October 3, 2025 • 51 mins
Today’s episode is a crash course in 90s pop culture Em never saw coming. After confessing a major entertainment knowledge gap when it comes to The Spice Girls, Laura decided it was time for an education.
From the origins of the world’s biggest girl group to the scandals, the hits, and the drama that dominated headlines while Em was still learning to walk and talk - this is the brutally honest Spice Girls history lesson we all need to brush up on. Get ready for nostalgia, girl power, and a deep dive into the 90s lore everyone should be across.
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Hosts: Laura Brodnik and Em Vernem
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Audio Producer: Scott Stronach
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
So you're listening to a Muma Mia podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Mamma Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of land and borders
that this podcast is recorded on From Mamma Mia. Welcome
to the spill your daily pop culture fix. I'm Laura
Brodney and I'm m Burnham and on the show today,
we're doing a brutally honest review of the Spice Girl
(00:39):
as an entity, just the concept, just a concept of
the spy Spy Girls.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
And why are we doing this?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Well, I mean, this doesn't paint you in the best light,
So spillers will remember that. Recently in an episode, we
were talking about the fact that Victoria Beckham has a
new series coming to Netflix. It's a little documentary series
really centering on the build up to her latest fashion
show in her career. Lovely fine, nice news. We like
Victoria Beckham. It should have just been a really quick segment.
(01:08):
But as we were talking about the release of this documentary,
you let the world in on a very disturbing fact
and it derailed the whole episode. And I think it's
the first time we've come quite close to a physical fight.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
I was trolled for.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
This, yeah, and so you should have been. I don't
don't believe.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Because I had so. Firstly, I'm gonna say, you're gonna
fucking troll me. Put your name on your comments. Do
not anonymously message me from a fake account. Put your
name on your comment.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Secondly, I didn't say I didn't know what the Spice
Girls world, you idiot, I said, don't mean to. I
said I was never around for the big Spice Girls thing,
so I never understood it.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Okay, but you also didn't know who like the various
Spice Girl people like you didn't know who like Emma Bunton, baby.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Three out of the five?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Oh which three? Do you know?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Victoria Beckham obviously? Melby yeah, and Jerry.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
You don't know Melcy.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Until she came into the office.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
I didn't say, Yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Knew of the other two, but I didn't know them.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Does that make sense? Yeah? I mean yeah, yeah, it does. Look.
Look I understand about not because I mean a lot
of this really kicked off in nineteen ninety six. Were
you alive in nineteen ninety six?
Speaker 1 (02:18):
I was coming out of my mum's vagina.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Okay, So you're busy, a bit busy, had a lot
on so you get a little bit of a pass
but the thing.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
And also I was a floor steps baby, So I
was pulled into the world. I didn't even want to
come out.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
If it wasn't the fourths, I would know about the spoils.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Yeah, I don't know if we can.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Bring the medical intervention into this.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I was pulled into this world. Didn't want to be.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Here to deal with the antics of the spics too
much spice World movie in Spicers. Okay, so yeah, it.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Wasn't the only spicy world that was happening.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Okay, okay, So off the back of that, and again,
we had so many listeners message us about this, get
upset about this, and so we're going to fix this today.
M We're going to fix it, and we're going to
go through a brilliant, honest review of the Spice Girl's
history and legacy.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
And I do want to say, like a part from
my three trials. Yep, everyone else was quite nice about it.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
They were just like, hey, you should know about this.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
They were like, hey, here's some learning material, yeah, which
I skimmed. They called you in and they were also like, hey,
I also didn't know this. Thank you for saying it
out loud.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
No one posted that no one posted you had to
drive public It was like a little dem and I
was like, feel free to Colm on this publicly and
they were like absolutely no, I don't want anyone to
know this. We saw your trolley. Yeah, so that's what
we're going to do today. One of the reasons I'm
surprised that you didn't know that much about them is that, yes,
they were famous many many years ago, like well over
twenty years ago now, but their legacy is still so
(03:41):
prevalent today and they're still referenced so much today, and
I guess all the members of the band are still
very famous in many different ways. So they're not one
of those kind of quick fire pop success stories that
like burned really bright and then sizzled out. They're still
part of our world. That's why I was surprised. Yeah,
so the Spices Girls actually, and a lot of people
tell me that I'm lying when I say this. I'm
gonna to set the record straight. One of the most
(04:02):
interesting thing about the Spices Girls is that they were
really only together for two years.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
That is bizarre to me. All together for two years,
so what were the years they were together?
Speaker 2 (04:14):
So this is how I'm reading history. I'm doing their
start date from when Wannabe, which was their first single
was released. It was released in nineteen ninety six. And
then I'm calling the end of the Spy Skirls when
Jerry Halliwell left the band, which was in nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Far out soide I would have been two years old,
but you would have been a kid.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Oh no, no, I was a kid. But the Spy
Skills were for the kids. Oh before I was in
primary school, Like I barely knew what the world was,
but I knew the Spice Girls because their faces were
over T shirts and all the shopping centers. Like everyone
at school would wear their spic Skirl T shirts on
free dress.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Days to the musty days.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Oh no, that's not the coens.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
I think free dressed hey, because you can wear whatever.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
You want, you free away whatever you want. That makes sense,
and like we would all watch The Spy Skills on
TV listen to their music. The first CD I ever
bought as a kid was a Spy Skirls album and
I got it for Christmas and my mum had a
little portable CD player in her bedroom and if I
wanted to listen to it, I had to walk my
little CD in and take it out of its case
and put it in the CD player, and I would
just listen to those songs for hours and hours. My
(05:17):
friends and I would all do the dances at school.
We'd all pick a Spice Girl. That's the thing. They
were this like kind of almost like a cartoonish, you know,
because they had everyone had their own look and they
were like really poppy. It's like how kids today dressed
in like like eazy, really tiny little kids listening to
Taylor Swift and dress like her different areas and stuff.
That was the Spice Girls. Oh wow, for adults and
(05:37):
kids alike. They were for everyone.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
That yeah, comparison, This is the first time like girl power,
What could that be? I hadn't even watched Buffy yet.
I wasn't even introduced to like superheroes and.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Stuff so cute, So you know who that was for
me when I was a kid. Who don't it's okay
Nicki Webster, Oh okay, Strawberry Kisses. It was Nicky Webster.
And then like guys Sebastian and Shannon now was the
first like Australian.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
It was such a homegrowing. Oh my god, Guy.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
I spent so much money voting for Guy Sebastian Australian items.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Well it worked.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Parents were so sad.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Next time you see him an event, because he's you
know who's always at an event is Guys Sebastian and
Nicki Webster. I see Nicky Webster at every single event
I go to. The last time I was on a
dance floor till three am, it was me and Nicky
Webster and her two children who were the same height
as her.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yeah, she's so.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
I also once was crying in a musical and this
girl Toner right in front of me. I just think
to be like, as this woman okay behind me because
she's crying and she's overcome with the music, and it
was Nicky Webster looking at me.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Nicky Webster.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Every time I walk an event, I see her. She
doesn't know who I am. It's very parasocial relationship.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
She's at legend, like I know, he's a legend. The
female football team, the Matilda's, that's their team song. It's
one every kisses.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
I'm so across that scene.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
So anyway, that was like because I always assumed spice
girls were for like teenage girls or like girls in
their twenties, which I'm sure they were for, but I
remember so specifically being like five years old and seeing
what the older girls were listening to it, and it
was Nicky Webster and I was like, oh, okay, okay,
the Webster is a thing.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Well back in nineteen ninety six, as I said, the
Spice Girls were for everyone, Like you put that music
on a class and like I was like, yes, do
you hear? I want it's like teaching some students.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
How good is that song?
Speaker 2 (07:16):
So good?
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Like it's like hold up at every single wedding.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
There's so many spic Skirl songs I listen to still
on a weekly basis. So want to be spic scopy life?
Who you think you are to become one? Like so many?
So the Spy Skills released three studio albums, and they
said all kinds of crazy records which we were going
to get into, But I'm going to take you right
back to the start, before we get through the trauma
of people leaving the band, backlash and that sort of thing,
to nineteen ninety four. You have yet to be pulled
(07:42):
from your mother's wombs by four sets of that stage.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Don't even think my parents are Dating.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
In nineteen ninety four in London, many many, many young
women gather in this tiny little dance work studios because
they have all seen a tiny little advert in the
stage which was where you like see jobs and stuff
in the stage newspaper advertising for a girl band. This
was the first really big manufactured girl band where like
(08:09):
a group of produced since the company got together and
they're like, we are going to audition women and we're
going to put them in advance.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
So it's like can you sing? Can you dance? Are
you pretty?
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yeah? Pretty much?
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Is it kind of like what they did with Bardo?
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yes? No, No. Bardo is like based off all those
reality shows and things like Bardo, all those manufactured pop
groups all based off the Spice Girls. Because it works
so well that time. So the advert goes out in
the stage newspaper and dozens and dozens and dozens of
young women turn up to the auditions where they all
split into groups of ten and they do a dance
routine that they are taught in the moment. Afterwards, they
(08:45):
each have to go on stage. And it was the
father son management team, Bob and Chris Herbert, who were
doing all the auditions and they all had to get
up on stage and do a quick song and dance routine,
like all them Dallas cowboys. Yeah, or even just like
pop stars and Barto will put together. This is the
kind of formation they use. It's like group singing and
then they get sent away and then you come back.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
I got the chills from my performance days. I used
to play piano. So if they were looking for honest,
I would have been right there.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
I just don't know if you would have made the cart.
I don't know if I would have made the cart.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Hey, I can hold a tune.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
But a month later, a group of girls were invited
back for a second they'd made it through the second round,
like out of the fifty sixty who auditioned, ten girls
were called back, and in that group was Jerry Halliwell.
Now Jerry Halliwell is interesting because she didn't make it
to the first open call audition because she was very
ill and had a sunburn because she'd been on holiday.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
She was ill from her sunburn.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Yeah, you can get you can get it if you
get a really good poisoning. I don't know if there's
a doctor specificate to say. How about it was so
she'd been in Spain, she got a sunburn, she couldn't
go on an audition, she wasn't feeling well. And Victoria Beckham's
the one who has told this story in her memoir
is that she called the company who was doing the
Cattle Call auditions and pleaded and begged to be allowed
to come back into the second round. And that's the
(10:00):
fun thing about Jerry Halliwell and why she's the Spicycle
that I've started relating to the most, because she was
never the best dancer, the best singer, the best anything
like that. She was just the one who pushed the hardest.
And I really related to that because personally, I'm not
really great at anything. I just do a lot of prep.
So even if you kind of read all the Spice
Girls biographies of all the audition stages of Jerry Halliwell
(10:23):
getting into the band and afterwards when they were kind
of deciding like who would be the lead singer there
and who would be like the front of the dance
and all this sort of stuff, Jerry Halliwell often had
the worst marks out of all the girls. They used
to score them every time they got to a rehearsal.
They would score them out of ten and be like
individually for dance, looks and singing. And she was always
really low and she would sometimes like go in the
(10:43):
corner and start sobbing. Yeah, and I wouldn't tell her
to get it together.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Oh my god, she's I reckon. She's living the life
out of all of them than I was, because she
married rich, married, rich, married, and f on principle not
anymore though. Yeah, lives on a beautiful farm. And she
always wears white and beige because it shows that, like,
that's the type of work. If you can like confidently
wear the color white every day of your life, you're
not doing much. And that's kind of what I want
(11:08):
to aspire it.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Yeah, it just looks like you've never lifted a finger
in your life. That's a very different Jerry harry Well.
Back in the day, she was a scrappy kind of
like go getter, and they said once she got on stage,
you were just drawn to watching her, and that's how
she got through to the final stages. So once they
had finished all of these auditions, they formed the band
and it was Victoria Beckham, Melanie Chisholm, Melanie Brown, Jerry
(11:33):
Halliwell and Michelle Stephenson.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
A lot of these names sound very confusing to me.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
So one of those names is not famous.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
I was gonna say, do you know what?
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I thought it was going to be like a big
mic drop, that you would be like, who the hell
is Michelle Stevenson, the original Spice Girl. She made it
through the auditions and apparently, no, no, no, it's so much worse.
It's so much worse than that. So she made it
through to the audition stage and they had the band,
so it was the two Melanies. It was Jerry, it
was Jerry. Is Victoria Victoria Beckham. People say she can't sing,
(12:06):
score the highest all through the auditions, so she can
sing aparently allegedly, we haven't really seen it since then,
but apparently she scored very very high. And Michelle Stevenson,
who scored incredibly high across the board and came from
like a very prestigious performing arts.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Wait, I thought you counted five. That's five, So who's missing?
Speaker 2 (12:24):
No?
Speaker 1 (12:24):
No, no, so wait wait wait, wait, say the names again.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
So the two Melanies, Jerry and Victoria and Michelle Stevenson
are in the band. They made it through, So where's Emma?
So they go I know we're getting to m So
then they start rehearsing and the company starts putting them together,
and as they sort of start forming who the band
will be, and like these are going to be the songs,
and this is how we're going to dance all these things,
(12:50):
they won't even call the Spice Girls yet. Michelle Stevenson says,
I don't want to do this anymore, and she leaves
the band.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Oh my god, the worst mistake she's ever made.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
And she said she didn't like the music, she didn't
like the routine, she didn't like the everything about it.
She's like, it wasn't for me. Michelle Stevenson has given
a lot of interviews since then because unfortunately for her,
she did not become famous, and she has you look
so stressed.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Right now because I get other interviews about how you
fumbled the biggest bag ever.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Well, She's like, of course, I regret I'm not a
multi millionaire like them, and I would have loved to
be that famous and have that fandom. But she's also
said like at the time when I left, I thought
I was doing the right thing. It just wasn't my
kind of music and they were not living the lifestyle
I wanted, but then they did. Yeah, so she left
when they wanted doing interviews about it. She's done many
interviews over the years, so everyone wants to know, like
(13:37):
who was the original Spice girl who left just before
they hit the big time and then she was replaced
by Emma Bunton who went on to be Baby Spice,
who was like a performer but obviously not also not famous.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
So did she go through the audition processes too and
she was just like the next on the list?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
No, no she didn't. They just she was like a
ring and they brought in later. Oh my god, so
now we have our band. We're seeing like.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
The worst luck and the best luck played out in
front of you.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Emma Bunton getting a phone call like hello, They're like,
do you want to come and be in this like
girl group putting together? And she's like, I guess, I
what nothing else?
Speaker 1 (14:04):
So I guess.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
So she kind of slipped in and Michelle slipped out,
and then yeah, Michelle, Yeah, but also maybe if she'd say,
they wouldn't have been the Spy s girls. It's hard
to know, but yeah, it's it would have been hard
to know that you were selected to be in the
biggest girl group of all time and then you decided
to leave just before they found their momentum.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
That's like some significant message from the universe. Yeah, so
I'm so sad, so sad.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
You want to find Michelle Stevenson online somewhere and like.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Le please Michelle if you're listening, because I know you
probably might.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Be, You've got some time we hear.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Oh no, I was gonna say something really mean it
go on. I was gonna say, I just know she
has her notifications on for SEO for her name, so
she will be.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Yeah, I think so said. Look, it's not too late, Michelle.
You can go and do something.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
You could be a podcast host, Michelle. It's really easy.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
So then we have our five girls and they're not
yet really the spy skirls, and they are put in an
apartment together. The apartment yeah, like all living in one
apartment together. And then they moved to like a little house.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
And all together.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Yeah. Yeah, they have literally no money.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Maybe Michelle made the right choch.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Yeah, this is what I'm saying. This is nineteen ninety four.
Waa Be doesn't come out till nineteen ninety six. There's
a bit of time in there where they're like living
and working for these two men, Bob and Chris Herbert,
and all of these men, Bob and Chris Herbert, I
mean they're the ones who kind of found them. So
they kind of found the father and son je father
and Sigon management duo.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
So an O g NEPO situation.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
And then as they're sort of telling the Spice girls
what to do, how to dress, what they're going to see,
how they're going to perform, and like making them work
these long hours, the spy scirls start to hate Bob
and Chris and they're like, you know what, we're great,
there's something here, but we need to get away from
these men.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Yeah, And so it doesn't send them to most women
saying that, yeah, exactly least one.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
We need to get away from the we're great and
we need to get away from these men. Yeah, because
they kind of realized that there was something like quite
magic and interesting women notoriously smart. Yeah, this is the best.
This is the opposite of the Michelle Stevenson this situation.
It's like a very smart decision.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
It's like we're leaving Michelle leaving YouTube as well.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
So they decide that they're gonna get away from Bob
and Chris. How did they escape because they hadn't signed
a contract? Oh smart girls, But but Bob and Chris
had the master recordings, has the master recordings, and we theron, no,
it's so much worse than that for wanna be and
(16:42):
to become ones. The songs that were gone to be
two of their biggest songs ever. And they're like, if
we don't have those songs, we can't leave because those
songs are our ticket to like getting radio playing, any management.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
So such good songs.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
This is what Victoria Beckham has written in her autobiography,
And I don't want to call her a liar, but
I just can't see how this story is possibly thick
down the door. This is you got to think this
is the nineties. So to take the masters. The Masters
is a physical copy. So apparently Jerry went into the
office and basically stole the master recordings. Yeah. In her biography,
(17:14):
Victory Beckham said it was like very Bonnie and Clyde,
and then after was fly.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
It sounds like Jerry was on one for God. I'm
so I'm so tired. Someone else, please. They're like, so
they really want to join me. It's like, you've got this, Jerry,
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
They're like, go on, I haven't told you the worst
part of that story yet, which is like when she
went into steal the physical copy of The Mastersiwell said, no, no,
that when she ran out with them, she said, I
put them in my nickers so that Bob and Chris
couldn't like chase her down to get them away from her.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
That's entrepreneurial, that is, And that's what that's called. Being
a what what size our masters? I'm thinking of vinyls.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Yes, I'm thinking they were like a cassette tape school.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
This was got it.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Yeah, So that's the story they're telling. So no contract,
We've got the Masters and we're physically running. Then they
was working from the back of Jerry tail Swift. Just
do that she runs into school.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Don't get us all involved in this situation.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
It's like you could have just put them in your nickers,
Like it's it's good enough for Jerry halliwell, it's enough
for you. Taylor switch Well needs.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
To do like a school, yeah, school of mastership.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yeah. And now you see here is this prim and
proper rich woman and I'm like, what a legend working
walking the streets in her white dress and like you
remember what.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
She wass She's going to have the best stories.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
For her kids. Yeah, you just know it. Yeah, I
think she's trying to have most of them buried. So
then so then the women have their masters, but they
have their management and no money and no prospects and
no contacts, and.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
They're being pride and prejudice.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
They're unmarriable and they're working from the back of Jerry's
beat up car because they can't even afford like a studio.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Like we have nowhere to stay. And then they were
all just looking at Jr. And just like get in
the car.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
It's all just the five of them sleeping in the car.
And then they started to build a new team and
they eventually signed with Simon Fuller, who is very very
he was Annie Lennox's manager at the time. He's a
very huge name of music, very well known and one
okay good. Yeah, he's the one who really went on
to like make the Spice Girls, and he was the
one who was like met them, saw their potential, listen
(19:29):
to the stolen masters that Jerry pulled out of her underwear.
He then was like I'm going to make this happen
for you guys and get you in the studio to
record more music. I'm going to introduce you to record labels.
And this is when they sort of started becoming the
band that we saw as The Spice Girl.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
But it wasn't all rosy.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
It sounds like they were like all best friends for
the start.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
They were not oh yeah, okay, I have a theory. Okay,
was it like split down the middle? Yeah, it was
two against three.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
I'm gonna hate what I'm about to tell you. It
was four against one.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
No, oh my god, why.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Was she left.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
That? We're just like, we don't want.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
The story. I didn't realize how bad it wasn't so
until I started telling you the story.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
She stole the masters by herself. Well, to be honest,
i'd basically like put the masters where masters should never
be put. She let them all sleep in her car,
and they're like, you know what after all of that,
we just don't like you.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Yeah, look to be fair, some of them also hated Victoria,
so in Melby's book, again, I'm getting all this information
from their books.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
It's while that we have to read all of their
autobiographies and then piece it together.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
That's what I've done because there's so many rumors about them,
and there's so many unauthorized Like when I was six,
I saved up all my pocket money to go to
the scholastic book fair at school and I bought the
unauthorized autobiography of the Spice Girls. And let me tell you,
that thing was four vis I've realized now full of propaganda.
It was written by the.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Two guys what are the names, Bob and Jim. The
whole hography is just like and that's why women suck.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
That's why women should be given.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
They break into your studio and still.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Watch exactly so. In her book, Melby said that she
thought Emma was a softy and lovely Everyone likes Emma.
That's why I've called GDM.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Sometimes everyone likes softy and lovely.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Yeah, only on the outside, and once you know get
to know you, it's less that She's like Victoria, who
they all called Vicky at the time until she asked
them to stop. They thought Vicky was a bit of
a snob, and they all thought Jerry was a loud mouth.
In their books, Emma, Victoria and Print in all of
(21:50):
their books and interviews since Emma, Victoria, and Melsey have
all called Jerry a complete nuther in like.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
A mean way.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
They're all best friends now, like they became best friends.
That was just their initial And here's their reasoning because
she's a redhead. Yes that's why. No, he's their reasoning.
We thought she was a bit strange because she had
her hair and bunches and was wearing and yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
You have to tie her up when you're about to
commit a crime. I'm sorry, you can't have your hair out.
Imagine convincing Jerry, do you steal the masters, It'll be
fine for you. She goes to tire her up and
they're like, ooh, ooh god, I don't think you should
be doing that. Did you guys see how she tied
up her hair when she went to steal up music
back for us. That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
I know. She's like literally like.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
An event, like crawling through.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
That's the worst fight.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Why is always the worst? These women? I've been through
so much. It's only nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Dude, No, we're still in nineteen ninety five.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
I'm not there.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Yeah, I've got so many years to go. Okay, I
can't believe they said when they first met her, and
then she would tire hair and bunches. She would wear
a pink, fuffy jumper and say, look, look I'm a duck.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Okay, that's one Jerry, Jerry, I can't. I can't. It's
keep standing up at.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
You like this, defending her and defending her and defending her.
And then that happened, and.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Then that happened. Yeah, it's okay, Jerry, you kind of
deserve that one.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
But they all became friends really quickly after, right, So
they had that in a sentence, Look look I'm a duck. Yeah,
and Jerry has never disputed that. She said that. I
think she's just trying to have a fun time.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Well, it would be a pretty bizarre line.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
And she's like, you know what, there's my wife. I'm
not going to stand it for that's what Melby said.
She said, Okay, I believe Melby. She was there. Then
they started bonding because they were all away from their families,
they had no money, and Victoria Beckham, they were trying
to talk her out of marrying a very unsuitable man
at the time. They were just about to become super
famous David Beckham.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
No, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
I was like they hated be No, they love David
cheat on her. They're like, protect David at all of costs.
In the very early days of The Spice Girls, you'll
notice a very interesting thing if you look in the
credit section is that Victoria is called Victoria Adams Wood
because her fiance at the time that was his last name,
(24:15):
Mark Wood.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Who's that?
Speaker 2 (24:16):
So they had been together for nearly six years. She's
twenty one at this time. I feel like, brad yeah,
and I'm kidding, some people can get married twenty one.
I'm sorry, but it's just because she was like, no,
I'm going to marry this guy and I'm going to
like use his name on all and they're about to
make it big, so whatever name.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
They had to be strategic.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Yeah, and the other girls were like Vicki and she's like,
don't call me that, Like, okay, Victoria, Victoria, you're not
even married to this guy. You've been together for a while. Yes,
he's proposed to you. He proposed to her just after
the Spy She made it through the Spice Girls auditions.
I don't want to cast a spose.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
It sounds like a very Melby type of conversation, like
I can't see her.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Having so Mark was like he wanted her to like
kind of focus on his career because he was also
on the up and up. He installed burglar alarms in
people's homes. Wait, he was like, I think it should
be about me. He's like, he's like this a woman
named Jerk.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
He's breaking and she always has his hair tied up
exactly in Buncheon.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
So wait.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
So he was up and coming in the.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
And she had just made it into what was going
to be the Spy Skills, and she was using his
name as her name because she's like, no, he also
been to marry him. I said, yes, we've been together
for so long. And she was really going to like
put her a lot of her career on hold to
make sure that she was married to this man. And
the other Spy Skulls talked her out of it. Do
not marry this guy, especially right now. We're about to
go on to world tour. We're about to sell these
alur about to get on a plane, and so she
(25:40):
said she broke up with him just as the Spy
Skulls were starting to take off, saying it was a mistake,
but she kept the ring because she said it was
a sick ring.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Oh that's so rupter. I love that.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
We love Victoria Beckham.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Oh that's so cool.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
No, they have to keep the bad together. They can
be Vicki, even though we know you don't like that name.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
You can't leave us with a duck duck girl if
anything swap And you've got to remember she was the
highest scorer from the auditions, although they famously didn't let
her sing on a lot of their biggest songs. So
do you think they didn't let us because they were
jealous because she was a highest scorer? Not? Well, the
thing is when you listen to them all sing like,
they can all sing quite well. Melcy's definitely got the
best voice, like far it away, she's Saty Spice, Yes,
(26:20):
she is Sporty Spices. What a beautiful seguey How they
got their nicknames. So a big part of why the
Spice Girls were so successful, apart from the fact that
they just had banger songs. But that's not always enough.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
That's true, you need to put your life out there.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Yeah exactly. But they were just so marketable because they
came out of the gates so strong with all these personas,
and everyone could pick which Spice Girl were you? And
they looked so incredible together, like I said, almost like
something out of a wild cartoon. They also did more
marketing in the two years they were together than most
bands do in decades. They just said yes to pretty
much every single endorsement deal.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Which is why it's like so wild when you told
me that they actually only lasted two years, because I
remember being a kid and having like getting Total Girl magazine,
and there was always a which Spice Girl are you quiz?
Speaker 2 (27:09):
It was the biggest I'm just would have been like
mid two thousands, like friendships were brought together and then
ended in the school yard over which spy school you were?
Because you know, if.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
You stand baby, yeah, and we know you're posh, yeah yeah, yeah,
Well I guess I'm Jerry, which was which one did
everyone want to be at the time, So like sometimes
people want to be Baby, a lot of people wanted
to be posh, some people wanted to be Jerry.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
It was also at a time where like sometimes the
sporty girls weren't as popular as they were now, so
not everyone wanted to be sporty, and all of the time,
no one wanted to be scary, which is hard because
as you get older, like she was like really the
best one yeah, in terms of like stage presents and everything,
and even.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Like her voice, Like I feel like when I listened
to spy Skirl songs, I could easily pick out which
one was Melby.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yeah, she's got a real peace. Yeah, we love her now.
But so the names were actually given to them by
a magazine called Top of the Pops, which was a huge,
huge magazine at the time, and so the editors has
given like quite a few interviews Michelle.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Michelle in a burn book and made them even more famous.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Just like, damn it. I tried to take it down.
So I got this straight from the BBC because I
was like, I feel like they will have the correct
information and I was trying to Again, there's a lot
of false stories about how the spic Skills got their name,
but it was from Top of the Pops and the editor,
Peter Lorraine, has given interviews since about it and he
said the names just jumped out at us when the
girls were first starting to get famous, because they had
they were already dressing in very distinct ways. He said,
(28:36):
Posh was the first one we thought of because Victoria
looks pretty sophisticated fair and he goes the rest were
pretty easy because all their characters were really strong. Because
we've since kind of realized it's quite a lot of
racial undertones. pH Yes, he said, we laughed the most
when we came up with scary. Then he throws a
stuff in front of the bus. Jennifer Cawthorne, who was
also from Leeds, which is where Melby is from, came
(28:58):
up with that one because Melby was so loud and
had tried to take over our whole photo shoot, which
also was a thing like Melby was the one that
spy skills were always notoriously very very hard to interview.
They gave so much, like all your content with them,
from what I've heard from all these journalists, was insanely good.
But you couldn't plan anything they showed it For a
photo shoot. They would tear the entire room apart, start like,
(29:21):
chasing the camera men around, making jokes. Live tea with
them is like insane. They would just say anything, and
Melby was often the instigator of the big moments. That's
why they called her scary.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Oh but also, you can't call the like women of
color in your group scary Spice.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Yeah, exactly, because people were like, oh, she's so scary,
and I was like, they're all doing weird stuff. Jerry's
over there in a duck jump us and that was
Jerry's robbing people.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Her scary bop.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Yeah, I would say. Victoria Beckham had that icy stare.
She looked, and she famously never smiled. I was like,
if anyone's scary, it's her. I'd much rather hang out
with Melby. But they were their names. And then in
nineteen ninety seven, when they were sort of coming up
with like they were starting to take over their branding more,
they wanted to change their names. They're like personas Melby
(30:11):
and people laugh at her about this, But now that
we see the racial undertones, I can kind of see
her point. Melby wanted to stop being scary Spice, and
she wanted to be abrupt Spice, which doesn't really roll
off the tongue in the abrupt abrupt Spice.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
I'm so brought Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Yeah, Emma wanted to be gets away with murder Spye
too many words, it's too mustard down. I dis missed
the point of the whole thing's away would murder And
Victoria suggests should poss posh half the time.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Spice also too manyone.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
In private, Jerry thought Melby should be called the Ox.
Jerry she missed the pointing. Melby wrote this in her book.
She said, Jerry said I should be called the Ox
because I could operate perfectly on the most outrageous hangover,
or even do a full performance effortlessly after several bottles
(31:02):
of champagne, or while she would be throwing up in
the loop.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Oh my god, I.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Don't know if the ox rolls off the tongue. Well,
maybe these girls are good at marketing, just not in
that moment.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
I think Jerry maybe was a bit like, Hey, I
am sick of being near only animal. I don't want
to be a duck anymore. Can someone else be another animal?
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Now we're into their first single, could you boy?
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Oh my god, they've already gone through so much.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
They have gone through this thing. There's no such thing
as an overnight success. Two years later, Wanna Be Cameras
Out absolute banger over song has absolutely stood the test
of time, one of the best songs in the world.
Want to Be I don't even feel like that's going
out a limb to say that, because we're still singing
it so much to this day. Everyone still quotes it
when the record label.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
The lyrics don't even make any sense. That's how it's
such a good song. Like if going to be my love,
you have to get with my friend.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
But I think they mean like you have to also
be friends with my friends.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
You have to hook up with my friends.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
Yeah, oh that's great too. Yeah. So just a reminder.
They've stolen this song and brought it over to this
new recorde.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
That's true. They've done the money.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
They give it to the record label, and the record
label says we love you guys, we love you as
a band. They did this stunt where like when they
were signing to the record label, they sent a half
full of blob dolls to the record studio and the
dolls like carded through the studio and then were thrown
into the river nearby where they floated for days. And
they were like, got to sign these ladies. They're amazing,
and they said, we love you guys. We're not releasing
Wanna Bee. That's a bad song.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Jerry should put in all that.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
They're like, it's too weird, it doesn't make any sense,
it's not catchy. They'd already shot the music video. They
hated the music video, and they also said they had
already been in touch with BBC Radio, and BBC Radio
refused to play, and.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
The other four were like, God damn it, Jerry y,
how dare you?
Speaker 2 (32:47):
And so and a bunch of also TV stations were
refusing to play it.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Imagine if we never had Wanna Be, Imagine I don't
want to live it would be a really sad world.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
I don't even think I'd be here. The whole lives
would be different.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Might still be here trying to get pulled out.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Yeah, bring it back to that. But the girls say
that they knew better, and they said it's non negotiable.
Wanna Be is our first single or we walk pretty
much and the song came out and we've done it before,
we'll do it again, I mean, I think, and these
are not empty threats, and we've got nothing to lose
(33:22):
because we're living out of car.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
We're living out of Jerry's car, who we hate, So
pick your battles.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
And then in July nineteen ninety six, Wanna Bee was
released and it spent seven weeks at number one in
the UK and four weeks number one in the US
and went on to become a huge global hit across
the world.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
And they were like, we've told you so, Jerry.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
Yeah, and we told you exactly.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Get oh my god, okay, so we have want to
be yes.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
And so then life gets absolutely crazy for the Spice Girls.
They go on world tours, they release more music, They
have this intense fandom around them where people were like,
we haven't seen this since the Beatles, It is crazy.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
What was like was it like the same level of
Taylor Swift concept?
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Yeah, I mean obviously there's a kind of I don't
know if it was. It was kind of the level
of that it would have been too young to be
able to go, oh no, god, no, I've never seen
the spy skulls lie and did I do wor yeah?
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Yeah, oh you know.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
They did world tours, like just remember they've only got
two years to squeeze this in. They did a long
than two years. They did world tours. I guess they
would sell out when they would go to events, like
the streets would be lined with fans trying to like
break down barriers. So I guess in a way it
was tailor Sift. It is hard because obviously with Taylor Stift.
We've got so much documentation of what happens in those
concerts of fans and like we can see the intensity
(34:40):
when tickets go on sale. But I guess like it was, Yeah,
people would like sleep out for days overnight to get
Spy Skulls tickets. And they just became so so so
huge that they did become like the biggest band in
the world.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
That's insane.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
And they thought, we've released all of these hit singles,
all their albums sell out, all our tours sell out,
We've got our name on every single product across the world.
They just went with more is More and they just
said yes to every single endorsement deal that came along.
That's why their face was just plast They're like, you know,
some people are like, oh, what I us the product,
my integrity, I'm not putting my name on that. They'll
like put it on everything. The more you see us,
(35:15):
the better it works for them. WHOA And that's how
you do it, and that's how they made so much money.
And then when you're the biggest pop stars in the
world and all your songs are successful and everyone's dressing
like you, what do you do next? Like what be your.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Move to also like keep going to keep.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
The momentum going, Like, what what can you achieve next?
Speaker 1 (35:33):
Oh, have a YouTube channel?
Speaker 2 (35:35):
The correct answer is release a movie which brings us
to spice up your world.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
No Spye World, Spice World by word the movie the movie, Yeah,
not spiced up your World, No spice Spice up your
life is a song spice up your Life.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
The Spice World movie I can only describe as just
being a fantastic piece of cinema that the world was
not ready for.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
We're still not. Like, you can't find it anywhere.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
You can't find it anywhere. I thought it was on.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Prime Video, but I realized it was just Amazon trying
to sell me a DVD, and you.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Know what, we need to get that DVD. We'll expense
it to the company because you need to watch spice wort.
I think it's like, yeah, that's fine, that's a bargain
in this world, in this economy, because it's I think
it's been scrubbed from every channel. I can't find it anywhere.
Haven't be able to find it for like fifteen years.
As a kid, I think we're doing this as Jerry Jerry,
so around like nineteen ninety seven or so they've been
(36:26):
famous for every year. The girls getting all these offers
from Hollywood, and one offer is from Disney to do
a film Disney, and you think, yes, Disney would be great,
but Disney wanted to Disney fire the Spice Girls, and
so the story wasn't going to be so much about
the Spice Girl and to be like high school musical
as it was going to be about a young single
mother of one of the girls fighting to form the band.
(36:47):
Oh yeah, that's terrible. No, unless mother was Jerry, Like
she was the only one who was. They went with
a different writing team. They're basically like, we're not doing
like a big studio like Disney. We're going to make
this sort of like the different Again. That is why
the girl power message really took off, because they lived
that in every moment of their lives. They were just like,
(37:08):
we're calling the shots, we're doing it.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
And were they all on the same page in these decisions.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
No, there's things where like you hear them like disagreeing
on things, and like, ultimately that is what led to
their demise. But they were all very much on the
same page that the movie was going to be more
true to their style. So they got a whole bunch
of writers in who came up with this story about
Oh so, how could. I don't seen the movie, but
it's like they're playing themselves, but it's a fictionalized version
(37:32):
of themselves where they have reached this huge amount of
fame and they're building up to doing this big live concert.
But it has all these like kind of true stories
interwoven with it, where one of their like best friends
from before they became famous is like about to have
a baby and like they're not spending enough time with her.
Their management's trying to turn them into something they're not.
They're dealing with these unscrupulous journalists. Elton John makes a cameo.
(37:55):
They get abducted by aliens at one stage. It's an
incredible surrealist comedy that no one appreciated at the time.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Oh no, I love that. So Kada reminds me of
like the Jonas Brothers when they had their show Jonas Brothers.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
Kind of like that, and they had this tool bus
on the outside where they live on the bus in
the movie.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
And upgrade from Joe's car exactly, And it's.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
So incredible because outside this is a normal bus. When
you get inside, it's like the size of this office,
and they all have their own areas. The bus that
is like.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
Harry Potter when they go on that tank and it's
like massive on the inside.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
It exactly like Harry Potter. Oh my god, the crossover
we didn't know we needed.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
So could they act well?
Speaker 2 (38:31):
You know what?
Speaker 1 (38:32):
Was that a part of the audition?
Speaker 2 (38:33):
No, they're playing themselves, so they didn't need to. Actually,
they're playing caricatures of themselves, so they actually act incredibly
well given the fact that they're just them. Okay, the
movie comes out.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
I wish we could do that, and.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Critics will stay tuned infurt the spill the movie, and
we're also getting the world. Can't imagine were getting copyright
for that. So the movie comes out and critics who
ruin everything not to slam my people, absolutely savage. It
worst thing we've ever seen. How this get made. It's
terrible for you, they all. If it was for me,
(39:05):
I love this movie. All the spice Gulls got nominated
as a joint nomination for the you know the Raspberry
Awards the Worst Actress of All Time. But the fans
knew because when the movie came out, it not only
made back its budget of four million dollars it made
that's how much movie is made. For four million, it
made back four million, and then fourteen times over that.
(39:25):
It's math. I kind of do s because the billion dollars. Yeah,
because the fans are like, when we're going to watch
this movie over and over again, and they had made
it for the fans. So critics were saying it was
ship and people were like, we love this movie. Oh, watch.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
Just like re enacted for me.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
I actually could, I've seen that movie, so as a kid,
I would just watch that movie on a loop. And
then they have to decide where they're going to go
to their concert or their friend goes into labor and
she's all alone because her boyfriend leaves her and they
take her to hospital, and then they're going to get
to their concept, and will they make it to the
concert and perform Spicy Fu Life for the first time
on stage?
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Oh my god, this is really stressful.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
It's such a thing. And they had so many huge
cultural moments in the two years they were together, which
I think is why they've kind of stood the test
of time. If you could think of like the most
iconic Spy Skulls outfit. What would that be?
Speaker 1 (40:16):
I think it's Jerry. Yeah, it's a Union Jack. Yes,
the tight dress Union Jack, which is quite hot.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Oh one hundred. So that is from the nineteen ninety
seven BRIT Awards. And again I feel this whole podcast
is coming from us defending Jerry. But they all had
their outfits of them sorted for prages and I only
know that because that's like the classic Halloween costume. Yeah.
Well it became this kind of defining thing of the
Spy Skulls and for pop music in general at that time. Yeah.
So they all had their outfits sorted for the BRIT Awards,
(40:47):
which is like the Grammys in the UK. It's like
the biggest deal. And Jerry was supposed to be wearing
a very simple black dress for their performance and for
them to go on stage two nights before. She calls
up her stylist Emma and says, I don't want to
wear that dress. I've got a much better idea. Oh
and then she says, I'm going over to my sister's
house because she just got some really good Union Jack
(41:09):
teetowels that she bought it like a little opshop for
like a dollar or something, and I'm going to turn
one of those tea tails into a dress for the
brit Awards. One t tawel are one detail, details are small, yeah,
oh yeah, and that's why the dresses are mini. And
her styla said, this is a quote from her please please,
please don't do that. Why, well, you've got to think,
this is the first year that the Spice Girls have
(41:31):
been famous. They're the biggest stars in the world. This
is one of the biggest music events in the world,
and they are going out on stage and it's a
huge night for them, and these pictures are going to
be like a defining moment for them. And this stylist
has been working for weeks to outfit them with all
their perfect looks and their looks are so important. And
then Jerry's like, I'm going to go get a te
tawel Jerry. But it worked out because she was able
(41:54):
to fashion the teatowel into like a micro micro mini dress,
wore it out on stage and it just went absolutely gangbusters.
It was like when I tell you, the stresses on
the front page of every single newspaper across the like
a good way. Yeah, we all know some people are like,
she's being scandalous, how dare she put the flag on?
Why so short? And on people just like this is
(42:15):
the hottest and most incredible thing we've ever seen. Yeah,
it was insane and it made her the standout of
the night, which in a group of like five beautiful
women with these incredible personalities is hard to do.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
But it was all about Jerry, which is so interesting,
especially from a stylist point of view, because I feel
like now we know the amount of work and thought
that goes into styling those outfits, especially for those big
award shows. Like I've seen interviews of stylists who like
style little mix and like how they all have to
look individual, but they all have to look cohesive. I mean,
(42:46):
if you speak to me of freedom and she has
a big thing about how we all have to look
the same on stage, don't. She makes Folly and Jesse
dress like her. But it's like very specific for stylists
that they have to also show their work.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
Yeah, and what they're doing exactly. This stylist Emma was like,
this is my career on the line, yeah, and the
last minute you're tearing up the plan. But it ended
up working in such an incredible way. And then it
was only a year later when Jerry gave the dress
away for action and for charity for breast cancer charity.
She gave it away, yeah, because she was like, let's
auction this off and make some money for breast cancer charity.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
And so it was auctioned. She is the best one.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
It's kind of you know, they're all great. I feel
bad like I've done disservice to all of them.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
She's so cool.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
They auctioned it off, and then at the time it
was the most expensive item of popstar clothing ever sold
at auction. It went for forty one thousand dollars, which
at the time, which at the time was a lot
of money. Oh my god, you'd been like you to
get out of my arms. Yeah, And it remained the
most expensive piece of popstar memorabilia ever sold until Michael
(43:45):
Jackson sold his Sequence Glove in two thousand and nine.
But until then she really held WHOA. And now I
have to bring you to a really traumatizing time in
history that I remember so vividly. Where I was this
day when I heard this news. It's nineteen ninety eight,
and the world is dealt a devastating blow because Jerry
Halliwell announces she is leaving the Spies Girls. Oh my god.
(44:10):
They are halfway through the Spice World World tour. Halfway
it's Melby's birthday. Like, who's a duck now, bitch, Like
I've had it and guess what my hair is that
I'm ready to go. I'm a duck who's going to
swim away? So Jerry Halliwell quits the Spice Girls.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
Oh on Melby's birthday.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
At the time, she said she was suffering from exhaustion.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
Well, yeah, she's doing everything.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
She's like literally.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
Climbing, robbing their bosses. She's like hosting them all.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
In their car. Yeah, she's wearing a dressman of a
teatowel to get them more headlines. She's doing the most.
She's also like they all made headlines for different reasons.
But like as again, like Melby would be the one
they went to like events and would like jump into
the crowd and do crazy stuff. But Jerry is the
one who very famously at an event, walked up behind
Prince Charles, who was a massive Spy Girls fan, as
(45:04):
was Prince William. Prince William, the story goes and he
has confirmed this when he found out the Spice Girls,
he went to his and ripped all his posters down
and put posters up of Emma Bunton, what's you? Oh
my god? William And at an event Jerry had heard
that they liked them, Michelle and she walked up behind
(45:27):
Prince Charles at the time he was Prince Charles and
pinched his bottom. On TV. Wait that's her own words.
I'm using who did that? Jerry? Jerry? And it became
this like huge like worldwide sensation. Yeah, it's on TV.
I'll find the clip. What did he do? He like
nights around and other and after they were I can't
(45:48):
tell you how much of Spicycles could do whatever they
want at the time. They were so powerful. And they
also did like a lot of charity stuff with the
Royal family over the years, and so they were in
with the royal family. That's why, like Victoria's like always
at the royal weddings and whatnot, because they were like
in the in the family. And afterwards Jerry was asked
about it. They were like, why would you do that
to Prince Charles? Why would you pinch his behind? And
(46:09):
she was like, oh, I pinch every Why is he
any different, I'll do what I want.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
She's so cool.
Speaker 2 (46:14):
So later on her autobiography, Jerry said that she didn't
leave because of exhaustion. Oh wait, so we thought she
left at the time. She said that she left because
of exhaustion, but she lied. Yes, And I was in
primary school at the time. I mean people crying in
the playground, and like some people went to the office
to like go into the sick bay, like call their parents.
(46:36):
It was worldwide news coverage. Hotlines were set up to
like counsel people who were like really upset by the
demids of the spy girdlers. People took personal days off work,
like grown adults across the world took personal days. People
were so upset about this. And later Jerry revealed that
the real reason she left the band, and this is
from her book if Only she said, the real reason
(46:57):
she left the band is that she was frustrated that
she had been prevented from giving a TV interview about
surviving breast cancer in her teens. That's her story. She said,
I couldn't believe it. This was about saving life. I
knew that it was over with the band and Ginger
Spice was no more. Oh my god, what a legend.
I actually support that. Yeah, And well, the thing is,
(47:19):
it's still a lot of back and forth over something else,
Like she was obviously saying, that's obviously that's a horrific
thing to happen. But she has also since said that
there was more stuff brewing behind the scenes. They were
in this wild pressure cooker and this is depicted in
the Spice Old the movie. They're together so much, the fame,
the pressure. They had a lot of fights and this
(47:39):
one just blew up in a huge way. So Emma
Bunten later said that they'd done a lot of shows
through Europe and they were quite nervous about going to
Tour America because that was their big market that they
were trying to sell out all these tours, and she
said it just felt like a kick in the teeth
that Jerry left us in that moment. Mel Se said
at the time, missing Jerry is like missing your mum.
You miss her, but not the nagging. Well, you could
(48:01):
have been a mid night at to her, Victoria said,
Victoria's so funny. Victoria said she was sad, but there
was one big plus. For the first time ever, I
got to sing on one of because she famously doesn't
get to sing. She's in that cry going like this,
and Jerry has all the singing bits, so they had
to keep going with this all.
Speaker 1 (48:20):
Like crying, like like crying over Melby's cake because it's
her birth Yeah. Yeah, and then Victoria's like, so with
the songs, he's gonna be getting Jerry's past.
Speaker 2 (48:30):
She's like, yes, finally my moment. So they said relationships
were very strained for many many years. They obviously have
made up since then. They got back together for that
twenty nineteen reunion tour. The other band members minus Victoria
have got back together for tours since then.
Speaker 1 (48:46):
Yeah, Victoria don't do reunions.
Speaker 2 (48:49):
She doesn't do anymore. She'll hang out with them. She's
the one actually who hangs out with a lot of
different She will go to their events. She's the godmother
of Jerry Halliwell's daughter. Like, they're all very close. She
doesn't get on stage with them.
Speaker 1 (48:58):
The only time I saw them all together was at
her birthday, and I think it was like from David
Beckham's five.
Speaker 2 (49:05):
Yeah he was Yeah, yeah, they all hang out together
now because also Jerry has since said that she's really
sorry she left the band on Nobody's birthday. She said,
I'm sorry I left. I was just being a brat
and it's so nice down to be back with the
girls that I love.
Speaker 1 (49:19):
They're so cool.
Speaker 2 (49:20):
The four spy Skirls stayed together until the two thousand.
They released more music, but it just was never the same.
Speaker 1 (49:27):
So when it happened with all girls groups, like when
Jesse left Little Mix, they stayed together, but it wasn't
the same. And then I think it got really bad
because everyone just hated Jesse so so much. Like it
went in like the opposite way where everyone just was
so angry. Yeah, and then like it happened to Fifth Harmony,
also the same thing. Everyone's just so angry. Like, I
just think it's a bad formula.
Speaker 2 (49:48):
It's hard once you get so much fame as a
group and people love you together, it's hard to keep
recreating that magic when one of you was gone, because
the magic was between all of them. They obviously wanted
to be successful, but none of their music ever reached
the heights of what The Spy Skirls did at their
time of like releasing their first album. So I always
think the Spy Skulls went from nineteen ninety six to
nineteen ninety eight, because I'm calling it after Jerry left
(50:10):
the band. But again, they've reunited since then. They're all friends,
they are all successful now, and.
Speaker 1 (50:15):
Maybe they should get back together and I'll do like
a hologram thing like abba. Maybe I like that because
I want to go to a Spy Skills concert.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
Oh my god, I can't. They they reformed and I
did it to see them, Like that's the one thing
in my life. I would love to go to a
spic Skull's concept. I don't know if it's gonna happen.
Position Victoria says she won't and also Jerry won't do
that now. Oh but maybe if we talk to them, maybe,
if we talk to maybe.
Speaker 1 (50:36):
On Jerry, I know, I know you'll do anything.
Speaker 2 (50:38):
So that is a brutly honest review. That is why
Skills history. What are your thoughts now?
Speaker 1 (50:43):
This is crazy, Like it's actually crazy that, like these
women did.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
All of that in two What does the Tippy I
spoke do? I could have done a twelve part series
on the whole situation. I had to cut out a lot.
Speaker 1 (50:55):
I think we need to do. We needed to find
the like even if it's by illegal means we'll do
a Jerry. We'll find the.
Speaker 2 (51:02):
Anyone has the Spice World movie and you can set
we'll pay postage. Yeah, we'll send us the DVD and
then we will do a Brillian honestory of the movie,
which will be the funniest thing we've ever done.
Speaker 1 (51:10):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (51:11):
Please. So anyway, Victoria Beckham's Netflix special about her fashion
shows coming on.
Speaker 1 (51:17):
Is Jerry going to be there?
Speaker 2 (51:19):
Jerry doth knows goes to her shows. Yes, So that's it.
Girl power, girl power, this girl group of all time.
Speaker 1 (51:26):
Thank you so much for listening to the spill today.
We will be back on Monday morning with all the
Easter eggs that have come out from Taylor Swift's album.
Make sure you tune into that. Thank you so much.
We will see you next week.
Speaker 2 (51:37):
Bye bye,
So you're listening to a Muma Mia podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Mamma Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of land and borders
that this podcast is recorded on From Mamma Mia. Welcome
to the spill your daily pop culture fix. I'm Laura
Brodney and I'm m Burnham and on the show today,
we're doing a brutally honest review of the Spice Girl
(00:39):
as an entity, just the concept, just a concept of
the spy Spy Girls.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
And why are we doing this?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Well, I mean, this doesn't paint you in the best light,
So spillers will remember that. Recently in an episode, we
were talking about the fact that Victoria Beckham has a
new series coming to Netflix. It's a little documentary series
really centering on the build up to her latest fashion
show in her career. Lovely fine, nice news. We like
Victoria Beckham. It should have just been a really quick segment.
(01:08):
But as we were talking about the release of this documentary,
you let the world in on a very disturbing fact
and it derailed the whole episode. And I think it's
the first time we've come quite close to a physical fight.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
I was trolled for.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
This, yeah, and so you should have been. I don't
don't believe.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Because I had so. Firstly, I'm gonna say, you're gonna
fucking troll me. Put your name on your comments. Do
not anonymously message me from a fake account. Put your
name on your comment.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Secondly, I didn't say I didn't know what the Spice
Girls world, you idiot, I said, don't mean to. I
said I was never around for the big Spice Girls thing,
so I never understood it.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Okay, but you also didn't know who like the various
Spice Girl people like you didn't know who like Emma Bunton, baby.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Three out of the five?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Oh which three? Do you know?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Victoria Beckham obviously? Melby yeah, and Jerry.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
You don't know Melcy.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Until she came into the office.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
I didn't say, Yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Knew of the other two, but I didn't know them.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Does that make sense? Yeah? I mean yeah, yeah, it does. Look.
Look I understand about not because I mean a lot
of this really kicked off in nineteen ninety six. Were
you alive in nineteen ninety six?
Speaker 1 (02:18):
I was coming out of my mum's vagina.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Okay, So you're busy, a bit busy, had a lot
on so you get a little bit of a pass
but the thing.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
And also I was a floor steps baby, So I
was pulled into the world. I didn't even want to
come out.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
If it wasn't the fourths, I would know about the spoils.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Yeah, I don't know if we can.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Bring the medical intervention into this.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I was pulled into this world. Didn't want to be.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Here to deal with the antics of the spics too
much spice World movie in Spicers. Okay, so yeah, it.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Wasn't the only spicy world that was happening.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Okay, okay, So off the back of that, and again,
we had so many listeners message us about this, get
upset about this, and so we're going to fix this today.
M We're going to fix it, and we're going to
go through a brilliant, honest review of the Spice Girl's
history and legacy.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
And I do want to say, like a part from
my three trials. Yep, everyone else was quite nice about it.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
They were just like, hey, you should know about this.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
They were like, hey, here's some learning material, yeah, which
I skimmed. They called you in and they were also like, hey,
I also didn't know this. Thank you for saying it
out loud.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
No one posted that no one posted you had to
drive public It was like a little dem and I
was like, feel free to Colm on this publicly and
they were like absolutely no, I don't want anyone to
know this. We saw your trolley. Yeah, so that's what
we're going to do today. One of the reasons I'm
surprised that you didn't know that much about them is that, yes,
they were famous many many years ago, like well over
twenty years ago now, but their legacy is still so
(03:41):
prevalent today and they're still referenced so much today, and
I guess all the members of the band are still
very famous in many different ways. So they're not one
of those kind of quick fire pop success stories that
like burned really bright and then sizzled out. They're still
part of our world. That's why I was surprised. Yeah,
so the Spices Girls actually, and a lot of people
tell me that I'm lying when I say this. I'm
gonna to set the record straight. One of the most
(04:02):
interesting thing about the Spices Girls is that they were
really only together for two years.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
That is bizarre to me. All together for two years,
so what were the years they were together?
Speaker 2 (04:14):
So this is how I'm reading history. I'm doing their
start date from when Wannabe, which was their first single
was released. It was released in nineteen ninety six. And
then I'm calling the end of the Spy Skirls when
Jerry Halliwell left the band, which was in nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Far out soide I would have been two years old,
but you would have been a kid.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Oh no, no, I was a kid. But the Spy
Skills were for the kids. Oh before I was in
primary school, Like I barely knew what the world was,
but I knew the Spice Girls because their faces were
over T shirts and all the shopping centers. Like everyone
at school would wear their spic Skirl T shirts on
free dress.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Days to the musty days.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Oh no, that's not the coens.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
I think free dressed hey, because you can wear whatever.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
You want, you free away whatever you want. That makes sense,
and like we would all watch The Spy Skills on
TV listen to their music. The first CD I ever
bought as a kid was a Spy Skirls album and
I got it for Christmas and my mum had a
little portable CD player in her bedroom and if I
wanted to listen to it, I had to walk my
little CD in and take it out of its case
and put it in the CD player, and I would
just listen to those songs for hours and hours. My
(05:17):
friends and I would all do the dances at school.
We'd all pick a Spice Girl. That's the thing. They
were this like kind of almost like a cartoonish, you know,
because they had everyone had their own look and they
were like really poppy. It's like how kids today dressed
in like like eazy, really tiny little kids listening to
Taylor Swift and dress like her different areas and stuff.
That was the Spice Girls. Oh wow, for adults and
(05:37):
kids alike. They were for everyone.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
That yeah, comparison, This is the first time like girl power,
What could that be? I hadn't even watched Buffy yet.
I wasn't even introduced to like superheroes and.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Stuff so cute, So you know who that was for
me when I was a kid. Who don't it's okay
Nicki Webster, Oh okay, Strawberry Kisses. It was Nicky Webster.
And then like guys Sebastian and Shannon now was the
first like Australian.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
It was such a homegrowing. Oh my god, Guy.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
I spent so much money voting for Guy Sebastian Australian items.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Well it worked.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Parents were so sad.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Next time you see him an event, because he's you
know who's always at an event is Guys Sebastian and
Nicki Webster. I see Nicky Webster at every single event
I go to. The last time I was on a
dance floor till three am, it was me and Nicky
Webster and her two children who were the same height
as her.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yeah, she's so.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
I also once was crying in a musical and this
girl Toner right in front of me. I just think
to be like, as this woman okay behind me because
she's crying and she's overcome with the music, and it
was Nicky Webster looking at me.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Nicky Webster.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Every time I walk an event, I see her. She
doesn't know who I am. It's very parasocial relationship.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
She's at legend, like I know, he's a legend. The
female football team, the Matilda's, that's their team song. It's
one every kisses.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
I'm so across that scene.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
So anyway, that was like because I always assumed spice
girls were for like teenage girls or like girls in
their twenties, which I'm sure they were for, but I
remember so specifically being like five years old and seeing
what the older girls were listening to it, and it
was Nicky Webster and I was like, oh, okay, okay,
the Webster is a thing.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Well back in nineteen ninety six, as I said, the
Spice Girls were for everyone, Like you put that music
on a class and like I was like, yes, do
you hear? I want it's like teaching some students.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
How good is that song?
Speaker 2 (07:16):
So good?
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Like it's like hold up at every single wedding.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
There's so many spic Skirl songs I listen to still
on a weekly basis. So want to be spic scopy life?
Who you think you are to become one? Like so many?
So the Spy Skills released three studio albums, and they
said all kinds of crazy records which we were going
to get into, But I'm going to take you right
back to the start, before we get through the trauma
of people leaving the band, backlash and that sort of thing,
to nineteen ninety four. You have yet to be pulled
(07:42):
from your mother's wombs by four sets of that stage.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Don't even think my parents are Dating.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
In nineteen ninety four in London, many many, many young
women gather in this tiny little dance work studios because
they have all seen a tiny little advert in the
stage which was where you like see jobs and stuff
in the stage newspaper advertising for a girl band. This
was the first really big manufactured girl band where like
(08:09):
a group of produced since the company got together and
they're like, we are going to audition women and we're
going to put them in advance.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
So it's like can you sing? Can you dance? Are
you pretty?
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yeah? Pretty much?
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Is it kind of like what they did with Bardo?
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yes? No, No. Bardo is like based off all those
reality shows and things like Bardo, all those manufactured pop
groups all based off the Spice Girls. Because it works
so well that time. So the advert goes out in
the stage newspaper and dozens and dozens and dozens of
young women turn up to the auditions where they all
split into groups of ten and they do a dance
routine that they are taught in the moment. Afterwards, they
(08:45):
each have to go on stage. And it was the
father son management team, Bob and Chris Herbert, who were
doing all the auditions and they all had to get
up on stage and do a quick song and dance routine,
like all them Dallas cowboys. Yeah, or even just like
pop stars and Barto will put together. This is the
kind of formation they use. It's like group singing and
then they get sent away and then you come back.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
I got the chills from my performance days. I used
to play piano. So if they were looking for honest,
I would have been right there.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
I just don't know if you would have made the cart.
I don't know if I would have made the cart.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Hey, I can hold a tune.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
But a month later, a group of girls were invited
back for a second they'd made it through the second round,
like out of the fifty sixty who auditioned, ten girls
were called back, and in that group was Jerry Halliwell.
Now Jerry Halliwell is interesting because she didn't make it
to the first open call audition because she was very
ill and had a sunburn because she'd been on holiday.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
She was ill from her sunburn.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Yeah, you can get you can get it if you
get a really good poisoning. I don't know if there's
a doctor specificate to say. How about it was so
she'd been in Spain, she got a sunburn, she couldn't
go on an audition, she wasn't feeling well. And Victoria Beckham's
the one who has told this story in her memoir
is that she called the company who was doing the
Cattle Call auditions and pleaded and begged to be allowed
to come back into the second round. And that's the
(10:00):
fun thing about Jerry Halliwell and why she's the Spicycle
that I've started relating to the most, because she was
never the best dancer, the best singer, the best anything
like that. She was just the one who pushed the hardest.
And I really related to that because personally, I'm not
really great at anything. I just do a lot of prep.
So even if you kind of read all the Spice
Girls biographies of all the audition stages of Jerry Halliwell
(10:23):
getting into the band and afterwards when they were kind
of deciding like who would be the lead singer there
and who would be like the front of the dance
and all this sort of stuff, Jerry Halliwell often had
the worst marks out of all the girls. They used
to score them every time they got to a rehearsal.
They would score them out of ten and be like
individually for dance, looks and singing. And she was always
really low and she would sometimes like go in the
(10:43):
corner and start sobbing. Yeah, and I wouldn't tell her
to get it together.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Oh my god, she's I reckon. She's living the life
out of all of them than I was, because she
married rich, married, rich, married, and f on principle not
anymore though. Yeah, lives on a beautiful farm. And she
always wears white and beige because it shows that, like,
that's the type of work. If you can like confidently
wear the color white every day of your life, you're
not doing much. And that's kind of what I want
(11:08):
to aspire it.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Yeah, it just looks like you've never lifted a finger
in your life. That's a very different Jerry harry Well.
Back in the day, she was a scrappy kind of
like go getter, and they said once she got on stage,
you were just drawn to watching her, and that's how
she got through to the final stages. So once they
had finished all of these auditions, they formed the band
and it was Victoria Beckham, Melanie Chisholm, Melanie Brown, Jerry
(11:33):
Halliwell and Michelle Stephenson.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
A lot of these names sound very confusing to me.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
So one of those names is not famous.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
I was gonna say, do you know what?
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I thought it was going to be like a big
mic drop, that you would be like, who the hell
is Michelle Stevenson, the original Spice Girl. She made it
through the auditions and apparently, no, no, no, it's so much worse.
It's so much worse than that. So she made it
through to the audition stage and they had the band,
so it was the two Melanies. It was Jerry, it
was Jerry. Is Victoria Victoria Beckham. People say she can't sing,
(12:06):
score the highest all through the auditions, so she can
sing aparently allegedly, we haven't really seen it since then,
but apparently she scored very very high. And Michelle Stevenson,
who scored incredibly high across the board and came from
like a very prestigious performing arts.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Wait, I thought you counted five. That's five, So who's missing?
Speaker 2 (12:24):
No?
Speaker 1 (12:24):
No, no, so wait wait wait, wait, say the names again.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
So the two Melanies, Jerry and Victoria and Michelle Stevenson
are in the band. They made it through, So where's Emma?
So they go I know we're getting to m So
then they start rehearsing and the company starts putting them together,
and as they sort of start forming who the band
will be, and like these are going to be the songs,
and this is how we're going to dance all these things,
(12:50):
they won't even call the Spice Girls yet. Michelle Stevenson says,
I don't want to do this anymore, and she leaves
the band.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Oh my god, the worst mistake she's ever made.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
And she said she didn't like the music, she didn't
like the routine, she didn't like the everything about it.
She's like, it wasn't for me. Michelle Stevenson has given
a lot of interviews since then because unfortunately for her,
she did not become famous, and she has you look
so stressed.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Right now because I get other interviews about how you
fumbled the biggest bag ever.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Well, She's like, of course, I regret I'm not a
multi millionaire like them, and I would have loved to
be that famous and have that fandom. But she's also
said like at the time when I left, I thought
I was doing the right thing. It just wasn't my
kind of music and they were not living the lifestyle
I wanted, but then they did. Yeah, so she left
when they wanted doing interviews about it. She's done many
interviews over the years, so everyone wants to know, like
(13:37):
who was the original Spice girl who left just before
they hit the big time and then she was replaced
by Emma Bunton who went on to be Baby Spice,
who was like a performer but obviously not also not famous.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
So did she go through the audition processes too and
she was just like the next on the list?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
No, no she didn't. They just she was like a
ring and they brought in later. Oh my god, so
now we have our band. We're seeing like.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
The worst luck and the best luck played out in
front of you.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Emma Bunton getting a phone call like hello, They're like,
do you want to come and be in this like
girl group putting together? And she's like, I guess, I
what nothing else?
Speaker 1 (14:04):
So I guess.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
So she kind of slipped in and Michelle slipped out,
and then yeah, Michelle, Yeah, but also maybe if she'd say,
they wouldn't have been the Spy s girls. It's hard
to know, but yeah, it's it would have been hard
to know that you were selected to be in the
biggest girl group of all time and then you decided
to leave just before they found their momentum.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
That's like some significant message from the universe. Yeah, so
I'm so sad, so sad.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
You want to find Michelle Stevenson online somewhere and like.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Le please Michelle if you're listening, because I know you
probably might.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Be, You've got some time we hear.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Oh no, I was gonna say something really mean it
go on. I was gonna say, I just know she
has her notifications on for SEO for her name, so
she will be.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Yeah, I think so said. Look, it's not too late, Michelle.
You can go and do something.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
You could be a podcast host, Michelle. It's really easy.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
So then we have our five girls and they're not
yet really the spy skirls, and they are put in an
apartment together. The apartment yeah, like all living in one
apartment together. And then they moved to like a little house.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
And all together.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Yeah. Yeah, they have literally no money.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Maybe Michelle made the right choch.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Yeah, this is what I'm saying. This is nineteen ninety four.
Waa Be doesn't come out till nineteen ninety six. There's
a bit of time in there where they're like living
and working for these two men, Bob and Chris Herbert,
and all of these men, Bob and Chris Herbert, I
mean they're the ones who kind of found them. So
they kind of found the father and son je father
and Sigon management duo.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
So an O g NEPO situation.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
And then as they're sort of telling the Spice girls
what to do, how to dress, what they're going to see,
how they're going to perform, and like making them work
these long hours, the spy scirls start to hate Bob
and Chris and they're like, you know what, we're great,
there's something here, but we need to get away from
these men.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Yeah, And so it doesn't send them to most women
saying that, yeah, exactly least one.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
We need to get away from the we're great and
we need to get away from these men. Yeah, because
they kind of realized that there was something like quite
magic and interesting women notoriously smart. Yeah, this is the best.
This is the opposite of the Michelle Stevenson this situation.
It's like a very smart decision.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
It's like we're leaving Michelle leaving YouTube as well.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
So they decide that they're gonna get away from Bob
and Chris. How did they escape because they hadn't signed
a contract? Oh smart girls, But but Bob and Chris
had the master recordings, has the master recordings, and we theron, no,
it's so much worse than that for wanna be and
(16:42):
to become ones. The songs that were gone to be
two of their biggest songs ever. And they're like, if
we don't have those songs, we can't leave because those
songs are our ticket to like getting radio playing, any management.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
So such good songs.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
This is what Victoria Beckham has written in her autobiography,
And I don't want to call her a liar, but
I just can't see how this story is possibly thick
down the door. This is you got to think this
is the nineties. So to take the masters. The Masters
is a physical copy. So apparently Jerry went into the
office and basically stole the master recordings. Yeah. In her biography,
(17:14):
Victory Beckham said it was like very Bonnie and Clyde,
and then after was fly.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
It sounds like Jerry was on one for God. I'm
so I'm so tired. Someone else, please. They're like, so
they really want to join me. It's like, you've got this, Jerry,
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
They're like, go on, I haven't told you the worst
part of that story yet, which is like when she
went into steal the physical copy of The Mastersiwell said, no, no,
that when she ran out with them, she said, I
put them in my nickers so that Bob and Chris
couldn't like chase her down to get them away from her.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
That's entrepreneurial, that is, And that's what that's called. Being
a what what size our masters? I'm thinking of vinyls.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Yes, I'm thinking they were like a cassette tape school.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
This was got it.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Yeah, So that's the story they're telling. So no contract,
We've got the Masters and we're physically running. Then they
was working from the back of Jerry tail Swift. Just
do that she runs into school.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Don't get us all involved in this situation.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
It's like you could have just put them in your nickers,
Like it's it's good enough for Jerry halliwell, it's enough
for you. Taylor switch Well needs.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
To do like a school, yeah, school of mastership.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yeah. And now you see here is this prim and
proper rich woman and I'm like, what a legend working
walking the streets in her white dress and like you
remember what.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
She wass She's going to have the best stories.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
For her kids. Yeah, you just know it. Yeah, I
think she's trying to have most of them buried. So
then so then the women have their masters, but they
have their management and no money and no prospects and
no contacts, and.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
They're being pride and prejudice.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
They're unmarriable and they're working from the back of Jerry's
beat up car because they can't even afford like a studio.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Like we have nowhere to stay. And then they were
all just looking at Jr. And just like get in
the car.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
It's all just the five of them sleeping in the car.
And then they started to build a new team and
they eventually signed with Simon Fuller, who is very very
he was Annie Lennox's manager at the time. He's a
very huge name of music, very well known and one
okay good. Yeah, he's the one who really went on
to like make the Spice Girls, and he was the
one who was like met them, saw their potential, listen
(19:29):
to the stolen masters that Jerry pulled out of her underwear.
He then was like I'm going to make this happen
for you guys and get you in the studio to
record more music. I'm going to introduce you to record labels.
And this is when they sort of started becoming the
band that we saw as The Spice Girl.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
But it wasn't all rosy.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
It sounds like they were like all best friends for
the start.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
They were not oh yeah, okay, I have a theory. Okay,
was it like split down the middle? Yeah, it was
two against three.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
I'm gonna hate what I'm about to tell you. It
was four against one.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
No, oh my god, why.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Was she left.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
That? We're just like, we don't want.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
The story. I didn't realize how bad it wasn't so
until I started telling you the story.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
She stole the masters by herself. Well, to be honest,
i'd basically like put the masters where masters should never
be put. She let them all sleep in her car,
and they're like, you know what after all of that,
we just don't like you.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Yeah, look to be fair, some of them also hated Victoria,
so in Melby's book, again, I'm getting all this information
from their books.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
It's while that we have to read all of their
autobiographies and then piece it together.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
That's what I've done because there's so many rumors about them,
and there's so many unauthorized Like when I was six,
I saved up all my pocket money to go to
the scholastic book fair at school and I bought the
unauthorized autobiography of the Spice Girls. And let me tell you,
that thing was four vis I've realized now full of propaganda.
It was written by the.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Two guys what are the names, Bob and Jim. The
whole hography is just like and that's why women suck.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
That's why women should be given.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
They break into your studio and still.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Watch exactly so. In her book, Melby said that she
thought Emma was a softy and lovely Everyone likes Emma.
That's why I've called GDM.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Sometimes everyone likes softy and lovely.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Yeah, only on the outside, and once you know get
to know you, it's less that She's like Victoria, who
they all called Vicky at the time until she asked
them to stop. They thought Vicky was a bit of
a snob, and they all thought Jerry was a loud mouth.
In their books, Emma, Victoria and Print in all of
(21:50):
their books and interviews since Emma, Victoria, and Melsey have
all called Jerry a complete nuther in like.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
A mean way.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
They're all best friends now, like they became best friends.
That was just their initial And here's their reasoning because
she's a redhead. Yes that's why. No, he's their reasoning.
We thought she was a bit strange because she had
her hair and bunches and was wearing and yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
You have to tie her up when you're about to
commit a crime. I'm sorry, you can't have your hair out.
Imagine convincing Jerry, do you steal the masters, It'll be
fine for you. She goes to tire her up and
they're like, ooh, ooh god, I don't think you should
be doing that. Did you guys see how she tied
up her hair when she went to steal up music
back for us. That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
I know. She's like literally like.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
An event, like crawling through.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
That's the worst fight.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Why is always the worst? These women? I've been through
so much. It's only nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Dude, No, we're still in nineteen ninety five.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
I'm not there.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Yeah, I've got so many years to go. Okay, I
can't believe they said when they first met her, and
then she would tire hair and bunches. She would wear
a pink, fuffy jumper and say, look, look I'm a duck.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Okay, that's one Jerry, Jerry, I can't. I can't. It's
keep standing up at.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
You like this, defending her and defending her and defending her.
And then that happened, and.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Then that happened. Yeah, it's okay, Jerry, you kind of
deserve that one.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
But they all became friends really quickly after, right, So
they had that in a sentence, Look look I'm a duck. Yeah,
and Jerry has never disputed that. She said that. I
think she's just trying to have a fun time.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Well, it would be a pretty bizarre line.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
And she's like, you know what, there's my wife. I'm
not going to stand it for that's what Melby said.
She said, Okay, I believe Melby. She was there. Then
they started bonding because they were all away from their families,
they had no money, and Victoria Beckham, they were trying
to talk her out of marrying a very unsuitable man
at the time. They were just about to become super
famous David Beckham.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
No, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
I was like they hated be No, they love David
cheat on her. They're like, protect David at all of costs.
In the very early days of The Spice Girls, you'll
notice a very interesting thing if you look in the
credit section is that Victoria is called Victoria Adams Wood
because her fiance at the time that was his last name,
(24:15):
Mark Wood.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Who's that?
Speaker 2 (24:16):
So they had been together for nearly six years. She's
twenty one at this time. I feel like, brad yeah,
and I'm kidding, some people can get married twenty one.
I'm sorry, but it's just because she was like, no,
I'm going to marry this guy and I'm going to
like use his name on all and they're about to
make it big, so whatever name.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
They had to be strategic.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Yeah, and the other girls were like Vicki and she's like,
don't call me that, Like, okay, Victoria, Victoria, you're not
even married to this guy. You've been together for a while. Yes,
he's proposed to you. He proposed to her just after
the Spy She made it through the Spice Girls auditions.
I don't want to cast a spose.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
It sounds like a very Melby type of conversation, like
I can't see her.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Having so Mark was like he wanted her to like
kind of focus on his career because he was also
on the up and up. He installed burglar alarms in
people's homes. Wait, he was like, I think it should
be about me. He's like, he's like this a woman
named Jerk.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
He's breaking and she always has his hair tied up
exactly in Buncheon.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
So wait.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
So he was up and coming in the.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
And she had just made it into what was going
to be the Spy Skills, and she was using his
name as her name because she's like, no, he also
been to marry him. I said, yes, we've been together
for so long. And she was really going to like
put her a lot of her career on hold to
make sure that she was married to this man. And
the other Spy Skulls talked her out of it. Do
not marry this guy, especially right now. We're about to
go on to world tour. We're about to sell these
alur about to get on a plane, and so she
(25:40):
said she broke up with him just as the Spy
Skulls were starting to take off, saying it was a mistake,
but she kept the ring because she said it was
a sick ring.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Oh that's so rupter. I love that.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
We love Victoria Beckham.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Oh that's so cool.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
No, they have to keep the bad together. They can
be Vicki, even though we know you don't like that name.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
You can't leave us with a duck duck girl if
anything swap And you've got to remember she was the
highest scorer from the auditions, although they famously didn't let
her sing on a lot of their biggest songs. So
do you think they didn't let us because they were
jealous because she was a highest scorer? Not? Well, the
thing is when you listen to them all sing like,
they can all sing quite well. Melcy's definitely got the
best voice, like far it away, she's Saty Spice, Yes,
(26:20):
she is Sporty Spices. What a beautiful seguey How they
got their nicknames. So a big part of why the
Spice Girls were so successful, apart from the fact that
they just had banger songs. But that's not always enough.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
That's true, you need to put your life out there.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Yeah exactly. But they were just so marketable because they
came out of the gates so strong with all these personas,
and everyone could pick which Spice Girl were you? And
they looked so incredible together, like I said, almost like
something out of a wild cartoon. They also did more
marketing in the two years they were together than most
bands do in decades. They just said yes to pretty
much every single endorsement deal.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Which is why it's like so wild when you told
me that they actually only lasted two years, because I
remember being a kid and having like getting Total Girl magazine,
and there was always a which Spice Girl are you quiz?
Speaker 2 (27:09):
It was the biggest I'm just would have been like
mid two thousands, like friendships were brought together and then
ended in the school yard over which spy school you were?
Because you know, if.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
You stand baby, yeah, and we know you're posh, yeah yeah, yeah,
Well I guess I'm Jerry, which was which one did
everyone want to be at the time, So like sometimes
people want to be Baby, a lot of people wanted
to be posh, some people wanted to be Jerry.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
It was also at a time where like sometimes the
sporty girls weren't as popular as they were now, so
not everyone wanted to be sporty, and all of the time,
no one wanted to be scary, which is hard because
as you get older, like she was like really the
best one yeah, in terms of like stage presents and everything,
and even.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Like her voice, Like I feel like when I listened
to spy Skirl songs, I could easily pick out which
one was Melby.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yeah, she's got a real peace. Yeah, we love her now.
But so the names were actually given to them by
a magazine called Top of the Pops, which was a huge,
huge magazine at the time, and so the editors has
given like quite a few interviews Michelle.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Michelle in a burn book and made them even more famous.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Just like, damn it. I tried to take it down.
So I got this straight from the BBC because I
was like, I feel like they will have the correct
information and I was trying to Again, there's a lot
of false stories about how the spic Skills got their name,
but it was from Top of the Pops and the editor,
Peter Lorraine, has given interviews since about it and he
said the names just jumped out at us when the
girls were first starting to get famous, because they had
they were already dressing in very distinct ways. He said,
(28:36):
Posh was the first one we thought of because Victoria
looks pretty sophisticated fair and he goes the rest were
pretty easy because all their characters were really strong. Because
we've since kind of realized it's quite a lot of
racial undertones. pH Yes, he said, we laughed the most
when we came up with scary. Then he throws a
stuff in front of the bus. Jennifer Cawthorne, who was
also from Leeds, which is where Melby is from, came
(28:58):
up with that one because Melby was so loud and
had tried to take over our whole photo shoot, which
also was a thing like Melby was the one that
spy skills were always notoriously very very hard to interview.
They gave so much, like all your content with them,
from what I've heard from all these journalists, was insanely good.
But you couldn't plan anything they showed it For a
photo shoot. They would tear the entire room apart, start like,
(29:21):
chasing the camera men around, making jokes. Live tea with
them is like insane. They would just say anything, and
Melby was often the instigator of the big moments. That's
why they called her scary.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Oh but also, you can't call the like women of
color in your group scary Spice.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Yeah, exactly, because people were like, oh, she's so scary,
and I was like, they're all doing weird stuff. Jerry's
over there in a duck jump us and that was
Jerry's robbing people.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Her scary bop.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Yeah, I would say. Victoria Beckham had that icy stare.
She looked, and she famously never smiled. I was like,
if anyone's scary, it's her. I'd much rather hang out
with Melby. But they were their names. And then in
nineteen ninety seven, when they were sort of coming up
with like they were starting to take over their branding more,
they wanted to change their names. They're like personas Melby
(30:11):
and people laugh at her about this, But now that
we see the racial undertones, I can kind of see
her point. Melby wanted to stop being scary Spice, and
she wanted to be abrupt Spice, which doesn't really roll
off the tongue in the abrupt abrupt Spice.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
I'm so brought Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Yeah, Emma wanted to be gets away with murder Spye
too many words, it's too mustard down. I dis missed
the point of the whole thing's away would murder And
Victoria suggests should poss posh half the time.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Spice also too manyone.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
In private, Jerry thought Melby should be called the Ox.
Jerry she missed the pointing. Melby wrote this in her book.
She said, Jerry said I should be called the Ox
because I could operate perfectly on the most outrageous hangover,
or even do a full performance effortlessly after several bottles
(31:02):
of champagne, or while she would be throwing up in
the loop.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Oh my god, I.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Don't know if the ox rolls off the tongue. Well,
maybe these girls are good at marketing, just not in
that moment.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
I think Jerry maybe was a bit like, Hey, I
am sick of being near only animal. I don't want
to be a duck anymore. Can someone else be another animal?
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Now we're into their first single, could you boy?
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Oh my god, they've already gone through so much.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
They have gone through this thing. There's no such thing
as an overnight success. Two years later, Wanna Be Cameras
Out absolute banger over song has absolutely stood the test
of time, one of the best songs in the world.
Want to Be I don't even feel like that's going
out a limb to say that, because we're still singing
it so much to this day. Everyone still quotes it
when the record label.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
The lyrics don't even make any sense. That's how it's
such a good song. Like if going to be my love,
you have to get with my friend.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
But I think they mean like you have to also
be friends with my friends.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
You have to hook up with my friends.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
Yeah, oh that's great too. Yeah. So just a reminder.
They've stolen this song and brought it over to this
new recorde.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
That's true. They've done the money.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
They give it to the record label, and the record
label says we love you guys, we love you as
a band. They did this stunt where like when they
were signing to the record label, they sent a half
full of blob dolls to the record studio and the
dolls like carded through the studio and then were thrown
into the river nearby where they floated for days. And
they were like, got to sign these ladies. They're amazing,
and they said, we love you guys. We're not releasing
Wanna Bee. That's a bad song.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Jerry should put in all that.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
They're like, it's too weird, it doesn't make any sense,
it's not catchy. They'd already shot the music video. They
hated the music video, and they also said they had
already been in touch with BBC Radio, and BBC Radio
refused to play, and.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
The other four were like, God damn it, Jerry y,
how dare you?
Speaker 2 (32:47):
And so and a bunch of also TV stations were
refusing to play it.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Imagine if we never had Wanna Be, Imagine I don't
want to live it would be a really sad world.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
I don't even think I'd be here. The whole lives
would be different.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Might still be here trying to get pulled out.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Yeah, bring it back to that. But the girls say
that they knew better, and they said it's non negotiable.
Wanna Be is our first single or we walk pretty
much and the song came out and we've done it before,
we'll do it again, I mean, I think, and these
are not empty threats, and we've got nothing to lose
(33:22):
because we're living out of car.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
We're living out of Jerry's car, who we hate, So
pick your battles.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
And then in July nineteen ninety six, Wanna Bee was
released and it spent seven weeks at number one in
the UK and four weeks number one in the US
and went on to become a huge global hit across
the world.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
And they were like, we've told you so, Jerry.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
Yeah, and we told you exactly.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Get oh my god, okay, so we have want to
be yes.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
And so then life gets absolutely crazy for the Spice Girls.
They go on world tours, they release more music, They
have this intense fandom around them where people were like,
we haven't seen this since the Beatles, It is crazy.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
What was like was it like the same level of
Taylor Swift concept?
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Yeah, I mean obviously there's a kind of I don't
know if it was. It was kind of the level
of that it would have been too young to be
able to go, oh no, god, no, I've never seen
the spy skulls lie and did I do wor yeah?
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Yeah, oh you know.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
They did world tours, like just remember they've only got
two years to squeeze this in. They did a long
than two years. They did world tours. I guess they
would sell out when they would go to events, like
the streets would be lined with fans trying to like
break down barriers. So I guess in a way it
was tailor Sift. It is hard because obviously with Taylor Stift.
We've got so much documentation of what happens in those
concerts of fans and like we can see the intensity
(34:40):
when tickets go on sale. But I guess like it was, Yeah,
people would like sleep out for days overnight to get
Spy Skulls tickets. And they just became so so so
huge that they did become like the biggest band in
the world.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
That's insane.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
And they thought, we've released all of these hit singles,
all their albums sell out, all our tours sell out,
We've got our name on every single product across the world.
They just went with more is More and they just
said yes to every single endorsement deal that came along.
That's why their face was just plast They're like, you know,
some people are like, oh, what I us the product,
my integrity, I'm not putting my name on that. They'll
like put it on everything. The more you see us,
(35:15):
the better it works for them. WHOA And that's how
you do it, and that's how they made so much money.
And then when you're the biggest pop stars in the
world and all your songs are successful and everyone's dressing
like you, what do you do next? Like what be your.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Move to also like keep going to keep.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
The momentum going, Like, what what can you achieve next?
Speaker 1 (35:33):
Oh, have a YouTube channel?
Speaker 2 (35:35):
The correct answer is release a movie which brings us
to spice up your world.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
No Spye World, Spice World by word the movie the movie, Yeah,
not spiced up your World, No spice Spice up your
life is a song spice up your Life.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
The Spice World movie I can only describe as just
being a fantastic piece of cinema that the world was
not ready for.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
We're still not. Like, you can't find it anywhere.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
You can't find it anywhere. I thought it was on.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Prime Video, but I realized it was just Amazon trying
to sell me a DVD, and you.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Know what, we need to get that DVD. We'll expense
it to the company because you need to watch spice wort.
I think it's like, yeah, that's fine, that's a bargain
in this world, in this economy, because it's I think
it's been scrubbed from every channel. I can't find it anywhere.
Haven't be able to find it for like fifteen years.
As a kid, I think we're doing this as Jerry Jerry,
so around like nineteen ninety seven or so they've been
(36:26):
famous for every year. The girls getting all these offers
from Hollywood, and one offer is from Disney to do
a film Disney, and you think, yes, Disney would be great,
but Disney wanted to Disney fire the Spice Girls, and
so the story wasn't going to be so much about
the Spice Girl and to be like high school musical
as it was going to be about a young single
mother of one of the girls fighting to form the band.
(36:47):
Oh yeah, that's terrible. No, unless mother was Jerry, Like
she was the only one who was. They went with
a different writing team. They're basically like, we're not doing
like a big studio like Disney. We're going to make
this sort of like the different Again. That is why
the girl power message really took off, because they lived
that in every moment of their lives. They were just like,
(37:08):
we're calling the shots, we're doing it.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
And were they all on the same page in these decisions.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
No, there's things where like you hear them like disagreeing
on things, and like, ultimately that is what led to
their demise. But they were all very much on the
same page that the movie was going to be more
true to their style. So they got a whole bunch
of writers in who came up with this story about
Oh so, how could. I don't seen the movie, but
it's like they're playing themselves, but it's a fictionalized version
(37:32):
of themselves where they have reached this huge amount of
fame and they're building up to doing this big live concert.
But it has all these like kind of true stories
interwoven with it, where one of their like best friends
from before they became famous is like about to have
a baby and like they're not spending enough time with her.
Their management's trying to turn them into something they're not.
They're dealing with these unscrupulous journalists. Elton John makes a cameo.
(37:55):
They get abducted by aliens at one stage. It's an
incredible surrealist comedy that no one appreciated at the time.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Oh no, I love that. So Kada reminds me of
like the Jonas Brothers when they had their show Jonas Brothers.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
Kind of like that, and they had this tool bus
on the outside where they live on the bus in
the movie.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
And upgrade from Joe's car exactly, And it's.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
So incredible because outside this is a normal bus. When
you get inside, it's like the size of this office,
and they all have their own areas. The bus that
is like.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
Harry Potter when they go on that tank and it's
like massive on the inside.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
It exactly like Harry Potter. Oh my god, the crossover
we didn't know we needed.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
So could they act well?
Speaker 2 (38:31):
You know what?
Speaker 1 (38:32):
Was that a part of the audition?
Speaker 2 (38:33):
No, they're playing themselves, so they didn't need to. Actually,
they're playing caricatures of themselves, so they actually act incredibly
well given the fact that they're just them. Okay, the
movie comes out.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
I wish we could do that, and.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Critics will stay tuned infurt the spill the movie, and
we're also getting the world. Can't imagine were getting copyright
for that. So the movie comes out and critics who
ruin everything not to slam my people, absolutely savage. It
worst thing we've ever seen. How this get made. It's
terrible for you, they all. If it was for me,
(39:05):
I love this movie. All the spice Gulls got nominated
as a joint nomination for the you know the Raspberry
Awards the Worst Actress of All Time. But the fans
knew because when the movie came out, it not only
made back its budget of four million dollars it made
that's how much movie is made. For four million, it
made back four million, and then fourteen times over that.
(39:25):
It's math. I kind of do s because the billion dollars. Yeah,
because the fans are like, when we're going to watch
this movie over and over again, and they had made
it for the fans. So critics were saying it was
ship and people were like, we love this movie. Oh, watch.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
Just like re enacted for me.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
I actually could, I've seen that movie, so as a kid,
I would just watch that movie on a loop. And
then they have to decide where they're going to go
to their concert or their friend goes into labor and
she's all alone because her boyfriend leaves her and they
take her to hospital, and then they're going to get
to their concept, and will they make it to the
concert and perform Spicy Fu Life for the first time
on stage?
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Oh my god, this is really stressful.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
It's such a thing. And they had so many huge
cultural moments in the two years they were together, which
I think is why they've kind of stood the test
of time. If you could think of like the most
iconic Spy Skulls outfit. What would that be?
Speaker 1 (40:16):
I think it's Jerry. Yeah, it's a Union Jack. Yes,
the tight dress Union Jack, which is quite hot.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Oh one hundred. So that is from the nineteen ninety
seven BRIT Awards. And again I feel this whole podcast
is coming from us defending Jerry. But they all had
their outfits of them sorted for prages and I only
know that because that's like the classic Halloween costume. Yeah.
Well it became this kind of defining thing of the
Spy Skulls and for pop music in general at that time. Yeah.
So they all had their outfits sorted for the BRIT Awards,
(40:47):
which is like the Grammys in the UK. It's like
the biggest deal. And Jerry was supposed to be wearing
a very simple black dress for their performance and for
them to go on stage two nights before. She calls
up her stylist Emma and says, I don't want to
wear that dress. I've got a much better idea. Oh
and then she says, I'm going over to my sister's
house because she just got some really good Union Jack
(41:09):
teetowels that she bought it like a little opshop for
like a dollar or something, and I'm going to turn
one of those tea tails into a dress for the
brit Awards. One t tawel are one detail, details are small, yeah,
oh yeah, and that's why the dresses are mini. And
her styla said, this is a quote from her please please,
please don't do that. Why, well, you've got to think,
this is the first year that the Spice Girls have
(41:31):
been famous. They're the biggest stars in the world. This
is one of the biggest music events in the world,
and they are going out on stage and it's a
huge night for them, and these pictures are going to
be like a defining moment for them. And this stylist
has been working for weeks to outfit them with all
their perfect looks and their looks are so important. And
then Jerry's like, I'm going to go get a te
tawel Jerry. But it worked out because she was able
(41:54):
to fashion the teatowel into like a micro micro mini dress,
wore it out on stage and it just went absolutely gangbusters.
It was like when I tell you, the stresses on
the front page of every single newspaper across the like
a good way. Yeah, we all know some people are like,
she's being scandalous, how dare she put the flag on?
Why so short? And on people just like this is
(42:15):
the hottest and most incredible thing we've ever seen. Yeah,
it was insane and it made her the standout of
the night, which in a group of like five beautiful
women with these incredible personalities is hard to do.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
But it was all about Jerry, which is so interesting,
especially from a stylist point of view, because I feel
like now we know the amount of work and thought
that goes into styling those outfits, especially for those big
award shows. Like I've seen interviews of stylists who like
style little mix and like how they all have to
look individual, but they all have to look cohesive. I mean,
(42:46):
if you speak to me of freedom and she has
a big thing about how we all have to look
the same on stage, don't. She makes Folly and Jesse
dress like her. But it's like very specific for stylists
that they have to also show their work.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
Yeah, and what they're doing exactly. This stylist Emma was like,
this is my career on the line, yeah, and the
last minute you're tearing up the plan. But it ended
up working in such an incredible way. And then it
was only a year later when Jerry gave the dress
away for action and for charity for breast cancer charity.
She gave it away, yeah, because she was like, let's
auction this off and make some money for breast cancer charity.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
And so it was auctioned. She is the best one.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
It's kind of you know, they're all great. I feel
bad like I've done disservice to all of them.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
She's so cool.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
They auctioned it off, and then at the time it
was the most expensive item of popstar clothing ever sold
at auction. It went for forty one thousand dollars, which
at the time, which at the time was a lot
of money. Oh my god, you'd been like you to
get out of my arms. Yeah, And it remained the
most expensive piece of popstar memorabilia ever sold until Michael
(43:45):
Jackson sold his Sequence Glove in two thousand and nine.
But until then she really held WHOA. And now I
have to bring you to a really traumatizing time in
history that I remember so vividly. Where I was this
day when I heard this news. It's nineteen ninety eight,
and the world is dealt a devastating blow because Jerry
Halliwell announces she is leaving the Spies Girls. Oh my god.
(44:10):
They are halfway through the Spice World World tour. Halfway
it's Melby's birthday. Like, who's a duck now, bitch, Like
I've had it and guess what my hair is that
I'm ready to go. I'm a duck who's going to
swim away? So Jerry Halliwell quits the Spice Girls.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
Oh on Melby's birthday.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
At the time, she said she was suffering from exhaustion.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
Well, yeah, she's doing everything.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
She's like literally.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
Climbing, robbing their bosses. She's like hosting them all.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
In their car. Yeah, she's wearing a dressman of a
teatowel to get them more headlines. She's doing the most.
She's also like they all made headlines for different reasons.
But like as again, like Melby would be the one
they went to like events and would like jump into
the crowd and do crazy stuff. But Jerry is the
one who very famously at an event, walked up behind
Prince Charles, who was a massive Spy Girls fan, as
(45:04):
was Prince William. Prince William, the story goes and he
has confirmed this when he found out the Spice Girls,
he went to his and ripped all his posters down
and put posters up of Emma Bunton, what's you? Oh
my god? William And at an event Jerry had heard
that they liked them, Michelle and she walked up behind
(45:27):
Prince Charles at the time he was Prince Charles and
pinched his bottom. On TV. Wait that's her own words.
I'm using who did that? Jerry? Jerry? And it became
this like huge like worldwide sensation. Yeah, it's on TV.
I'll find the clip. What did he do? He like
nights around and other and after they were I can't
(45:48):
tell you how much of Spicycles could do whatever they
want at the time. They were so powerful. And they
also did like a lot of charity stuff with the
Royal family over the years, and so they were in
with the royal family. That's why, like Victoria's like always
at the royal weddings and whatnot, because they were like
in the in the family. And afterwards Jerry was asked
about it. They were like, why would you do that
to Prince Charles? Why would you pinch his behind? And
(46:09):
she was like, oh, I pinch every Why is he
any different, I'll do what I want.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
She's so cool.
Speaker 2 (46:14):
So later on her autobiography, Jerry said that she didn't
leave because of exhaustion. Oh wait, so we thought she
left at the time. She said that she left because
of exhaustion, but she lied. Yes, And I was in
primary school at the time. I mean people crying in
the playground, and like some people went to the office
to like go into the sick bay, like call their parents.
(46:36):
It was worldwide news coverage. Hotlines were set up to
like counsel people who were like really upset by the
demids of the spy girdlers. People took personal days off work,
like grown adults across the world took personal days. People
were so upset about this. And later Jerry revealed that
the real reason she left the band, and this is
from her book if Only she said, the real reason
(46:57):
she left the band is that she was frustrated that
she had been prevented from giving a TV interview about
surviving breast cancer in her teens. That's her story. She said,
I couldn't believe it. This was about saving life. I
knew that it was over with the band and Ginger
Spice was no more. Oh my god, what a legend.
I actually support that. Yeah, And well, the thing is,
(47:19):
it's still a lot of back and forth over something else,
Like she was obviously saying, that's obviously that's a horrific
thing to happen. But she has also since said that
there was more stuff brewing behind the scenes. They were
in this wild pressure cooker and this is depicted in
the Spice Old the movie. They're together so much, the fame,
the pressure. They had a lot of fights and this
(47:39):
one just blew up in a huge way. So Emma
Bunten later said that they'd done a lot of shows
through Europe and they were quite nervous about going to
Tour America because that was their big market that they
were trying to sell out all these tours, and she
said it just felt like a kick in the teeth
that Jerry left us in that moment. Mel Se said
at the time, missing Jerry is like missing your mum.
You miss her, but not the nagging. Well, you could
(48:01):
have been a mid night at to her, Victoria said,
Victoria's so funny. Victoria said she was sad, but there
was one big plus. For the first time ever, I
got to sing on one of because she famously doesn't
get to sing. She's in that cry going like this,
and Jerry has all the singing bits, so they had
to keep going with this all.
Speaker 1 (48:20):
Like crying, like like crying over Melby's cake because it's
her birth Yeah. Yeah, and then Victoria's like, so with
the songs, he's gonna be getting Jerry's past.
Speaker 2 (48:30):
She's like, yes, finally my moment. So they said relationships
were very strained for many many years. They obviously have
made up since then. They got back together for that
twenty nineteen reunion tour. The other band members minus Victoria
have got back together for tours since then.
Speaker 1 (48:46):
Yeah, Victoria don't do reunions.
Speaker 2 (48:49):
She doesn't do anymore. She'll hang out with them. She's
the one actually who hangs out with a lot of
different She will go to their events. She's the godmother
of Jerry Halliwell's daughter. Like, they're all very close. She
doesn't get on stage with them.
Speaker 1 (48:58):
The only time I saw them all together was at
her birthday, and I think it was like from David
Beckham's five.
Speaker 2 (49:05):
Yeah he was Yeah, yeah, they all hang out together
now because also Jerry has since said that she's really
sorry she left the band on Nobody's birthday. She said,
I'm sorry I left. I was just being a brat
and it's so nice down to be back with the
girls that I love.
Speaker 1 (49:19):
They're so cool.
Speaker 2 (49:20):
The four spy Skirls stayed together until the two thousand.
They released more music, but it just was never the same.
Speaker 1 (49:27):
So when it happened with all girls groups, like when
Jesse left Little Mix, they stayed together, but it wasn't
the same. And then I think it got really bad
because everyone just hated Jesse so so much. Like it
went in like the opposite way where everyone just was
so angry. Yeah, and then like it happened to Fifth Harmony,
also the same thing. Everyone's just so angry. Like, I
just think it's a bad formula.
Speaker 2 (49:48):
It's hard once you get so much fame as a
group and people love you together, it's hard to keep
recreating that magic when one of you was gone, because
the magic was between all of them. They obviously wanted
to be successful, but none of their music ever reached
the heights of what The Spy Skirls did at their
time of like releasing their first album. So I always
think the Spy Skulls went from nineteen ninety six to
nineteen ninety eight, because I'm calling it after Jerry left
(50:10):
the band. But again, they've reunited since then. They're all friends,
they are all successful now, and.
Speaker 1 (50:15):
Maybe they should get back together and I'll do like
a hologram thing like abba. Maybe I like that because
I want to go to a Spy Skills concert.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
Oh my god, I can't. They they reformed and I
did it to see them, Like that's the one thing
in my life. I would love to go to a
spic Skull's concept. I don't know if it's gonna happen.
Position Victoria says she won't and also Jerry won't do
that now. Oh but maybe if we talk to them, maybe,
if we talk to maybe.
Speaker 1 (50:36):
On Jerry, I know, I know you'll do anything.
Speaker 2 (50:38):
So that is a brutly honest review. That is why
Skills history. What are your thoughts now?
Speaker 1 (50:43):
This is crazy, Like it's actually crazy that, like these
women did.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
All of that in two What does the Tippy I
spoke do? I could have done a twelve part series
on the whole situation. I had to cut out a lot.
Speaker 1 (50:55):
I think we need to do. We needed to find
the like even if it's by illegal means we'll do
a Jerry. We'll find the.
Speaker 2 (51:02):
Anyone has the Spice World movie and you can set
we'll pay postage. Yeah, we'll send us the DVD and
then we will do a Brillian honestory of the movie,
which will be the funniest thing we've ever done.
Speaker 1 (51:10):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (51:11):
Please. So anyway, Victoria Beckham's Netflix special about her fashion
shows coming on.
Speaker 1 (51:17):
Is Jerry going to be there?
Speaker 2 (51:19):
Jerry doth knows goes to her shows. Yes, So that's it.
Girl power, girl power, this girl group of all time.
Speaker 1 (51:26):
Thank you so much for listening to the spill today.
We will be back on Monday morning with all the
Easter eggs that have come out from Taylor Swift's album.
Make sure you tune into that. Thank you so much.
We will see you next week.
Speaker 2 (51:37):
Bye bye,
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