The smallest arenas then! Wasn’t NIA academy basically the NIA at half occupancy?

A shame she wasn't able to do well in venues of those capacities, but it really was the wrong era for her to give it a go. The groundwork for touring should have been done far earlier, as has been pointed out, for sure.

This is - together with This Time, Stages, LA State of Mind, A Girl Like Me, and all VB discography - the worst when it comes to Spice Girls music.

It’s not even camp, fun, anything she was meant to be. The album cover says boring, the documentary says annoying, the music is basically AI generated content with no soul.

IMHO, her second album is the best.

Poor Geri, I actually really like Passion think it is her most cohesive work.

 

The ballads Feel the fear, Let me love you more, Loving me back to life and There's always tomorrow, are all beautiful songs. To be honest the only songs I am not hugely keen on are the opening and closing tracks, I just don't think she can really pull off the Jazz / blues style she was attempting. Otherwise I think every other track is decent.

This story has kinda faded into obscurity over time...but does anybody else remember Girls Aloud doing some interviews, offering Geri to tour with them? This would have been just after she cancelled her tour amidst the low ticket sales story, I think. What I don't remember is how serious Girls Aloud were about it. It may have been as simple as some off-handed remarks..."oh, she'd be welcome to tour with us" or something.

 

Anyway. Let's say for the sake of argument, they were serious. Would that have been a good idea? I'm sure it would have been a blow to Geri's ego...having had a very impressive chart run at one point...and then not being able to headline a tour a few years later. But. I don't know. I know a lot of people would find this to be a horrendous idea, but I think maybe a two-act tour would have genuinely helped Passion and given Geri a little more longevity? I'm sure Geri would have essentially been the opening act, but billing it as co-headliners would perhaps make it go over better. There does exist a connection there with Geri having played a certain role in the creation of the group. Maybe Girls Aloud could have come out to perform a Spice Girls medley with Geri? I do realize this arrangement's very lopsided. Geri would have significantly more to gain from it than GA.

Gerita is such a true talented artisté unlike OTHER people *cough* Emma *cough* Melanie C *cough* Melanie B *cough* Posh *cough*

 

Some people have VISIONS over their solo careers, others will just release things and hope it sticks!

My favourite tracks : "Desire" and "Passion"

Least favourite tracks : "Ride It" and "Surrender Your Groove"

Love Never Loved Me truly is the song that got away for her from this project.

 

I have no idea how well it would've performed in 2005 as it seems that was a major solo spice backlash going on at that time however it just had all the ingredients of what Geri was about. Desire isn't a bad song its just not Geris style.

 

 

Love Never Loved Me truly is the song that got away for her from this project.

 

I have no idea how well it would've performed in 2005 as it seems that was a major solo spice backlash going on at that time however it just had all the ingredients of what Geri was about. Desire isn't a bad song its just not Geris style.

 

Right. Even though I firmly believe Love Never Loved Me is Geri's best solo song, I do wonder what its reputation would be today if it were the song that tanked on the charts instead of Desire. It's been so many years that I think some things get forgotten...but a large part of Desire's problem was the total media blackout. I remember it actually doing well enough in video plays on various pop sites...but completely lacking radio support was going to sink any song...especially in that era.

 

Also. Let's not forget that fans were given the choice between Love Never Loved Me and Desire as the next single...and Desire got the vote. The general public may not have known about the vote, but the hardcore fans certainly did. Now. Granted, to my memory, what we heard of both songs were earlier demo versions...and Love Never Loved Me didn't sound to the full perfection that the final version would be. I remember still preferring Love Never Loved Me...but also, I wasn't mad that Desire got the vote. I liked both. And Desire's one of the *many* solo Spice songs that I remember the fanbase liking a whole lot better before the chart position came out.

 

But. Anyway. A media blackout happened because people just found Geri so outrageously annoying because she rode a horse down a city street or something. Everything she did for promotion seems so quaint and non-offensive to me...especially when stacked next to antics of certain reality show star/social media-clout-chasing celebs of today.

Edited April 16, 20232 yr by Piers

Gerita decided not to release Love Never Loved Me just so that we could have these discussions!

 

God, what a visionairy, unlike that bully Emmarrr.

I agree that Desire definitely got the fanbase treatment of "low chart position = it's a bad song = we hate it now!" reaction back in the day, lol. The same most definitely happened with Melanie C's On the Horizon and I'd dare to put Emma's We're Not Gonna Sleep Tonight in that category too because I don't recall negativity towards it before its release week.

 

Geri's radio blacklisting was a shame. Rather unwarranted and petty too. 2005 was a difficult year for pop generally, in my view, save for some notable exceptions like Sugababes.

Do you know what... I'm gonna say it... I LOVED Ride It.

 

The song and the video were such light-hearted pop that didn't take itself seriously. Geri visibly laughs throughout and is totally over the top.

It was colourful, camp pop and it was certainly better than, say, Bag It Up.

 

I do remember Geri being quite a Madonna fan, and she does come across as trying to be a UK version, but not quite coming close to making the grade.

 

And yes she was as annoying as hell... but which pop star isn't when trying to show their personal life but actually hamming it up for the entire time?

Ride it is fun and catchy it’s not the best pop song but it’s far from the worst too!

Spice Girls fans are the WORST for bad positions = mind change on the song!

This was such a fascinating read. Since I wasn't a pop fan at the time, what would you say were the big gamechangers of 02 and 03?

 

I agree that Geri's 2005 comeback felt like a relic. I had no idea at the time she was only early 30s! I think she was styled or presented older.

I agree that Desire definitely got the fanbase treatment of "low chart position = it's a bad song = we hate it now!" reaction back in the day, lol. The same most definitely happened with Melanie C's On the Horizon and I'd dare to put Emma's We're Not Gonna Sleep Tonight in that category too because I don't recall negativity towards it before its release week.

 

Yeah, definitely those two. It took me years to warm up to Here It Comes Again...so at the time, I thought On The Horizon was getting things back on track for Mel. Admittedly, I wanted Emma to release High On Love or Better Be Careful for her next single. But. Geri'd had a big hit with a Latin-tinged single...and Mel C had a big hit with a remixed single...so...We're Not Gonna Sleep Tonight seemed like a good release to me at the time.

 

I also remember the fanbase being pretty enthusiastic about Not Such An Innocent Girl before the release...and (perhaps the most significant change in fan perception that I remember) Calling. There were A LOT of fans claiming that song was Geri's best single leading up to the release. After the release, seemingly no one was saying that anymore.

 

I wouldn't say we were never critical of a release. I think we always knew If That Were Me and Lullaby were mistakes...largely because both Mels had such better songs to choose from.

 

Anyway. Getting back to Geri and Passion. I don't feel the fans dislike Ride It today, per se. But I do wish it were generally better regarded. Fans seemed to really, really like it when the clip first got out there.

I think there were just so much going wrong with Gerita at the time of "Desire"'s release that it was hard to work up any sort of enthusiasm; the disaster with the tour, the There's Something About Geri documentary, the story about her trying to get "Some Girls" from Richard X which made people make unfavourable comparisons because it does very much come across as a "I can't get the track I want so give me something similar" and of course the lack of playlisting and overall promotion. It was just like they entirely gave up; considering how they went all out for "Ride It" it was very underwhelming.

 

I never liked Here It Comes Again and On the Horizon (the Reason era is definitively her coffee table era); I do however remember how enthusiastic the fanbase was at the latter as a single and how it was going to turn it around for her... only for it to come in at #14 and then obviously it's a bad song all of a sudden.

only for it to come in at #14 and then obviously it's a bad song all of a sudden.

There's a difference between a bad song and a bad single choice. A good song can be a bad single choice.

Like any other single choice would have done better for her at that point though.

Like any other single choice would have done better for her at that point though.

At that point she was still getting airplay, so yes, a different single could have done better.