Well... this discussion made me want to try and put together everything we know about 1999, from www.spicegirlsnews.com, a fan site from the time.

 

I've only got as far as the end of June before running out of steam, but - I think even just these months makes it abundantly clear that it's really not all on Melanie C. Their scheduling for album recording was established quite early on in the year - three of them stated August or Summer for going back into the studio together. That did end up happening. Clearly the four of them were busy doing their own things for a lot of this year. Plus Mel B was just as busy with working on her own music as Melanie C was!

 

A third Spice Girls album in 1999 just wasn't on the cards...

 

Thanks for this breakdown Jay! My memory was a bit jarred, of course, but I still am of the opinion that Mel C's focus on her career was the main driving force for the Spice Girls album to be delayed, and the breakdown of activities kind of alludes to that. Never said it was only on Mel C, of course. Certainly the success of Northern Star did enforce the focus on solo stuff for all of them too.

 

Again, it wasnt just Mel C's focus on her solo work that did it. It was a myriad of things happening.

(Just want to say at the start of this post that I'm totally rambling lol)

 

I think it was interesting that early on in 1999, Mel B actually specified that she intended to release her album after Melanie C's, and after the Spice Girls'. As though they'd come to some sort of scheduling agreement.

 

So, Melanie C had October 1999 pencilled in for her album really early on, and it seems that there was an intention to release the third Spice Girls album in Spring 2000. Melanie C did indeed end up releasing then... but we know of course that Spice Girls ended up releasing Forever considerably later than Spring 2000, November 2000.

 

Their appearance at the Brits in March does tend to make you think - was this arrangement with the Brits put in place with the intention of it launching the Forever era? If so, I think they would have had to have intended to shoot a music video in advance of this performance/award... so it kind of puts January/February as a possible time frame when they came to the conclusion that they wouldn't be releasing Forever in the spring after all? But nevertheless kept the commitment with the Brits. Maybe it was at that point that they agreed that they'd start the work in the summer instead (they ended up filming the music videos, and did the album photoshoot, in July 2000).

 

I feel like the Spice Girls album coming later than originally intended might give more context to Mel B's apparent impatience in releasing her solo album. I wonder if "the agreement" was always that she'd release her music in Autumn 2000. So by the time summer came, she was still determined to put her era into motion (film a video for Tell Me) and stick to the plan of releasing her album when she ended up doing so. Even though the close promixity of Hot to Forever was really unwise, and a delay would have made more sense.

 

It does make me question how Melanie C/Virgin thought 'Northern Star' was going to pan out. So they originally thought that by Spring 2000 she'd be juggling her third single alongside the launch of a new Spice Girls era? Because if that was a plan, that seems messy too. Did they think her solo album era would be winding down at that point? Instead, that's when things really got going for her, with the #1 single, and her album going Top 5.

 

Forever falling back to the latter half of 2000... whatever the reason was, I'd like to think that it was actually a mutual agreement between the four of them and Virgin that it was the best thing to do. Rather than it being a case of Melanie C deciding it was too soon and putting her foot down, even though the other girls might have still been wanting it to happen in Spring 2000. I guess it would be interesting to browse the 2000 archives of spicenews and see what Mel B, Victoria and Emma were getting up to - maybe they all had good reasons for deciding that Forever would be better off being pushed back.

But it's not like the album had been collecting dust and ready to go before the Brits performance. It simply wasn't finished.

 

These are the songs they completed in 2000:

 

Tell Me Why

Get Down With Me

Time Goes By

Wasting My Time

Right Back At Ya (Darkchild Version)

The Forever album should totally have been released after The Brits at the VERY latest. Something like

 

December 1999 - Christmas single / Christmas album / Christmas tour

 

Feb / March 2000 - Lead single / BRITS / Album

 

Would have been ideal, to be honest even better if the album was released in 1999.

But it's not like the album had been collecting dust and ready to go before the Brits performance. It simply wasn't finished.

 

These are the songs they completed in 2000:

 

Tell Me Why

Get Down With Me

Time Goes By

Wasting My Time

Right Back At Ya (Darkchild Version)

 

They should have released it without any of those :lol:

 

They needed two albums - one kn 1999, one in 2000, farewell tour early 2001.

But it's not like the album had been collecting dust and ready to go before the Brits performance. It simply wasn't finished.

 

These are the songs they completed in 2000:

 

Tell Me Why

Get Down With Me

Time Goes By

Wasting My Time

Right Back At Ya (Darkchild Version)

 

The album not being finished was a conclusion they eventually came to... but by September they definitely had enough songs recorded, to the extent that they absolutely could have determined that it was in fact ready to go... and had it ready for launch around the time of the Brits. Bearing in mind that the Brits happened 6/7 months after those recording sessions. Mel B seemed to have it in mind that they could have had a single out before Christmas 1999. Not really sure how that could ever have worked out alongside Northern Star/What I Am though.

 

I feel like January/February 2000 could have a feasible time period to pencil in prepatory stuff for the album era (video shoots/photoshoots) prior to launching the album in Spring, if they'd gone full steam ahead. Yet they chose not to, seemingly a combination of not feeling the album was ready but also their individual commitments didn't make Spring 2000 the right time for them after all.

 

I kind of feel like them deciding that the album wasn't ready at that point, is when things really unravelled for the Forever era from a professional and personal point of view. It coincided with Melanie C's solo workload becoming busier with increased success. We know from her book she'd reached a point in 2000 when she didn't particularly want to do more Spice recording, and actually arranged it so she'd do vocals by herself and not see the other girls at all. Which was a really bad place for things to have gotten to. A far cry from the unity they still seemed to have in August/September 1999 when they recorded together.

 

The era is fascinating and kind of unfortunate. Obviously these discussions are a bit pointless because things turned out the way they did, though it's still fun to go into what could have been. Some of those later tracks they recorded are actually album highlights for me (not Time Goes By :coffee: ).

The songs recorded in 2000 for me are definitely the worst of Forever.

You can tell they just recorded any old crap in two days in 2000 to finish it :lol:

You can tell they just recorded any old crap in two days in 2000 to finish it :lol:

 

Tell Me Why

Get Down With Me

Wasting My Time

 

these are not 'any old crap' :rolleyes: They are, by all accounts, f***ing BOPs.

Tell Me Why

Get Down With Me

Wasting My Time

 

these are not 'any old crap' :rolleyes: They are, by all accounts, f***ing BOPs.

 

I can't with these. But I appreciate that there are fans out there who like them so much. If I had to listen to one of those three, I'd pick TMW and it would be the Thunderpuss Tribe-A-Pella -- it adds a much needed darkness to the track for me to enjoy it.

 

I also think GDWM and WMT would sound *SO* much better without the reductive Darkchild stank on them :angry:

 

Tell Me Why

Get Down With Me

Wasting My Time

 

these are not 'any old crap' :rolleyes: They are, by all accounts, f***ing BOPs.

 

All flops EXCEPT for teo VERY MUCH NEEDED remixes of Tell Mr Why. The album is turgid and lame rnb by pop singers.

 

Tell Me Why is the only good track they recorded in 2000. The other three songs sound so generic and half baked. They pretty much sound like new material to pad out a greatest hits album than to put on a proper 3rd album.

Tell Me Why is the only good track they recorded in 2000. The other three songs sound so generic and half baked. They pretty much sound like new material to pad out a greatest hits album than to put on a proper 3rd album.

 

This is true.

I guess I’ll be defending Get Down with Me and Wasting My Time until the end of time!

I guess I’ll be defending Get Down with Me and Wasting My Time until the end of time!

 

Same hun. Don't worry, unfortunatelly TASTE is not something that there is in abundance across this fandom, otherwise both those would be Top10 Spice songs across the whole fandom :teresa: :P

Same hun. Don't worry, unfortunatelly TASTE is not something that there is in abundance across this fandom, otherwise both those would be Top10 Spice songs across the whole fandom :teresa: :P

 

Stop making “Never” - The Album happen.

Stop making “Never” - The Album happen.

 

A bad Mean Girls reference doesn't make your opinion right :teresa:

Same hun. Don't worry, unfortunatelly TASTE is not something that there is in abundance across this fandom, otherwise both those would be Top10 Spice songs across the whole fandom :teresa: :P

 

:lol: But those songs are utter fooken tosh???

Same hun. Don't worry, unfortunatelly TASTE is not something that there is in abundance across this fandom, otherwise both those would be Top10 Spice songs across the whole fandom :teresa: :P

 

Mistress COVID did leave an impact on that :cool:

 

Mistress COVID did leave an impact on that :cool:

 

I actually never got COVID, so I wouldnt know what not having taste is like :coffee:

 

Let me stream Get Down With Me to celebrate that :cheer: