Channel 4 in the UK has begun to release a documentary about the effect the Spice Girls had on Britain and what it was like being part of the group. Photo / Supplied
Channel 4 in the UK has begun to release a documentary about the effect the Spice Girls had on Britain and what it was like being part of the group. Photo / Supplied
A new three-part documentary airing in the UK looks at the history and impact of the Spice Girls to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the group's debut single Wannabe – and the first episode is a treasure trove of facts about the band's early years.
Episode one of Spice Girls: How Girl Power Changed Britain aired in the UK a few days ago, with copies showing up on YouTube. It combines a wealth of rare and never-before-seen footage of the group with interviews with key players – including a fascinating appearance by one of the group's first managers.
Here are the most fascinating parts for Spice fans:
Spice Girls meeting
Auditions for a new all-female pop act started in March 1994, but at least two Spice Girls had met before that: Rare footage shows Victoria Beckham – then Adams-Wood – and Geri Halliwell stood next to each other in a London casting call to find the lead actress in the sci-fi film Tank Girl (American actress Lori Petty later landed the part). The two then-unknowns hadn't met before that day – it's a real trip to see them standing next to each other, unaware they'd soon be inextricably linked as two members of the biggest girl group ever.
The first known footage of two Spice Girls together. Photo / Channel 4
And Victoria was under no illusions she was the right girl to play a post-apocalyptic antihero: "My name's Victoria Adams-Wood, I'm 19. I don't look at all right for this part, but I am an actress."
Geri's pitch to the cameras, on the other hand, was oh-so-Geri: "Hi! I'm Geri – like Tom and Jerry but spelled differently. I'm a jack of all trades, I've got a quirky sense of humour, and I've been training down at the gym. Actress! Presenter!"
Grainy footage shows several of the girls' original auditions for the group: Mel B sang Greatest Love Of All, Melanie C sang I'm So Excited, and hilariously, Victoria sang Mein Heir from the musical Cabaret.
Original manager Chris Herbert dug up his scorecards from the auditions for the doco, and his assessment of Victoria makes you wonder why he picked her for the group: "Dancing: 6, singing: 5, look: 7 (not very good skin), personality: 5". Ouch.
But barely a year after that audition, Girl Power would prevail: The girls grew frustrated by their manager's vision for the group and ditched him, fleeing the house the Herbert had set them up in and signing with established music manager Simon Fuller.
Geri blagged her way into the group
Look, as a singer, Geri Halliwell has always been a very good talker. And talk she did, coming up with various excuses as to why she couldn't make it along to each stage of the open audition process for the group.
Geri skipped most of the audition process. Photo / Channel 4
"I'd had a number of conversations with Geri and invited her along to a couple of these auditions, but each time I got an excuse hours before or the night before," Herbert said.
"She always had an excuse – and she managed to manoeuvre herself through the preliminary rounds, fast-tracking herself to the next one. I now think that was tactical."
One such excuse is explained by a young Geri herself on camera: "I didn't go to the audition because I'd been skiing and I'd burnt my face," she says.
When she did finally show up, they'd whittled it down from hundreds of auditionees to just 12 girls – very good odds for her to land in the final five.
"Total blagger. Total blagger," is how Herbert remembers her.
Their manager gets diddled – again
Not even 18 months after the release of Wannabe, the Spice Girls dramatically ditched Simon Fuller, opting to manage themselves in a decision that would ultimately contribute to their undoing.
S Club 7 were Fuller's next big project after the Spice Girls - but he gave them a lot less control. Photo / Supplied
Fuller had a meeting with Chris Herbert so the two could compare Spice Girls war stories, having both been ditched by the girls. As Herbert tells it in the doco, Fuller suggested they should work together, asking Herbert if he had any ideas for a project.
Herbert said he'd been wanting to assemble a mixed-sex pop group, with a diverse line-up of more than five members.
Herbert says he didn't hear from Fuller again after that meeting – but in 1998 Fuller launched new pop group S Club 7 onto the world, with a diverse, mixed-sex line-up of seven singers who made him millions with their string of 11 top five UK hits.
... And that's where this first episode of the series leaves the story. The next episode will look at the fallout from Geri's sudden departure from the band in May 1998.
