Issue Two, August 2002
Sporty. Posh. Baby. Ginger. Scary. Five simple names. Five complex poppets that exploded on the pop scene in the late ninetes with the infectiously inane hit Wannabe, which meant a little bit more than was intended in Australia due to the unfortunate line "if you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends" - which had many a male licking his lips with anticipation at the thought of this anthem giving him free reign over an instant harem of beauties, and all supposedly allowed by his girlfriend.
You may be thinking
"uh, hello, the Spice Girls are long dead. Forever relegated
to being a footnote in the history of girl/boy bands, and not
a particularly good one at that." Well, not so my friend.
The Spice Girls were different. They screamed naturalness and
vivacity that was sorely lacking in the (ah-hem) wannabes that
came after them. They may have been manufactured, but in the end
they had taken their management into their own hands. They were
not controlled, and this was apparent in the
ir
interviews. Let's forget about the bitchiness and the later claims
of who apparently turned who anorexic - remember the classic moments
such as Prince Charles getting his bum pinched and a Ginger Spice
happy with her own self-image as "that fat one" until
the stress got to her and she became another Hollywood lollipop
like Lara Flynn and Calista.
The Spice Girls
had a spirit which was sorely lacking in the factory-made turnouts
that followed, and they had a sense of humour about themselves,
never so excellently displayed as it was in that classic movie
SpiceWorld: The Spice Girls Movie (in case that
wasn't apparent from the title). This movie has long been denigrated
as a stinking pile of poo, which I have never understood as long
as there are movies like Road Trip and The Haunting
to claim that distinction. A chronicle of the girls au naturale
on tour of England, it now has an added poignancy in scenes where
the girls chant "would we work with only four? no, the spice
girls need one more" (which ironically became true with the
third, geri-less album, "forever"), a courtroom scene
that predicts a future where their singles will not even break
the top fifty, and a vision of the future where they are all middle-aged
mums and best friends that live near each other. Well, the latter
might still come true, but with the recent developments of marrying
soccer stars, divorcing dancers, losing all body fat, the taking
on of surnames
and some sporting lesbian rock chic we may still be a long way
off from a Spice Girls reunion.
All that we can do now is hang onto the past, two precious Spice Girls albums (and a third with only one good song), one brilliant movie and a load of happy memories of five girls we knew as Scary, Sporty, Posh, Ginger and Baby.
but we're all alone now, was it just a dream feelings untold, they will never be sold and the secrets safe with me viva forever, i'll be waiting everlasting like the sun live forever, for the moment ever searching for the sun
"viva forever" - the spice girls