Spice Girls biography

It was not Fuller, however, who had placed the original ad - that was the work of father and son management team Chris and Bob Herbert, who had set out with one objective - to find a female Take That. As the meteorically successful boyband had recently split, the pop market was gaping open for the 'next big thing', and after auditioning the 400-plus applicants, the final five were selected. However, in a move surely now referred to in the business as 'doing a Pete Best', Michelle Stephenson left the band before they hit the big time, to be replaced by Emma Bunton. A series of bust-ups during studio sessions also led the girls and the Herberts to part ways, the latter eventually accepting a big payout from the Virgin label to keep schtum about the early days.

Holed up in a rented house in Kent, in 1995 the girls got to work on their image and their songs, and went through the name changes, from the original 'Touch', through 'Spice,' to 'The Spice Girls'. It was at this time that the 'Girl Power' image was to take shape, an at first baffling, oxymoronic mixture of in-yer-face feminism, teen-pop cutesiness and cheeky sex appeal that was to be the foundation of their success - all the girls wanted to be them, and all the boys wanted to have them - any male of mid-teen age or older in the middle of that decade must surely remember having had endless conversations about which Spice Girl they'd 'really really really wanna zig-a-zig-ah.'

The formula was both clever and ludicrously simple. Five girls, each with readily identifiable characteristics, clothes, hairstyle, and attitude. Teenaged girls up and down the country would soon be singing into their hairbrushes and asking: 'okay, who wants to be Ginger today, do you want to pretend to be Scary and I'll be Posh? No, why not do my hair in pigtails like Baby and then we can all back-flip on the bed like Sporty does.'

Having recorded several tracks, and having had far more input in their song-writing than your average pop act, eventually it was decided that 'Wannabe', with its disco-friendly beats and rap sections, would be the first single. With the promo filmed in London, cannily portraying a brassy girls' night out, flirting with bouncers, upsetting tables, back-flipping and twirling and blowing raspberries at 'convention', the Girls marketing juggernaut cranked into overdrive. There was scarcely a single showbiz reporter not accosted by one or all of the girls at some party or industry event, and music writers would find themselves cornered in the loos by all five of them to hear the hype and maybe a few lines of one of the songs. Although Radio One's Chris Evans, arguably a key person to impress if pop stardom was to be achieved at that time, panned the record and stopped playing it halfway through, Fuller and the girls pulled off a coup by returning fire in the press, then eventually making peace after one of thetheir Astoria gigs, where the ginger DJ, perhaps sensing the way the wind was blowing, decided they weren't so bad after all.

Wannabe entered the charts at no.3 in July 1996, but the next week had knocked Gary Barlow, formerly of Take That, off the no. 1 spot. They couldn't have asked for a better story - marketing themselves as 'Take That with Tits', to use Geri Halliwell's words, then dumping Barlow from no. 1. Then, to put the icing on the cake, when Robbie Williams released his first solo effort, a cover of George Michael's 'Freedom,' they kept him at bay, as he only made it to the no. 2 spot.

The single reached a million sales by September that year, and the girls were well on their way - they simply couldn't be ignored. 22 countries had 'Wannabe' at no. 1, with sales in excess of 4 million. In Japan, their sales were the biggest by a Western act since the Beatles. Their follow-up single 'Say You'll Be There' entered the UK charts in October at number 1, and the debut album 'Spice' was hot on its heels. To the surprise of many critics, they actually liked it, and so did the public - the album entered the sales chart at number 1. When their third single, '2 become 1', also took the top spot at Christmas, they had matched the yuletide double of no. 1 album and single that only Queen, the Beatles and Cliff Richard had previously achieved.

An inevitable backlash was brewing, and the tabloids ended every Spice Girls article with calls for juicy gossip 'Did you know a Spice Girl before they were famous? Call this number'. However, the beauty of it all, from the band and Fuller's perspective, was that there really was no such thing as bad publicity. 'Mel B did a bit of bikini dancing? Geri did a bit of topless modelling, you say? And appeared on some dodgy Turkish game show? Oh well. We'll still buy the records'. Having never sought to market themselves as god-fearing, squeaky clean icons, their sale-ability could afford to endure a few such minor dents, and they were very quickly raking in huge sponsorship deals with Pepsi, Walkers crisps, Asda supermarkets and Sony. Crucially, they were getting more column inches even than the British Royal family - and in any case, 14 year old Prince Harry had a poster of Baby Spice on the wall of his bedroom at Eton.

In February of 1997, the Spice Girls put in a landmark performance at the Brit awards, with their opening number 'Who Do You Think You Are?', and Geri's shorter-than-it-should-have-been Union Jack dress, guaranteed to keep them unashamedly hogging the limelight. In addition, the girls scooped two Brit awards, Best British Single (Wannabe), and Best British Video (Say You'll Be There).

In March 1997, the Spice Girls became the first act in history to have their first four singles all go to number one, with the double-A-side of 'Who Do You Think You Are?' and 'Mama.' And later that year came 'Spiceworld: The Movie', a film featuring an array of stars such as Roger Moore, Richard E Grant, Elton John and Meatloaf (playing the girls' tour bus driver), directed by Bob Spiers of 'Fawlty Towers' and 'Absolutely Fabulous' fame. Whilst it was never destined to rake in the Oscars, the girls must have been somewhat disappointed to pick up seven nominations for 'Raspberries' (the polar opposite of the Academy Award!). Still, they could certainly have wiped any tears they cried after the mildly hostile critical reception on the millions of dollars the film the movie raked in at US, UK and European box offices.

The band and Simon Fuller parted ways in November that year, after several fallings out, and after a brief, unhappy stint of managing themselves, the girls appointed a new team to manage them. They still managed to capitalize on the momentum of their early success, with the release of the 'Spiceworld' album that month, and subsequent 102-date world tour. The first single, 'Spice Up Your Life' hit the top spot, and of the other single releases from that album - 'Too Much', 'Stop' and 'Viva Forever' - only 'Stop' was to fail to do likewise, stopping itself short at number 2.

The gruelling demands of the tour appeared to take their toll, especially on Geri, who missed two dates in Oslo at the end of the European leg of the tour, and then was absent for a live performance on BBC one's national Lottery show. After no small amount of rumour-mongering, it came as little surprise to many people when Geri quit the band in may 1998, announcing through her solicitor that due to 'differences between us' she could no longer be with the band. Whoever's version of events you believe, and whether or not it was all down to a falling out with Mel B, Geri's departure knocked the gravy train off the rails somewhat. The girls stated that the shows would go on (on the forthcoming US leg of their tour no less), and their next release, their first as a foursome, was 'Viva Forever' - the promo for which still featured Geri, as they had no time to shoot another, being on tour.

Having set out to replicate the successes of Take That, the Spice Girls equally managed to replicate the early departure of one of their number (which also signalled the beginning of the end). The release of the single 'Goodbye' in the Christmas period of 1998 was seen by some as a tribute to the recently departed Geri, although it had been written prior to her leaving. It mirrored the success of 'Too Much in 1997' and '2 Become 1' in 1996 by becoming the Christmas number 1, and equalling the Beatles three-in-a-row record.

November 2000 brought the group's third album release, the slightly edgier 'Forever'. Disappointing sales pointed to a cooling of enthusiasm for their material, and their more R&B influenced sound failed to garner anything like the same sales as their previous two albums. They were by now competing head to head with the Irish boyband, Westlife, and the latter group's sales tripled those of the Spice Girls, whose girl power undoubtedly seemed to be losing its juice. Whilst 'Holler' ensured they finished on a high with a ninth number one single, the writing was on the wall, and as each of them increasingly went on to solo work and collaborations with other artists, the Spice Girls went out with a whimper rather than a bang.

Since the announcement of their 'break from working together' in February 2001, rumours have occasionally surfaced that a comeback/reunion is imminent, especially in 2006 to mark the tenth anniversary of their original ascent to global stardom. Bob Geldof had even spoken to each of the girls about a reunion for the London Live 8 concert in July 2005, but this performance never materialised. However, the lure of the 2007 'Concert for Diana' being organised by Princes William and Harry to mark the tenth anniversary of the death of their mother, Lady Diana, could prove to be too much to resist for them. As well as being the chance for one or two of them to put behind them their somewhat non-starter solo careers - mentioning no names - it would be a good opportunity for Prince Harry to get his poster autographed.

• Spice Girls Discography