Indeed, I'm a little surprised that she wasn't more diplomatic about it. Mel not even attempting to put a positive spin on it and being like "uh just a vinyl, how boring", which as you say is completely underselling what the release actually is... gosh. It really does seems suggestive that she's not at all fussed that the box set is happening at all.

If Mel signed off on it (which she must have done?) then why throw it under the bus. 😲 Not when it's so pricey and is meant to be representative of a celebration of their music legacy... hmm! Yet even on the day of the immediate backlash, Mel was seen having liked somebody's annoyed post that it was just a box set and not a tour.

I was kind of amused (rather than angered) by her being like this in the interview, but amused in an "oh that's not-" way rather than thinking it was a smart way for her to react about it.

Would any of the viewing audience, or people who see that on YouTube, feel at all motivated to even check out what the release is, let alone buy it? I'd be very surprised, not when they see the actual artist being dismissive of it.

I'm still very bemused by the overall online reaction to the existence of the box set to be honest. A countless number of artists get legacy releases like this and there's no uproar about it. Trust it to be the Spice Girls who get a negative reaction for what is really intended to be a collectors edition, not a "casuals" product. It kind of devalues it as a project, when it should be a key ingredient towards preserving the legacy.

I also agree that it's quite a slap in the face to anyone involved in making the box set happen. I think it's highly evident by now that it's the Spice Girls themselves who are the stumbling block in letting fans have what they want i.e. more unreleased songs/demos than "here's one, that'll do". The curators/designers/label people etc did their best within the limitations presented to them, I think. They've sourced the vast majority of the remixes, there's some songs that'll be on streaming for the first time ever. That's a good thing!

It being crickets from the others is a shame too. I'd hope some of them would promote it on their socials nearer the time maybe, but I won't hold my breath.

I'll try and bring this essay (lol) to a close now but I've been feeling a building irritation in recent years that the Spice Girls have been boiled down to Wannabe, endless t-shirts and a constant "will they/won't they tour?" as if touring is their only thing of value. Which isn't helped by some of the girls themselves only seeing a tour as a viable option for them to get together. There's a lot they could do together that isn't touring, stuff that doesn't have to be making new music either.

Ahhh the endless frustrations of being a Spice Girls fan... x

Damn right, Jay

I think it is extremely sad on how they behave with most of the releases. It might not be selling millions but it is your own legacy of music we're talking about here and it is disrespectful.

And yes, by their own fault, they have been reduced to rumours about a tour, Wannabe and selling tshirts. Funny enough, when the pre-announcement went viral, there were many people demanding a tour and an album, not just a tour.

Clearly the demand is there. But some of them only see a tour as a possible way to reunite, which also is so self-defeating because they know two of them wont want to tour. I blame Mel C here, primarily, but also Mel B only talks about a tour as well. I think without new music or at least something new, it will be hard to convince Geri to get back on stage again.

So they are stuck, stuckup and rude. It does not bode well at all for anyone. Fans are bored of this, and I bet the label is seriously pissed - again! I would be if not even one of them acknowleged any release since 2022!

The CD version is sold out on Italy and Spain Universal shops... maybe it is selling? lol

Over the past two years they have been more focused on appealing to the Collectors' market, which is an interesting turn of events as they are maybe attempting to branch their legacy to a wider crowd rather than the usual fanbase that will just buy a new variant of Spice lol

They have done partnerships with the Royal Mint, Royal Mail, now the Singles Collection box sets. these are not just a CD and vinyl (like Mel B called it lol), they are proper collectors' editions.

Collectors have money and often they are on the hunt for special releases like these: expertly made, official, released by 'proper' companies like the royal mint and and which are rare or will become in the future.

These Collection boxes seem very pointed to collectors rather than the casual, usual fan. Which might also point towards why so many casuals where pissed that this was the release and not something catered for them.

The coins, the stamps, the collectors items... It's a clever expanse into more up-market products and will certainly bring in a lot of money and prestige, so good for them.

Edited October 2Oct 2 by Mr.X

Now where is that coffee table book filled to the rim of HQ photo shoots. 😉

Since they're officially putting out the Do You Think About Me demo...

...is there a reason they don't just go ahead and put out the Forever demos that have leaked as well?

I get that all the hardcore fans have heard them. But all the hardcore fans have also heard Do You Think About Me. Certainly the fanbase likes those leaked Forever tracks better. Does anyone even like Do You Think About Me? My perception is Give You What You Want and the original pop version of Right Back At Ya are pretty well liked. They're out there. Might as well benefit from them on some level through streaming...and getting to advertise more previously unreleased tracks for the project.

I do wonder if a conversation has ever even happened around those songs. Granted, a release of them would probably get overruled. Victoria wouldn't be bothered about any music release, Geri wouldn't be interested because she's not involved, and Mel C probably hates the tracks for some odd reason.

They want to milk us as much as they can. There's no way around it. They have been releasing one unreleased track every five years, it's a pattern.

7 hours ago, Piers said:

Since they're officially putting out the Do You Think About Me demo...

...is there a reason they don't just go ahead and put out the Forever demos that have leaked as well?

I get that all the hardcore fans have heard them. But all the hardcore fans have also heard Do You Think About Me. Certainly the fanbase likes those leaked Forever tracks better. Does anyone even like Do You Think About Me? My perception is Give You What You Want and the original pop version of Right Back At Ya are pretty well liked. They're out there. Might as well benefit from them on some level through streaming...and getting to advertise more previously unreleased tracks for the project.

I do wonder if a conversation has ever even happened around those songs. Granted, a release of them would probably get overruled. Victoria wouldn't be bothered about any music release, Geri wouldn't be interested because she's not involved, and Mel C probably hates the tracks for some odd reason.

OK so here is my main theory around why they wont release Forever demos. There are a few reasons, all of them which kind of mix together and make the whole thing perhaps too notted and complicated to navigate for them.

The Pop vs R&B sound

I think this is the main issue here. Forever was their attempt at doing a contemporary R&B album. It is the first time they had an executive producer doing the whole album (bar three songs, one of which was already a hit anyway). Like it or not, even if it wasnt a successful attempt (depending on how you want to look at it), Forever was their first almost-concept album as a whole.

Before they arrived at the decision for the album as a whole and the era to be focused on a 'serious American-produced R&B album' concept, they had seemingly recorded a lot of songs throughout 1998 and 1999 with their original Pop-producers teams. These songs were discarted to focus Forever on contemporary R&B.

Putting out songs they recorded with their original team of producers and focused on straight up pop (like the Give You What You Want and Right Back At Ya pop mix are), would be a bit of a disservice to the concept of Forever. I can understand that from an artistic point of view, and also an ego point of view. I don't think Darkchild would approve a Delux/new version of Forever with pop demos attached to them because it would be a bit of a slap in the face of his work/vision. Remember that he was 'the chosen boy' at the time, and they discarded their previous teams to work with him.

At best, we will one day get maybe a couple of demos from the Darkchild sessions leaked or released alongside a Forever re-issue. But I don't think we will ever get WOMAN or Give You What You Want, nor the Right Back At Ya Pop Mix attached to them because in their eyes, it would deviate too much from the concept/Sound of the album.

The pop tracks can be released independently of a Forever-focused release though, that's for sure.

Legal rights

Forever has been re-issued a few times over the years, in both CDs back in the early 2000s and more recently on Vinyl. All girls and Darkchild had had to approve of these, so they are happy for the album to be out there as it is.

However, EMI/Virgin would have to pay Darkchild for any unheard Forever demos and since the album re-releases haven't necessarily made that much money, they probably don't want to bother investing money in those demos for a Forever release (even though that would probably actually mean the fans would have more incentives to buy lol)

Same thing with pop/early demos from Touch - Spice - Spiceworld eras, although clearly they are content with some of these being released in some context related to their eras. Both Feed Your Love and Do You Think About Me are from the Touch era, before they left the original team (they technically had recorded DYTAM, Wannabe and 2 Become 1 by then!). I imagine that Virgin bought those demos at the time when they signed the group up - which would indicate as to why it is easier to release those, since there is no legal cost in doing that.

Drip-feed

As pointed out by @Rebel they are drip-feeding us early demos to go along with re-releases and/or Compilation releases. The drip-feeding is definitely part of a 'long game' type of approach because since they have such a small catalogue and are no longer actively working as a band, the record label and their ream need to space out what they have to release.

They are probably now using Touch-era demos and eventually will start going towards Spice unheard demos soon. Think about it like this: if they had released WOMAN and Spice is Back or any of the other more popular demos by now, they would have had the main 'fan-service' aspect of these releases done and dusted. They know those will attrack more so they play the waiting game with them, teasing us until eventually (when we are too old to care lol) releasing them.

This approach seemingly works for them but I think it is starting to work agaisnt them, as fans are starting to rebel/not buy the editions they put out without proper incentive.

Do You Think About Me was a terrible demo to lead this new collection with, and it is a bit wild they chose this instead of a demo that is completely unheard. That would have made it much more special to buy the collection. Imagine if the 'new' song added to The Singles Collection was the original 1995 demo of Overnight? I think more fans would have wanted that.

The Band itself

I think there are two main players against us having more demos out there to buy, sadly. I used to think Victoria was a third reason, but both Feed Your Love and Do You Think About Me are actually very Victoria-lead LOL so that went out of the window.

Mel C and Geri are the main reasons. Mel C is against some of the most sought-after demos being out. She hates WOMAN and is very selective about what she mentions. In her book she mentions Serial Killer and Overnight, seemingly showing she would approve of those, and I think we might hear them one day soon, specially since the fan backlash to DYTAM was quite strong so hopefully they have heard/seen that and will think of better strategies for the future. But the "holy grails" of demos, she seemingly hates and actively blocks, which is frustrating and honestly makes her look like an ass.

Geri is a stumbling block for Forever-specific demos. Not necessarily meaning she is blocking them, but just that she wasnt a part of them and it seems the group doesn't want us to remember that/are awkward about any non-Geri releases that weren't singles lol...

Finally, I think also the Group itself not being involved in these releases post Spice25, really doesn't help either. I can't quite comprehend why they wouldn't care at all about their releases and put some effort into them. Since they don't, it is just the label doing its work on its own, and there is only so much they can do when the group itself wont do shite.

Anyway, those are my main takes... Legal Rights, 'Concept Album' and Egos (as usual...)

Edited October 8Oct 8 by Mr.X

Jesus I need a lay down after that long ass post

If they are going to release Woman at some point, what would be the best home for it? Forever 30? New Greatest Hits? Anthology Collection? Rarities compilation?

Their discography is so small. How many times can they release an anniversary edition of an album with little to no outtakes before die hard fans don’t care anymore?

I can see them releasing Spice 40 with a few outtakes since there is many to choose from with this era, especially if they tack on Touch songs.

Spiceworld doesn’t seem to have any outtakes so I don’t see Universal releasing another anniversary edition.

Mr. X you make a great point. The group probably doesn’t want to release the pop outtakes from Forever on an anniversary edition because they would not gel with the released album. Those songs almost feel like they are from a different album.

So what release would make the most sense for the Forever pop songs?

I think you answered the question in the beginning. The Singles Collection was a great example of a release that could house a lot of unheard songs - and technically it does, just not the ones we actually care about lol

I think some Spice and Spiceworld-era unheard tracks could (should) eventually make their way to a Spice or Spiceworld anniversary edition. I can only see Darkchil and Jam & Lewis demos being tagged on to a Forever release, not the rest. But EMI and the girls need to invest to make that happen. I would LOVE for the demo of If You Wanna Have Some Fun to come to light - just the title of it is intriguing...

Songs like WOMAN, Song for Her, Spice is Back, Overnight (1999), Too Hot, Go Go Go or other Spice 1998-1998 or 2007 tracks I can only see being attached to a Rareties Collection or something like that, sadly...

The Sugababes did a great move with their unreleased demos they recorded during their MKS era, releasing it on their own and called it The Lost Tapes. I would love for the Spice Girls to have an initiative like that...

Taking the Sugababes route and releasing the “shelved” 1999 album is a decent idea. The girls themselves wouldn’t have to promote it much. Word of mouth on social media would do the heavy lifting.

If the album gets negative reviews, they can say that’s why it was never released in the first place. It’s a gift to the long time fans.

Casual fans would probably be more inclined to buy/stream this release since 8 out of the 10 songs haven’t been officially released.

On 07/10/2026 at 22:57, Mr.X said:

OK so here is my main theory around why they wont release Forever demos. There are a few reasons, all of them which kind of mix together and make the whole thing perhaps too notted and complicated to navigate for them.

The Pop vs R&B sound

I think this is the main issue here. Forever was their attempt at doing a contemporary R&B album. It is the first time they had an executive producer doing the whole album (bar three songs, one of which was already a hit anyway). Like it or not, even if it wasnt a successful attempt (depending on how you want to look at it), Forever was their first almost-concept album as a whole.

Before they arrived at the decision for the album as a whole and the era to be focused on a 'serious American-produced R&B album' concept, they had seemingly recorded a lot of songs throughout 1998 and 1999 with their original Pop-producers teams. These songs were discarted to focus Forever on contemporary R&B.

Putting out songs they recorded with their original team of producers and focused on straight up pop (like the Give You What You Want and Right Back At Ya pop mix are), would be a bit of a disservice to the concept of Forever. I can understand that from an artistic point of view, and also an ego point of view. I don't think Darkchild would approve a Delux/new version of Forever with pop demos attached to them because it would be a bit of a slap in the face of his work/vision. Remember that he was 'the chosen boy' at the time, and they discarded their previous teams to work with him.

At best, we will one day get maybe a couple of demos from the Darkchild sessions leaked or released alongside a Forever re-issue. But I don't think we will ever get WOMAN or Give You What You Want, nor the Right Back At Ya Pop Mix attached to them because in their eyes, it would deviate too much from the concept/Sound of the album.

The pop tracks can be released independently of a Forever-focused release though, that's for sure.

Legal rights

Forever has been re-issued a few times over the years, in both CDs back in the early 2000s and more recently on Vinyl. All girls and Darkchild had had to approve of these, so they are happy for the album to be out there as it is.

However, EMI/Virgin would have to pay Darkchild for any unheard Forever demos and since the album re-releases haven't necessarily made that much money, they probably don't want to bother investing money in those demos for a Forever release (even though that would probably actually mean the fans would have more incentives to buy lol)

Same thing with pop/early demos from Touch - Spice - Spiceworld eras, although clearly they are content with some of these being released in some context related to their eras. Both Feed Your Love and Do You Think About Me are from the Touch era, before they left the original team (they technically had recorded DYTAM, Wannabe and 2 Become 1 by then!). I imagine that Virgin bought those demos at the time when they signed the group up - which would indicate as to why it is easier to release those, since there is no legal cost in doing that.

Drip-feed

As pointed out by @Rebel they are drip-feeding us early demos to go along with re-releases and/or Compilation releases. The drip-feeding is definitely part of a 'long game' type of approach because since they have such a small catalogue and are no longer actively working as a band, the record label and their ream need to space out what they have to release.

They are probably now using Touch-era demos and eventually will start going towards Spice unheard demos soon. Think about it like this: if they had released WOMAN and Spice is Back or any of the other more popular demos by now, they would have had the main 'fan-service' aspect of these releases done and dusted. They know those will attrack more so they play the waiting game with them, teasing us until eventually (when we are too old to care lol) releasing them.

This approach seemingly works for them but I think it is starting to work agaisnt them, as fans are starting to rebel/not buy the editions they put out without proper incentive.

Do You Think About Me was a terrible demo to lead this new collection with, and it is a bit wild they chose this instead of a demo that is completely unheard. That would have made it much more special to buy the collection. Imagine if the 'new' song added to The Singles Collection was the original 1995 demo of Overnight? I think more fans would have wanted that.

The Band itself

I think there are two main players against us having more demos out there to buy, sadly. I used to think Victoria was a third reason, but both Feed Your Love and Do You Think About Me are actually very Victoria-lead LOL so that went out of the window.

Mel C and Geri are the main reasons. Mel C is against some of the most sought-after demos being out. She hates WOMAN and is very selective about what she mentions. In her book she mentions Serial Killer and Overnight, seemingly showing she would approve of those, and I think we might hear them one day soon, specially since the fan backlash to DYTAM was quite strong so hopefully they have heard/seen that and will think of better strategies for the future. But the "holy grails" of demos, she seemingly hates and actively blocks, which is frustrating and honestly makes her look like an ass.

Geri is a stumbling block for Forever-specific demos. Not necessarily meaning she is blocking them, but just that she wasnt a part of them and it seems the group doesn't want us to remember that/are awkward about any non-Geri releases that weren't singles lol...

Finally, I think also the Group itself not being involved in these releases post Spice25, really doesn't help either. I can't quite comprehend why they wouldn't care at all about their releases and put some effort into them. Since they don't, it is just the label doing its work on its own, and there is only so much they can do when the group itself wont do shite.

Anyway, those are my main takes... Legal Rights, 'Concept Album' and Egos (as usual...)

i don't think Darkchild owns any publishing rights to releasing any demo . With the spice girls being so smart of publishing from the begining, they wouldn't have agreed to such terms. They should have paid Darkchild a flat fee to product x number of songs. And thereafter, they would have no say. Just like Elliot and Biff, they don't own the publishing rights of any spice girls songs. But they would get royalty.

That said, I really don't think there are any Darkchild demos unreleased.

I believe the girls totally understand the value of those high quality demos such as WOMAN and the others, and rather use them to promote future large-scale tour to maximise the profits.

The 2019 tour was quite small, only 13 shows. If they had extend it to a world tour, they could have thought about new music to go along side it (I think its what they meant during the Jonathan Ross interview)

For this single box set, honestly it wouldn't make millions on its own, what's the point to waste a valueable track, consider they have very limited unreleased tracks.

Still, they could have included a couple more older lower quality demos becaue those are lower in value.

Edited Friday at 19:505 days by ooshspice1

On 27/09/2026 at 15:53, Mr.X said:

yes it was a record label thing, for sure. but to trash on a release like this is f***ing awful in my opinion.

Just say that you were happy to be correct about there being demand for a tour/new era, don't trash the actual music celebration. Or don't mention anything at all..

It's not even a bad release like Spiceworld25 or Forever25... effort, money and craft by designers and audio-producers were clearly put towards this release to celebrate your own 30-year-anniversary. the huge amount of publicity and the fact that it was such a big launch, clearly means the label put good marketing money and strategy into it.

It's disrespectful as f*** to trash it as 'just a vinyl' in such a tone on one of the biggest TV shows in the US.

I don;t believe that the record label can release the boxset without the spice girls to sign off, otherwise the record company would have released many other compliations over the years already to make money because it's how they make money as business.

Edited Friday at 20:025 days by ooshspice1

11 minutes ago, ooshspice1 said:

i don't think Darkchild owns any publishing rights to releasing any demo . With the spice girls being so smart of publishing from the begining, they wouldn't have agreed to such terms. They should have paid Darkchild a flat fee to product x number of songs. And thereafter, they would have no say. Just like Elliot and Biff, they don't own the publishing rights of any spice girls songs. But they would get royalty.

That said, I really don't think there are any Darkchild demos unreleased.

I believe the girls totally understand the value of those high quality demos such as WOMAN and the others, and rather use them to promote future large-scale tour to maximise the profits.

The 2019 tour was quite small, only 13 shows. If they had extend it to a world tour, they could have thought about new music to go along side it (I think its what they meant during the Jonathan Ross interview)

For this single box set, honestly it wouldn't make millions on its own, what's the point to waste a valueable track, consider they have very limited unreleased tracks.

Still, they could have included a couple more older lower quality demos becaue those are lower in value.

In late 1999/early 2000s, Darkchild was made the main producer and paid a fee to make 9 songs (that is what he said at the time when he was made the record executive producer). They did have sessions with him before this, in early 1999 (which he mentioned was where he got the idea for Destiny's Child "Say My Name"), and then again in summer 1999 which is where Holler comes from. There could be more demos from these sessions, just like there could be demos from the Biff/Matt sessions in Dublin when Emma and Mel C went to record some demos with them (I think 5 tracks where mentioned? it is in a thread somewhere lol).

Darkchild ended up released 8 songs in the Forever album. From what we know, WOMAN was also given a Darkchild production like Right Back At Ya but ultimately didn't make the album (which is probably what the 9th song was going to be...). As the record producer, he would have to have a say on releasing any unheard songs, just like the girls do. It's common practice lol Not sure on publishing but he would get producer royalties as well.

We know there are demos - some of them are even registered on ASCAP - of Forever songs. Time Goes By, Wasting My Time and If You Wanna Have Some Fun all have registered demos/early versions. Those could be released if they wanted to...

In terms of sales and making money from this?... I don't know... For instance, If they sell 2000 copies of the boxsets (which could easily happen as it is often selling out and re-stocked), they will make around £660,000. I think they could easily make more than that in the long run lol... It's kind of everywhere and it was a big launch, they will want to make bank from this.

And yes, if they had made more of an effort they could make even more.

7 minutes ago, ooshspice1 said:

I don;t believe that the record label can release the boxset without the spice girls to sign off, otherwise the record company would have released many other compliations over the years already to make money because it's how they make money as business.

They do have to sign off on any release, we know this. It is just that they weren't involved in the creation of it, it was a record label thing only. You can tell they didn't care much for it since none of them even mentioned it lol

6 hours ago, ooshspice1 said:

I believe the girls totally understand the value of those high quality demos such as WOMAN and the others, and rather use them to promote future large-scale tour to maximize the profits.

The 2019 tour was quite small, only 13 shows. If they had extend it to a world tour, they could have thought about new music to go along side it (I think its what they meant during the Jonathan Ross interview)

I agree with this. It does make more sense to release Woman and any other high quality outtake along side a world tour. It would get maximum exposure this way. Everyone will be in the mood to revisit their catalogue/new music alongside a tour announcement.

I don’t think there are any Darkchild outtakes either. If I remember right they had to do a late session in July 2000 because they were 2 tracks short for the album. That’s when they recorded Wasting My Time and remixed Right Back At Ya.

Yeah, I recall they had to spend two more sessions in April and July with Darkchild just to get enough tracks to complete Forever. Plus, they didn't even have enough tracks when they had to get him to remix Right Back at Ya and W.O.M.A.N.

Although i dont think (but of course I hope) there are any Darkchild/Jim&Lewis outtake songs, WIP demos such as IUWHSF (we heard the chorus where Vic dominated the vocals) or RnB version of WOMAN could still be very interesting. And yeah, those probably will need to ask the producer to dig out, but would it mean they need to pay them again? I don't know.

Im also suprised that no one Abolsute outtake have been leaked, not even song title. They have worked with the girls much more than darkchild.

7 hours ago, Rebel said:

Yeah, I recall they had to spend two more sessions in April and July with Darkchild just to get enough tracks to complete Forever. Plus, they didn't even have enough tracks when they had to get him to remix Right Back at Ya and W.O.M.A.N.

The sessions in April booked when they decided to go full R&B with Rodney at the helm and it was only then because Mel C and the others' schedules didn't match. Then they didn't record all songs so they had to book more sessions. For all we know, they had other demos that just weren't deemed good enough so they tried another session in July.

Anyway, these are just suppositions.

4 hours ago, ooshspice1 said:

WIP demos such as IUWHSF (we heard the chorus where Vic dominated the vocals)

Where??