Piers

I mean. I've got no inside scoop on what happened...but I never especially thought that Geri's team intentionally copied Victoria's video. Honestly, I figured both teams were probably just inspired by Mariah Carey's Heartbreaker video..which was still somewhat recent at that point...and featured a fight scene between a good Mariah and bad Mariah. The good girl/bad girl thing has always been fairly common in pop videos. The very next year after SIYWGF and NSAIG, a good Madonna was fighting a bad Madonna in the Die Another Day video. Nicole Scherzinger did the good girl/bad girl thing in Poison. Those are just off the top of my head. I'm sure there are a ton more examples. I mean, yeah, there's also the flying bikes thing. But. Geri took pics on a flying bike even in the album photoshoot...which came a good while before the eventual SIYWGF video shoot. So. I dunno. I land on coincidence. Plus, the motorbikes were employed very differently in the videos...and the good girl vs. bad girl thing is far more integrated into Victoria's concept than Geri's. (I'm not sure I was aware the two Geris were even rivals in the Scream video until the final seconds...)

One last thought. I don't think this is getting much discussion in the world...but I do think Madonna's struggled to sing for several years. Yes, everyone ganged up on her after that Eurovision performance...but the broad perception out there was that she can't sing...or was especially bad that night. The fact is...she was a rather good, disciplined singer for a lot of her career. I think something has genuinely happened to her voice. Whether she'd acknowledge such a thing, I don't know. You could argue her age just naturally changed her voice...making it harder to sing those early songs. But that doesn't explain why she doesn't even attempt her new songs without major distortion to her voice. I guess you could argue that distortion is only for the effect of the songs...but I'm not so sure. The fact vocals from her concert tours and Eurovision performance were doctored to the point of sounding nothing like the original vocals implies her team's aware something's up.

Just like you, I'm a die-hard fan...and nothing going on right now is going to change that. But yes, her image has been in a bad place for a while now. Some of it should have been avoided. Obviously, she didn't need to take an Aretha Franklin tribute and turn it into a rambling speech about herself. Die-hard fans may understand that she puts on shows hours and hours after the stated start time, but most people attending are just going to view it as poor form. Her takes on COVID were shallow and often bizarre. As for what people perceive as desperate attempts to be young...I tend to be split on that. My feeling is that age shouldn't stop an artist from pursuing a sound that speaks to them. Her defiance at what people think a person her age should say/wear...is, to me, often a strike against ageism...and a stance that's very in line with her character. Buuut. While I'll defend a chunk of Rebel Heart as pretty good...and say that MDNA and Madame X have the occasional good song, her musical quality has unquestionably dropped. Yes, ageism stopped her from getting hits for several deserving songs over the past decade. But, realistically...(except for Crave), nothing off Madame X would be a hit for anyone. So. When you're without the substance of amazing songs, you're kinda left with someone showing up to events just to flash the latest reinvention of her butt. And. I never thought she'd come off as that shallow. I'll never stop being a fan, but she has become her public perception's own worst enemy...and does need something to remind the world how she became such a titan of the industry. A biopic has the potential to do it...but not with her directing.

I'm happy to get anything from any one of them, really...but I'll go in on what I wish we could see in the (unlikely) event the group were to record again. I can't especially imagine Victoria as she is now taking part in music. So. Four piece album. All four must be in the room together for writing sessions. I'd build the writing team out of the girls and Biff...with perhaps a reunion with Cathy Dennis. I'm pretty sure everyone in here knows who that is...but if not, she wrote a ton of hits for a while including Can't Get You Out of My Head and Toxic. She also cowrote Bumper to Bumper with the girls...and she worked with Melanie C and (I think?) wrote My Love Is For Real for Victoria. She hasn't been as present in music for a few years, but this might be the right project to employ her skills. Then, I'd bring in Mark Ronson and Stuart Price as producers. Ronson because he can pull off so many genres of music (something key to the variety of the group)...and Price because the work he's done with Madonna/Kylie/Dua Lipa seems about right for where the girls' sound should be today. After that, I'd just say to create an album that encompasses who they all are now. Some big dance tracks...some throwback 60s sounding stuff...some lush ballads...something a little guitar-y...something a little electronic. An album even more varied than Spice World. Play up the 'All Are Welcome' angle with the promos and videos. People of all backgrounds. All stories. All ages. (maybe even throw in some of the original Spice Boys as dancers alongside the younger ones?...never too old to do what you love). Something like that.

If she were to go the series route, I feel one hour episodes could be the way to go...looking something like this; Episode 1: Beginnings Childhood and impact of mother's death. Establish important relationships (like the dynamics with her father and brother Christopher). Go into what sparked her love of performing. Cover her move to New York...the odd jobs...her Breakfast Club days...the recording of her first album. Episode 2: Breakthrough The ascent to superstardom. First MTV performance. Live Aid and a stadium tour puts her on the global stage as one of the biggest stars on the planet. The volatile Sean Penn romance. Desperately Seeking Susan seems to promise success in film...but the failure of Shanghai Surprise, Who's That Girl, and a stage play show she's not invincible. Episode 3: Controversy Like A Prayer/Pepsi controversy. Blonde Ambition tour met with both praise and heavy criticism. M brings gay culture into a more mainstream place...including the Vogue release. Erotica album. The Sex book. Body of Evidence. A Letterman appearance goes off the rails. She's shattering taboos...but is that causing a backlash? Episode 4: Motherhood An intentional attempt to soften her image after Erotica comes with the release of BedTime Stories. Evita is a new bid for credibility...and is met with some career-best reviews...but is also an Oscar snub. The birth of her daughter brings new perspective to her world. Episode 5: Acceptance Ray of Light brings the best reviews of her career...including Grammy attention. The praise continues with Music. The industry is giving a respect she's never felt before. Drowned World tour is a huge success. Guy Richie relationship seems to bring new level of happiness and stability. And all was well forever...? Episode 6: Ageism Ray of Light/Music did not signal a permanent acceptance by the music industry. Guy Richie was not the one. Her life and career continue ups and downs. Going political with the American Life album campaign is met with division. The hits dry up. Ageism is at work. M does what she always did...refuse to do what people expect of her. So. Maybe I feel like six one-hour episodes could cover it (you can tell I didn't have enough to do this morning).

I should reword what I said because...no, I don't think the Damon Dash stuff would have charted well either...though there may have been an interest in what Resentment was about. My thought was more...could My Love Is For Real have gotten her a bit of traction? I just base that on how I remember people reacting to her during that time. A lot of people in the US were talking about the Beckhams...and it was the sort of people who wouldn't know the real names of the other four Spices...and wouldn't even recognize the other four walking down the street. For them...the Beckhams were relationship goals. Victoria's face was all over Times Square. The late night shows talked about them. The fascination was there...even without the Beckhams trying especially hard (there was something of a push for exposure in 2007). Would that have translated into music sales? Maybe not. But I'm thinking if she'd released My Love Is For Real...accompanied with a sexy video featuring David (think the 2007 W magazine shoot in video form)...maybe? She did have Simon Fuller on her side at the time...

If I'm honest, I remain puzzled how she could be working on the script this long and be "tweaking" it...yet still be uncertain if this is a single film or a series. I feel like the format should have been set long before two screenwriters took a crack at it. Does her distributor not have certain expectations? I remain torn on all of this. In all likelihood, I still think her directing is going to end in disaster. With her sensibilities these days, I think she's going to create something overly pretentious with chaotic, hard-to-follow music sections. Hers is a story that belongs on the big screen. But I really wish she were collaborating with a solid, established director. It could be the re-establishing of a grand career. The flip side is...an artist directing their own music autobiography IS an interesting concept...and no matter how it turns out, it won't be dull. With her at the helm, I lean toward her doing a series. I think the world is more forgiving of that format. Plus, if the appeal of this project is to get the major events of a career...through the eyes of the artist...a series is just going to allow her to cover all the important beats. An eight-episode series sounds about right to me. Netflix hopefully...to reach the most eyeballs.

Hot had a Parental Advisory on it, didn't it? I mean, Mel was a grown woman and had every right to express herself however she wanted...but it probably didn't help her business-wise. Her fanbase was still very young...and a lot of Hot's promotion was happening on kids' shows. I'm not sure if having some fairly adult material was helping from a strictly commercial standpoint...not in 2000, anyway. As for the thought of her delaying the release until 2001, I think anything would have been better than releasing within a month of Forever. But. It still would have been one of five Spice-related albums to be released in the course of a year. I've always wondered if it was more a case of interest in the girls dwindling by 2001...or all of their projects just starting to cancel out each other's success. I feel this is where Virgin should have stepped in. I get that all of the girls were trying to strike while the iron was hot. But it's super messy that five Spice albums would come out from October 2000-October 2001...and absolutely nothing would come out for a year after February 2002. Asking the fanbase (a mostly young one that probably had limited funds...or were asking parents for money in a lot of cases) to buy five albums from the same camp in a year was kinda...nuts. My feeling is they should have coordinated things enough to where it was two albums tops in the span of a year. Moral of the story. There was A LOT working against Hot.

I know I just said 'last thought'. But here's another last thought. Though it defies logic from a music quality standpoint, I do get her thinking on going solely with the Damon Dash material if her sole intent was to break the US. And I might get some debate on this, but my interpretation is that with a decent song, Victoria would have the best chance of the five girls to make an impact on the US charts...AND a better chance at chart success than even a Spice Girls comeback would have had by the early 2000s. The Spices were perceived as yesterday's news by that point, but there was a very real fascination with the Beckhams. Victoria definitely wasn't viewed as an annoyance in the way the British tabloids were playing her. She and David were seen as a beautiful power couple...and I do think around 2001-2007, she could have struck and capitalized on it. Could any of the Damon Dash material have taken her there? My thought is This Groove was too subtle to launch her in a new market. Resentment might have played out okay as a follow-up single to something. Going outside the Dash stuff, I think My Love Is For Real might have stood a chance at getting a respectable spot on a chart.

A few thoughts about the scrapped material. So, we know My Love Is For Real is from a third set of recordings for Victoria's album. A third change of direction? I've heard fans claim over the years that Shake It was also from the third sessions...but beats me if we know that for sure. Do we know if the intent was to start completely fresh with recordings a third time? I'm not sure I follow why she was trying to entirely dump all her pop material in 2003 in favor of the Damon Dash stuff. The pop recordings are so obviously stronger than, say, It's That Simple, That Dude, and Valentine. Was it out of the question to just combine the best of all the sessions? To me, the thing to do by 2004 would be to take the best pop tracks (especially the five Biff songs), pair them with This Groove, Resentment, and So Cold from the Damon Dash material, and lastly add My Love Is For Real and Shake It. It would have made a rather strong solo Spice album, I think. Better than the VB album, for sure. Last thought. I admittedly don't know enough about releasing music to gather when payment for a song sample takes place...but I've wondered if the samples Damon Dash used contributed the most to what bankrupted Telstar. A lot of Victoria's recordings with Dash rely heavily on famous song samples...the most prominent cases being The Beatles' Come Together and George Michael's Freedom. There's no way those rights came cheap...especially for what was supposed to be a smaller record label. Granted, the fact Victoria recorded A LOT of material with several high profile collaborators could have played the bigger role in Telstar's demise.

There are a number of things that I hope she addresses. Yes, the split from Virgin (and the general behind-the-scenes conflict behind the Reason album) could be really interesting. I've also wondered if she might address the subject of Goin Down. The rumor mill back in 1999 was that the song was about Robbie Williams. I haven't found much out there about Robbie and Goin Down since then, though. Has Mel herself ever explicitly said it's about Robbie? Anyway. Could be a juicy tidbit...if it honestly is about him.

Yeah. I've been similarly conflicted about the leaks. Ultimately, the songs are Geri's work...Geri's art...and even as a fan, I'm not owed that. On the flip side, for her to spend years and years playing bits of songs in baking videos, doing interviews to tease new material, and then releasing snippets to YouTube with her talking over them...*is* odd and confounding. I don't actually think she was trying to troll anyone. My guess is she was trying to generate enough interest in her work to get a more traditional album release deal. If memory serves correctly, she has been offered digital-only releases for this material...but she kept holding out to release a physical album. As an aside, to my ears, Geri's leaked material from a few years ago sounds more finished than the unreleased Victoria material. My guess is the Geri stuff was pretty much ready to go...just waiting for a proper avenue to get out there...while Victoria's stuff is demos. Last thought. How did the collection of songs get dubbed Man on the Mountain, anyway? I feel there are several of her song titles that better sum up the full work...

Yeah. I do stick up for Hot on occasion. I *love* I Want You Back, Tell Me, and Feels So Good. I think Hotter, Step Inside, and Lullaby are strong tracks. I'm indifferent to the other five songs. The album's not what I'd truly call a bust. I was disappointed in it in 2000, though...just because of my expectations for it. Up until the album release, what we'd heard from solo Mel was I Want You Back, Word Up, Sophisticated Lady, Tell Me...and the chorus of Feels So Good. I loved all of it and assumed Mel was just knocking it out of the park every time she walked into the studio. Tag to that, Hot had the most impressive roster of collaborators of any Spice-related project. The Christmas in Spice World shows seemed to show her at a new performance peak. I assumed Mel was primed to become the best solo pop star of the group. I do think the self-destructive release date was the key problem...but I'd be curious to have an inside peak at the album creation itself. Of course, she should have kept recording until she had stronger material...but with collaborators that prolific, I do wonder if there were pressures to just accept what she'd been given.

I guess my first familiarity with Meat Loaf was hearing I'd Do Anything For Love. Loved both the song and video as a kid. Next...I would have caught him in Spice World. I started watching Rocky Horror Picture Show not long after that (I'm a bonafide fan of the film today). Actually, an actor who played Meat Loaf in a VH1 TV movie used to come speak to my high school every year. He shared the story of hating having to say the line..."So, you mean to tell me after 20 years...I have the #1 record?!" Meat Loaf also has a pretty memorable part in Fight Club. He really was a very varied guy...and I'd credit him with being someone who redefined what a rock star could look like. I like that his music was kinda halfway between rock and Broadway musical. His role in Spice World is a fairly random thing, I think. There's part of me that thinks the musicians in it should have all played themselves...instead of getting Elton John as Elton John...and Elvis Costello and Meat Loaf as whatever rando roles they could shove them in. But. Nonetheless, I see Meat Loaf's presence as further proof the filmmakers of Spice World knew it would be a movie for kids in 1997...and a midnight cult film in the decades to come.

I'm pretty positive we'll never see the Man on the Mountain tracks again in any new form. I viewed the YouTube Channel as our last chance to get the songs in better quality and in full...and...well...we saw how that went. A few of the originally leaked songs are a bit wishy washy for me (namely Beautiful Life, If You Love Someone, and I'm Older Now). But if she'd replace those with the likes of the stronger Rainbow Woman and Traveling Light, I actually do think she'd have a rather good set of songs. I listen to Love and Light, Phenomenal Woman, Deep Down, Without Love (both versions), and Man on the Mountain quite a bit, really. Am I under any confusion an album would do well on the charts? Not especially. I get that Emma and Mel C have charted decently in their first weeks recently...but I'm not sure if that would extend to Geri. And that's why I thought the YouTube page actually was the best way to go for releasing music.

So. This is off-topic. But. With nearly 17 years of retrospect...what's the general feeling out there in terms of how Mel should have handled LA State of Mind? I'll say this. I recently did a re-listen...and the album does sound better when taken as a whole. I think most of it sounds remarkably cheap as isolated tracks (especially Music of the Night). I just don't know if the situation should have been this bleak for Mel in 2005. The other four girls managed to have top 10 singles between 2004 and 2005. Mel herself was coming off from a (miscast...but still high profile) run in Rent. The thing is...I can't really claim LA State of Mind was undervalued on the charts with its #453 placing. Though I think several of the songs actually could have been pretty good with different production (In Too Deep especially)...the album we have is an extremely uncommercial release. On the flip side, though...I think it's a little admirable that Mel wanted to give her producer friends a moment in the spotlight. And if Mel wanted a musical outlet and a chance to work with her friends...why shouldn't she do that? I think I land on...maybe she should have made the tracks available for free on her site? Either that, or she could have made a legit full-length doc and included the songs on the DVD (similar to what Victoria did with Real Beckhams). It'd have been a chance to get some music out there without the tabloid lashing from the #453 chart placing.

My issue isn't the fact they did commercials for Coinmaster, really. It's the commercials themselves. The Walkers commercials from 2019 and the Tesco commercials from 2007 actually were fairly cute...and played up the girls' individual personalities. On the flip side, if I were in a pitch meeting for these Coinmaster commercials...my guess is the first idea in the first ten seconds would be..."the girls are busy playing the game, so a group of awkward guys fill in for them on stage." It's not funny because it's too expected. It's just not...even trying to throw a twist at us? Furthermore, (and I realize this is thinking deeper than perhaps the commercial deserves) from a purely PR perspective, I'm not sure it's a good look to have your act preferring to play on their phones rather than perform for paying, dedicated fans. Yeah, I know. It's not that deep. No one's going to be offended. But. I'm just saying. If I were on their team, I'd bring up the concern that it's not super flattering. Though. If they really wanted to troll us, they should do a commercial where they're actually in a studio together...but none of them will go into a recording booth cause they're too busy playing Coinmaster. Everyone will just love that.

^ So. Watching these two back-to-back, I kinda realized...I actually do like Ride It better of the two songs. My thought earlier was just that Some Girls would have made the more dynamic reinvention...and maybe would have made a bigger comeback for Geri. That said, I do like both. I'll stick up for Ride It as being rather likable and super catchy. As Geri sang in Deep Down..."maybe I'm not that cool, but I'm cool with that." I relate. But while I like the song, I think it's the promotional stuff that lets Ride It down a bit. I remember hating the video back in 2004...but I guess I've warmed to it a bit over time. I think her previous videos tended to be fairly good, actually (especially Look at Me and It's Raining Men)...and I chalk up the cheapness of this one to her hiring her friend to direct. But. Now, I think some of it's cute. Today, I'm mostly just irked by a few editing choices that are trying too hard (the messy superimposed video section around 2:30...the reversed dancing video toward the end). I also can't quite get past that shot of her butt where her dress flies up...which has always looked to me like she just farted. I wouldn't say the Some Girls video is a big winner here either. It's better made than Ride It's video...but...it's essentially about hordes of beautiful women who live in the sewer (?) and only emerge to be wasteful of bottles of water.

All that said, I do actually think Some Girls would have been good for Geri. And I can pretty easily imagine Geri's voice (post-nodule surgery) singing it. I've always liked Ride It...but I think Some Girls would have made the bigger comeback for her. It would have been a more dynamic reinvention...especially coupled with a sleek video revealing the return of curvy Geri (as opposed to the 'look at this goofy thing my friends and I made!' that is the Ride It video). Assuming she'd let the cool, electronic vibe of the song stay...I do actually think she'd have a more successful third album era. Two last thoughts. 1. I've always found it odd that Geri clamored for an already-written track as she always seemed to be involved in the writing of her material (bar her few covers). None of her collaborators have ever disputed her deep involvement. Was this the only time that happened? 2. Richard X says in this podcast that he didn't want it to go to Geri for fear of it turning out something like Bag It Up. I don't exactly think *that* was in the cards. But I am somewhat curious if Geri would have tried to refashion the song into something bigger and dancier in the vein of her unreleased 100% Pure Love. I mean. Maybe not. I could see her pulling off the vibe of Some Girls as it is.

As the Richard X stuff goes...since he's the writer/producer of the song, I do understand why he'd have such an interest in who performs it. So he didn't view Geri as the right match...that's fair enough (even though he's been a bit more rude than necessary about it...) There is some hypocrisy I think has to be called out here. Richard X is sharing this story about some alleged diss track Geri wrote about him...making Geri sound like she's just ca-raaazy. That track is unreleased and unheard...and I guess no one would even know about it if it weren't for him bringing it up. Meanwhile, he's the one who actually wrote and *released* a diss track about Geri. So...

Right. My thought is...since it'll likely be four years or so from the 2019 tour once they can logistically get back on the road, there will be a need to freshen up the show. I gather the audience didn't love Spice Circle...or at least the ones who paid for it didn't. That makes me wonder if they'll go the route of a more traditional runway platform into the audience. Anyway. My only concern about a tour with huge gaps is how production crews will react to that. I'm not personally in production for the touring of big shows, but I have several friends who are. A show going only when the Spices' kids are off from school would put the crew in a bizarre spot of a super long commitment...and not being able to accept other paying gigs in the meantime. The crew and dancers are, in effect, normal workers. Gotta eat. In that sense, it'd make it easier if the girls would take the time to just honestly commit to the road. But. These are all hypothetical situations. We'll see how it goes. As an aside to that, my friends have told me there was a belief within the production crews that the ROTSG tour was going to resume in summer 2008. What I don't know is if that was based on anything substantial behind the scenes...or just wishful thinking after a big tour was abruptly halted for unusual reasons. All I do know is this. For this new tour, we all better get our expectations ready for...an all-white stage costume wardrobe for Geri!

As to the conversation about an extensive tour...I mean...I would love that. But I have my doubts. To me, only Mel C seems to have the sort of endurance for performing on stage for months...even weeks on end. Even in 1998, touring seemed to really drain several of the members. My guess is we can expect another little flurry of shows at some point. With it being so long since the 2019 tour, my guess is they're going to need to build a new show from the ground up.

Sorry to jump back to an earlier conversation...but I do think this brings up some interesting thoughts. I don't remember the girls getting any negative press for keeping the song itself. Everything I remember hearing was just about cutting Gary Glitter himself from the film. That news, I think I only heard about from me following the girls so closely at the time. Gary Glitter's not really a known entity in the US...though his song Rock and Roll Part 2 remains a permanent fixture at sporting events...and was just featured in the movie Joker too. I think you're right that the scene would be cut altogether if this happened in 2022. The scene's not integral to the plot in any way. I do think there's a music performance that's needed in that moment for the flow of the film. My guess is if this happened now, a new performance scene might be rushed together...and the film possibly pushed back a bit. But. Y'know. 1997 wasn't 2022. I think the steps they took were in line with the expectations of the time. I guess there's something of a question of how much Glitter stood to benefit from the song staying in. My guess is he'd already gotten paid for use of the song with the film so close to release...and I'm not sure how many kids were going to seek out the original. I assumed for years this was a song the girls had written just for the movie. It was ages before I found out it was a cover.

***SPOILER FOR LAST NIGHT'S SHOW*** Well. This was actually my worst case scenario. Mel got voted off last night in a 2-2 split vote from the judges. Len's vote counts the most at the table. The person he decided to save was...*sigh*...Olivia Jade. For anyone not familiar, Olivia Jade is primarily known in the US for her family faking Olivia's involvement in competitive rowing for college admission. Her parents were accused of also bribing a coach at the college with $500,000. Parents got arrested. It was part of this college emissions scandal. Before the arrests, she posted some videos where she talks about how she just wanted to go to college to party and didn't care about school. Was also doing a video on her phone when she crashed a car one time. Yeah. All that. I'm not saying this stuff should mean she can't get employment for the rest of her life...or even define her for forever...but I did think it was morally questionable for DWTS to cast her. It's handing her yet another amazing opportunity...just two years after this college emissions scandal broke. To be fair, Olivia was good on the show. Better than Mel? I'd say they were about neck-and-neck. But it was disappointing to see Mel working so hard...and see someone else nab it away who has a rather unsavory recent history. Twitter is shook about it. Lol. Mel was clearly feeling pretty low last night. Granted, neither of them really deserved to be in the bottom two. I'd say they were both better than about five of the other couples...including three guys who have never landed in the bottom but are the clear weakest at this point. But. Anyway. The most important thing is Mel was excellent every week...was a class act...and came off really well. She deserved to go further. But. Hey. She hasn't done a lot in the US since the 90s...and I guess some of the others just have more enthusiastic current fanbases. Well done, Mel!

I have a very different view of her. I don't view an album as odd as Schizophonic as a produced-by-marketing-department album. I think that's true of some songs on the other girls' solo albums (largely the Mel B and Victoria songs that didn't have their writing credits). As 1999 goes, I don't think Geri did anything as bold as Mel C launching her album with Goin Down...or Mel B doing a video as risqué as Word Up. But I don't view Schizophonic as entirely generic and safe. To my ears, Look at Me is a very weird song. I like it...but I don't think another artist on her level of mainstream would have thrown in the "...my little white lie" part. Tracks like You're In A Bubble and Let Me Love You are overtly weird. Most producers would have swayed Geri from the big vocals on Walkaway. Lift Me Up and Bag It Up (and especially their videos) are high camp. The perspective on this may differ a bit on where you live. But for me living in the US, the Bag It Up video was among the most gay-positive videos I'd ever seen at that point. And it came out during a time Eminem was in his videos nearly barfing over the sight of two men together. That was the mainstream sensibility. Not Geri's. Even what I'd consider her most straightforward track on the album (Mi Chico Latino) has that oddball Spanish (sorta) rap. To me, the album's full of quirks...and her producers let her be her. I view a lot of decisions as something of a gamble. I think it paid off in the UK, and it didn't in the US. In terms of her retaining the Spice sound, my feeling is...she's entitled to it. Not just her. They all were. I view all five girls and their producers as the architects of that sound. And, frankly, I think some of the others' solo offerings would be better if they employed the Spice producers more often. I think Victoria's unreleased stuff with Biff is quite a bit better than a lot of VB.