’ – landing on the singers’ collective
mantelpiece in early 1997. At the Brits ceremony, the Girls performed
one of their most memorable sets, featuring Geri in the Union Jack
mini dress that you’ll read about elsewhere in this publication.
The Spice singles campaign concluded with a double A-side
of ‘Mama’/‘Who Do You Think You Are’, a ballad twinned with an
uproarious dance-pop anthem, guaranteed to ensure double radio
airplay. It hit the top of the charts just like its predecessors, granting
 SUPERSTARS

g
du r ing the ‘M ama’ video filmin
m um
Emma and her
* 47 *
CHAPTER 2

* 48 *

the Spice Girls yet another record – this time, that of the first group
since the Jackson 5 to have four consecutive number-one hits.
It was time to extend the brand, and Fuller’s team – aware, no
doubt, of the fleeting nature of fame – stepped up to license out
various Spice Girls-endorsed products. The first of these was a
book, Girl Power!, which was ghostwritten by their fan club manager
Rebecca Cripps and sold out its 200,000-copy print run in a single
day. A VHS (remember them?) called One Hour Of Girl Power then
sold an astounding 500,000 copies in the UK between April and June,
making it the best-selling pop video ever. Even in the late Nineties,
these numbers were deeply impressive: nowadays, when a book can
sell 10,000 copies and be classed as a bestseller, they’re very difficult
to comprehend.
Of course, the obvious next step was a fully-fledged movie, which
Image (LHP Top) Getty Images / Mark Cuthbert. (LHP Bottom) Getty
turned out to be Spice World and has its own entry elsewhere, and
a step up to royal circles when the Spice Girls played at the Prince’s
Images / Avalon. (Below)Getty Images / Dave Benett.
Trust benefit concert. Famously, Mel B and Geri kissed the then
Prince Charles before giving the regal posterior a friendly squeeze,
a gesture that guaranteed yet more column inches, as did two Ivor
Novello Awards for International Hit of the Year and Best-Selling
British Single awards for ‘Wannabe’.
The spring and summer of 1997 were spent on the movie and the
second album, titled identically save for a space between the two
words. Recording Spiceworld at the same time as filming Spice World
SUPERSTARS
proved to be an exhausting experience, reflected in the lyrics of the
song ‘Stop’, a veiled complaint about the workload imposed on the
group by 19 Management.
Still, when Spiceworld’s first single was released in September,
it seemed that the Girls’ creative energies were still peaking. ‘Spice
Up Your Life’, with its Latin rhythm and instrumentation, seemed
perfect for the second phase of their career: a way of diversifying
their sound while retaining maximum energy. It was a good time to
be a Spice Girl, with a Best Dance Video award from MTV – where
Mel C dedicated it to the late Princess Diana – and four gongs at the
Billboard Music Awards.
However, the good times couldn’t last forever, and the first signs
that the Spice Girls might not be permanently invulnerable began to
appear in late 1997. A major concert in Istanbul, Turkey went well,
but its corporate nature caused some commentary. “Why launch their
world tour in Turkey, where Girl Power has yet to catch on?... because
TOP LEFT The Spice Girls met Nelson Mandela on a trip to South Africa
BOTTOM LEFT The Spice Girls took the world by storm in the late 1990s
BELOW The girls won the Brit Awards for Best Video and Best Single
in 1997
 CHAPTER 2

By 1998, the Spice

Girls had reached
the height of their
incredible success

The girls are pictured at the

s
1997 MTV Europe Music Award

the Middle East is one of the biggest markets for Pepsi, which
sponsored the show,” wrote the Guardian, adding: “Each Girl got an
equal shot at singing lead. A meritocracy would have been a better
idea, with only the two Mels allowed to belt ’em out while the others
chipped in on the choruses.”
A visit to South Africa yielded a meeting with Nelson Mandela,
who announced “These are my heroes” to the shock of anyone who
had wept for him during his 27-year imprisonment under the forces
of apartheid. When the Spiceworld album was released in the USA,
it broke sales records once again – but critics complained that it and
Spice had appeared too close together.
Two major shocks lay around the corner, and while it would be
wrong to suggest that they derailed the Spice Girls’ career – that
would plainly be incorrect, as they’re still doing great business today
– you could reasonably claim that they helped to curtail this first,
golden period.
The first of these came when the Girls fired Fuller, claiming that
they were going to run the band themselves. This was a little hard
to credit: despite the stars’ many talents, the task of managing a
Images (Left to Right) Getty Images / Jeff Kravitz.Getty Images / Columbia Pictures.

business entity of the Spice Girls’ turnover would require a large

team of hard-bitten, experienced workers. Nevertheless, the group
released two more successful singles in late 1997 and early 1998 in
‘Too Much’ and ‘Stop’, and scooped three American Music Awards and
Getty Images / Avalon. Getty Images / Alain Benainous.

a special Brit Award for their overseas success.

No, it was the next development that really called time on this
phase of the Spice Girls’ career. After a well-received series of dates
in early 1998, the group shocked their fans profoundly by announcing
that one of the five had handed in her notice. You definitely remember
who it was…

Backstage at t
he 1997 Brit A
wards

* 50 *
 SUPERSTARS

98
in P a r is , March 19
ert
h e S p ic e Girls conc
T

* 51 *
Image Getty Images / Tim Roney.
 Despite being together
for a relatively short
amount of time, they
are the best-selling girl
group of all time, selling
over 80 million records
worldwide
 CHAPTER 2

LET’S GO TO
THE MOVIES!
The story of the doomed, but kind-hearted, Spice World film
Words Dave Smith

W
hen the Spice Girls made a film, people laughed at it.
How could it be any other way?
Consider the following facts. Produced and shot in
a single year, Spice World is a vehicle for the hottest
pop band on the planet, who wisely starred as themselves because
they couldn’t act the role of anybody else. The director, Bob Spiers,
was a journeyman TV veteran who had never heard of the Spice
Girls. The screenwriter, Kim Fuller, wrote the script because no-one
else was readily available, even though he had little experience.
Add a bunch of random celebs, a tiny effects budget, and a general
irreverence for filmic ambition and cinematic quality, and what you
get is a bit of fun that has the late Nineties stamped all over it.
“A bit of fun” is the fundamental phrase here. VICE magazine,
that arbiter of cultural cool, summed the movie up perfectly when it
wrote: “The period during which Spice World was produced – from
pre-production in January 1997 through its cinematic release in
December that year and then its VHS release in May 1998 – perfectly
mirrors the apex of the band’s success. It was a euphoric moment
in British cultural history: Tony Blair had just been elected; the
Images (LHP) Alamy / Spice Productions.( RHP, both) Alamy / Columbia Pictures.

economy was booming; British artists dominated the world charts,

as ‘Cool Britannia’ ruled. Things felt simple and even hopeful, in this
pre-social media, pre-Iraq-War age – and the blithe, good-natured
optimism of Spice World reflects this time.”
The plot of the film, such as it is, is designed for mild amusement
rather than deep intellectual analysis. If you’re a film buff you might
want to switch off your critical faculties before clicking Play.
We kick off with our fave fivesome performing ‘Too Much’ on
Top Of The Pops: they’re at the height of their powers, but they’re ABOVE The poster for the Spice World film
also victim to the evil machinations of a newspaper owner called
TOP RIGHT In the film, the Spice Girls go on a number of adventures
Kevin McMaxford (Barry ‘Dame Edna’ Humphries), obviously in no
way intended to resemble The Sun’s then-editor Kelvin MacKenzie. BOTTOM RIGHT The trick with Spice World is not to think too much…

* 54 *
LET’S GO TO THE MOVIES

* 55 *
CHAPTER 2

* 56 *
His paparazzo, Damien (the excellent Richard O’Brien, of Rocky
Horror Picture Show fame) attempts to capture the Spice Girls in an
unflattering light, while various film-industry pondlife try to recruit
the singers for their projects via the Girls’ manager, Clifford (Richard
E Grant, better known as Withnail).
The setup is that the Girls have to prepare for a show at the Royal
Albert Hall, while trying to spend time with their pregnant friend
Nicola (Naoko Mori), against the orders of the group’s record label
boss, the eccentric Chief (none other than Roger Moore). Their
workload causes the singers to rebel and quit the band, albeit
temporarily: they soon reunite at the cafe where they first met.
They then take Nicola to a club, where she experiences labour
pains and is rushed to the hospital to give birth. The delivery medic
turns out to be Damien (bear with us here) who experiences a change
ar,
of heart and has McMaxford framed. Along the way, the singers
e pict u r ed w ith their co-st
ar
The Spice Girls while filming a sc
ene
witness the landing of a UFO, undergo military training with Mr Step
(Michael Barrymore) and so on and so forth.
r d E G r ant ,
After all this, the only thing left is for the Spice Girls to get to the Richa
Royal Albert Hall, which they do in their double-decker bus, driven
by Victoria because their driver (Meat Loaf – really) has gone AWOL.
After negotiating a raised Tower Bridge by simply flying the bus
through the air, they discover a bomb on the vehicle, but this is swiftly
forgotten as they arrive at the RAH and perform ‘Spice Up Your Life’.
As the credits roll, the Girls are shown behind the scenes of the
film, breaking the fourth wall to chat with the cinema and video
audience. Finally, they’re surprised by the sound of the bomb,
exploding in the distance.
Commercially, Spice World was a huge success, raking in $100
million against a paltry $5.5 million budget. Studios would kill for that
kind of return these days. Critically, however, it took a beating, with
America’s critic-in-chief Roger Ebert saying, “They’re so detached
they can’t even successfully lip-synch their own songs… it’s an
entertainment-free dead zone.”
The movie currently enjoys a painful rating of only 36 percent on
Rotten Tomatoes, so it hasn’t achieved ‘cult film’ status – at least not
yet. Give it 25 more years and it might, just might, be regarded as we

Part of the film included the Spice Girls receiving some

regard Alfie or A Hard Day’s Night or a Carry On film – with affection
rather than sarcasm.
A lot of people mocked Spice World, and continue to do so 25 years
military training from the totally believable Mr Step
later – and with good reason, because it’s not particularly polished
and its message is not deep. They’re missing the point, though.
Ultimately, this film was just supposed to be a laugh, no more and no
less, and if you didn’t enjoy it, that’s because you weren’t a 14-year-
old Spice Girl or Spice Boy when you saw it.
Would you take the mickey out of that same kid because they
didn’t enjoy a 1940s noir classic or a dystopian sci-fi film? Of course
not, so as far as we’re concerned, the haters can stuff their opinions.
For Spice Girls fans, this movie makes total sense, not in spite of its
Images Alamy / Columbia Pictures / Everett Collection.

amateurish innocence – but because of it.

TOP LEFT Spice World is packed full of cameo from celebrities including
Elton John

BOTTOM LEFT The Girls aboard the Spice Bus in a scene from the film

Mel B behind t
he scenes with
director Bob S
piers
CHAPTER 2

4 NOVEMBER 1996

SPICE The Spice Girls’ classic, planet-defeating debut

album – revealed track by track

Words Dave Smith

TRACK 1
WANNABE
The Nineties banger to beat all Nineties bangers, ‘Wannabe’ defines
the Spice Girls’ early career as well as the British pop sound of 1996.
Richard Stannard and Matt Rowe share songwriting credits with the
Girls themselves, who are co-credited on every song on this album.
Released as a single, the song topped the charts in 25 countries,
went double platinum in the UK and came with a video that states the
band’s message of fun and friendship in no uncertain terms.
TRACK 2
SAY YOU’LL BE THERE
Co-written with Eliot Kennedy, ‘Say You’ll Be There’ is one of those
rare songs whose words and melody you still remember, decades
after its release. The second single from Spice, it reached number
four in the UK as well as charting highly elsewhere. A more mature-
sounding R&B/pop blend than the adrenalised ‘Wannabe’, the song
showcased a different side to the Spice Girls: its video, meanwhile,
was a mini-movie that portrayed the band as sci-fi superstars.

* 58 *

TRACK 3
2 BECOME 1
Another Stannard and Rowe co-write, the wistfully lovely ‘2 Become
1’ is an expertly-crafted ballad that breaks with tradition by remaining
soft and subtle throughout, avoiding the big, climactic ending that
similar songs often throw at the listener. Instead, it’s contemplative
and gentle, a fact that the Spice Girls’ fans rewarded by buying a
million copies and sending it straight to number one. Again, the video
is a must-see, with the Girls addressing the joys of physical intimacy
against a New York backdrop.
TRACK 4
LOVE THING
Images (LHP) Amazon. (RHP) Getty Images / Patrick Ford.
After those three stonking huge hits, you might be forgiven for
regarding ‘Love Thing’ as a little less impactful – but take a listen:
it’s a perfectly serviceable bit of mid-tempo R&B, with expert layers
of vocals and a ton of spiralling melodies. “Don’t wanna know about
that love thing,” croon the Girls, with Mel C taking the lead with the
warning “Don’t go wasting my time.” Kennedy gets a co-credit, as
does Cary Baylis, known for his work with Take That in addition to
other pop artists.
‘Wannabe’ won
British Single of
the Year at the
1997 Brit Awards
TRACK 5
LAST TIME LOVER
The Absolute production team of Andy Watkins and Paul Wilson
sprinkled some studio fairy dust on ‘Last Time Lover’, giving it a
chorus and bass line that would easily have elevated the song to
single status, had another one been required. It’s a funky, laid-back
song that sees the Girls deliver a relaxed but slick performance,
mostly in the form of some glorious harmonised group vocals. Chill
out and let the unhurried groove lead you into the upbeat second half
of the album.
TRACK 6
MAMA
Released in March 1997 and signing off the Spice singles campaign as
that year’s Comic Relief song, ‘Mama’ is another Stannard and Rowe
co-write, examining the nature of the relationships between mothers
and daughters. As such, it’s an unconventional but completely
convincing ballad, and one that took the Spice Girls’ female-first
agenda forward another step. It was released with a B-side track, its
polar opposite – the fast dance tune, ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ –
giving the fans another compelling reason to support it.
* 59 *

TRACK 7
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?
Quirky, catchy and pretty much impossible to resist, ‘Who Do You
Think You Are?’ is, if anything, even more of a dancefloor anthem
than the more funky ‘Wannabe’. Featuring the very Wham!-indebted
“Whoo whoo!” shout that you can’t help but sing after a few Bacardi
Breezers, the Absolute co-written song is pure pop at its very finest.
It says a lot about the quality of this album, which is mostly made
up of hits and only a couple of filler tracks, that one of its coolest
inclusions was a mere B-side.
TRACK 8
SOMETHING KINDA FUNNY
Like ‘Last Time Lover’, this sweet song rests on a cool groove
rather than leaping from your speakers – but on an album as full of
adrenaline as this one, rest assured that this is a good thing. When
the Absolute team’s understanding of a slick bass line plus beats
met the smooth vocal ooh-ing of the Spice Girls, it was difficult for
them to go wrong. Turn the lights down low, snuggle up with your
significant other and enjoy the mellowness.
* 60 *
The girl group
performing at the
Smash Hits Poll
Winner
Party in 1996
TRACK 9
NAKED
The Absolute team demonstrated their downtempo skillset once
again with ‘Naked’, a third chance for the Spice Girls to show their
expertise when it came to delivering subtle groove cuts. There’s
something of an unexpected diversion when we hear the ring of a
phone and some muted conversation, but then the song resumes
with a sweet chorus that takes us to the fade. Once again, we’re
reminded that this is an album – and band – of two halves: both
upbeat and low-down.
TRACK 10
Images (LHP) Getty Images / Brian Rasic (RHP Top Down) Alamy /
IF U CAN’T DANCE
Ten songwriting credits accompany this album’s uptempo closer,
Isabel Infantes. Getty Images / Tim Roney.
thanks to its included sample from ‘The Humpty Dance’ by the hip-
hop band Digital Underground, which itself borrows music from the
legendary funk bands Parliament and Sly And The Family Stone.
It’s another groover, pushed along by a fat bass part and the Girls’
insistent chorus of “If you can’t dance, you can’t do nothin’ for me,
baby”. That’s a mission statement, right there.
 SPICE

The Spice Girls

pictured in Paris in
September 1996, two
months before Spice
was released in
the UK

r ‘S a y Y o u ’ll Be There’
e fo
The vinyl singl

* 61 *
CHAPTER 2

1 NOVEMBER 1997

SPICEWORLD The mission continued with album number two.

Let’s break it down, song by song…

Words Dave Smith

TRACK 1
SPICE UP YOUR LIFE
The Spice Girls’ second album had to do three things or risk disaster.
It had to be at least as good as Spice; it had to sound recognisably
like them, and it had to progress their sound a little bit – but not
too much. Its first track, and single, overachieved effortlessly with
all three goals. Released on 13 October 1997, ‘Spice Up Your Life’
was ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ on samba and salsa steroids, and
the public loved it – hence its UK number one slot and high chart
positions worldwide.
TRACK 2
STOP
Released on 9 March 1998, ‘Stop’ was this album’s third single – and
something of a masterstroke. Where its predecessor on the album
had borrowed sounds from foreign climes, ‘Stop’ borrowed from the
past, specifically from the Motown and Stax sound of the Sixties, with
a video that paid similar tribute. There are touches of genius all over
it, but a good place to start is the expert close harmony on the “Stop
right there” line. It’s an Absolute co-write, and one of that team’s
very best.

* 62 *
 The Spice
Girls pictured
in November
1997, the month
Spiceworld was
released

TRACK 3
TOO MUCH
Like Spice, this album loads its first three singles at the front end,
meaning that you’re hit three times in short order with songwriting
mastery. Like ‘Stop’, song three is a retro-sounding composition,
but there’s no Motown influence on display: instead, we’re treated to
a knowingly camp but emotionally authentic love ballad. It’s a sleek
blend of blues and soul, loaded with fabulous choruses and Mel C’s
feline “Not a boy who thinks he can!”. Is there nothing this band can’t
do, musically speaking?
Images (Album art) Wikimedia Commons / Virgin Records. (Above) Getty Image / Paul Bergen.
TRACK 5
NEVER GIVE UP ON
THE GOOD TIMES
Bringing the vibe back up after a couple of laid-back ballads, ‘Never
Give Up On The Good Times’ gives each of the Girls a solo line or
two to sing before hitting a unison chorus and then unleashing Mel
C’s improvisations at the end – always the best format for a Spice
Girls song, if you ask us. Coupling a highly danceable drum and bass
backing track with jazz flute and disco strings was a sublime touch of
genius, too.

TRACK 4
SATURDAY NIGHT DIVAS
If you don’t instantly feel the need to shake your booty when the a
cappella intro to this song begins, you have no soul. Richard Stannard
and Matt Rowe, who split this album’s songwriting credits more or
less equally with Absolute, outdid themselves here. A tasty slice of
funky love balladry anchored by that same “Get down, deeper and
down…” chorus, this song is irresistible. Why wasn’t it released as
a single? Again, proof that the Spice Girls had plenty in the bank,
creatively speaking.
TRACK 6
MOVE OVER
Here’s an interesting inclusion: a reworked version of a jingle, written
by Mary Wood and Clifford Lane, as a Pepsi advert. The song isn’t any
more or less cheesy than any other band’s favourite commercial pop
ditty, despite its obvious ‘next generation’ line, but its inclusion here
did annoy a few critics who felt that the album’s buyers deserved
better. Whatever your opinion on the song, we can safely tip the hat
to the inclusion of some heavy rock guitars to add, well, spice to the
overall flavour.

* 63 *
CHAPTER 2
TRACK 7
DO IT
There’s no getting away from the fact that this is a filler track by
any definition, but that doesn’t mean it lacks quality or an uplifting
message. “Give a little respect to me and it will be returned,” insist
the Girls in a flawless layer of vocal harmonies. String stabs and
a flowing bass part give the song its persuasive feel, and any
composition that explains “You might do the wrong thing for the right
reasons” – which is genuine philosophy, right there – can’t help but
earn our respect.
TRACK 8
DENYING
Now that’s a bass line! Played by the late, great Paul ‘Tubbs’ Williams
of the acid jazz collective Incognito, these low notes deserve space to
breathe – so make sure you turn this song up. It’s a seductively clever
track, with the lyrics encouraging some loser or other to examine
their motives and accusing them of being a liar. “Everyone can see
who you are… take a look at yourself!” they sing, and rightly so. Who
doesn’t need this kind of analytical reality check from time to time?
* 64 *
TRACK 9
VIVA FOREVER
By far the most luxurious production to bear the Spice Girls’
name, ‘Viva Forever’ combined a Spanish guitar, a spacious sound,
marvellous layers of vocals and an anthemic chorus: it’s quite
possibly the most accomplished song in their entire catalogue.
Released as the last single from Spiceworld, the track didn’t do
quite as well as it should have, as it was overshadowed by Geri’s
unexpected departure from the group – even though it became a UK
number one. Such is life, eh?
TRACK 10
THE LADY IS A VAMP
Images (Below) Alamy / Media Punch. (Right) Alamy /
Columbia Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection.
Although ‘Viva Forever’ would have made a more serious ending
to Spiceworld, who cares? This is the Spice Girls, after all, and the
finale of this hilarious burlesque parody remains hugely entertaining
to this day. It’s also a masterpiece of arrangement, switching from
a slow crawl to a speedy show tune on a dime. Anyone accusing the
Girls of being unable to handle a complex song with serious vocal
requirements only needs to hear this finely-crafted three minutes.
Spiceworld was
a worldwide
commercial
success
 SPICEWORLD

With the release of

their second studio
album, The Spice
Girls reached the
height of their
career

* 65 *
Image Getty Images / Tim Roney.
CHAPTER
THREE
A NEW ERA
& HIATUS
CHAPTER 3

A BREAK IN
THE ACTION
All good things must come to an end – whether there are four or five of you in the band
Words Dave Smith

W
hen Rolling Stone writer, Heidi Sherman, described
Geri in 1998 as “the self-proclaimed ‘leader’ of
the Spice Girls”, she was both right and wrong. The
band was a genuine democracy, after all – but at the
same time, there are always louder voices among equals than others,
and Geri was definitely the loudest of the five singers, matched only
by the outspoken Mel B. If there had to be a leading Spice Girl, Geri fit
the bill best.
This became both apparent and relevant on 31 May that year, when
she announced that she was quitting the band.
To say that this move caused a sensation is to understate it
severely. The shock was not confined to Spice Girls fans: it spread
through the mainstream media and soon made international
headlines. As Billboard noted, “The news of Halliwell’s departure was
covered as a major news story by media around the world. In New
York alone, it made the covers of the tabloid New York Post and Daily Images (LHP) Getty Images / Dave Hogan.( RHP Top down) Alamy. Alamy / PA. Alamy / Reuters Photographer.

News, as would be expected, but even scored a spot in the front-page

index of the usually loftier New York Times.”
The announcement, communicated through Geri’s solicitor, was
made in front of a posse of journalists who knew a major story was
coming. Rumours had been flying around for a few days after she
had missed two shows in Norway and then a National Lottery TV
performance. As the NME reported, “A spokesperson for the group
A note informing the au
dienc
performing with the Spice e that Geri would not be
says Geri is ill with a stomach bug, and rumours that she is leaving
the band or is about to be fired are untrue. The spokesperson also Girls in Oslo, 29 May 19
adds the band are taking next week off for holidays, but this has 98
been planned for some time.”
Despite these denials, Geri’s statement ran; “Sadly I would like to
confirm that I have left the Spice Girls. This is because of differences TOP RIGHT Emma, Mel C, Mel B and Victoria are pictured at one of their
between us. I’m sure the group will continue to be successful and I Spiceworld concerts in Britain

wish them all the best. PS, I’ll be back.” This was swiftly followed by BOTTOM RIGHT The girls, pictured in New York, continued their
a statement from the other four singers, who indicated there was Spiceworld Tour without Geri

* 68 *
 A BREAK IN THE ACTION

LEFT A ticket for

the final show of the
Spiceworld Tour at
Wembley Stadium –
Geri left the band four
months beforehand

* 69 *
CHAPTER 3

no bitterness between them, but added a canny sting with the words
“The Spice Girls are here to stay… Friendship never ends.”
Rolling Stone had a field day with all this, writing: “British tabloids
had reported that egos were clashing so severely that the five band
members bickered from Helsinki all the way back to England. When
the Spices landed at Heathrow Airport, Geri stomped off in a huff.
The remaining quartet assumed she’d get over her anger and rejoin
the girls for their National Lottery show later that night. Not so…
the depleted group apologised to fans for Ginger Spice’s absence,
which they said was due to ‘gastroenteritis’. But would Sexy Spice,
the personification of Girl Power, really miss a performance for a tiny
tummy ache?”
More speculations had Geri swearing that she would never sing
with the Spice Girls again, that Mel B had mocked her for having
“two left feet”, that she would forfeit her forthcoming tour income
– and even that she would be replaced by an avatar, to be selected
through American Idol-style auditions. It was all unproven and all
very readable, although Sherman wisely noted “Perhaps, though, this
is just another chapter in the brilliantly written story of a fabricated
phenomenon, created with a built-in demise.”
If this was a pre-written story, it contained a lot of unforeseen
chaos, that’s for sure. Although the reduced lineup carried on to
enjoy financial success on the Spiceworld Tour, grossing $60 million
over 40 sold-out shows, and two more singles – ‘Viva Forever’ and
‘Goodbye’ – were UK number ones, a fatal error of judgment was
around the corner.
Most of 1999 was spent on establishing the solo careers that
you can read about elsewhere here, but when the Girls regrouped
to record their third album, Forever, someone – maybe a manager,
The statement that announced Geri’s
departure from the group
Geri parted ways with
The Spice Girls and
began to pursue a solo
career
band member or a producer – suggested that they pursue a slick
R&B direction instead of their usual brand of adrenalised pop music.
American producers Rodney Jerkins, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis
were recruited to enable the transition, and we explore the results in
detail elsewhere in this publication – so let’s just say here that the
album received a lukewarm response.
A fairly lame ‘chart battle’ with the boy band Westlife saw the Spice
Girls come second, not helped by a catty – but accurate – comment
from that group’s singer Brian McFadden, who said: “Their first two
albums, people loved them but now they’re just trying to be Destiny’s
Child, or TLC or something. They just don’t have it any more.”
Although a double A-side single, ‘Holler’/‘Let Love Lead The
Way’, was yet another British hit, it failed to perform in the USA, and
Images (LHP Top Down) Getty Images / Tim Roney. Getty Images / Brian Rasic. (RHP) Getty Images / Tim Roney
effectively the game was up for the first incarnation of the Spice Girls.
With Forever only selling four million copies, which is a massive hit
by today’s standards but a flop back in 2000, band and management
did the right thing and pulled the plug.
There was no formal announcement, but it became obvious that a
hiatus was on the way when Victoria told the Daily Star: “It’s definitely
open-ended with the Spice Girls. At the moment, we’re just having a
bit of a rest from Spice, but we’re all still great friends.”
A “source” added, “The point is that the four girls are good friends.
They actually get on brilliantly, so they still enjoy being in a band
together. And why should they split? They’ve got nothing to lose by
staying together. They can go on forever, like the Rolling Stones. For
years, the Stones have been doing their own solo work, then getting
together for a big tour or an album. The same looks likely to happen
with the girls.”
So that, friends, was that – at least for now. Fans watched and
waited… and waited some more.

* 70 *
 A BREAK IN THE ACTION

The four remaining

members spent the
majority of 1999
focusing on their
solo careers

* 71 *
Image Getty Images / Dave Hogan.
 Victoria, Mel C, Mel B
and Emma continued as
a foursome after Geri’s
sudden departure from
the Spice Girls in
May 1998
CHAPTER 3

1 NOVEMBER 2000

FOREVER Does the Spice Girls’ third album deserve its mixed
reputation? Let’s find out…

Words Dave Smith

TRACK 1
HOLLER
As an introduction to the new, mature Spice Girls, ‘Holler’ was the
perfect vehicle. Not too much of a departure from their previous
sound to freak their fans out, but making it clear that a touch of
American R&B polish was definitely incoming, the single performed
well. A UK number one was secured, and the song did well in the
charts worldwide. Did it have the same sense of irreverent fun as
their earlier hits? No, but then that was precisely the point.
TRACK 2
TELL ME WHY
If you had to isolate the sound of modern US R&B and hip-hop music,
you might well suggest that a simple droned bass part anchoring a
heavy drum beat would be the prime identifier – and that’s exactly
what we have here, as the bass plays a single note all the way
through. As a result, the song is slick, but (whisper it) a touch boring,
the first time that the B-word really applies to a Spice Girls song. It’s
probably best to skip to track three…

* 74 *

TRACK 3
LET LOVE LEAD THE WAY
Now, this was more like it – a persuasive ballad from the old-school
catalogue, ‘old school’ in this case meaning 1997. Released as a
double A-side single with ‘Holler’, ‘Let Love Lead The Way’ is cool,
understated and a vocal workout for all four singers. You’ll spot a
touch of vibrato in some of the lines, a first for the Spice Girls, who
had so far avoided this technique – formerly the province of the
Mariah Careys and Whitney Houstons of this world.
TRACK 4
Images (LHP) Amazon. (RHP) Getty Images / Dave Hogan.
RIGHT BACK AT YA
This song is best described as harmless, although the endless,
percussive bleeping in the background might annoy more than a few
listeners. It’s another slice of professional-sounding music, unlikely
to excite many opinions one way or another. Note that it’s not a bad
song: it’s just not particularly interesting. This was a new concept
associated with the Spice Girls, who always grabbed your attention in
the pre-Forever days, love ’em or hate ’em.
FOREVER
TRACK 5
GET DOWN WITH ME
Fortunately, the cheerful vibes returned with ‘Get Down With Me’,
delivered in the format of dialogue down a phone line between
the Spice Girls and some chap or other. Upbeat, positive and at a
significantly faster tempo than the snoozeworthy R&B elsewhere on
the record, the song harked directly back to the Spice and Spiceworld
days. Mel C gets a spectacular solo moment at the midpoint, there’s a
big bass groove and everybody’s happy.
TRACK 6
WASTING MY TIME
This upbeat approach continues with ‘Wasting My Time’, in which
the lesser voices in the band get their spot in the sun, assisted
perhaps with a little touch of a popular new technology – Auto-Tune.
The chorus flows along nicely, with all the Girls in full voice and the
absence of Geri not causing any notable problems. As a club song,
this track would sound great: turned up loud in your headphones, it
sounds great too.
The Spice Girls
attend the album
launch for
Forever
* 75 *
CHAPTER 3
BRIT Awards
The group performs at the 20th
TRACK 7
WEEKEND LOVE
A sitar introduces this slinky song, a ‘Viva Forever’-style lush ballad
that also features a piano, hand claps and a workout for Mel C’s lower
voice, always a treat to hear. The tale of a short-lived romance, the
track comes with all the wistful touches that the subject requires,
with a shouty rap from Mel B adding some energy. The song
fades into a cool miasma of choruses, and is a high point of this
inconsistent album.
TRACK 8
TIME GOES BY
It’s ballad time again! A piano accompanies Mel C as she implores her
love to stick around, and as these songs go, it’s a keeper. The Forever
album has often been accused of inserting an unwelcome R&B/
hip-hop feel into the pop formula that the Spice Girls had made so
popular, and to an extent that’s true, but on this song there’s no trace
of that. Instead, we’re gifted a downtempo love ballad straight out of
the box marked ‘2 Become 1’.
* 76 *
‘Holler’ topped the UK Sin
gles Chart
TRACK 9
IF YOU WANNA HAVE SOME FUN
With a title like that, this song must be a blast from start to finish,
right? Well, while it’s certainly no ‘Wannabe’ or ‘Who Do You
Think You Are?’, it’s definitely a toe-tapper all right, with a ‘Men In
Black’-like bass part and plenty of sassy warbling from our Girls.
An injection of the sense of anarchy that made the early hits such a
laugh would have been useful, but as we know, that wasn’t on the
menu this time.
TRACK 10
OXYGEN
Surely this is the sleepiest song that has ever been composed, with
a deadly slow tempo, percussion that resembles a ticking clock, and
sugary vocals designed to lull you into slumber. Mind you, is that
necessarily a bad thing? We love our chill-out music around here.
Still, if you were hoping for one last blast of energy before the album
ended, you’d be sorely disappointed – not that you’d notice, because
you’d be fast asleep.
Images (LHP) Alamy / Independent / Andy Paradise. Getty Images / JMEnternational.
(RHP) Getty Images / Stephane Cardinale - Corbis. Alamy/ Isabel Infantes.
TRACK 11
GOODBYE
Forever ends with the excellent ‘Goodbye’, a splendid farewell ballad
that tied in perfectly at the time with the sense of closure that
accompanied this phase of the Spice Girls’ career. Recorded when
Geri was in the band and accompanied by an animated video that
was cute as well as poignant, the song was released just in time
for Christmas 1998. As such, it doesn’t really belong on this slightly
disappointing album, but it sure as heck improves it.
 FOREVER

Mel B, Mel C, Emma

and Victoria at the
MTV Europe Music
Awards 2000

f r o m t h e Forever days
abilia
Some memor * 77 *
Image Getty Images / Laurence Labat.
CHAPTER
FOUR
GOING SOLO
 CHAPTER 4

GOING SOLO:
EMMA
BUNTON
Nobody puts Baby in the corner…
Emma p e
in Ver
r
o
f
n
o
a
r
,
m s
It a
at a conc
ly
ert
, in 2004

what Emma did after the Spice Girls

Words Dave Smith

I
t’s funny: few pop fans, let alone Spice Girls fans, would have
predicted that Emma ‘Baby Spice’ Bunton would go on to have
the most prolific solo career of all five Spices, once the band
had gone on hiatus. Never as loud as Geri or Mel B, not as
accomplished a singer as Mel C, and without the supermodel hauteur
of Victoria, Emma played the role of the familiar, safe girl next door
in this group of firebrands – and yet she is the most visible Spice, 25
years into their career.
In fact, Emma had made a name for herself as a bit-part actor even
before the Spice Girls made it, playing the role of a mugger – yes,
really – in EastEnders in 1992 and then following up with a role in
ITV’s police show, The Bill, in ’93. A brief appearance as a prostitute
in a BBC drama called To Play the King came the same year, in
Images (LHP Top down) Alamy / Fabio Diena. Getty Images / Tim Roney. (RHP Top Down) Getty Images / Mike Marsland.

which (see YouTube) she utters the immortal lines “Do you want any
business, mate? Oh no, it’s the Old Bill!”
Skip forward eight years, an eternity in showbiz terms, and the
Spice Girls had been and gone, with Emma a superstar and her first
Getty Images / Tristan Fewings / Disasters Emergency Committee. Alamy / Entertainment Pictures.

solo album, A Girl Like Me, on the way. Released in April 2001, the
album led with a banger of a debut single, ‘What Took You So
Long?’, which went straight in at number one.
The album made number four, although the follow-up singles
‘Take My Breath Away’ and ‘We’re Not Gonna Sleep Tonight’
couldn’t prevent it from vanishing fairly quickly. In fairness
to Emma, none of the Spice Girls’ solo albums ever lingered
long on the charts: what the public expected, and usually
got, from those singers were killer standalone songs that
they could sing in the pub.
It didn’t matter. In the early 2000s, Emma was all over
the media, whether that meant performing at Party At
The Palace in June 2002, filming a part in the Bollywood
film Chocolate: Deep Dark Secrets, guesting on TV, or

* 80 *
 EMMA BUNTON

MAIN Emma joining

her team for the launch
of TV talent show, Don’t
Stop Believing

BOTTOM Emma
has acted in two
Bollywood films

Emma was one

of the present
for Ukraine, ers at Conce
held in Birmingh rt
am, March 20
22

* 81 *
CHAPTER 4

The singer with

her Strictly Come
Dancing partner,
Darren Bennett

ner,
n g - t e r m part
lo
m a r r ied her J uly 202
1
E m m a one s , in
Jade J
* 82 *
 recording more music. Her second album, Free Me, came out in early
2004 and stuck around for longer than its predecessor, thanks to its
deft Sixties Motown homage, a reliably commercial sound. Its title
cut, plus ‘Maybe’ and ‘I’ll Be There’, all made the top five on the chart,
and the latter two charted in the USA in dance remix form.
If album number three, Life In Mono, didn’t do quite as well as
the previous two when it appeared in 2006, it didn’t really matter –
because by then Emma was successfully switching to radio and TV.
Who doesn’t love a pop singer turned dancer? That was the rationale
behind her appearance on Strictly Come Dancing the same year, in
which she came third.
By the summer of ’08, Emma was a guest presenter on Richard
& Judy alongside Richard Madeley; in the autumn she was on The
Image (LHP Top down) Alamy / Ian West / PA Images. Alamy / Yui Mok / PA Images.
X Factor, assisting Dannii Minogue; and in December she bagged
herself a spot on Loose Women on ITV. That’s three genuinely huge
TV shows in the same year: all credit to her management, but also to
Emma herself, who the industry and public had obviously welcomed
(RHP) Alamy / Fox Searchlight Pictures / TCD / Prod.DB.
in with open arms.
A long-standing radio gig came about in early 2009, when Emma
became a guest presenter on Heart London’s Heart Breakfast show,
alongside Jamie Theakston and Harriet Scott, before taking up her
own Saturday drive-time slot on the same station. She remained at
Heart Radio in some capacity or other all the way until the end of
2018, a lifetime in the modern, here-today-gone-later-today era. Only
the second reunion of the Spice Girls ended her radio reign, although
ABOVE The singer had a role in Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie
LEFT Emma is a presenter for Heart Radio
she has since returned and currently presents her own show with
Heart on a Sunday night.
Space doesn’t permit us to reproduce the rest of Emma’s schedule
in the last decade, but to give you a sense of her employment, she’s
been in Neighbours, Dancing On Ice and Don’t Stop Believing; she’s
guest-presented on and with Lorraine; she sang with Mel C on a song
called ‘I Know Him So Well’; she acted in Absolutely Fabulous: The
Movie, the Disney Channel series The Lion Guard, and Keith Lemon:
The Film; she was a judge on Your Face Sounds Familiar, Boy Band,
and again on The X Factor, this time with Mel B; and she co-presented
Too Much TV on BBC Two.
All this took place before the campaign for her recent fourth
album, My Happy Place, kicked off in 2019. The record, which included
appearances from her fiancé Jade Jones, Robbie Williams and Will
Young, came with the well-received singles ‘Baby Please Don’t Stop’,
‘Too Many Teardrops’ and ‘You’re All I Need to Get By’, winding up just
in time for the pandemic.
After that involuntary break in her extremely productive career,
Emma is no doubt raring to go once again. It seems that the girl next
door won all the prizes after all – and for that, we salute her.
* 83 *
 CHAPTER 4

GOING SOLO:
GERI
HALLIWELL
Geri’s exit from the Spice Girls signalled the start of an eventful
solo music career and reignited her passion for writing
Words Grace Almond

W
hat happens when you walk away from one of the
best-selling girl groups of all time? For Geri, life
after the Spice Girls gave her new opportunities
to pursue different creative paths: not only did she
release her own solo music during what was to be a turbulent
career, but she became a writer too.
The launch of her solo career came with the release of her
debut album, Schizophonic, just over a year following her exit from
the Spice Girls, in 1999. Schizophonic debuted at number four on
the UK Albums Chart, and singles ‘Lift Me Up’, ‘Bag It Up’ and ‘Mi
Chico Latino’ all reached number one. This fun, flirty record landed
Geri nominations at the 2000 Brit Awards for Best Pop Act and Best
British Female Solo Artist.
Her sophomore album, Scream If You Wanna Go Faster, was
released in 2001. Scream If You Wanna Go Faster was certified gold,
but was absolutely panned by critics, with NME’s Christian Ward
writing, “In an attempt to be a 21st-century pop Liza Minnelli, she’s
bypassed the interesting stuff and gone straight to her very own
Muppets in Manhattan.”
The album included what is arguably her most iconic song
Images (LHP Top Down) Alamy / Stephen Searle. Getty Images / Tim Roney.

to date; a cover of The Weather Girls’ ‘It’s Raining Men’. The

(RHP Top Down) Getty Images / Brian Rasic. Getty Images / Tim Roney.

accompanying music video was equally iconic, and saw Geri

take inspiration from ‘80s films including Flashdance and
Fame. The track was also part of the soundtrack for the
2001 film Bridget Jones’s Diary.
The track reached number one in the UK and achieved
global success. Later, it was nominated for Best British
Single at the 2002 Brit Awards. In 2004, Geri returned
to music and released her single, ‘Ride It’, adding to her
string of top ten singles. Despite this, her chart success
failed to translate to ticket sales: Geri found her solo

* 84 *
 GERI HALLIWELL

LEFT Geri arriving

for the X Factor
auditions in Liverpool

BELOW Geri launched

her solo music career
just over a year after
leaving the
Spice Girls

s G e r i’ s b ig gest solo hit

Men’ wa
‘It’s Raining
* 85 *
 CHAPTER 4

Geri has
r
two aut eleased
obiograph
ies

an episode of BBC’s
Geri while presenting
* 86 * The One Show

tour plans derailed after a long wait between singles (‘Desire’ wasn’t
released until 30 May 2005), and her record company’s dissatisfaction
with some of the songs she had recorded for her third album.
This marked the start of the decline of Geri’s solo music career.
After a lack of ticket sales, her first solo tour was cancelled. Creating
her third album, Passion, was an arduous and often protracted
process. Many of the songs had already been written and recorded,
but ended up being replaced with balladry and electropop towards the
end of 2004.
The album failed to capture the same (albeit sometimes moderate)
chart success and critical attention that her previous two albums had
seen. EMI decided not to renew her recording contract. A few years
later in 2011, Geri announced her music comeback and in July of that
year, confirmed that her fourth album was almost ready for release.
Image (LHP Top Down) Getty Images / Stuart Mostyn. Getty Images / Emma Peios.
In October 2012, she performed for the first time in seven years at
Breast Cancer Care, with her new single ‘Phenomenal Woman’.
However, in January 2013, she confirmed the album had been
placed on hold, and that she would be moving in a different direction.
Alamy / Curleypap. (RHP) Alamy / Yui Mok / PA Images.
She performed her single ‘Half Of Me’, on Australian television in
September 2013, but a post on her official blog hinted that she had
found her return to the music industry difficult.
Following a leak of 13 songs from her fourth album, and a
cancelled three-piece project with fellow Spice Girls Mel B and
Emma, Geri released a charity single in memory of George Michael,
in June 2017. Later, Geri joined Mel C, Mel B and Emma for their
reunion Spice World – 2019 Tour. For Geri, a delayed fourth album
GERI HALLIWELL
seemed to have given her the space to focus on her family and her
new-found passion: writing children’s books.
Geri had already forayed into writing – her 1999 autobiography If
Only, was a bestseller, and she released her second autobiography
in 2002. She signed a six-book deal with the publisher Macmillan
Children’s Books, and began writing her book series, which focused
on the character Ugenia – loosely based on herself – and Ugenia’s
friends. The first book in the series catapulted Geri to the top of
the book charts, making her the most successful female celebrity
children’s author of 2008.
Geri’s television work has spanned two yoga DVDs, a self-titled
Channel 4 documentary released in 1999, and extensive work as
a judge on a range of talent shows, including Popstars: The Rivals,
Australia’s Got Talent, and a guest spot on The X Factor. She also
stepped in for Zöe Ball on BBC Radio 2 in July 2017, and presented an
episode of The One Show in 2015.
Despite an eventful solo music career, with a number of stops
and starts, Geri has carved out her place as a presenter, both on
British and Australian television, as well as an author of an exciting
children’s books series.
LEFT The singer has authored a series of children’s books
BELOW Geri with her fellow judges on Popstars: The Rivals
* 87 *
 CHAPTER 4

GOING SOLO:
MELANIE
BROWN
Mel B’s solo career may not have achieved critical
acclaim, but amongst the world’s talent shows,
the ex-Spice Girl has found her niche
Words Grace Almond

W
hen her time as a Spice Girl was starting to slow
down, Melanie Brown was laying the foundations for
her solo career. She released her first solo single, ‘I
Want You Back’, in 1998, which reached number one
on the UK Singles Chart. Featuring the pioneering American rapper
and producer Missy Elliott, Mel B recalled that ‘I Want You Back’ “was
the first time [she’d] even considered doing anything by [herself]”.
The single would later be released as part of Mel B’s 2000 debut
solo album, Hot.
Unlike her fellow Spice Girls, Mel B’s debut album failed to
achieve the same commercial success and critical attention that
their first albums had – Hot peaked at number 28 in the UK
charts, and was only certified silver. Additionally, her cover of
Cameo’s ‘Word Up’ was the lowest-charting single by a Spice Girl
Images (LHP Top down) Getty Images / Mick Hutson. (RHP Top Down) Getty Images / Desiree Navarro.

in the ‘90s, peaking at number 14 on the UK Singles Chart.

Another single from the album, ‘Lullaby’, caused some
controversy with its accompanying visuals, which featured Mel B
with her child, Phoenix Chi, whom critics implied had been used for
commercial reasons, leading to Mel B being dubbed as “Desperate
Alamy / Ian West / PA Images. Getty Images / Bruce Glikas / FilmMagic.

Spice”. Eventually, poor album sales led to her record label

terminating their contract.
While she was attempting to carve out her place as a solo artist,
Mel B turned to the small screen. What followed was a series of
presenting credits under her belt, such as the two occasions she
co-hosted the MOBO Awards in 1998 and 1999, as well as a stint as
a presenter on Top of the Pops, The All Star Animal Awards, and a
range of other television projects.
She also found more success when she embarked on her writing
career, releasing her autobiography, Catch a Fire, in 2000. The book

* 88 *
 MELANIE BROWN

The singer alongside

her fellow America’s
Got Talent judges,
Howie Mandel, Heidi
Klum and Howard
Stern, in 2013

X Factor
i n g o f The
m
ding fil Wembley
Atten at

After t
he Spice
acting c Girls, Mel B
areer a e
nd starr mbarked on an
ed in R
ent
* 89 *
Appearin
g on Nam
e That T
une

, B r uta lly Honest

moir
k s igning of her me
At a boo
* 90 *

reached number seven on the official chart, and she promoted it by
touring the UK. She also launched her acting career, joining the cast
for the play The Vagina Monologues; appearing in the 2004 romantic
comedy The Seat Filler, which starred fellow ex-girl group member
and solo artist Kelly Rowland; and living up to her scary moniker with
the horror film LD 50 Lethal Dose, which was released in 2005. Mel B
also played Mimi Marquez in a production of Rent.
Almost five years after the release of her debut album, Mel B
recorded her second album, LA State Of Mind, released in June
2005. Only one single from the album was released – ‘Today’, which
charted at number 41. LA State Of Mind was released independently
through the label Amber Café, and went beyond the usual CD format,
including a 30-minute DVD documentary. It also saw Mel B go in a
different direction, incorporating more acoustic sounds, and even
some country rock on ‘Stay In Bed Days’. Unfortunately, the album
was met with largely negative reviews, with AllMusic referring to it as
“not only the worst solo Spice album by some distance” but also “one
of the worst pop albums of the decade”. By changing up her style of
music, Mel B took a gamble that failed to pay off.
Two years later in 2007, she joined the lineup of the fifth season
of Dancing with the Stars, and came in second place. Later that
year, she announced a reunion tour with her fellow former Spice
Girls bandmates, which reportedly earned her £10 million. She also
continued to strengthen her presence on television, appearing as
the host of the show Dance Your Ass Off, and joined Australian The X
Factor as a celebrity mentor. She would later become a judge on the
show, and eventually earned a spot as a co-host on the Australian
edition of Dancing with the Stars.
MELANIE BROWN
In 2012, Mel B signed a contract to release her third album, but the
project and contract were eventually scrapped. She returned to the
Australian The X Factor, and later that year, she earned a guest spot
as a judge on the British edition of the show. Mel B continued to find
her niche, confirming that she would be part of Australia’s Got Talent
alongside comedian Dawn French. However, her plans were derailed
when the network Seven, which aired Australia’s version of The X
Factor, successfully brought legal action to ban her from working
with any rival networks.
Despite shelving her third album, she released a new single in
2013. ‘For Once In My Life’, which peaked at number two on the
Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs charts. Additionally, she continued to
appear on television shows such as judging on America’s Got Talent,
and appearing on the panel of the 2014 edition of The Big Fat Quiz of
the Year. She earned more acting credits, joining the cast of Chicago
on Broadway in 2017, and even appeared as a contestant on The
Masked Singer in 2021.
Image (LHP Top down) Getty Images / FOX. Getty Images / Walter McBride.
While Mel B hasn’t seen her wishes for a successful solo
singing career come to fruition, she has enjoyed an eventful and
Getty Images /Mark Milan. (RHP) Getty Images / Rob Verhorst.
dynamic television career, particularly on televised talent shows.
After replacing Leona Lewis as a judge on the drag queen singing
competition Queen of the Universe, there’s certainly more to come for
the former Spice Girl.
LEFT The star joined the cast of Chicago on Broadway
BELOW Mel B pictured in Amsterdam, 2001
CHAPTER 4

GOING SOLO:
MELANIE
CHISHOLM
Mel C’s eventful solo career has seen the release of eight
studio albums, and a critically acclaimed acting career

Words Grace Almond

T
wo years before the Spice Girls announced their hiatus,
Mel C released her debut solo project in November 1998,
featuring on Bryan Adams’ single ‘When You’re Gone’.
The song peaked at number three on the UK Singles
Chart, and was certified platinum. However, her vocals drew some
criticism, with The Observer’s Sam Taylor referring to her efforts as
“wailing atonally”.
Mel C signed a recording contract with Virgin the following year,
and recorded songs for two film soundtracks – ‘Ga Ga’ for Big Daddy,
and ‘(Hey You) Free Up Your Mind’ for Pokémon: The First Movie.
She recorded her debut album Northern Star and released her
debut single, ‘Goin’ Down’, which peaked at number four in the UK.
Northern Star was a versatile record, jumping from pop, to rock, to
R&B and to dance.
The album was certified triple platinum in the UK and peaked
Getty Images / Sebastian Reuter. Getty Images / Harry Durrant. Getty Images / Raymond Hall.

at number four in the charts. It also included ‘Never Be The Same

Again’, a song that featured TLC member Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes,
Images (LHP) Getty Images / Tim Roney. (RHP Top Down) Getty Images / PYMCA.

and which became Mel C’s first number one solo single. A remixed
version of ‘I Turn To You’, released in August 2000, became her
second number one.
Her success led to a world tour across 30 countries between late
2000 and August 2001, and she was back in the recording studio later
that year. Mel C had struggled with depression during her time as a
Spice Girl, and this, coupled with the hostile treatment of her by the
British media, reportedly led to the postponement of her sophomore
album to 2003.
Reason peaked at number five but failed to reach the same
success as her debut. Additionally, a knee injury sustained when
she competed on the reality sports game show, The Games, made it

* 92 *
 MELANIE CHISHOLM

s,
t h t h e Girl
wi
a s s o ciated braces it
e
a genr t, Mel C em
was never tis
Rock s a s olo ar
but a

C pl ay s a D J set at the
Mel
ry festival
2022 Glastonbu
Mel C promot
ing her new b
ook in NYC,
September 20
22 * 93 *
CHAPTER 4

m a n y artists,
h
t e a m e d up wit e” Lopes
as Ey
Mel C h ing Lisa “Left
includ

With eight st
udio albums an
there is plent d a ninth on t
y for Mel C he way,
* 94 *
fans
difficult to promote the album. Rumours of conflict with her record
label had already begun to swirl during the recording of Reason
and so, at the start of 2004, Virgin ceased her recording contract,
prompting her to form her own label, which she named Red Girl
Records after her favourite football team, Liverpool FC.
Her third album, Beautiful Intentions, was released in 2005. It
featured a harsher rock sound, more balladry, and more personal
lyrics than her previous two albums. Beautiful Intentions peaked at
number 24 in the UK and charted well in Switzerland and Germany
where it was certified gold. Her first DVD, Live Hits, was released in
October 2006 and peaked at number ten in the DVD charts.
Mel C finished recording her fourth album, This Time, in early
2007, and released singles ‘The Moment You Believe’, ‘I Want Candy’
and ‘Carolyna’. In addition to ‘I Want Candy’, the album included two
other covers – ‘What If I Stay’ and ‘Don’t Let Me Go’. At the end of that
year, she joined her former bandmates for a reunion world tour, and
released the fourth single from the album, ‘This Time’.
Mel C also began pursuing other creative outputs. In 2009, she
was cast in the sequel to the cult classic The Craft, but the film was
scrapped. In October of that year, she made her stage debut in the
musical Blood Brothers, earning her a nomination for Best Actress in
a Musical at the Laurence Olivier Awards.
Her fifth studio album, The Sea, released in September 2011,
performed poorly in comparison to her previous outings, charting at
number 45 in the UK. However, she set her sights on a new project,
becoming a mentor assistant in the third season of the Australian
edition of The X Factor. In July 2012, she became a judge on the talent
show Superstar and returned to the stage as Mary Magdalene in
Jesus Christ Superstar.
ABOVE Presenting Billie Eilish with the International Female Solo Artist
award at The BRIT Awards, 2020
LEFT The singer made her stage debut in the musical Blood Brothers
Mel C’s sixth album, Stages, was released in September 2012
and peaked at number 50 in the UK. The album included the single
‘I Know Him So Well’, which also featured her former Spice Girls
bandmate, Emma. Mel C continued with her acting, appearing in the
film Play Hard, and making a cameo appearance in the music video
for Little Mix’s ‘Word Up’.
Over the next few years, Mel C joined the judging panel for Asia’s
Got Talent in 2015, released her seventh studio album, Version Of
Me in October 2016, co-headlined Night of the Proms in 2017 and
appeared as a DJ at various events in 2018.
In 2019, Mel C joined up with Mel B, Emma and Geri for the Spice
World – 2019 Tour, and released the lead single, ‘Who I Am’, from her
Image (LHP Top down) Getty Images / Mike Marsland. Getty Images / Ron Davis.
eighth album, Melanie C, in 2020. The album achieved critical acclaim
and featured a song with the rapper Nadia Rose. It also became her
Alamy / Stephen Barnes. (RHP) Getty Images / Dave J Hogan.
first top ten album since Reason, entering the UK Albums Chart at
number eight.
Mel C has been particularly busy during the Covid-19 pandemic,
receiving the Celebrity Ally award at the 2021 British LGBT Awards,
becoming a contestant on Dancing with the Stars, joining the judging
panels on The Voice Kids and RuPaul’s Drag Race: UK Versus
the World, and publishing her memoir, Who I Am: My Story. After
revealing that she’s working on her ninth studio album, fans of Mel C
will be eagerly anticipating her next projects.
* 95 *
 CHAPTER 4

GOING SOLO:
VICTORIA
BECKHAM
While her solo music career was somewhat short-
lived, Victoria has become a household name in the
world of fashion
Words Grace Almond

S
ince the Spice Girls went on hiatus in 2000, Victoria has
embarked on a range of solo projects. Let’s take a look at
her solo music career and business ventures.
The True Steppers’ garage single ‘Out Of Your Mind’,
released in August 2000, featured Victoria and served as her first
appearance as a solo artist. As it was released at the same time as
Spiller’s (featuring Sophie Ellis-Bextor) ‘Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)’,
the two tracks were locked in a fierce battle for the number one spot,
which Victoria lost by 20,000 sales. However, her first solo outing was
still a hit, and was certified gold.
After releasing her second single, ‘Not Such An Innocent Girl’,
which peaked at number six, she went on to release her self-titled
debut album in October 2001. This peaked at number ten on the
UK Album Chart. The Victoria Beckham album blends pop and
R&B, but was panned by critics, with BBC Music referring to
it as “a mish-mash affair of gushy sentiment and wishy-
wash RnB”.
The final single from the album, ‘A Mind Of Its Own’,
dropped in February 2002. It reached number six in the
UK, and sometime later, Victoria’s contract with Virgin
Images (LHP) Getty Images / Bruno Vincent. (RHP Top Down) Alamy / Lee /
Everett Collection. Getty Images / Anthony Harvey. Alamy / Henry Nicholls.

came to an end. In the same year, Victoria signed a

contract with Telstar Records and 19 Management and
began recording new music again. After recording her
second album, Open Your Eyes, she shelved the project to
work on a hip-hop-inspired sound.
Victoria claimed the number three spot in the charts with her
double single ‘Let Your Head Go’/’This Groove’. The release served
as an experiment: if ‘This Groove’ proved to be popular, she would
release her album, Come Together. However, if ‘Let Your Head
Go’ was more successful, she would release Open Your Eyes.

* 96 *
 VICTORIA BECKHAM

rfumes
ic t or ia ha s r el eased her own pe
V and, David
alongside her husb

MAIN Posh Spice released

her autobiography,
Learning to Fly, in 2001

BELOW Victoria walks the

runway at her show during
London Fashion Week,
February 2020

* 97 *
CHAPTER 4

he
r m in g ‘O ut O f Your Mind’ at t
Perfo 0
io 1 R oa ds ho w Big Sunday, 200
Rad

Victoria rele
ased her de
solo single in but
2000
* 98 *

Unfortunately, her label became bankrupt, damaging any potential
success for her solo music career in the process. Victoria Beckham
remains her first and only album to date.
While Victoria joined her former Spice Girls bandmates on their
2007-2008 The Return of the Spice Girls Tour, as well as a special
performance at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony, she
chose not to join them for their reunion tour in 2019. Instead, she set
her sights on an exciting career in fashion.
Initially, Victoria had made appearances on the catwalk for a range
of brands, including Maria Grachvogel in February 2000, and Roberto
Cavalli at Milan Fashion Week in January 2006. Two years prior to
this, she designed a fashion line for Rock & Republic. In 2006, her
partnership with Rock & Republic came to an end, and she launched
Image (LHP Top Down) Alamy / Owen Humphreys. Getty Images. Getty Images / Stephane Cardinale - Corbis.
her own denim label called dVb Style. She also began to venture into
the beauty market, launching her perfume, Intimately Beckham, in
August 2007.
Alamy / Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix. (RHP) Alamy / Bravo TV / Courtesy Everett Collection.
After playing a variety of roles in the fashion industry, Victoria went
on to launch her eponymous label in September 2008, and later a
more affordable line. Her brand quickly drew attention at New York
Fashion Week, and in 2018, her collection was presented at London
Fashion Week.
Despite the buzz around Victoria’s ventures into the worlds of
fashion and beauty, her label has continuously suffered losses, and
it was reported that Victoria Beckham Limited had not made a profit
since 2008. It was also reported that the Covid-19 pandemic had
caused a series of redundancies at the label.
Victoria has also built a significant career in television, with five
documentaries including Channel 4’s Victoria’s Secrets, which saw her
interview other celebrities and The Real Beckhams, which followed
VICTORIA BECKHAM
her and her husband, David Beckham, as they moved from London to
Madrid following his transfer to Real Madrid football club.
She has also made a cameo appearance in Ugly Betty and
even ventured into the world of film, appearing in the 2001 movie
Zoolander. Victoria joined the fourth season of Project Runway as a
guest judge in March 2008, and turned down the offer to appear in
Sex and the City: The Movie, due to her 2007 Spice Girls reunion tour
rehearsal commitments.
Finally, like her Spice Girls bandmates, Victoria has also dived into
the world of writing. September 2001 saw the release of her first
book, the autobiography entitled Learning to Fly. Exploring themes
surrounding Victoria’s childhood, career with the Spice Girls and her
personal life, it reached number one in the book charts.
Victoria’s second book, That Extra Half an Inch: Hair, Heels and
Everything in Between, was published in October 2006. It was
a collection of fashion and beauty advice, as well as a series of
photographs by some of the most notable fashion photographers at
the time, including Annie Leibovitz. Her second book was a roaring
success and became an instant bestseller.
Although her solo music career got off to a shaky start, Victoria
has created her own platform in the worlds of business and
fashion, and forged a career that refused to slow down after the
announcement of the Spice Girls’ hiatus.
LEFT Victoria walks the runway at the Roberto Cavalli show in Milan,
January 2006
BELOW Victoria has made a number of guest appearances on TV, such as
her stint as a guest judge on Project Runway
Image Getty Images / Eamonn McCormack.
CHAPTER
FIVE
REUNION
CHAPTER 5

REUNITED &
REVITALISED
How the hottest pop band in the world came back to bewitch us all
Words Dave Smith

S
even years after Victoria, Emma and the Mels decided
to take a break in the wake of Geri’s departure and the
Forever album, the five Spice Girls finally announced
their return as a full band. The interim had been a long
one for their fans, who – like their idols – had done a lot of growing-
up in the group’s time away.
Was it too long? That was the question. Attempts had been made
to bring the quintet back together in 2005 and 2007, for Live 8 and
the Concert For Diana respectively. Live 8 organiser, Bob Geldof,
reported that Mel B was the one preventing a full reunion, telling the
TV presenter Richard Madeley that she “has difficulty going back to
something she did in the past… if she can’t do it, she can’t do it.”
Apparently she couldn’t – but on 28 June 2007, all of that was
history. On that date, the group revealed at a press conference at
London’s O2 Arena that a series of live dates, the aptly-titled Return
Of The Spice Girls Tour, was set to kick off in Vancouver, Canada, on 2
December that same year.
It seemed that the Spice Girls had not waited too long to make a
Images (LHP) Getty Images / MJ Kim/Spice Girls LLP. (RHP Both) Getty Images / Dave J Hogan.

comeback – because the first London date sold out in 38 seconds.

Five million people were reported to have signed up for tickets at the
band’s website, which explained why no fewer than 16 extra London
dates were quickly added.
Additional shows in California and Nevada were also scheduled
to cope with demand, although the tour was shorter than expected,
with the final dates in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Cape Geri performs in an updated ver
Town and Buenos Aires being cancelled due to what was referred sion of her
to as personal and family commitments. Still, the 47 dates that the
iconic Union Jack dress
Spice Girls executed on this mammoth tour brought in over $100
million in ticket sales and merch, with the same amount scooped
from sponsorship and advertising deals. The tour was the highest- TOP RIGHT Mel B, Emma, Geri and Mel C perform during the opening night
of their 2019 Spice World Tour
grossing live event in the 12 months to April 2008, and therefore a
fairly clear vindication of the group’s decision to reunite. BOTTOM RIGHT The Spice World Tour was incredibly lucrative

* 102 *
REUNITED & REVITALISED

* 103 *
CHAPTER 5

of
S pi ce G ir ls with the cast
T he
Viva Forever!

* 104 *
 REUNITED & REVITALISED

Everyone was a winner, it seemed, with each of the Girls earning

a reported £10 million to do the tour – which may, or may not, have
included a chunk of the associated revenues – while a documentary
called Giving You Everything was released for fans who hadn’t been
able to make the shows.
Industry trophies came flooding in, including a Capital Music Icon
Award, a Glamour Award for Best Band, and the Vodafone Live Music
Award for Best Live Return, the last of which gains extra significance
when you realise that the competition that year not only included
the Sex Pistols, it also included the only reunion show that Led
Zeppelin have ever performed – or indeed, will ever perform. The Brit
Awards stepped up too, handing the Spice Girls a special gong for the
Jennifer Saunders and Best Brits Performance Of 30 Years for their 1997 performances of
Ju
Spice Girls at the Vi dy Craymer with the ‘Wannabe’ and ‘Who Do You Think You Are’.
va Forever! photocall The Greatest Hits album made number two on the British chart and
included ‘Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)’, the official Children in
Need charity single for 2007. It’s a perfectly pleasant song along the
lines of ‘2 Become 1’, with none of the R&B touches that had spoiled
their previous release. Although it’s incredibly shallow of us to point
it out, the centrepiece of the accompanying video was Geri’s flawless
six-pack – a pretty miraculous achievement for a 35-year-old mother
of a one-year-old child.
It wasn’t all gravy for the Spice Girls at this point, mind. The idea of
a musical devoted to their careers and music probably seemed like a
great idea in the wake of Queen’s gazillion-selling We Will Rock You
and Abba’s Mamma Mia! productions, but the reality fell a long way
short of expectations.
Viva Forever! was the name of the doomed show. Written by ace
comedian Jennifer Saunders, the musical was announced at a press
conference at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel London in June 2012,

The Spice Girls

performed at the
Closing Ceremony
for the London 2012
Olympics
Image (Left to Right) Alamy /Matt Crossick. Getty Images / Stu Forster.
Alamy / Ian West / PA Images. Getty Images / Mike Hewitt.

After the scathing criticism of

Viv
the joyous reception of their per a Forever!,
formance at the
Olympics must have been a relief

* 105 *
 The Spice Girls
announced that they
were reuniting for
a world tour
in 2007
where the video for ‘Wannabe’ had been filmed 16 years before. The
show was promoted with a cumbersomely-titled documentary called
Spice Girls’ Story: Viva Forever!, and debuted at the Piccadilly Theatre
in London’s West End that December. Advance ticket sales of £2
million were apparently booked, but despite the high expectations,
the critics absolutely savaged the show.
The Daily Telegraph wrote, amusingly but perhaps harshly, “I’ll
tell you what I wanted, what I really really wanted – I wanted this
terrible show to stop. This show is not just bad, it is definitively,
monumentally and historically bad,” while the Independent called it
“charmless, messy, and lacklustre”.
The Sunday Express wrote “Viva Forever! is a phoney,
manufactured musical about a phoney, manufactured band,
marooned by a structurally inept, unfunny script”, and in fact a lot of
broadly similar venom was aimed at the writing, with the Evening
Standard whining that “Saunders’ script, which ought to carry us
efficiently from one song to the next, is ponderous.”
Perhaps worst of all, the actors’ bible The Stage – through which
the singers had originally met, you will recall – dismissed them with
the words: “It soon becomes clear that the Spice Girls’ back catalogue
is not generally of a high enough standard to be reinterpreted in this
way.” The show closed after seven months, posting a loss of at least
£5 million: sure, it wasn’t exactly groundbreaking theatre, but it was
depressing to see how venomous its detractors were.
Fortunately, when the Spice Girls performed at that year’s
Olympics closing ceremony in London, their appearance was hailed
as a triumph, which just goes to show that you can never tell what
people will and will not like. Perhaps a quick song and dance is what
most of the public want from the Spice Girls, rather than a two-hour
theatre show? Either way, when the Girls played ‘Wannabe’ and
* 106 *
‘Spice Up Your Life’ to close off the Games, they became the most
tweeted act of the Olympics, with more than 116,000 tweets uploaded
per minute.
The years flew by, and although a proposed 2016 re-reunion
featuring just three of the Girls – Mel B, Emma and Geri – came to
nothing when the last of these announced her pregnancy, it seemed
to be simply a matter of time before more live dates were announced.
It was 2019 before this finally happened, although this time Victoria
was the odd woman out.
When the Spice World 2019 Tour was announced, she stated:
“Being in the Spice Girls was a hugely important part of my life, and
I wish my girls so much love and fun as they go back on tour, I know
they will put on an amazing show and the fantastic fans past and
present are going to have a wonderful time!”
This didn’t fully satisfy fans, however, and Mel B didn’t help matters
Images (Above) Getty Images / Rune Hellestad - Corbis. (Right) Getty Images / MJ Kim/Spice Girls LLP.
by hinting that Victoria might sign up after all: “It’s just the four of us
that are fully confirmed, but Vic might join us at some point,” she said
on ITV’s Loose Women. “It’d be a shame if she didn’t.”
Turns out that Victoria didn’t join them, but her absence from
the lineup made little difference in commercial terms: the 13-
date tour attracted 700,000 spectators and earned $78.2 million in
ticket sales. The final three nights at Wembley Stadium became
the highest-grossing event of the year, going on to win the
2019 Billboard Live Music Award for Top Boxscore.
Since then, the pandemic has ensured that things are relatively
quiet in Spice Girl world. An animated movie is said to be on the way,
and the 25th anniversary of ‘Wannabe’ was celebrated in 2021 with a
new EP and a deluxe reissue of Spice – but otherwise, we wait with
bated breath. Whatever the Girls do next, and whether it’s three, four
or five of them that do it, we’ll be there to see it.
REUNITED & REVITALISED

Performing at the
O2 Arena in London on
18 December 2007 as
part of the Return
of the Spice Girls
World Tour

* 107 *
Image Alamy / Mario Anzuoni / Reuters.
 The Spice Girls
performing during the
12th Annual Victoria’s
Secret Fashion Show
in Los Angeles,
November 2007
CHAPTER 5

7 NOVEMBER 2007

GREATEST
HITSHow many of these songs appear on your Spice Girls playlist?
All of ’em, we reckon

Words Dave Smith

TRACK 1
WANNABE
Well – how else would you kick off a Spice Girls best-of? This has
to be the perfect pop band’s most perfect song, and it sounds as
fresh all these years later as it did way back in the Elizabethan
era. Did the fabulous fivesome ever produce something that was
better? That’s for the listener to decide, but we would have to say
that it’s a pretty high bar to reach.
TRACK 2
SAY YOU’LL BE THERE
The ‘two’ of the ultimate Spice Girls one-two punch still
sounds completely convincing today. It’s less off-the-wall
nutty than ‘Wannabe’ but still packs a ton of energy, with
the chorus both imploring a lover to stick around and
threatening dire retribution if they do not. That’s quite a
songwriting achievement.

* 110 *
 The Spice Girls
performing during
their 2007
Reunion Tour

TRACK 3
2 BECOME 1
This all-time classic ballad is, for us, the greatest Christmas song
of all time. Better than East 17’s ‘Stay Another Day’. Better than that
Mariah Carey song. Even better, and we know this sounds like pure
blasphemy, than the ultimate Yuletide anthem for the ages: Cliff
Richard’s ‘Mistletoe And Wine’.
TRACK 6
MOVE OVER
Okay, no greatest-hits compilation manages to get it right all of the
time, and we’ll admit that the inclusion of this commercial jingle is a
touch incongruous. Then again, we all have bills to pay, and if Pepsi
offered you several million quid to say how yummy you thought its
product was, you’d say yes.

TRACK 4
MAMA
Love or loathe this song, you have to admit that it ties in perfectly
with the Spice Girls’ ethos of examining women’s roles and
relationships as the millennium approached. Where else would you
find five such kick-ass singers celebrating the lives and loves of their
mums, and with such panache?
Album Image Amazon. Above Image Alamy / Reuters / Lyle Stafford.
TRACK 7
SPICE UP YOUR LIFE
No Spice Girls session is complete without this excellent slab of
Latin-influenced pop. Sure, sometimes it sounds like the third
exercise that you learn at your local salsa class, but whoever said
that was a bad thing? It still sounds pretty much like the future of
popular music to us.

TRACK 5
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?
The Spice Girls never wrote a better dance anthem than this one.
Other songs were more emotional, still others were crazier, but ‘Who
Do You Think You Are?’ will have everyone – kids, adults, senior
citizens – dancing like mad people until doomsday. Omitting it here
would have been nothing less than a crime.
TRACK 8
TOO MUCH
You could reasonably accuse the Spice Girls of recording too many
slowed-down ballads, this classic being one of them, but at the same
time they also recorded dancefloor workouts like ‘Who Do You Think
You Are?’, so we reckon the balance is about right. In any case, ‘Too
Much’ is a great song in its own right.

* 111 *
CHAPTER 5

TRACK 9
STOP
We will fight anyone who doesn’t like this song. Sure, it’s got more
energy than a double-decker bus full of teenagers on Red Bull and
Parma Violets, but that’s the essence of its charm. The knowing way
in which ‘Stop’ parodies Motown and Sixties soul music entrances us
every time, too.

TRACK 10
VIVA FOREVER
The best ballad the Spice Girls ever recorded, with the arguable
exception of ‘2 Become 1’, earns its place on this Greatest Hits
several times over. After all these years, we still don’t really know
what the song is about – breaking up? getting back together? – but
it’ll make you nostalgic anyway.

TRACK 11
LET LOVE LEAD THE WAY
This was a wise choice, given how dull so many of the Forever songs
were. Whoever cherry-picked ‘Let Love Lead The Way’ knew exactly
what they were doing. It’s fun, covers all the singers more or less The girls kicked
equally, and will get the ol’ foot tapping even if you don’t like R&B. off the North Am
performing at the erican tour by
Victoria’s Secret
Fashion Show
TRACK 12
TRACK 14
HOLLER
Split off from its parent album and enjoyed without the rest of the VOODOO
Forever baggage, it soon becomes apparent that ‘Holler’ is a pretty New track number two is a massive dose of fun, almost as if the
decent song. Sure, it sounds a tad clinical thanks to the studio glitter rather underwhelming ballad that preceded it was just a joke at our
Images (Above) Alamy / Lionel Hahn /Abacapress (Right) Alamy / Reuters / Dylan Martinez.

drizzled all over it, but what the heck – it’s worth a few minutes of expense. ‘Voodoo’ encourages you to jump off the sofa and shake
anyone’s time. your moneymaker like it’s 1997 all over again. Hats off to the Girls for
that reminder.

TRACK 13
HEADLINES (FRIENDSHIP
NEVER ENDS)
It would be churlish to say anything negative about this slightly
mundane song: after all, it raised money for Children In Need, so let’s
just say that it’s a perfectly decent pop ballad. Enjoy it, forget it, think
fondly about the greatest girl group of all time and move on.
TRACK 15
GOODBYE
Come on, it’s the obvious way to end this album! If you’re as big a
Spice Girls fan as we are, this classic ballad still raises a tear or two
– especially as the band’s golden era recedes into the past – but wipe
that tear away. We’ll always have the music and the memories.

* 112 *
 GREATEST HITS

The group
reunited in 2007
and released
their Greatest Hits
album

* 113 *
Image Alamy / Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix.
CHAPTER
SIX
LEGACY
CHAPTER 6

THE LEGACY
How did the Spice Girls change the
world of pop – and beyond?
Words Dave Smith

L
egacy mode’ is what management companies call their
strategic planning when a prominent artist has retired,
died or otherwise ceased to be available for new activities.
Fortunately, all five Spice Girls are still very much with us,
and successfully so, as their twice-a-decade global tours prove, but
their first, stratospheric flush of success is now 25 years ago – and
it’s that golden heyday that made the most enduring cultural impact,
as we’ll see. For that reason, we should celebrate that legacy – the
real change that they made to music, to commerce, and to the role of
women in the music business.
The biggest bands in the world, an exclusive club that the Spice
Girls certainly belong to, don’t simply inhabit or represent a culture:
they become that culture, and in doing so eventually influence
and direct it. We know that they made a lot of money, of course –
onic
riations of her ic
somewhere between $500 million and $800 million, even by 1998 –
but the money was simply a corollary effect; a welcome by-product of
s w or n m an y va
Geri ha des
their overall impact.
ac k dr es s ov er the last two deca
The first point to note is that everybody knew who the Spice Girls Union J
were, both collectively and individually, within a few months of their
first, incandescent single in the summer of 1996. Sure, the ‘[Adjective]
Images (LHP Top Down) Getty Images / John Phillips.Getty Images / NurPhoto.

Spice’ nicknames came about accidentally, when the staffers of Top

(RHP Top Down) Getty Images / Tristan Fewings. Getty Images / Jeff Kravitz.

Of The Pops magazine came up with them for a laugh – but they
instantly caught the public’s imagination.
The nicknames also implied a certain quality. Take ‘Sporty Spice’,
for example. Rather than having to remember the name of Melanie
Chisholm, a mundane identity that could be anyone, the nickname
instantly made you think of energy, optimism, backflips, designer
sportswear and a cheerful grin, almost like a cartoon character.
When you thought of Posh Spice rather than Victoria Adams, you
thought of a sleek bob haircut, fashion-show poise, Cool Britannia
design and a model’s cheekbones. The nicknames made the
singers bigger. That was a real innovation on the Spice Girls’ part.

Mel C performs at Amster

dam Pride
in 2018
* 116 *
 THE LEGACY

a t t h e ‘Spice Up
on displa y
Memorabilia ndon’ exhibition
Lo

The impact caused

by the Spice Girls is all
the more impressive
when you consider the
relatively short time
they were in
the spotlight

* 117 *
CHAPTER 6
Once the Girls had cool alter egos and we all knew who they were,
they went ahead and carved out a huge niche in what was mostly –
not totally, but mostly – a man’s world. Britpop dominated the charts
from 1994 to 1998, when people began to tire of its relentlessly retro
viewpoint and Beatles worship. In 1997, the Spice Girls’ biggest year,
they were up against Oasis’s all-conquering third album Be Here
Now, Blur’s self-titled fifth effort, and massive albums by all-bloke
bands such as Radiohead (OK Computer) and the Verve (Urban
Hymns). They out-performed them, out-cooled them and ultimately
earned more than all of them.
This brings us to Girl Power. Now, academics have argued
endlessly about this concept. What does it mean, and what did it
achieve? Of course, we know that it started as a marketing slogan,
but it’s arguable that it became a real, effective weapon in the journey
towards equal rights – although opinions vary, as they always do.
Real power resides in two areas in the music industry: firstly in the
artists, who are rewarded with fame, and secondly in management,
booking and record-label executives, who are rewarded with most
of the money. Although many of the former are women; most of the
latter are, and always have been, men. Usually, the artists aren’t the
ones offering the deals or making the major strategic decisions, so
who’s really got the power?
The unfortunate answer is that it’s still mostly the men, but also
that there’s a process in play here. As the years pass, the balance
of power is slowly shifting towards gender equality, although it’s
* 118 *
painfully slow, just as it is everywhere else. The Spice Girls didn’t
begin this process, but they certainly played a part in accelerating
it, giving it a huge push by being both commercially successful and
impossible to ignore.
It’s easier to understand this if you acknowledge that the power of
women as musical artists didn’t begin with the Spice Girls. We can
view their role as one of a historical chain of women who fought for
their space in the music industry, a chain that goes back as long as
that industry has existed. Of course, the Spice Girls were a bigger link
in that chain than most, given their huge presence and sales: that’s
obvious when you look at the artists who came after them.
In the UK alone, around 20 new girl groups were launched in 1999
and another 35 in 2000, most of which vanished pretty quickly. The
most enduring of these were All Saints, B*Witched, Atomic Kitten,
Girls Aloud and the Sugababes, although more obviously ‘Girl’-
themed bands such as Girl Thing and Girls@Play took a shot at the
title too. Across the Atlantic, Britney Spears and her many clones
could justifiably claim a certain degree of Spice influence as well, at
least in their presentation.
In more recent years, we’ve witnessed the rise of huge-selling
female groups or solo artists, each of whom owe a lesser or greater
debt to the Spice Girls. These include the Pussycat Dolls, Rita Ora,
BELOW The enduring legacy of the girls shows no sign of slowing down
Images (LHP) Getty Images / Jason Alden / Bloomberg. (RHP) Getty Images / Jeff J Mitchell.
THE LEGACY

* 119 *
CHAPTER 6

The group
with desig
at Milan Fa ner Roberto Cavalli
shion Week
* 120 *
, 2008
 THE LEGACY

The faithful
four talking
about the
reunion tour
of 2018

Lady Gaga has cred

ited the Spice Gir
for being one of he ls
r inspirations

Jess Glynne, Foxes, Alexandra Burke, Little Mix and Fifth Harmony,
and while you’d struggle to draw a lineage between the Spice Girls
and the guitar rock of Haim and the lo-fi of Billie Eilish, who knows
what influence they had on those fledgling musicians as kids? The
godmothers of modern pop music, Lady Gaga and Adele, have both
paid tribute to the Girls, with the former performing as Baby Spice at
high school and the latter declaring “They made me what I am today”.
These last two artists enjoy genuine and measurable power,
along with their American counterparts Madonna, Taylor Swift and
Beyoncé, dictating their careers as they wish and generating huge
revenues wherever they go. They’re at the tip of the iceberg, though,
and whether the thousands of female artists beneath that tip wield
real power is a matter for debate.
Certain commentators view the whole Girl Power concept, at
least as the Spice Girls espoused it, as fake. This is partly because
the phrase has serious roots, having first been used by the punk
band Bikini Kill in 1990. That band’s singer, Kathleen Hanna, had
been inspired by the Black Power slogan, and used the new phrase
to indicate her group’s hardline feminist approach. As Rolling Stone
explained it, “Bikini Kill earned a reputation in the punk underground
Alamy / John Stillwell / PA Images. Getty Images / Samir Hussein.

for confronting certain standards of that genre; for example, asking

Image (Left toRight) Alamy. Getty Images / Daniele Venturelli.

people to slam at the side of the stage, so that women would not get
pushed out of the front, and inviting women to take the mic and talk
about sexual abuse.”
Given the Girl Power phrase’s roots, when the Spice Girls – or
whichever member of their team – decided to deploy it in a pop
context, it’s understandable that some critics believe that it became
diluted. The Girls weren’t asking their fans to stand up against abuse,
ling of their wax doubles
The Spice Girls at the unvei
after all; they were asking them to value friendship. Of course, given

Circus, London the young age of most of the fans, and the fact that we’re looking
at Madame Tussaud’s Rock

* 121 *
back a quarter of a century, that was probably their only option: in
today’s more informed age, the message might be rather different.
Another nuance is that Girl Power, and by definition the feminist
standpoint that went with it, was presented to the kids by five
conventionally beautiful women who dressed and danced in a
sexualised manner. While that was their choice to make, and also
part of a longstanding showbiz tradition, you could reasonably
speculate that their brand of feminism might have seemed
unachievable to many of the young girls who adored them.
Conversely, perhaps the Spice Girls’ combined beauty, wealth and
strength gave their fans inspiration and hope, with the ‘Girl Power’
slogan a gateway towards adult political awareness. The truth, as is
usually the case, probably lies somewhere in between.
Then there’s the issue of Cool Britannia, usually understood as a
brief period of British prosperity between the arrival of Oasis in 1994
and the turning point of the millennium. It’s also associated with Tony
Blair and New Labour, whose brand of capitalism-friendly socialism
offered young and young-ish people a viable political option that felt
right for the times.
British music, British clubs and DJs, British chefs, British clothes
designers and supermodels, even British cinema – all of it was as
cool as hell in that short period before 9/11 called time on the party.
The Spice Girls were deeply embedded in this feel-good period, and if
you weren’t there, you missed out.
If you’re looking for a single symbol of that era, look no further
than Geri’s Union Jack mini dress, worn while the Spice Girls
performed at the 1997 Brit Awards. American media loves to talk
about a ‘British Invasion’ every few years, usually based around some
hot new Brit band that is selling well Stateside, and there was no
* 122 *
ABOVE The Spice Girls dolls were a huge success, still sought after today
RIGHT You know you are famous when your band can have an exhibit for
memorabilia, as with the ‘SpiceUp London’ exhibition in 2018
more appropriate image for the invasion of ’97 than that wonderful
piece of garment design.
The Gucci dress was originally black, but underwent a last-minute
transformation. Wanting to celebrate her band’s British status and
success, Geri asked her sister Natalie to stitch a Union Jack tea towel
onto the front, adding a CND symbol to the back, aware that the Union
Jack had sometimes been misappropriated by right-wing groups.
A year later, she sold the dress at a charity auction, raising over
£41,000: it’s now an exhibit in the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas.
Although the BBC ran a story stating that the sale of the dress meant
that Geri was moving on from Girl Power, the opposite was true:
she commissioned a new version, in rhinestones and crystals, for
Images (LHP) Getty Images / Tristan Fewings. (RHP) Getty Images / Tristan Fewings.
the reunion in 2007, and a floor-length equivalent in 2019. Along
with the Spice Girls’ platform shoes, the Union Jack dress remains
an enduring icon, to the point where it’s still a regular feature of
Halloween and Pride shows to this day.
Commercially, the Spice Girls also leave a legacy – not simply
in album and concert sales, but because of the large number of
merchandising and sponsorship deals that they signed. They became
the most merchandised group in music history, a fact which attracted
some negative attention at the time: as their biographer David
Sinclair wrote, “So great was the daily bombardment of Spice images
and Spice product that it quickly became oppressive, even to people
who were well disposed towards the group.”
THE LEGACY

* 123 *
CHAPTER 6

he vi de o fo r the Euro 96
Filming t
theme song

* 124 *
 THE LEGACY

Nowadays, corporate sponsorship of concert tours is not only

common, it’s often essential: very few of us raise an eyebrow
when Artist X announces a partnership with Brand Y. However,
when the North American section of the 1998 Spiceworld Tour
displayed advertising, it was seen as at best innovative and at worst
exploitative. Now that the music industry is essentially broke, the
argument is irrelevant.
Ultimately, the Spice Girls’ legacy is not that they deliberately set
out to promote feminism, or to be universally famous, or to have
marketable alter egos: their legacy is that they were so huge that
those things happened naturally. Certain writers have stated that
they kickstarted an era of obsession with celebrity, conveniently
disregarding 50 years of mass obsession with people such as Elvis
Presley, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, the Beatles, Duran Duran,
Madonna and Diana Spencer, but there’s much more to their impact
than that.
Burning brightly and briefly, the Spice Girls embodied a period
in Western culture that will not come again because times have
changed so much, culturally and commercially. Their image endures,
though, whether in music or film or in the form of a red, white and
blue dress, and of course the singers themselves are still active. What
they do now is still recognisably Spice Girls-esque in nature, and of
course, there will be new music from them as the years pass, but
their primary focus from now on will be a celebration of their first,
intoxicating period of greatest power.
The fact that Geri, Mel B, Mel C, Victoria and Emma can still
celebrate those far-off times, while still looking forward to a
productive future supported by a loyal public, is their real triumph.
Long may they reign.

Their commercial
success has
continued to
persist over the
years
Image (Left to Right) Getty Images / Dave Hogan. Alamy. Alamy / Wenn.

The Spice Girls with their

children at
‘The Return of the Spice
Girls’ tour

* 125 *
CHAPTER 6

SILVER
SPICES
Twenty-five years on, what can we expect
on the Spice Girls’ silver anniversary?
Words Dave Smith

W
hy have one silver anniversary when you can have
two? That seems to have been the logic behind the
expanded reissue of the Spice album in 2021, plus a
potentially bigger event in late ’22 and into ’23. After
all, the Spice Girls were never people to do things by halves…
The 2021 reissue of Spice was a genuine treat for the fans,
including the classic original album plus a stack of bonus cuts,
B-sides (ask your mum), single remixes and even demos. Sure, it
would have been great to hear the very first home recordings the
singers ever made – maybe even from the Michelle Stephenson days
– but come on, you can’t have everything.
Now it’s Spiceworld’s turn for the silver anniversary, and although
nothing concrete has firmed up as we go to print, if half the rumours
that are flying around turn out to be true, there’s some major activity
ahead. This summer, an updated Spiceworld25 logo and hashtag
appeared on the Spice Girls’ social media, featuring a spinning globe:
could this indicate a reissue and a world tour? And this time, will the There are rumours that we cou
live dates include Victoria? ld see the
Mel B added fuel to the rumours when she told BBC Breakfast, “I’m
Spice Girls at Glastonbury 2023
always pushing to have a Spice Girls reunion and we were in talks
last year, but then Covid hit so it pushed everyone’s plans. I think
Images (LHP) Getty Images / Matt Cardy. (RHP) Getty Images / Tim Roney.

we’re hopefully on the same page together. They’re going to kill me
for saying this. We’re hoping, especially me – if it has anything to
do with me, which it will have because I’m the driving force and will
make sure it happens – to tour in 2023.”
Then there’s a possible re-release of the Spice World movie, which
seems likely because Melanie C teased: “Let’s just say we’re talking
to Universal, the label that produced our first movie. You need to
stay tuned to hear more. There will be big celebrations in the coming
months, I can say that.”
There’ll also be a new Spice Girls documentary, said Mel B, who
told Australian news outlet The Project: “I told Dave [Hughes, The
Masked Singer Australia panellist] when the cameras were off that
we’ve signed our documentary… and he went and told the whole
audience. I think I did say ‘We’ve only just signed it, it hasn’t been
announced yet,’ and then he told everyone.”
And the really big rumour? Glastonbury 2023. Yep, you read that
right. As Mel C told the BBC: “It’s the dream, the absolute dream,
yeah, we would love to do it. You know what, the girls and I, we have
chatted about it… it’s the biggest stage in the world, we have the best
festival in the world right here.”
But will Posh be there? “Hmm, I have a good feeling,” Mel said.
See you there!

* 126 *
SILVER SPICES

* 127 *
 By 1998, it is estimated
that the Spice Girls
brand was generating
between $500 and
$800 million every
year in marketing and
merchandise deals
Image Alamy / Landmark Media.
 ON SALE NOW!

Celebrating the songs and sounds

of the greatest decade in music
From Britpop to girl power, Europop to boy bands, look back on the ups and
downs of icons such as Madonna, Michael Jackson and Britney Spears, and
reminisce about the greatest musical moments of the decade.

Ordering is easy. Go online at:

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*3*
 -ah! Girl P
Zig-a-zig Viva Forever ower!

T H E S T O R Y O F T H E

SPICE
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GLOBAL SUPERSTARS THE ALBUMS

Explore how the Spice Girls became Journey through the group’s discography
one of the biggest bands in the world with track-by-track overviews

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Ginger, Posh, Scary and Sporty pop and beyond
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