Let love lead the way is gorgeous, the music is up there as one of their best! It's just the lyrics are a tad cringey at times, a bit (but not as cringey) like Mama.

 

I find that Let Love Lead The Way could have been up there with 2 Become 1 and Goodbye if the lyrics weren't so sacarine... The melodies and production are stunning, but the lyrics could have been taken from a fridge magnate :blink: Could have been done with a little polishing before release...

Looking back at Holler/Let Love Lead The Way, it seems like its chart run wasn't toooooo bad considering it kept afloat on the chart for quite a while! But what I find quite strange is how it sold so little overall... It spent 53weeks in the chart over two years. That's huge!

 

How come this sold so little considering its chart life? It felt much bigger than its sales point towards...

 

 

Peak: #1 (for 1 week)

Certification: Silver [source: BPI BRIT Certified] (27th October 2000)

Total Sales ('Holler'/'Let Love Lead the Way' as a Double A Side): 322,000 [source: MTV] (c. August 2022)

First Week Sales: 106,159 [source: Official Charts Company] (29th October 2020)

 

Top 200:

[1st Entry: 29/10/2000] 01-03-10-22-31-38-39-43-46-42-46-62-54-54-64-66-69-79-80-86-101-112-120-127-109-110-126... (HM) ...116-97-123-Out (OCC)

[2nd Entry: 03/06/2001] 146-144-147-151-153-150-144-161-145-127-114-115-127-151-143-143-165-189-Out (OCC)

[3rd Entry: 14/10/2001] 181-Out (OCC)

[4th Entry: 04/11/2001] 188-Out (OCC)

[5th Entry: 06/01/2002] 190-146-155-Out (OCC)

It ended 2000 on sales of 212,000. As far as I'm aware we didn't get to know another total for it until June 2009, when we found it was just shy of 250,000 copies!

 

So that was an increase of 38,000 copies. This takes into account its physical sales continuing throughout 2001 which seemingly dried up early into 2002. Download sales started to contribute in 2005, so 4 years of downloads up to the point of its June 2009 total reveal.

 

So this indicates that the sales required to place at these positions throughout 2001 (in numerical order: 46 54 54 62 64 66 69 79 80 86 97 101 109 110 112 114 115 116 120 123 126 127 127 127 143 143 144 144 145 146 147 150 151 151 153 161 165 181 188 189) would have averaged out to just a few hundred sales each week.

 

Let's say it sold 30,000 copies in 2001 (a guess based on nothing) - that would be an average of 577 per week. So maybe it was a thousand or so sales each week while it was within the Top 100, but maybe a couple of hundred towards the bottom of the Top 200?

 

It's a shame it didn't sell more when it was new! It was rather frontloaded. 106,000 sales at #1, and funnily enough another 106,000 was sold during its 2000 run of 03-10-22-31-38-39-43-46-42.

 

For it to reach 400k/Gold is such a mountain to climb, and by my reckoning it's probably still not close. I'm estimating somewhere in the 340k+ area by now. :cry: Sadly it's one of their least supported singles on streaming. If only it could be added to a decent playlist or go viral. -_-

It ended 2000 on sales of 212,000. As far as I'm aware we didn't get to know another total for it until June 2009, when we found it was just shy of 250,000 copies!

 

So that was an increase of 38,000 copies. This takes into account its physical sales continuing throughout 2001 which seemingly dried up early into 2002. Download sales started to contribute in 2005, so 4 years of downloads up to the point of its June 2009 total reveal.

 

So this indicates that the sales required to place at these positions throughout 2001 (in numerical order: 46 54 54 62 64 66 69 79 80 86 97 101 109 110 112 114 115 116 120 123 126 127 127 127 143 143 144 144 145 146 147 150 151 151 153 161 165 181 188 189) would have averaged out to just a few hundred sales each week.

 

Let's say it sold 30,000 copies in 2001 (a guess based on nothing) - that would be an average of 577 per week. So maybe it was a thousand or so sales each week while it was within the Top 100, but maybe a couple of hundred towards the bottom of the Top 200?

 

It's a shame it didn't sell more when it was new! It was rather frontloaded. 106,000 sales at #1, and funnily enough another 106,000 was sold during its 2000 run of 03-10-22-31-38-39-43-46-42.

 

For it to reach 400k/Gold is such a mountain to climb, and by my reckoning it's probably still not close. I'm estimating somewhere in the 340k+ area by now. :cry: Sadly it's one of their least supported singles on streaming. If only it could be added to a decent playlist or go viral. -_-

 

Yeah I understand that in 2001 sales really dwindled overall but damn it had a long chart run so I would expect the on-going sales, however small, to be a bit healthier than this.... I can see Universal trying to include it in some playlists later this year for its 25th anniversary. I often goes a bit viral but clearly never enough to garner much attention/sales. At least we should know more concrete sales

 

Such a shame, because it's such a stellar single!

Just read that Holler was remixed by Lostboy in 2019 for the tour 😊

That could mean that it could be included in the Forever25 edition this year if that ever comes out! I would love to see that and a live tour video from the performance 😋

Like, I would love it if for Forever25 they released live videos on youtube of the FIVE tracks they ever performed live from that era:

Holler (2019 tour)

Let Love Lead The Way (2019 tour) - the arrangement was stunning here and it is the only proper full rendition they ever did live of this song right?

Right Back At Ya (Christmas in Spiceworld tour, 1999)

Goodbye (either 2019 or the 2007 tour with all five of them)

WOMAN (Christmas in Spiceworld tour, 1999)

but only if they remaster the audio and polish the quality of those videos lol

I know this is negative energy but I have this bad feeling that they won’t do anything significant for Forever 25, not to the extent of a reissue / physicals like Spice and Spiceworld. I truly want to be wrong though! I’m just wondering if the label will still be thinking of a project like this 3 years on from Spiceworld 25 not doing amazingly well.

1 hour ago, -Jay- said:

I know this is negative energy but I have this bad feeling that they won’t do anything significant for Forever 25, not to the extent of a reissue / physicals like Spice and Spiceworld. I truly want to be wrong though! I’m just wondering if the label will still be thinking of a project like this 3 years on from Spiceworld 25 not doing amazingly well.

yeah I know... urgh...

OK so lets analyse what to expect (and try to bring some positivity to a possible campaign eheh)

Judging by the previous 25th anniversary editions, I think they will probably include WOMAN for sure, since they have included in each campaign a 'rare' song that fans had been demanding for ages:

Spice25 - Feed Your Love

Spiceworld25 - Step To Me (was not on streaming up to this point!)

Plus they have included a variety of other material across both releases, regardless of how succesful any of these were:

Spice25 - demos and early mixes of most of the album's songs, plus a couple of previously released mixes (2 Become 1 Orchestral and Mama Biffco Mix) and a fan treat 'having fun in the studio' type of track (Spice Chat2)

Spiceworld25 - mixes and live versions of all the singles, demo for Step To Me and a 'fan treat' in the form of the Party Mix

Now what we could be expecting from Forever25?

I think they will probably lead with WOMAN, the holy grail of Spice-fans demands, together with a video to promote it (lyric video or a new edit of the 1999 performance of it). That will probably be their best bet at gathering attention right off the bat for this campaign.

Then do a Holler-centered campaign to launch the album as that is the album's hit. Maybe a lyric video for it, or a live version from across the years to be sent out as 'promo' in similar way they did with S25 and SW25 campaigns.

Then put out lyric videos for Let Love Lead The Way and Goodbye too and probably call it a day in terms of promo.

In terms of the Forever25 album itself, I think they will do some demos, some remixes of Holler (one of the MAW mixes and probably the Lostboy 2019 one!), Goodbye's Orchestral version, maybe the live versions of Right Back At Ya, WOMAN, Holler, LLLTW and Goodbye.

I would be happy with this to be honest. I don't think they will do more unreleased songs than WOMAN, so we shouldnt be expecting that at all. Plus, I think including more 'pop songs' from early in the recording sessions would be a disservice to the r'n'b sound they had in the album/era. Leave those for a future Anthology/Rare Spice type of release!

I'd like to have a bonus CD with all leaked songs + Woman. My expectations are too high I know.

17 hours ago, Babyboy said:

I'd like to have a bonus CD with all leaked songs + Woman. My expectations are too high I know.

I just don't think they will do that for a Forever25 edition, sadly. They would have to pay license fees, and some mastering for all those songs which are in demo form and would need extra work done by the original producers, which would cost money to do.

We know they and Universal are cheap and won't do it...

My hope is that they will at least include WOMAN and do also just remembered that they did Dolby Atmos versions for both Spice and Spiceworld, so I would hope they would also do that for Forever which would be ace!

Watch them release the rumored Darkchild version of Woman instead of the pop version.

31 minutes ago, Sideout said:

Watch them release the rumored Darkchild version of Woman instead of the pop version.

f*** I forgot about that lol

I kind of want them to do it all - the Darkchild version, the original demo and the live version lol f*** it they did that with Step To Me didn't they?....

I HEARD THAT DARKKCHILD VERSION ONCE!!! It wss in the background of them dancing in toilets backstsge on youtube. It was ... absolutely lifeless. They needed to fix the lyrics, not the live sounding pop production!!!

12 hours ago, May Day Pole Dancer said:

I HEARD THAT DARKKCHILD VERSION ONCE!!! It wss in the background of them dancing in toilets backstsge on youtube. It was ... absolutely lifeless. They needed to fix the lyrics, not the live sounding pop production!!!

From the Christmas tour 99? i think that's the original demo one. Darkchild remixed it, along with RBAY, in July 2000 but it didn't work so they recorded Wasting My TIme as the final track instead.

I hope we get give you what you want and Pain proof

23 hours ago, Rebel said:

From the Christmas tour 99? i think that's the original demo one. Darkchild remixed it, along with RBAY, in July 2000 but it didn't work so they recorded Wasting My TIme as the final track instead.

this is true. The one showing in the documentary of the 99 tour is definitely a pop-dance track.

Plus in that very documentary, Victoria and Mel B say the album is a mix of genres from pop, to r'n'b and acoustic sounds, and they say all three new tracks will be on the album.

It is clear that Darkchild took the extra producing duties in early 2000 so they went on to record more with him in Spring/Summer 2000. I don't remember where the info of the Darkchild version of WOMAN came from, but I think it was Biff hinting at there being more versions?

It is funny because I think there might be even more demos/songs recorded from the 1999-2000 sessions that we have no idea about. I doubt only like 3 songs came from that... I'd love to hear more or at least know more!

WOMAN sounds pop disco I think they're trying different sounds first and then end up with RnB

Their team posted a clip of Holler on insta.... Forever 25 is coming?

lets hope so!