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Kryptonite Kiss
post Apr 19 2007, 10:23 PM
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1996 - Wannabe - Number One - Bumper To Bumper (B-Side)



Trivia:
The video was shot at the Midland Grand Hotel in St. Pancras


This post has been edited by Jay ☆: Feb 2 2018, 05:07 PM
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post Apr 19 2007, 10:23 PM
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LOVE THIS SONG SO MUCH!!! wub.gif wub.gif
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Matt Aloud
post Apr 19 2007, 10:54 PM
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i wish they would get back together to at least split properly and give the fans a proper farewell cry.gif
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Mart!n
post Nov 12 2007, 12:00 PM
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Music Week Article -
From wannabes to world beaters
By Christopher Barrett

Back in May 1996, with the five fledgling pop princesses’ debut single yet to be released, Music Week was the first music title to run a piece on the Spice Girls. Eleven years and 55m record sales later, as the Spice Girls prepare for a high-profile international reunion campaign, Music Week charts the act’s rise to fame

“We feel as though we’re breaking down the barriers, as women going up against the boy groups and against people’s expectations,” a young and astonishingly ambitious Geri Halliwell told Music Week back in 1996.

With all-girl acts including the Sugababes and Girls Aloud now regular fixtures in the higher echelons of the charts, pop music and brand synergy practically a pre-requisite and the pre-teen market actively engaged by acts such as Hannah Montana, the impact of the Spice Girls on the modern music industry has been remarkable.

In May 1993, when the first auditions for the five-girl pop outfit Touch began, girl bands simply did not sell albums in significant numbers, brand sponsorship of new acts was all but unheard of and few artists targeted the very young.

Although to the casual observer the Spice Girls appeared to be an overnight success back in July 1996, with their debut single Wannabe seemingly coming from nowhere to claim the number one spot on the UK singles chart for seven weeks, it was the result of three years of hard work and the assembling of a crack management and label team.

In a move that would later be widely adopted by reality TV talent contests, Victoria Adams, Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm and Geri Halliwell were given the keys to an unremarkable rented house at 58 Boyn Hill Road, near Maidenhead. From July 1993 to March 1994 it would become their home, with manager Chris Herbert bringing them together to bond and work on their songs and dance routines.

But it was not long before the girls’ strong personalities meant that a break with Herbert, who wanted them to dress identically and sing cover versions, was inevitable.

Following an industry showcase at Nomis Studios in West London where the quintet met their soon-to-be songwriting team Richard “Biff” Stannard and his partner Matt Rowe, they were inundated with management offers but it was not until March 1995 that they signed with Simon Fuller’s 19 Management.

An initial priority for Fuller was to get the group a record contract and, with labels taken aback by the energy and ambition of the band, they soon had a bidding war on their hands.

“I don’t think anyone that saw them could help but feel there was something very special there,” says Paul Conroy, the former president of Virgin Records.

“I’ll never forget the day they burst in here,” a bowled-over Virgin Records co-deputy managing director Ashley Newton told Music Week back in 1996.

“They had a tape and sang to backing tracks,” recalls Conroy. “They had two or three songs and came in and overwhelmed both Ashley and myself. They were fairly well honed by that time because they had been around the houses and were well rehearsed.”

According to Conroy it was a matter of putting on something of a “dog and pony show” in order to convince the Spice Girls and Fuller to sign on the dotted line. Conroy recalls that Virgin was, at the time, desperately seeking a pop act with attitude because, despite having a history with pop acts, including the Human League and Culture Club, during the mid-Nineties the label was devoid of any pop crossover act.

A month after signing to Virgin, the Spice Girls gave their new label another glimpse of their powers of self-promotion. Guests of honour at a race meeting at Kempton Park in Surrey, the group lost no time in attracting attention. While posing for photos alongside a statue of the celebrated racehorse Desert Orchid, the girls started to climb on the statue.

“It was perfect, they were their own best sales people,” says Conroy.

In the build-up to the release of Wannabe the Spice Girls continued to impress all those around them with their remarkable energy and unshakable confidence.

“I remember seeing them when we were setting up Wannabe, they were in the office grabbing coffees before they set off to do their first interviews on BBC Radio Oxford and they were so excited,” recalls Conroy. “They were on a taut spring; they had been waiting so long for the chance to do something.”

Nikki Chapman, who is now creative director of 19 Entertainment and project director of the band’s reunion activity, remembers working with the girls the first time around on TV and radio promotion while at Brilliant.

“There was nothing like them around,” she enthuses. “I used to take the girls around to meet everybody and the producers found them a welcome breath of fresh air. They were so ambitious, dynamic and spontaneous; when you introduced them to producers they were blown away. I think that’s something Simon worked on with them, because they did have that ferocious appetite – they wanted to do everything and they wanted to do it today.”

Chapman clearly recalls getting the Spice Girls their first TV exposure with a spot on Surprise Surprise placing them in front of 10m viewers well in advance of the release of Wannabe. “That show kicked the campaign off eight weeks before anyone had heard the single,” says Chapman, who went on to become a judge on ITV reality shows Popstars and Pop Idol. “It’s unheard of for a show of that stature to have an unknown act on. That was enormous and it was only because we had to pull another act off the show. I took the girls in to meet Isobel Hatton, the producer, and they ended up singing for her in the toilets at LWT.”

In the summer of 1996 a lunch at a Notting Hill restaurant with the editor of Top Of The Pops magazine would inadvertently lead the Spice Girls to adopt nicknames that would ultimately play a key role in their marketability and the way their international audience would identify with them.

Fascination Records general manager Peter Loraine, the former editor of Top Of The Pops magazine, remains modest about the creation of the Ginger, Posh, Sporty, Scary and Baby monikers.

“In the magazine we used silly language and came up with nicknames all the time so it came naturally to give them names that would be used by the magazine and its readers; it was never meant to be adopted globally,” he explains.

Shortly after using the nicknames in a feature Loraine received a call from the Daily Star saying the names were “hysterical” and requesting permission to use them. Next it was The Sunday Times and before long the nicknames were synonymous with the girls.

“It was a stroke of genius and came more by luck than design, “ says Conroy. “When it happened I don’t know whether any of us thought it was going to last longer than the next issue of Top Of Pops. But it took me back years to working with Madness; they were all cartoon characters.”

Having signed them the next challenge for Conroy and his team was to break them internationally. “That was the most difficult thing because, although we knew they were very special, if you look back at girl groups, like Bananarama, they had hit singles but never the kind of album sales you would have hoped for,” says Conroy.

When looking at a template to work from the Virgin team were inspired by the huge success of girl band Shampoo in Japan and decided to release Wannabe there first and let the excitement build.

“With the manga thing and the cartoon aspects of the group’s characters, plus the fact they were all girls, we knew we would be able to break them there,” explains Conroy.

It was the first of many international territories to swoon under the influence of ‘Girl Power’ with Wannabe going on to top the charts in 31 territories and shift 6m units.

In November 1996 they proved they could also shift albums in remarkable numbers with their debut, Spice, selling 2m copies in its first two weeks. It became the highest-selling album of 1996 in the UK, the biggest album of 1997 in the US and sold 10m copies worldwide in fewer than seven months. In May 1997 Spice hit number one in the US albums chart, meaning that the Spice Girls were the first British group to top the US charts with a debut album.

During the next three years the Spice Girls became a carefully-orchestrated international phenomenon, with books, the film Spiceworld The Movie, world tours and significant brand links, ensuring the group were never out of the public eye throughout the world.

“The most difficult thing was keeping the whole international thing going, because there were so many territories demanding their time,” says Conroy. “We did joke that we really needed to clone them and have four acts on the road at the same time. There was just so much activity.”

In order to orchestrate such a big global operation Conroy oversaw regular meetings in what was dubbed the ‘war room’. The meetings assembled staff from all aspects of the Spice Girls business to exchange ideas and updates. “It was like a well-oiled machine,” says Conroy.

One of the people to experience the magnitude of the meetings at first hand was The Outside Organisation CEO Alan Edwards, who remembers fondly the day he was summoned to head their PR campaign.

Having been given 45 minutes’ notice, Edwards shot across to West London and was faced with a room of 40 people. “It was very quiet I guess because the band was present, which is very unusual in those record company meetings. I did a speech about the media and who I knew. It fell very quiet and then one of the girls said ‘Erm, Mr Edwards, what kind of shoes are you wearing?’ and the whole room just froze; it was the most extraordinary question within the context of this business meeting. I said ‘Hush Puppies’ and another of the girls piped up and said ‘oh that’s alright, we can hire him then’. It was surreal.

“They had probably made the decision, but knowing the Spice Girls they just wanted to deliver it in the most dramatic way possible.”

For Edwards the girls’ vivacious personalities and their intrinsic Britishness played a leading role in helping them capture the imagination of the UK media and the public.

“It works for the media and, although they might knock them, the Spice Girls are very lovable and British. Like anything from The Beatles, Carry On Films and the Queen Mother to Michael Caine, they have become part of our culture. I often used to draw comparison with the Sex Pistols, and obviously musically there was no comparison, but they were unbelievably British and touched a nerve.”

Seven years on from the release of the Spice Girls’ platinum-selling third album, Forever, the British public’s love of the band shows no sign of having diminished. With 19 UK live dates being snapped up almost instantaneously, their new single Headlines (Friendship Never Ends) already receiving widespread airplay and EMI confidently predicting sales of up to 1m of their forthcoming Greatest Hits package, Girl Power still packs a punch.

Reflecting on their ongoing success Conroy says, “I have never known an act that had to work as hard as those girls did for everything that they got and have always thought they deserved every bit of their success because of it.

“They kept each other together because there were times when they were absolutely exhausted.”
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Padamic Tension
post Nov 12 2007, 07:52 PM
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lovely write up
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Jester
post Nov 25 2007, 04:39 PM
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I have just spent a few hours watching the Top 40 Spice and Solo songs on TMF which was provided by the OCC.

The most successful solo spice song is When You're Gone by Mel C and Bryan Adams (#8), Geri - It's Raining Men at #10), Mel C & Lisa Left Eye Lopes at 11 and Victoria Beckham et al at 12 with Out Of Your Mind. The only two Spice songs not in the top 10 are Holler/LLLTW and Stop, which were both top 20. Mel B's biggest hit was I Want U Back at #21, and Emma Buntons was What Took You So long at #19.

The Top 10:

1. Spice Girls - Wannabe
2. Spice Girls - 2 Become 1
3. Spice Girls - Say You'll Be There
4. Spice Girls - Goodbye
5. Spice Girls - Spice Up Your Life
6. Spice Girls - Mama/Who Do You Think You Are?
7. Spice Girls - Too Much
8. Mel C & Bryan Adams - When You're Gone
9. Spice Girls - Viva Forever
10. Geri - It's Raining Men

cheer.gif
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Lukuzz
post Nov 25 2007, 04:41 PM
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ah ye i seen this the other day, i think whoever decided or voted is stupid if they think that mel c's best is - when youre gone and geris - its raining men !
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Jester
post Nov 25 2007, 04:45 PM
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It wasn't a vote, it was from record sales wink.gif
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Lukuzz
post Nov 25 2007, 05:01 PM
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oh right! i didnt know that.
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J-o-e
post Nov 25 2007, 05:05 PM
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It was more his song though.
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inactiveaccount
post Nov 25 2007, 05:39 PM
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I couda told you that :|
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Matt Aloud
post Nov 25 2007, 08:15 PM
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QUOTE(Freakshow @ Nov 25 2007, 05:06 PM) *
It was more his song though.


and he stabbed her in the back in the USA by replacing her with Pamela Anderson on his GH puke.gif
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marc
post Nov 25 2007, 11:00 PM
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Was watching this too, but left before the top 10 so thanks for that...
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Padamic Tension
post Nov 25 2007, 11:13 PM
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im glad mel c had the highest solo
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Ryan
post Nov 27 2007, 09:43 PM
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Oooooh i seen some of this the other day too wub.gif

Its Raining Men shouldnt have been Top Ten sad.gif I LOVE When Your Gone though wub.gif
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GrAmii
post Nov 27 2007, 10:02 PM
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Never Be The Same Again is the best solo Spice release. wub.gif

None of them have either come close to matching the success they had in the group then. How obvious.
I bet Headlines makes like #50 laugh.gif
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Padamic Tension
post Nov 27 2007, 10:33 PM
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i think next best superstar by mel should have been far bigger,in general i have loved most of mel c's solo singles and her solo albums are great and for me she is by far the best solo spice
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J-o-e
post Nov 28 2007, 04:30 PM
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She's not Geri's raining men is the highest selling fully slol single of them.
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GrAmii
post Nov 28 2007, 08:33 PM
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QUOTE(Shameless @ Nov 27 2007, 10:34 PM) *
i think next best superstar by mel should have been far bigger,in general i have loved most of mel c's solo singles and her solo albums are great and for me she is by far the best solo spice



I agree with all those statements. happy.gif
Geri is fabulous in her own right but cmon she's only good for a laugh at her cheesy antics and songs laugh.gif wub.gif

Emma is very underated though! 'A Girl Like Me' was a fabulous album and I adore her collabaration with Tin Tin Out <3333333333333333
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Kryptonite Kiss
post Jan 27 2008, 01:23 PM
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1996 - Say You'll Be There - Number One - Take Me Home (B-Side) wub.gif



Trivia:

Melanie C - Katrina High Kick
Geri - Trixie Firecracker
Emma - Kung Fu Candy wub.gif (What A Nickname)
Victoria - Midnight Miss Suki
Melanie B - Blazin' Bad Zula


This post has been edited by Jay ☆: Sep 7 2017, 06:09 PM
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