It’s likely that the SPICE GIRLS have had more acres of media coverage devoted to them in the last couple of years than any musical artist since the Beatles. Clearly a cultural phenomenon and heroines to millions of little wannabes around the world, Spice Girls are currently the biggest band on the world.

Spice Girls have sold in excess of 32 million albums worldwide – and they’ve only released two so far, entitled ‘Spice’ and ‘Spiceworld’. Spice Girls have created scenes of fan hysteria not seen since the Beatles. They are hot property in every corner of the globe and their success shows no signs of abating.

Back in March 1993, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm, Victoria Adams and Geri Halliwell met at an audition for an all girl group. They were already familiar with each other through meeting auditions for TV, stage and screen. The four were subsequently chosen to form an all girl group entitled ‘Touch’ followed by a change of management and a new addition – Emma (who had known Victoria since they were ten years old) completed the line-up a few months later. By then the Spice Girls were writing songs for the first album, creating an image, and creating Girl Power.

Within two years, the Spice Girls had created a whirlwind of interest and record companies were lining up to sign them. The Spice Girls signed a worldwide contract with Virgin Records in August 1995. As Mel B says “Virgin didn’t have a major pop act then, so we felt we’d be treated as the individual band we are!” The girls continued to write songs, record and work on dance routines until July 1996.

‘Wannanbe’, the girls’ choice as their debut single, was released and became the Girl Power Anthem for feisty females everywhere. It stayed at the top of the UK charts for 7 weeks and Spice Girls became the first all girl group to go to No. 1 in the UK since the Supremes in 1964! Their debut single has since sold 4m copies worldwide and has reached the No.1 position in an incredible 31 territories around the world, including the elusive USA. As Emma says, “It was the first one to explode us into the Spice-o-sphere.”

Their follow-up ‘Say You’ll Be There’ reached the top of the charts again and ‘2 become 1’ finished as the 1996 Christmas No.1. Their debut album ‘Spice’ was released pre-Christmas and to date, has sold over 22 million copies worldwide. Suddenly the girls were everywhere from switching on Christmas lights in Regent Street to launching Channel 5.

February 1997 was a benchmark in the progression of the Spice Girls phenomenon. The girls stole the show at the Brit Awards, picking up two awards for Best Video for ‘Say You’ll Be There’ and Best Single for ‘Wannabe’. They also achieved the impressive feat of hitting the American Billboard No.1 spot with ‘Wannabe’, thus receiving the honour of being the first UK act to go to the top of the charts in America with their debut single.

On 9th March 1997, the double A-side ‘Mama/Who Do You Think You Are’ made the girls the first ever band to go to No.1 in the UK with their first 4 singles. Royalties from ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ went to Comic Relief and featured a spoof video starring French and Saunders amongst others.

In just one week in April, the girls visited the Cannes Film Festival to launch their debut movie, made their first live American TV appearance on ‘Saturday Night Live’ and made a whistle-stop tour to the Far East. In May Spice Girls received the royal seal of approval by performing for HRH Prince Charles at the Prince’s Trust Gala in Manchester, one of many meetings with the Prince of Wales. The Girls also enjoyed an historical moment when they met Nelson Mandela (and the Prince of Wales and Prince Harry) during a tour of South Africa, with Nelson Mandela stating ‘this is one of the happiest moments of my life’. Another key moment came when the Spice Girls received two Ivor Novello song writing awards; previous recipients include George Michael and Elton John.

The summer of 1997 heralded another slice of Spice – acting. ‘Spiceworld The Movie’ was shot in eight frenetic weeks between June and August 1997. ‘Spiceworld The Movie’ (Certificate PG), a 90 minute mad dash through a day in the life of a girl band, is directed by Bob Spiers of Fawlty Towers and AbFab fame and features cameos by Roger Moore, Elton John, Jools Holland and Richard E. Grant as their manager. The filming schedule was so hectic the Girls had a mobile recording studio in which they recorded tracks for their second album in between takes.

October was a busy month for the Spice Girls with the release of the first single from their second album ‘Spice Up Your Life’ which shot straight to No.1, and the departure of their second manager, Simon Fuller. Spice Girls continued from strength to strength and the album ‘Spiceworld’, which was released on 3rd November 1997, entered the album charts at No.1 in the UK. In just over two weeks it had sold seven million copies worldwide and has already gone quadruple platinum in the UK and double platinum in the US.

1997 was a phenomenal year for the Spice Girls and saw them achieve the impossible – success in America. Their debut album ‘Spice’ sold in excess of 22 million copies world-wide, ‘Wannabe’ stayed at No.1 in the Billboard singles chart for 4 weeks, and over 20,000 fans lined the streets of LA when they visited the city for the ‘Spiceworld The Movie’ premiere. In November, Spice Girls became the first UK act to score two albums in the US top 20 since Elton John in 1975.

The Spice Girls ended the year as they started it – with the Christmas No.1! ‘Too Much’, was released on December a15th, the same day as the premiere of the Girls’ film debut. ‘Too Much’ reaching the No.1 spot broke another record – they are the first band to reach No.1 with their first band to reach No.1 with their first 6 singles. 1998 also ended with a Royal Variety appearance in the presence of the Queen and collected the Best British Band award at the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party.

‘Spiceworld The Movie’ was released nationwide in cinema screens across the UK on Boxing Day and went straight to No.1 in the national film charts, with queues of crazed kids outside cinema’s around the country. After a great start in the UK, ‘Spiceworld The Movie’ crossed the Atlantic and opened in the US in over 2000 movie theatres on January 23, reaching the No.2 position behind ‘Titanic’.

1998 got off to a kick-start with the Girls furthering their success in America by having two albums in the US Top 10! The Brit Awards in February saw the Girls receive a specially created award for Biggest Selling Album Act around the World, and perform a stunning live version of their new single ‘Stop’.

The long-awaited SPICEWORLD world tour kicked off at the Point in Dublin on February 24th with a blistering show which received rave reviews. The tour sold out; most countries sold our on the day the tickets went on sale, spectacularly in the case of Holland where the first show at the Gelredome in Arnhem (30,000 capacity) sold out within 15 minutes, breaking records previously held by rock giants U2 and Bruce Springsteen. The tour trailblazed its way around its way around Europe, and landed in the UK in Glasgow on 4 April with two stunning performances at SECC to welcome Scottish fans to Spiceworld. Four nights at Nynex Arena in Manchester were followed by an incredible eight nights at the legendary Wembley Arena.

Every gig received rave reviews from the media amd many celebrities watched the shows including Richard E. Grant, Dawn French and Cleopatra. The Wembley gigs were followed by six nights at NEC Birmingham, before returning for dates in Northern Europe.

March 9th saw the release of the Fab Five’s 7th single ‘Stop’, which took us on a motownesque sashay through the Swinging Sixties. ‘Stop’ reached No.2 in the UK charts, proving that kids were still mad for Spice.

The Girls gained another royal audience in April – by having tea with HRH Prince of Wales and Princes Harry and William at Highgrove. Mel C commented ‘I felt like royalty for a day!’

As the World Cup beckoned the Girls jumped at the chance to sing on the official England football team song ‘On Top of the World’ with Echo & The Bunnymen, Ocean Colour Scene and Space.

25th May saw the long-awaited release of ‘Spiceworld The Movie’ on video, which is available in limited edition 5 tins with each girl on the front. Queues formed at retailers early on Monday morning and the video sold 250,000 copies in its first week.

The Fab Five became the Fab Four on Sunday 31st May with the sad departure of Ginger Spice, Geri Halliwell, but the foursome bounced back to perform with Pavarotti in Italy on 9th June for the War Child charity.

The Girls will be touring America and Canada during June, July and August, visiting 40 cities as a part of the Spiceworld world tour. When the tickets for the Madison Square Gardens gig on July the 1st in New York went on sale, 14,500 tickets sold out in a record 12 minutes! During the American tour, the Girls will also begin writing and recording their third album.

‘Viva Forever’, the fourth release from ‘Spiceworld’ album, is released on 13th July, and is destined to be the anthem to holiday romances everywhere this summer. The stunning video features the girls as metallic fairies and is produced by leading animators Aardman Animations. The video will be premiered on Channel 4 on 22nd June.

The girls return to the UK in September to satisfy their thousands of fans by playing four sold-out gigs at Don Valley Sheffield on 12th/13th September and Wembley Stadium on 19th/20th September. These shows alone will entertain over 150,000 people!

Spice Girls have played to royalty, won awards and broken records around the world, entertained over 1 million people and made a successful movie. Standby for the next instalment in Spiceworld!

Back to my Music Page