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Spiceworld (tour)

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The Spiceworld Tour (also known as Spice Girls in Concert and the Girl Power Tour '98 ) was the debut concert tour by British girl group the Spice Girls. It was launched in-support of their first and second studio albums, Spice (1996) and Spiceworld (1997), respectively. The sell-out European/North American tour ran for around six months, kicking-off in Dublin, Ireland in February 1998 and ending in Dallas, Texas in August 1998; in September of that year, after several weeks’ vacation, the Girls did a series of large football stadium concerts in the UK, two in Sheffield at the Don Valley Stadium, and two at Wembley Stadium in London, with each of the Wembley shows being attended by over 60,000 people. The final concert at London's Wembley Stadium was filmed and broadcast live on pay-per-view, for later VHS and Blu-Ray release, and eventual DVD release in 2008. The tour saw the group perform to an estimated 2.1 million fans in total, covering Great Britain, Europe, Canada and the United States. The 41-date, sold-out American leg of the tour grossed $60 million.

1 Background
2 Concert synopsis
3 Critical reception
4 Broadcasts and recordings
5.1 Setlist background
6 Tour dates
7.3 Dancers
7.4 Management and additional personnel

Background [ ]

The Spiceworld Tour was the first global tour staged by the group, and proved to be an almost instant sell-out. Tickets for the very first two shows in Ireland sold-out within two hours, and various shows on the North American leg (such as Los Angeles, Toronto and Philadelphia) sold out within mere minutes of sale. In New York City, the group set the record for the quickest ever sell-out, selling 13,000 tickets for Madison Square Garden in less than 12 minutes. Such was the interest that it led to State Attorney General Dennis Vacco (together with the co-operation of the group) to investigate whether illegal scalping to ticket-brokers had taken place – a claim that was later dropped by the Attorney General's office.

The tour started in Dublin on 24 February 1998 before moving on to mainland Europe. Days before the end of the European portion of the tour, Geri Halliwell did not appear for shows in Oslo, Norway at the Oslo Spektrum. Halliwell's final performances occurred in Helsinki, Finland at the Hartwall Arena. Promotional appearances with the new 4-piece group, promoting the release of 'Viva Forever' on the National Lottery programme, saw the group stating that Halliwell was ill and to “feel better soon”. On 31 May 1998, Halliwell officially announced her departure from the Spice Girls. Through her solicitor, and later in a recorded video message, she stated: "Sadly, I would like to confirm that I have left the Spice Girls. This is because of differences between us. I'm sure the group will continue to be successful and I wish them all the best." The Spice Girls quickly released a statement which stated that the North American leg of the tour would continue as planned with the remaining group members.

The Spice Girls finally wrapped up the tour by performing to 150,000 fans over two gigs at Wembley Stadium in September 1998.

Concert synopsis [ ]

Against a futuristic space-age themed backdrop, the show began with a CGI video introduction of a spaceship flying through the galaxy. The introduction included William Shatner as the narrator in a parody of his famous Star Trek title sequence speech, and included samples from "Wannabe", "Say You'll Be There", "2 Become 1" and "Mama". The spaceship was shown to land on earth and as its doors appeared to open so did the door at the back of the stage to reveal the Spice Girls. The group members were dressed in futuristic costumes, the first of 11 costume changes. They entered the stage performing "If U Can't Dance", followed by "Who Do You Think You Are", which included an introduction sample from Club 69's "Diva" and RuPaul's "Supermodel (You Better Work)". Accompanied by the tour dancers, referred to as the "Spice Boys", the group then performed "Do It" as their third song during the European leg of the tour; for the North American leg the third song was changed to "Step To Me".

After a brief costume change, the group returns to the stage to perform "Denying". In this performance, Geri Halliwell played the role of a waitress, Mel B the role of a gambler, Victoria Adams the role of a dancer, Emma Bunton the role of a gangster's girlfriend and Melanie C the role of a club owner. The group then sang "Too Much" sat down on chairs. After another costume change, the group performed "Stop". Kenny Ho, their stylist and costume designer, dressed the group in '60s themed clothing to fit the Motown-influenced song. Halliwell's costume was inspired by Madonna's "Holiday section from her Blond Ambition World Tour. After "Stop", Bunton sang a solo rendition of "Where Did Our Love Go?" by The Supremes. Bunton had stated that "I've always been a fan of Diana Ross, that song is perfect for me, it's just the right pitch. I wouldn't want to do a song I found hard to sing." The group then performed "Move Over", portraying supermodels on a runway, dressed in outrageous, outlandish clothes. The dancers, dressed in black, play the role of photographers. Originally, they were going to have Adams wear a chainmail Versace dress with linked gold squares. However, the dress was too heavy and too impractical for maintenance. After the performance of "Move Over", there was a thirty-minute intermission.

The show ended with a '70s theme, with each group member dressed in a colour scheme arranged by their costume designer Ho to fit their style and character. Brown had a lot of patches of animal prints and greens; Halliwell's tones were different reds and purples; Bunton's were almost entirely bright red, pale blues and pink; Chisholm had very bright colours and Adams had patchwork on her corset. During the encore of the show, they sang "Never Give Up On The Good Times" and a cover of the Sister Sledge song "We Are Family". The Spice Girls exited the stage via the same doors from which they entered on top of the staircase.

Critical reception [ ]

The tour received mixed to positive reviews. Natalie Nichols of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "[t]heir energy and dedication were sincere, even though the music was all unconvincing dance grooves and slick soul-pop, lightly seasoned with funk, hip-hop and rock by a bland six-piece band." [14] On the other hand, The New York Times Jon Pareles felt that "the songs, more than the act, are their real asset. [...] These numbers are exuberant, direct and immediately likeable, and they've turned a group of hard-working but only moderately gifted performers into stars."

BBC News noted the audiences were mostly composed of families, and that even "most of the parents there seemed to be enjoying themselves". [16] Gilbert Garcia of the Phoenix New Times wrote that: "Rarely has any concert experience so carefully worked so many marketing angles at once. For one thing, the Spice Girls have managed to carve out a niche as a pop group that even moms can love, and they offered just enough nostalgia to keep beleaguered parents happy. When Baby Spice embarked on a solo version of The Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go", or when the group launched into a spirited take on the Annie Lennox-Aretha Franklin duet "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves", you could see the mothers in the crowd jump up in appreciation."

Throughout the American leg of the tour, commercials were played on large concert screens before the shows and during intermissions. It was the first time advertising had been used in pop concerts and was met with mixed reactions in the music industry. Garcia wrote that the adverts were a "strange note" in a show that otherwise "delivered what it promised". He also criticised the group's performance of "Move Over", their Pepsi advert song, saying that the "rampant, near-subliminal Pepsi imagery on the video screen, seemed a tad too mercenary for even this ultracommercial setting." On the other hand, tour promoter John Scher acknowledged that, "[T]he cost of touring has become somewhat obscene. If it allows corporate sponsors to put more money into the entertainment world and allows us to see more shows, it's positive." By opening up a whole new source of revenue, industry experts predicted more acts would follow the Spice Girls' lead.

Broadcasts and recordings [ ]

The audio of the full show at Birmingham's NEC Arena was broadcast live on BBC Radio 1. Originally, Molly Dineen was meant to film a behind-the-scenes documentary with the Spice Girls during their American leg of the tour. After Geri Halliwell's departure, Dineen was called and started filming a documentary starring her instead. Another director was eventually hired to film the documentary, which was released on VHS and broadcast a year later on Channel 4 under the title Spice Girls In America: A Tour Story.

The final show at Wembley Stadium was broadcast live on 20 September 1998 on Sky Box Office and presented by Dani Behrand Georgie Stait. A full behind the scenes tour of the stage was also aired prior to the broadcast of the Wembley Stadium concert on MuchMusic in Canada. Live at Wembley Stadium, a video release of the group's show at Wembley Stadium, was released on VHS on 16 November 1998 and on DVD on 6 October 2008.

In 2007–08, a series of previously unseen videoscreen recordings from the European leg of the tour were leaked, including concerts in Madrid, Lyon, Paris and Arnhem. Complete footage of the tour with all 5 group members had been previously unseen.

Setlist [ ]

Main Set (February 24, 1998 - July 22, 1998)

"Video Introduction" (contains samples of Wannabe, Say You'll Be There, 2 Become 1 and Mama)
"If U Can't Dance"
"Who Do You Think You Are" (contains elements of "Diva" and "Supermodel") "
"Where Did Our Love Go?" (Emma Bunton solo)
"Move Over"
"The Lady Is a Vamp"
"Say You'll Be There"
"2 Become 1"
"Walk of Life"
"Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves" (Mel B & Melanie C duet)
"Spice Up Your Life"
"Viva Forever" (contains excerpts from the film Blade Runner)
"Never Give Up on the Good Times"
"We Are Family"

Alternate Setlist (July 24, 1998 - August 26, 1998)

"Step to Me"

Back in Britain setlist

"Something Kinda Funny"
"Love Thing"

Setlist background [ ]

"Who Do You Think You Are" contained a sound bite from the song "Diva" by Club 69 & "Supermodel (You Better Work)". In the beginning of the song the lyrics "You have to work to get this good" could be heard.
"Naked" sampled two sound bits from the film Batman Forever. In the beginning of the song dialogue from the motion picture was included: "Relax. Tell me your dreams, tell me your fantasies, tell me your secrets, tell me your deepest, darkest, fears." In the middle 8 of the song, the Riddler's growls were heard.
"Viva Forever" sampled a sound bite from the film Blade Runner. In the beginning of the song the famous words "The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and you my friend, have burned so very, very brightly" spoken by Dr. Eldon Tyrell are heard. This inspired a similar, revamped sound bite that was used during "Who Do You Think You Are" on the Return of the Spice Girls. This sound bite consisted of a deep, male, American-accented voice saying "The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and you, my friend, have burned the brightest".
The original "London town" lyric in "Walk of Life" was replaced by the name of the city the girls were performing in. The lyrics varied depending on the pronunciation of the city name, for example "Birmingham", "Antwerp Town", or "Boston City".
During the European leg of the tour, "Move Over" featured some rather interesting lyrical changes. Instead of the usual "dedication, babynation etc...", the girls would alternate the lyrics with "penetration, menstruation, lubrication and masturbation" on various nights in the predominantly non-English speaking countries.
After Geri Halliwell's departure, a pre-recorded backing track of Geri's vocals were used during the Spanish Rap in "If U Can't Dance" and the remaining girls sang her original "Ginger" lyric in "The Lady Is a Vamp". In other songs her lines were distributed by the remaining members, with notably Victoria finally singing lead in "Wannabe" after Halliwell's departure.
Starting in Noblesville on July 24, "Step to Me" replaced "Do It", and "Walk of Life" was removed from the setlist (although “Walk of Life” was still performed on various dates for the duration of the US leg of the tour). Both of these changes were due to several dancers' injuries, as well as the (unannounced at the time) pregnancies of Mel B and Victoria Beckham, who were picked up and carried around in various positions during "Walk of Life."
As presented on Sky Box Office Live, there was no 30 minute intermission during the "Back in Britain" leg of the tour, and additional songs were added to the setlist. "Something Kinda Funny" replaced "Denying", and "Step to Me" was dropped. "Do It" was added back to the setlist, but was performed in Act 2 instead of its original spot in Act 1. "Something Kinda Funny", "Do It", and "Too Much" were retooled into their own act with a new set of outfits, replacing the restaurant act. "Love Thing" replaced "Move Over" as a one-song act, with a dancer intro and another new set of outfits.

Tour dates [ ]

Personnel [ ].

Emma Bunton
Victoria Adams
Geri Halliwell – her last show before she left the group was on 26 May 1998 in Helsinki, Finland
Simon Ellis – Musical Director / Keyboards
Andy Gangadeen – Drums
Paul Gendler – Guitars
Fergus Gerrand – Percussion
Steve Lewinson – Bass guitar
Michael Martin – Keyboards

Dancers [ ]

Louie Spence
Carmine Canuso (aka Jake Canuso)
Jimmy Gulzar
Eszteca Noya
Robert Nurse
Christian Storm (until Halliwell's departure)

Management and additional personnel [ ]

Tour manager: Richard Jones
Assistant tour manager: Juliette Slater
Production manager: Julian Lavender
Show producer: Pete Barnes
Stage manager (Europe): John Armstrong
Stage manager (US): Jimmy Bolton
Choreographer: Priscilla Samuels
Costume designer: Kenny Ho
Make up artist: Karin Darnell
Booking agent (Europe): Primary Talent International
Booking agent (US): William Morris Agency

Gallery [ ]

Go to the gallery of Spiceworld (tour)

1 Spice Girls
2 Emma Bunton
3 Melanie Brown

Spiceworld Tour

The Spiceworld Tour (also known as Spice Girls in Concert and the Girl Power Tour '98 ) was the debut concert tour by English girl group the Spice Girls . It was launched in support of their first two studio albums , Spice (1996) and Spiceworld (1997). The sell-out European/North American tour ran from February to August 1998, after which it returned to the UK in September 1998 for a series of stadium shows. The final concert at London's Wembley Stadium was filmed and broadcast live on pay-per-view , for later VHS release in 1998 and eventual DVD release in 2008.

Concert synopsis

Critical reception, broadcasts and recordings, setlist background, further reading.

The tour saw the group perform to an estimated 2.1 million fans over 97 total shows, covering the UK, continental Europe and North America. [1] The 41-date sold-out North American leg of the tour played to over 720,000 fans and grossed $60 million. [2] [3] The first UK portion of the tour saw the group play 20 arena shows to over 350,000 fans; [4] the second UK portion of the tour saw the group play two Don Valley Stadium shows to 76,000 fans, [5] and two Wembley Stadium shows to 150,000 fans. [6] The 1998 Spiceworld Tour remains the highest-grossing tour ever by a female group. [1]

The Spiceworld Tour was the first global tour staged by the group, and proved to be an almost instant sell-out. Tickets for the first two shows in Ireland sold out within 2 hours, [7] and various shows on the North American leg such as Los Angeles, Toronto and Philadelphia sold out within mere minutes of sale. [ citation needed ] In New York City, the group set the record for the quickest ever sell-out, selling 13,000 tickets for Madison Square Garden in less than 12 minutes. Such was the interest, it led to State Attorney General Dennis Vacco (together with the co-operation of the group) to investigate whether illegal scalping to ticket brokers had taken place – a claim that was later dropped by the Attorney General's office . [8] [9]

The tour kicked off in Dublin , Ireland on 24 February 1998 before moving on to mainland Europe. Days before the end of the European portion of the tour, Geri Halliwell did not appear for shows in Oslo, Norway. [10] [11] Halliwell's final performances occurred in Helsinki, Finland at the Hartwall Arena. Promotional appearances with the new 4-piece promoting the release of 'Viva Forever' on the National Lottery also claimed that Halliwell was ill. On 31 May 1998, Halliwell announced her departure from the Spice Girls. Through her solicitor she stated: "Sadly I would like to confirm that I have left the Spice Girls. This is because of differences between us. I'm sure the group will continue to be successful and I wish them all the best." [12] The Spice Girls quickly released a statement which stated that the North American leg of the tour would continue as planned with the remaining group members. [13]

The Spice Girls finally wrapped up the tour by performing to 150,000 fans over two gigs at Wembley Stadium in September 1998. [6]

Against a futuristic space-age themed backdrop, the show began with a CGI video introduction of a spaceship flying through the galaxy. The introduction included William Shatner as the narrator in a parody of his famous Star Trek title sequence speech , [14] [15] and included samples from " Wannabe ", " Say You'll Be There ", " 2 Become 1 " and " Mama ". The spaceship was shown to land on earth and as its doors appeared to open so did the door at the back of the stage to reveal the Spice Girls. The group members were dressed in futuristic costumes, the first of 11 costume changes. [15] They entered the stage performing "If U Can't Dance", followed by " Who Do You Think You Are ", which included an introduction sample from Club 69 's "Diva" and RuPaul 's " Supermodel (You Better Work) ". Accompanied by the tour dancers, referred to as the "Spice Boys", [15] the group then performed "Do It" as their third song during the European leg of the tour; for the North American leg the third song was changed to " Step To Me ".

After a brief costume change, the group returns to the stage to perform "Denying". In this performance, Geri Halliwell played the role of a waitress, Mel B the role of a gambler, Victoria Adams the role of a dancer, Emma Bunton the role of a gangster's girlfriend and Melanie C the role of a club owner. The group then sang " Too Much " sat down on chairs. After another costume change, the group performed " Stop ". Kenny Ho , their stylist and costume designer, dressed the group in '60s themed clothing to fit the Motown -influenced song. Halliwell's costume was inspired by Madonna 's " Holiday section from her Blond Ambition World Tour . After "Stop", Bunton sang a solo rendition of " Where Did Our Love Go? " by The Supremes . [15] Bunton had stated that "I've always been a fan of Diana Ross , that song is perfect for me, it's just the right pitch. I wouldn't want to do a song I found hard to sing." The group then performed " Move Over ", portraying supermodels on a runway, dressed in outrageous, outlandish clothes. The dancers, dressed in black, play the role of photographers. Originally, they were going to have Adams wear a chainmail Versace dress with linked gold squares. However, the dress was too heavy and too impractical for maintenance. After the performance of "Move Over", there was a thirty-minute intermission. [15]

The second segment begins with "The Lady Is a Vamp". For this performance, the group wore tailcoats while the dancers wore bowler hats . Then they perform Say You'll Be There , dancing with canes. The group performed "Naked" next, singing from behind chairs to give the illusion that they were naked. [15] The group then sang "2 become 1" wearing velvet catsuits. Ho wanted something luxurious, but not too over the top and felt that velvet was perfect, and it matched the song's feel as well, which was quiet and atmospheric. After "2 Become 1", they performed "Walk of Life". Mel B & Melanie C then covered " Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves ", which was originally sung by Annie Lennox and Aretha Franklin . The group then returned to the stage and sang "Wannabe", " Spice Up Your Life " and "Mama". For their performance of "Mama", they set on steps above the stage, with three huge video screens projecting childhood photos of each member. [14] In their next performance of " Viva Forever ", all five group members were dressed in white clothing, [14] as their costume designer Ho wanted their outfits to reflect a sense of purity and spirituality to fit the song. They were originally going to put dry ice on the stage, but the idea was dropped because it would have made the stage slippery, dangerous and very hard to dance on. During later performances of "Viva Forever", Chisholm would ad-lib the line "Spice Girls forever", in place of the lines "Viva Forever", towards the end of the song. [14] The show ended with a '70s theme, with each group member dressed in a colour scheme arranged by their costume designer Ho to fit their style and character. Brown had a lot of patches of animal prints and greens; Halliwell's tones were different reds and purples; Bunton's were almost entirely bright red, pale blues and pink; Chisholm had very bright colours and Adams had patchwork on her corset. During the encore of the show, they sang "Never Give Up On The Good Times" and a cover of the Sister Sledge song " We Are Family ". The Spice Girls exited the stage via the same doors from which they entered on top of the staircase. [16]

Total attendance for the Spiceworld Tour was estimated to be 2.1 million over the 97 shows in the UK, mainland Europe and North America. [1] The 41-date North American leg of the tour grossed $60 million and saw the group perform to over 720,000 fans. [2] [3] The first UK portion of the tour saw the group play 20 arena shows to over 350,000 fans; [4] the second UK portion of the tour saw the group play two Don Valley Stadium shows to 76,000 fans, [5] and two Wembley Stadium shows to 150,000 fans. [6]

The tour received mixed to positive reviews. Natalie Nichols of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "[t]heir energy and dedication were sincere, even though the music was all unconvincing dance grooves and slick soul-pop, lightly seasoned with funk, hip-hop and rock by a bland six-piece band." [17] On the other hand, The New York Times Jon Pareles felt that "the songs, more than the act, are their real asset. [...] These numbers are exuberant, direct and immediately likeable, and they've turned a group of hard-working but only moderately gifted performers into stars." [18]

BBC News noted the audiences were mostly composed of families, and that even "most of the parents there seemed to be enjoying themselves". [19] Gilbert Garcia of the Phoenix New Times wrote that: "Rarely has any concert experience so carefully worked so many marketing angles at once. For one thing, the Spice Girls have managed to carve out a niche as a pop group that even moms can love, and they offered just enough nostalgia to keep beleaguered parents happy. When Baby Spice embarked on a solo version of The Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go", or when the group launched into a spirited take on the Annie Lennox-Aretha Franklin duet "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves", you could see the mothers in the crowd jump up in appreciation." [14]

Throughout the American leg of the tour, commercials were played on large concert screens before the shows and during intermissions. It was the first time advertising had been used in pop concerts and was met with mixed reactions in the music industry. [20] Garcia wrote that the adverts were a "strange note" in a show that otherwise "delivered what it promised". He also criticised the group's performance of "Move Over", their Pepsi advert song, saying that the "rampant, near-subliminal Pepsi imagery on the video screen, seemed a tad too mercenary for even this ultracommercial setting." [14] On the other hand, tour promoter John Scher acknowledged that, "[T]he cost of touring has become somewhat obscene. If it allows corporate sponsors to put more money into the entertainment world and allows us to see more shows, it's positive." By opening up a whole new source of revenue, industry experts predicted more acts would follow the Spice Girls' lead. [21]

The audio of the full show at Birmingham's NEC Arena was broadcast live on BBC Radio 1 . [22] Originally, Molly Dineen was meant to film a behind-the-scenes documentary with the Spice Girls during their American leg of the tour. After Geri Halliwell's departure, Dineen was called and started filming a documentary starring her instead. [23] She was replaced by Ian Denyer who directed the documentary, broadcast on Channel 4 and subsequently released on VHS under the title Spice Girls In America: A Tour Story . [24] [25]

The final show at Wembley Stadium was broadcast live on 20 September 1998 on Sky Box Office and presented by Dani Behr and Georgie Stait. [26] A full behind the scenes tour of the stage was also aired prior to the broadcast of the Wembley Stadium concert on MuchMusic in Canada. Live at Wembley Stadium , a video release of the group's show at Wembley Stadium, was released on VHS on 16 November 1998 and on DVD on 6 October 2008. [27]

"Video Introduction" (contains samples of Wannabe , Say You'll Be There , 2 Become 1 and Mama )
"If U Can't Dance"
" Who Do You Think You Are " (contains elements of " Diva " and " Supermodel ") "
" Too Much "
" Where Did Our Love Go? " ( Emma Bunton solo)
" Move Over "
"The Lady Is a Vamp"
"Say You'll Be There"
"2 Become 1"
" Walk of Life "
" Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves " ( Mel B & Melanie C duet)
" Spice Up Your Life "
" Viva Forever " (contains excerpts from the film Blade Runner )
"Never Give Up on the Good Times"
" We Are Family "
" Step to Me "
"Something Kinda Funny"
"Love Thing"
"Who Do You Think You Are" contained a sound bite from the song "Diva" by Club 69 & " Supermodel (You Better Work) " by RuPaul . In the beginning of the song, the phrase "You have to work to get this good" can be heard. The same sound bite had been used previously in televised concerts in Istanbul in 1997.
During the European leg of the tour, " Move Over " featured some rather interesting lyrical changes. Instead of the usual "dedication, babynation etc...", the girls would alternate the lyrics with "penetration, menstruation, lubrication and masturbation" on various nights (in the predominantly non-English speaking countries).
"Naked" sampled two sound bites from the film Batman Forever . In the beginning of the song, dialogue from the motion picture was included, saying "Relax. Tell me your dreams, tell me your fantasies, tell me your secrets, tell me your deepest, darkest, fears." In the middle of the song, the Riddler's growls were heard.
The original "London town" lyric in "Walk of Life" was replaced by the name of the city the girls were performing in. The lyrics varied depending on the pronunciation of the city name, for example "Birmingham", "Antwerp Town", or "Boston City".
"Viva Forever" sampled a sound bite from the film Blade Runner . In the beginning of the song the famous words "The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and you my friend, have burned so very, very brightly" spoken by Dr. Eldon Tyrell are heard. This inspired a similar, revamped sound bite that was used during "Who Do You Think You Are" on the Return of the Spice Girls . This sound bite consisted of a deep, male, American-accented voice saying "The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and you, my friend, have burned the brightest".
After Geri Halliwell's departure, a pre-recorded backing track of Geri's vocals were used during the Spanish Rap in "If U Can't Dance" and the remaining girls sang her original "Ginger" lyric in "The Lady Is a Vamp". In other songs her lines were distributed by the remaining members, with notably Victoria finally singing lead in "Wannabe" after Halliwell's departure.
Starting in Noblesville, Indiana on July 24, " Step to Me " replaced "Do It", and "Walk of Life" was removed from the setlist (“Walk of Life” was still performed, sporadically, during various dates for the duration of the US leg of the tour). Both of these changes were due to several dancers' injuries, as well as the (unannounced at the time) pregnancies of Mel B and Victoria Beckham, who were lifted and carried around by dancers during "Walk of Life."
As presented on Sky Box Office Live, there was no 30-minute intermission during the "Back in Britain" leg of the tour, and additional songs were added to the setlist. "Something Kinda Funny" replaced "Denying", and "Step to Me" was dropped. "Do It" was added back to the setlist. "Something Kinda Funny", "Do It", and "Too Much" were reimagined into their own second act, with a new set of suit-like outfits, replacing the restaurant act. "Love Thing" replaced "Move Over", in the middle of the show, as a one-song act with a dancers’ intro and another wardrobe change. [28]
Emma Bunton
Victoria Adams
Geri Halliwell (until 26 May 1998 live but her studio vocal remained in "If U Can't Dance")
Simon Ellis – Musical Director / Keyboards
Andy Gangadeen – Drums
Paul Gendler – Guitars
Fergus Gerrand – Percussion
Steve Lewinson – Bass
Michael Martin – Keyboards
Louie Spence
Carmine Canuso (aka Jake Canuso )
Jimmy Gulzar
Eszteca Noya
Robert Nurse
Christian Storm (until Halliwell's departure)

Spice Girls Spice World 2019 Wembley Stadium, London live review

Incredibly, 23 years have passed since the Spice Girls burst onto the charts with their debut single Wannabe. That song went on to top the charts in 37 countries and was the start of an incredible, and very fast, rise to global fame for the fivesome. Number one after number one followed and two huge selling albums – 1996's Spice and 1997's SpiceWorld – before Geri Halliwell departed from the group in 1998 to pursue a solo career. The four remaining members – Melanie B, Melanie C, Emma Bunton and Victoria Beckham – continued for another two years releasing one more album and touring extensively. After years apart, the group reunited in 2007 for a tour in the UK and the US, and then in 2012 they got together once again to perform at the Olympics closing ceremony.

Since then speculation has been rife about the group embarking on another tour. Things started to look promising in 2016 but both Victoria and Melanie C were reluctant to commit to touring. Melanie B, Emma and Geri attempted to get things moving as a trio to mark the 20th anniversary of Spice but that didn't come to anything following Geri's pregnancy. Still the rumours persisted and in 2018 it was finally announced that the Spice Girls would be embarking on a stadium tour but without Victoria, who wanted to concentrate on her fashion empire.

A handful of stadium dates were announced and they all sold out within minutes. The Spice World 2019 UK and Ireland tour was extended to include 13 dates, and support act Jess Glynn, and for the past few weeks the Spice Girls have been performing to sold out crowds. Last night they performed their second Wembley Stadium show, which was also the penultimate night of the tour. As I arrived at Wembley Stadium last night, it was all a little overwhelming seeing the excitement from Spice Girls fans old and new, many of which were dressed as their favourite member of the group.

Ahead of the Spice Girls arriving on stage, their dancers (or Houses as I should say) made their way on stage to get the audience excited. Each Spice Girl had their own House of five dancers, dressed in a style that related to them. At 8.30pm the Spice Girls popped out onto the stage on a platform at the front of the catwalk section and kicked off the night with Spice Up Your Life. There's been much made about alleged poor sound quality on this tour but last night the sound was crystal clear, and from where I was sitting I could hear every single word they sang and said.

The audience sang along for the entire night and the atmosphere at Wembley Stadium was incredible. The Spice Girls clearly fed off that energy, giving it their all on stage as they worked their way through all their hits and some fan favourite album tracks. Spice Up Your Life was followed up with If U Can't Dance and a very energetic version of Who Do You Think You Are. As a lifelong Spice Girls fan it was a real joy to see the four members interacting with one another, joking and just enjoying being together. During Something Kinda Funny, Melanie B kept trying to put Emma off and frequently throughout the night the women held hands, embraced each other and hugged.

There were a series of costume changes throughout the 2-hour set. The first one came ahead of a mash-up of Holler and Sound Off. Costume designer Gabriella Slade did an incredible job honouring some of the Spice Girls classic looks and putting a modern twist on them. The most memorable was Geri's infamous Union Jack dress, which was turned into a regal gown. For Viva Forever, Let Love Lead the Way and Goodbye the group wore flowing dresses as they glided around on stage and sang their parts. They looked incredible!

It would be remiss of me to not mention the fantastic set design. In the middle of the stage was a globe with a ring around it, paying homage to the classic Spice ring, which played video throughout the night, showed photos and displayed lyrics. The two huge video screens on either side allowed fans at the back to better see the group and also had lyrics on it throughout as well as some special effects during the performances. The main stage extended to a u-shaped catwalk with various platforms so the Spice Girls could get on and off stage throughout the night.

Highlights included an emotional rendition of Goodbye, with Geri singing Victoria's parts, an uptempo section that featured fan favourite Never Give Up on the Good Times, a cover of Sister Sledge's We Are Family (nodding back to their first tours) and Spice album track Love Thing. The jazzy The Lady is a Vamp sounded amazing and worked really well in a stadium setting. Say You'll Be There turned into an acapella singalong and Emma wowed with an impressive sustained note during 2 Become 1.

After their final costume change and a moving segment featuring the four women talking about one another and being a Spice Girl, the group returned to sing Stop and the beautiful and emotive Mama. After that song they took off their jackets and coats to reveal costumes that looked very similar to those they wore in the iconic Wannabe video. The audience erupted into cheers as the group launched into their signature hit and during the rap part Geri changed the words from ‘Easy V doesn’t come for free, she's a real lady, to ‘Easy V doesn’t come for free, where is she?' which was a nice little touch.

As fireworks erupted and the Spice Girls said their thank yous and goodbyes, the stadium was full of buzz and noise from over 70,000 fans having had the night of their lives. I enjoyed their reunion tour in 2007 but this latest jaunt was more satisfying. Putting all of the emphasis on the hits, and removing the solo sections that bogged down the last tour, the Spice Girls crafted the perfect thank you to fans and celebrated their enduring legacy. I left Wembley Stadium feeling fulfilled, happy and a little bit emotional. Thank you for a great night Ginger, Sporty, Baby and Scary – let's do it again soon!

Set list: 1. Spice Up Your Life 2. If U Can't Dance 3. Who Do You Think You Are 4. Do It 5. Something Kinda Funny 6. Holler / Sound Off 7. Viva Forever 8. Let Love Lead the Way 9. Goodbye 10. Never Give Up on the Good Times 11. We Are Family (Sister Sledge cover) 12. Love Thing 13. The Lady is a Vamp 14. Too Much 15. Say You'll Be There 16. 2 Become 1 17. Stop 18. Mama 19. Wannabe Performance date: 14th June 2019

Emma Bunton
Geri Halliwell
Spice Girls
Wembley Stadium

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Spiceworld25

Celebrating 25 years of the Spice Girls' second album

Spiceworld25 celebrated of 25 years of Spiceworld and is available on multiple formats, out now.

Spice Up Your Life (2:53)
Stop (3:24)
Too Much (4:31)
Saturday Night Divas (4:25)
Never Give Up On The Good Times (4:30)
Move Over (2:46)
Do It (4:03)
Denying (3:46)
Viva Forever (5:10)
The Lady Is A Vamp (3:10)
Step To Me (7” Mix) (4:05)
Outer Space Girls (3:58)
Walk Of Life (4:16)
Step To Me (Demo Version) (4:50)
Too Much (Live in Toronto, July 1998) (5:29)
Stop (Live in Madrid, March 1998) (3:24)
Move Over (Live in Istanbul, October 1997) (3:37)
Spice Up Your Life (Live in Arnhem, March 1998) (4:11)
Viva Forever (Live in Manchester, April 1998) (5:57)
Spice Up Your Life (Morales Radio Mix) (2:50)
Stop – Morales Remix / Edit (5:52)
Too Much – Soulshock & Karlin Remix (3:54)
Viva Forever – John Themis Ambient Mix (5:43)
Step To Me – Extended Mix (5:41)
Spice Girls Party Mix (14:44)

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World famous pop group The Spice Girls zip around London in their luxurious double decker tour bus having various adventures and performing for their fans. Spiceworld: The Movie Film still Image from SEAC

Spice World at 25: ‘Its message was clear: sisterhood can get you through’

The girl power cult classic embodies the mid-nineties - but it would never be made today.

It’s been 25 years since the nation’s pre-teens fell in love with Spice World the Movie: a campy, A Hard Day’s Night -inspired romp featuring the biggest band of their era. Though largely critically panned, the film was a huge financial success (grossing more than $100m worldwide) and is now regarded as a cult classic, evoking the Spice-infused chaos and colour of the mid-Nineties.

Watching it today is like digging up a time capsule – not only are the celebrity cameos and references delightfully 1997-specific, but it’s also a reminder of when, thanks to Britpop, UK garage, and of course the Spice Girls themselves, British music was a dominant force around the world. It’s a film with no modern equivalent.

We follow the band in the run-up to a concert at the Royal Albert Hall, as they drive around in the Union Jack bus dogged by unscrupulous tabloid journos, hoards of fans and – checks notes – aliens. While it definitely drew on real-life pressures, Spice World is almost a series of comic sketches, and is charmingly unafraid to send up both the girls themselves, and the many (many) famous faces featured: everyone from Elton John and Meatloaf to Jennifer Saunders and Stephen Fry. Even then-prime minister Tony Blair was approached – and was reportedly quite tempted – to open the film.

The tabloid press of that time was merciless, and by the time Spice World started shooting in the summer of 1997, the band was rarely out of the papers. “The press were extremely inventive,” says Spice World co-producer Peter McAleese, who was one of the few people in the country who hadn’t heard of the Spice Girls when production company Fragile Films first approached him.

“One of the first days we filmed was down at a farm in Guildford, and some entrepreneurial journalists decided to dress up in a pantomime cow costume. They literally spent the night in a field with the other cows, and had a long lens out of the back of this cow trying to take photos of the girls.”

Sometimes, the crew had to resort to equally unusual methods to distract fans, such as using stunt performer Dani Biernat (who stood in for Victoria Beckham for her memorable fall into the Thames) as a lure: “When the crowds were building, they went, ‘Dani, we need to get Victoria out. Can we use you as a decoy?’” recalls Biernat. “They used me to go one way and the crowd thought, ‘Oh my God, that’s Victoria’ and she got out another way.’”

In fact, the band relished the speedboat scene for a moment of relative calm: “Geri and Victoria were on there with us and said, ‘Oh, can we just stay here for a while?’ Because they had no entourage with them, just peace and quiet in the middle of the Thames.”

The band themselves were extremely professional, according to those who worked on the film. “They were so uninhibited, and so thrilled with the success that they had, that it was hard not to be taken up by all that energy,” Richard E Grant (who played their manager, Clifford) has said.

“They were an undeniable force of nature – if they were in the room, they were in charge, and the crew were completely charmed by them,” agrees Barnaby Thompson, a producer on Spice World and founder of Fragile Films. “My enduring memory is just the power of those girls.”

Manager Simon Fuller was able to use their wild popularity to the film’s advantage via an online message board ahead of the film’s climactic concert at the Royal Albert Hall. “Our biggest challenge was, ‘How are we going fill it?’” says McAleese. “Because we don’t have the resources to pay extras to come and do that. But we could have filled it three or four times over because Simon put it on this database that there was going to be a free concert on this day, first come first served.”

For all its distinctly 90s aesthetic, Spice World also harks back to earlier cinema – with the Beatles as a notable inspiration. “I’d been in America making Wayne’s World, and one of the main inspirations behind it had been A Hard Day’s Night , so the idea of making a kind of A Hard Day’s Night with a girl band really appealed,” says Thompson.

There were certainly parallels between the two band’s eras: “I think [when we made Spice World ] there was an energy that was emanating from British pop culture – Trainspotting had just come out, and there was the whole Britpop world. There was this confidence as had existed in the 60s, where you really felt like this was the centre of the universe. We deliberately set out to make it as time-specific as possible. But we never imagined people would be talking about it 25 years later.”

And many of us certainly are, including music journalist Carl Smith, editor of the Official Charts Company. “It’s a scarily accurate representation of late-90s media in so many ways,” he says, “from the industry’s view of women, to how valuable it deemed pop music (spoiler: not very). To the Spice Girls’ young fans at that time, its message was clear and actually very raw: the patriarchy is real and the world may be against you in many ways, but you are strong – self-belief and sisterhood can see you through.”

It sounds strange, but without some hasty edits, Spice World could have been one of the most controversial films of the year. It originally contained various elements that all had to be removed at the last minute in response to breaking news. “Elton John made a Versace joke, which we had to cut after [Gianni Versace] died – it was actually Elton John’s best joke,” says Thompson. There was also a whole number with Gary Glitter, which had to be pulled quickly after his arrest in November 1997, as well as a reference to Princess Diana that was taken out after her death that summer.

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Thankfully for its producers, the nature of the film lent itself well to last-minute cuts: “We were in post-production when most of those things came up, so we had the ability to re-edit the material because the material wasn’t necessarily linear,” explains McAleese. “It was never intended to be controversial. It was meant to be fun and fluffy, and entertaining. We were not trying to do Ben-Hur .”

Spice World may well be the last film of its kind. The pop-band-led comedy hasn’t been seen on the big screen in a long time, and these days, artists are more likely to turn to a documentary than to scripted films. “The concept of the pop music comedy is so quintessentially 20th century,” says Smith. “Pre-social media, the pop star was held on a pedestal. The pop star of today is far more accessible. Social media gives fans an access-all-areas pass to their lives, 24/7. There’s a trend of stars striving to appear relatable, hence the surge in popularity of the fly-on-the-wall documentary. It doesn’t seem viable today to present stardom under the guise of a comedy drama. Fans are more astute and artists more transparent.”

And then, of course, there’s the advent of streaming. “People are not going to the cinema in the same numbers that they did before Covid, then even pre-Covid, the numbers were being challenged all the time,” says McAleese.

“Ten years before Spice World , it probably would never have been made either, because the 80s were all about pop videos on MTV. I think the film, the band, them as individuals, they just caught something of the zeitgeist at the time. And it was like a tidal wave for a while. It just carried everybody along with it.”

Spice Girls’ ‘Spiceworld’ Turns 20: Remembering Their Eclectic, Theatrical Second Album

With the Spice Girls' sophomore record turning 20, we're taking a look at it track by track.

By Ilana Kaplan

Ilana Kaplan

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Not to state the obvious, but the Spice Girls were one of the most famous pop groups of the ‘90s. The quintet’s 1996 debut Spice launched a worldwide girl power movement that extended beyond the pop world. But the band continued its reign even as it ventured into more experimental, theatrical territory on their sophomore effort Spiceworld .

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Spiceworld featured all five-band members, Victoria “Posh” Beckham, Emma “Baby” Bunton, Geri “Ginger” Halliwell , Melanie “Scary” Brown and Melanie “Sporty” Chisholm , as they fused pop, R&B, salsa and balladry together. The record would go on to soundtrack their feature film Spice World in 1998 and would continue to build the hype surrounding the pop group.

Jon Bon Jovi Talks Distressed Woman Off Ledge on Nashville Bridge

With the Spice Girls’ sophomore record turning 20 today (Nov. 3), we’re taking a look at it track by track. Perhaps 20 is the magic number for at least four of the five members to reunite for a tour. Let this post serve as encouragement.

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“Spice Up Your Life”

As the introduction to Spiceworld , “Spice Up Your Life” showed the quintet going in a sultrier direction. The track served as a rallying cry to dance your troubles away. And who couldn’t do a little of that with some samba and Ginger Spice’s hypnotic vocals?

“Stop”

If you’re looking for Bananarama vibes on Spiceworld , “Stop” delivers those aplenty (along with some ‘60s girl group swaying). While looking for a “human touch,” the Spice Girls had a convincing way of casting their spell on you with “Stop.”

“Too Much”

“Too Much” is the slow-burning second single from Spiceworld that shines a light on Sporty Spice’s (much-underrated) soaring vocals. The Spice Girls’ plea for a “man” and not a “boy” makes this doo-wop ballad one of their finest songs.

“ Saturday Night Divas”

The third promotional track from Spiceworld , “ Saturday Night Divas” paralleled TLC ’s “Creep” with a pop edge. When the Spice Girls played with ’90s R&B, they always put a candy-coat on it… even if it’s about boning. To this day, the chant “Get down get deeper and down” still probably haunts you (in a good way).

“Never Give Up On The Good Times”

People often forget how disco-influenced the Spice Girls’ sophomore record was, but it was weaved throughout the 10 tracks. The Spice Girls’ overwhelming positivity radiates through this Donna Summer -esque earworm, emphasizing the bonds that come with having a good time together.

“Move Over”

Kendall Jenner’s Pepsi commercial notwithstanding, the brand has enjoyed some legendary artist partnerships. One of the most memorable TV spots featured the Spice Girls donning Pepsi platforms and temporary tattoos while promoting “Generation Next.” It was the perfect anthem for the Gen Y, plus it gave the five-piece a chance to reveal their rapping skills.

“Do It”

If there was a Spice Girls song that could serve as the epitome of the ‘90s, “Do It” would be that song. The airy positive-pop vocals over R&B melodies somehow make the Spice Girls seem like life coaches even 20 years later . Some of the best lessons in life were invented by Spice Girls songs. Case in point: “Don’t just do the right thing to be pleasing.”

“Denying”

“Denying” always seemed to be the companion piece to Spice’s “Say You’ll Be There” (not just because of the funk-synth opening). And it probably wasn’t a coincidence. By this point, it was clear the Spice Girls were saying “ciao” to their denying, lying lover.

“Viva Forever”

As the record’s final single, “Viva Forever” was like the Spice Girls trying their hand at Sade with a fusion of Latin percussion and the vision of a cheesy romance novel. But it worked, and the Spice Girls made a five-minute epic song about living in the moment, but also moving on.

“The Lady Is A Vamp”

The conclusion of Spiceworld seemed to come out of nowhere with “The Lady Is A Vamp.” A jazzy, Broadway show tune, “The Lady Is A Vamp” is fitting when considering Spice World came out a few months later. Who can forget the Spice Girls reciting their names and doing their best Elvis impersonations?

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Spice Girls to Release 25th Anniversary Edition of 'Spiceworld' Album: 'Such a Fun Time for Us'

"It's crazy to think that 25 years have passed," said the Spice Girls in a statement about Spiceworld 25 , which features previously unreleased bonus tracks from the 1997 album

Get ready to "Spice Up Your Life" — again!

On Tuesday, the Spice Girls announced that multiple new and expanded versions of the English girl group's iconic Spiceworld album — featuring the hit singles "Spice Up Your Life," "Too Much" and "Stop" — will be released later this year in celebration of the chart-topping album's 25th anniversary.

"The Spiceworld era was such a fun time for us," said the Spice Girls — Victoria Beckham , Melanie "Mel B" Brown , Emma Bunton , Melanie "Mel C" Chisholm and Geri Halliwell Horner — in a press statement. "We'd just had a number one album with Spice , we were traveling all over the world and meeting our amazing fans, we released our second album AND we had our very own movie! Who would've thought it? It's crazy to think that 25 years have passed."

In addition to the album's original 10 songs, Spiceworld 25 will include "Step to Me (7" Mix)" — which first premiered in a Pepsi ad campaign — as well as the previously released bonus tracks "Outer Space Girls" and "Walk of Life."

The expanded project also features never-before-released songs including the demo version of "Step to Me," live versions of several Spiceworld from concerts in 1997 and 1998, five remixes and a "Spice Girls Party Mix" — aka 15 minutes of remixed Spice Girls hits.

Available in digital deluxe, 2CD with a hardback book, picture disc vinyl, clear vinyl, 2LP deluxe, and double cassette editions, Spiceworld 25 can be pre-ordered now ahead of its Nov. 4 release via UMC and Virgin Records.

Upon its initial release on Nov. 3, 1997, Spiceworld spent three weeks at No. 1 in the UK and sold over a million copies throughout the nation in eight weeks. The album also reached No. 1 in eleven other countries and earned top-10 chart positions in the US, Canada and Japan. Today, the record has sold over 14 million copies worldwide and become certified five-times platinum in the UK as well as four-times platinum in the US.

Spiceworld was accompanied by the Spice World movie, which grossed around $100 million worldwide, and a massive 1998 Spiceworld Tour, during which the group performed to over 2 million fans across North America and Europe.

During an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show last year, Mel C, formerly known as Sporty Spice, 47, assured the Spice Girls' loyal followers that she's "constantly" in communication with Mel B, Halliwell and Bunton about getting the group back together for another reunion tour.

"I really hope so," Chisholm told guest host Howie Mandel. "We're talking about it. We are talking about it constantly. It was always the plan. We did these amazing stadium shows in the U.K. islands two years ago. It was the best thing we've ever done. The creativity was so incredible. We had the best time."

"But we've got to come back. Because we love the U.S. Our fans here are amazing," she added.

Chisholm previously told PEOPLE another tour " has to happen " after the success of their 13-date U.K. tour in 2019, and she's even hoping to get Victoria Beckham (a.k.a. Posh Spice) onboard this time.

"At the moment, it's only the four of us. We're working on Victoria. She might be sucked into the idea at some point," she said on PEOPLE (the TV Show!) in October 2021.

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‘We ran out of parts for people’: How Spice World became the ‘must be in’ movie of the Nineties

Mark beaumont finds out why a homage to beatles films made at the height of the spice girls’ fame got panned by critics only to become a cult classic, article bookmarked.

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‘We wanted to do a film that was very much in the spirit of the girls, and they didn’t take themselves seriously’

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A s the yacht drew into Port de Cannes and the camera shutters went into overdrive, it seemed from a distance that five disparate versions of Audrey Hepburn were making the grandest of entrances. Sporting the sunglasses and headscarves of 1950s starlets – variously paired with leopard-print chiffon, rainbow crop-tops and sports-branded underwear – this was a ragtag bunch of ingenues. There was an elegant one, a redheaded one, a childlike one, one who looked a bit angry about something, and one seemingly fresh from a set of mixed doubles.

Waving to the hordes of screaming fans on the docks, the Spice Girls swept ashore at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival ready to strut, pose, backflip and karate-kick their way right through the silver screen. A global phenomenon, they had arrived at the celebrated movie conference to promote their debut cinematic endeavour, Spice World: The Movie , released 25 years ago this week, and even somewhere as star-studded as Cannes had rarely seen such scenes of frenzied fandemonium.

“The Cannes Film Festival is quite an earnest place, and it brought this burst of colour into a black-and-white world,” says Barnaby Thompson, Spice World ’s co-producer. “We put them on the roof of the Hotel Martinez and there’s 10,000 people outside. I don’t know what Beatlemania was like, but there was a real sense of excitement about everything.”

The buzz around the band – who’d had four UK No 1 hits in the previous 12 months and hit the US top spot with “Wannabe” during filming – would make the movie a $100m (£83m) success on the back of a $5m (£4.13m) budget, not bad for a largely plot-free hodgepodge of celebrity cameos, surrealist dream sequences, Tardis tour-buses, movie pastiches, Girl Power wisecracking, and close encounters with horny aliens, which was panned by critics at the time.

Over the intervening quarter-century, however, its stature has grown to that of credible cult classic: an end-of-innocence snapshot of an unrepeatable moment in both British cinema and pop music, when pop stars could still be a little magical and unreal, and their movies pure primary-coloured lark.

Much of the retrospective appeal of Spice World is a result of the unashamed debt it owes to classic Ealing comedy and the cinematic oeuvre of The Beatles. “ A Hard Day’s Night was always one of my favourite films,” says Thompson. “And so the idea of doing A Hard Day’s Night with a female group was very appealing.”

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In fact, Spice World was more of a catch-all homage to all of The Beatles’ films. Its scenes of Spicemania were pulled straight from the Hard Day’s Night playbook, but the girls’ tour bus – a union-flag-festooned double-decker from the outside; inside, the size of a small house, with individual quarters for each Spice that allowed Victoria Adams a full mirrored wardrobe and Emma Bunton a swing and a slide – was a flagrant nod to the Fabs’ communal house with four front doors in Help! .

Likewise the comic-book character work, including Richard E Grant’s role as the Spice Girls’ manager, clad in the bright-coloured suits of a mid-ranking Batman villain, and Richard O’Brien as a creepy paparazzo climbing out from under beds and inside toilets to try to snap the girls.

The more bizarre sequences, meanwhile, could have fallen straight out of the drug-drenched script of Magical Mystery Tour . Take Michael Barrymore’s turn as an unintelligible drill-sergeant-cum-choreographer called Mr Step, a flash-forward of the girls as middle-aged mums, or the iconic scene in which aliens descend to meet the band then try to feel up Mel B.

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It all worked, Thompson believes, because of the postmodern “movie within a movie” framework of the film – “There’s basically a producer and a writer pitching the movie to the Richard E Grant character as it’s unfolding” – a premise that allowed Spice World to shoot off at self-parodic tangents without becoming too much of a mess. “We wanted to do a film that was very much in the spirit of the girls, and they didn’t take themselves seriously,” Thompson says. “There’s the Roger Moore character, who is very much a satirical take on [then-manager] Simon Fuller, so everyone was happy to make fun of themselves.”

“The Beatles did the whole thing about being pursued by the reporters, and it was very much a caper,” says the film’s co-writer Kim Fuller, brother of Simon and at one time a regular contributor to TV comedy shows such as Alas Smith and Jones , Spitting Image and The Tracey Ullman Show . “But Spinal Tap was partly what I was thinking of – it was an ironic send-up.”

That Spice World became such a madcap blitz of a movie was largely down to Disney’s addiction to schmaltz. The Spice Girls had been eyeing up the big screen ever since they took control of their own “manufactured” band after having been put together by audition in 1994. “When we got together ... one of the first things we said was ‘It’d be really great if we could do a movie,’” Emma Bunton said in 1997. “We said to ourselves, ‘We’re not just a band, we want to try everything.’” “We always wanted to go out and conquer the world,” added Melanie Chisholm. “We’re just pushing it to the boundaries and seeing how far we can go.”

As their star ascended with “Wannabe” in 1996, Simon Fuller touted them around Hollywood studios and sold an option on a Spice Girls film to Disney. “I read it and it was very much in the Disney mould,” says Kim, who was denied the chance to contribute to Disney’s script. “It shows their family relationships, one’s from a single parent... it was very much a progressive Disney story, and they all come together and they all overcome their issues and become a famous band.”

The Spice Girls rejected the proposal. “Although the perception was that they were brought together and manufactured, they were actually very much in control of what they would and wouldn’t do,” says Kim. “So turning Disney down was fine.” Instead, once Disney’s option had expired in November 1996, Fuller was granted free rein to work on a script, spending time with this “force of nature” of a band to get “an angle on their characters and lives, where they’d come from, and what their attitudes were”.

The writing process was a back-and-forth collaboration. “We got the idea of ‘Let’s send up a week in their lives,’” Kim says, “and I would go to them and say, ‘What do you feel about this?’, because I wasn’t necessarily sure that they would happily show themselves up in this slightly mad, over-exaggerated way. They would come back with ‘How about if we do this in that scene?’, so it worked in that way, more like a dialogue backwards and forwards... I remember saying ‘I want to do something where someone falls in the river’ because it’d be funny if they’re doing a stunt on a boat. And Geri said, ‘Victoria should do that.’ The whole concept was there in front of me, the celebration of female friendship – it was them; they did that – and I put it into a structure and made it daft and funny.”

‘The whole concept was there in front of me, the celebration of female friendship – it was them, they did that’

Thompson, who had previously worked on Wayne’s World and Coneheads with Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels, stresses the simplicity of the film as being key to its success. “The simple idea that they’ve got this concert to do at the end of the week. They’ve got the press after them. And that’s kind of the plot. That very much came from the purity of A Hard Day’s Night . Nothing happens in A Hard Day’s Night . Ringo gets sulky, goes off for a wander. It was about creating a vehicle for the girls’ personalities, their outlook on the world.”

By January 1997, the script was semi-complete and the Spice World ball was rolling. Impressive names began to leap aboard the union jack bus, with the girls themselves doing their fair share of casting. “Geri and Emma said, ‘You are going to be in this film, aren’t you?’” Grant recalled at the time. “I was flattered they even knew of my existence.”

Barry Humphries took the role of media-chief villain Kevin McMaxford, Jason Flemyng his newsroom sidekick, and O’Brien his sinister agent stalking the girls. “It does represent that we have been hounded since day one by the press,” Halliwell said in 1997. “They’re everywhere,” Chisholm added. “You wonder when you go to bed at night if there’ll be one hiding under your bed.”

Roger Moore signed on as the band’s record-label chief, Elvis Costello as a barman, and Meat Loaf as the girls’ bus driver when the original choice, Frank Bruno, stormed off set because the band wouldn’t sign autographs for a young family member. “I found out what his biggest hit was, ‘I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)’, so we’ve got to put that in somehow,” Kim says. The thing Meat wouldn’t do for the Spice Girls, in one of the movie’s most memorable lines, was unblocking the bus toilets. “I said, ‘Do you mind saying that?’ And he said, ‘No, I’ll say whatever you want.’”

“At a certain point we could ring up anyone,” says Thompson. “Bob Hoskins is in it, and Bob Hoskins had not worked his whole career so that he could get to be in a telephone box with the Spice Girls. But he was clearly told by the young and, I suspect, female members of his family that it was not an opportunity that he could turn down.” There were only a few high-profile near misses. “Joan Collins was up for it, and by the time she said she’d do it, it was too late,” says Fuller, while Thompson believes they almost bagged Tony Blair. “There was a scene that we had at the beginning of the film which was outside No 10,” he grins. “There were lots of chats with Downing Street, but it didn’t come through in the end.”

Competition for roles was fierce. Alan Cumming, who played a documentary director following the girls throughout the movie, admitted: “I bludgeoned my way into this. It is like my dream come true to work on this film.” Naoko Mori, who had played Saffy’s friend Sarah in Absolutely Fabulous , provided the emotional heart of Spice World as the girls’ pregnant friend Nicola, left behind amid the maelstrom of pop stardom. She was told that virtually every female actor in their twenties had gone up for her part. “Bob Spiers, the director, said they had people fainting meeting the girls,” she laughs. “I didn’t faint, so that was probably a tick.”

If you wanted to be the Spice Girls’ co-star you had to get with their friends, so Mori was adopted into the girl gang from day one. “Instantly they were so friendly,” she laughs. “They would all talk at once, which is so cute. Geri was straight in: ‘What’s your name, we love you, have you got a boyfriend?’” Victoria even asked Mori to talk to her boyfriend David, a fan of Mori’s work, on the phone. Having flown in from Japan to audition knowing little about the band beyond their music, it was three days before Mori realised she’d had a chinwag with Golden Balls himself.

Such was the clamour for screen time that, according to Fuller, “We ran out of parts for people,” and he began writing in cameo scenes as the filming progressed. Backstage corridor encounters with Elton John, Jools Holland as the gig’s musical director, fantasy scenes featuring Stephen Fry as a judge and Hugh Laurie as Hercule Poirot. Bob Geldof and Jennifer Saunders were among the famous faces to be spotted in a party scene, and a four-minute cameo from Gary Glitter was removed pre-release after he was arrested for possessing images of child sexual abuse.

The girls with Elton John: ‘At a certain point we could ring up anyone’

Jonathan Ross recalled the celebrity mentality around Spice World in 1997. He described how, reading a newspaper article listing the many famous names appearing in the film, he had scoffed: “‘Who are these fools that are taking part in this movie? There’s no way I’d do it...” He continued: “Secretly, inside, I was weeping. Then that morning I bumped into the director, who said ‘Would you like to be in the film?’ I said ‘Bob, I’d love to!’”

Comedy Store Players founder and Whose Line Is it Anyway? regular Neil Mullarkey had a similarly last-minute casting experience. “[Co-writer Jamie Curtis] rang me on the Sunday night,” he remembers. “He said, ‘Have you got a suit? Can you be in Chiswick tomorrow morning?’ ‘Yeah, OK.’ That was the casting couch.”

If the plot was designed as a movie within a movie, the shoot itself added another layer of meta. While producers were filling London streets and the Albert Hall with screaming extras to recreate the mania around the band, beyond the barriers the chaos was happening for real. Legions of fans would besiege studios and locations. “It was a bit daft,” says Fuller. “Instead of using extras we could have just filmed the real crowd half the time.” During a location shoot at a stately home near a farm, paparazzi even disguised themselves as a pantomime cow to try to get shots of the girls on set.

“The security was crazy,” says Mori. “Everywhere we went there was just a sea of fans and paparazzi. If we were moving from one place to the other, we would literally be putting blankets over our head and there’d be tarpaulins so people couldn’t peek in.”

Paparazzi even disguised themselves as a pantomime cow to try to get shots of the girls on set

In the eye of what Halliwell called “one massive tornado”, the Spice Girls themselves were surprisingly unflappable. “Everything’s quite normal to us, it’s just everybody on the outside’s going a bit ‘Waaah!’,” Chisholm said on set. Despite early starts and constant wrangling over lines, the band revelled in scenes where they were transformed into superheroes or dressed as each other for a day, and gave largely merit-worthy performances on camera. Thompson found them to be the very antithesis of pop divas.

“They all shared a trailer, and for the first time I think they all got separate cars,” he says. “I think they were a bit lost, they didn’t know quite what to do.” “We were all sharing the green room,” adds Mori, “so there wasn’t that sort of hierarchy thing of ‘You have to go into that tiny room over there because the girls are here’.”

Such was their work ethic that, between takes, the band would conduct promo interviews, perform for international TV shows, greet competition winners, or sequester themselves in the on-hand studio truck to record the accompanying, 14-million-selling Spiceworld album, sometimes delivering tracks for use in the film with hours to spare.

“We made it very much on the run,” says Thompson. “We were writing the script whilst we were shooting it. They were recording the songs whilst we were shooting. Some of the songs, like ‘Spice Up Your Life’ – literally, we were played that the day before. We could have got very uptight about the fact that we’ve got 5,000 people in the Albert Hall and we don’t have a song yet, but there was a level of trust that they would deliver. It made it a very exciting film to make... we were just reacting to things that were happening. It was very liberating.”

The thrown-together attitude pokes through at times. Witness the circle of stage lighting covered in smoke machines that was called in at the last minute because no one had been asked to build a spaceship for the alien arrival scene. Or the miniature cardboard model of Tower Bridge created for the climactic moment when Victoria jumps the speeding tour-bus over the Thames to get to the show in time.

But Spice World ’s fantastical, knockabout feel is part of the charm of the finished film, and key to its subsequent cult status. As the New Labour dream turned sour, 9/11 darkened the dawn of the 21st century, and the drive towards social media “relatability” stripped pop stars of their mystique, with the vibe becoming more confessional than celebratory, this piece of Nineties cash-in fluff began to make the Cool Britannia era look like a golden age, its colour and carefree humour recalling the equally corny documents of Sixties British psychedelia.

Cool Britannia: ‘Spice World’ made the Nineties era look like a golden age

“It’s difficult to imagine that the late Nineties was an innocent time, but it was a period of enormous hope and positivity,” says Thompson. “We’d had all the Thatcher years, and it was felt that there was a positive government – a lot of things that we don’t have right now. The country felt very together, people felt very proud to be British or English. We had that great 1996 Euros. It was an amazing time. And I think that gave a kind of positivity, which the girls epitomised. We set out to capture that moment. If an alien was to land 50 years from now and say ‘What was 1996 or ’97 like?’, that’s what we’d show them.”

Fuller is proud of Spice World ’s “innocent spirit”, and that it purposefully avoided any “dodgy” innuendo or casual misogyny that might have undermined its “girl power” ethos. He points out that it passed the Bechdel test with flying colours, and bottled the lightning of a phenomenon that was swiftly sparking out. By the time of the film’s release – just one year on from the deal being struck – the band had fired Simon Fuller as manager. Within six months, Halliwell would depart, setting in motion the band’s collapse 18 months and one final album (2000’s ironically titled Forever ) later. The unified girl gang of Spice World was, almost immediately, a thing of the past, caught in celluloid aspic.

By capturing that fleeting moment, the film has become a gleaming relic of the brief peak period of mid-Nineties poptimism, alongside Blur vs Oasis and Pulp at Glastonbury. And for the generation of pop fans who had their life spiced up by it, it represents the essence of pre-millennial youth, the sheer, exuberant zig-a-zig-ah-ness of the Nineties teenage experience. “I can’t tell you how many people I meet now, who are in their thirties and forties, for whom it was a massive film in terms of their life,” Thompson smiles. “Adele was a huge Spice Girls fan. I think that for a lot of young girls in particular, they’d just never seen anything like that.”

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Spice World (film)

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Spice World is a 1997 British musical comedy film directed by Bob Spiers and written by Kim Fuller . The film stars pop girl group the Spice Girls , who all play themselves. The film—made in a similar vein to the Beatles ' A Hard Day's Night (1964)—depicts a series of fictional events leading up to a major concert at London's Royal Albert Hall , liberally interspersed with dream sequences and flashbacks as well as surreal moments and humorous asides, whilst also including a subplot dealing with a smear campaign against the Spice Girls by an overzealous newspaper CEO in an attempt to destroy their reputation for his own benefit.

This is the second feature-length film directed by Spiers, following That Darn Cat (1997). The film features Richard E. Grant , Alan Cumming , George Wendt , Claire Rushbrook , Mark McKinney and Roger Moore in supporting roles, with cameo appearances by a number of British celebrities. Filming took place in London for six of the eight filming weeks and also inside Twickenham Studios , as well as at over forty famous British landmarks. Shooting featured several fourteen-hour shooting sessions and a constant, heavy media presence due to the Spice Girls' then-large popularity.

The film premiered in the United Kingdom on 15 December 1997, ahead of its wide theatrical release on the British holiday Boxing Day (26 December). In North America, it was released on 23 January 1998 by Columbia Pictures . In the United States, Spice World became a box office success and broke the record for the highest-ever weekend debut for Super Bowl weekend with box office sales of $10.5 million. The film grossed $56 million at the worldwide box office and received primarily negative reviews. [1]

To celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2017, Spice World was given a limited release across the United Kingdom showing at Odeon Cinemas. Spice World is the highest-grossing film of all time by a musical group. [2]

3.1 Development
3.2.1 Gary Glitter references
3.3 Filming
4.2 Merchandising
4.3 Home media
4.4 2017 re-release
5.1 Box office
5.2 Critical reception
5.3 Reappraisal
5.4 Accolades
7 Potential sequel
9.1 Book references
10 External links

The Spice Girls perform their song " Too Much " on Top of the Pops , but are dissatisfied with the burdens of fame and fortune. Meanwhile, the sinister newspaper owner, Kevin McMaxford, is trying to destroy the girls' reputation for his ratings. McMaxford dispatches photographer Damien to take pictures and tape recordings of the girls. Piers Cuthbertson-Smyth, with his camera crew, stalks the girls, hoping to use them as subjects for his next project. At the same time, the girls' manager, Clifford, is fending off two over-eager Hollywood writers, Martin Barnfield and Graydon, who relentlessly pitch absurd plot ideas for the girls' feature film.

Meanwhile, the girls must prepare for their live concert at the Royal Albert Hall in three days, which will be the biggest performance of their music career. At the heart of it, the constant rehearsals, travelling, publicity appearances, and other burdens of celebrity affect the girls on a personal level, preventing them from spending much time with their best friend, Nicola, who is expecting her first child soon. Throughout the busy schedule, the girls try to ask Clifford for time off to relax and to spend with Nicola, but Clifford refuses after talking with the head of the girls' record label, the cryptic and eccentric "Chief" on his cell phone. The stress and overwork compound, which culminate in the girls' huge argument with Clifford. The girls suddenly storm out on the evening before their gig at the Albert Hall.

The girls separately think back on their humble beginnings and their struggle to the top. They reunite by chance outside the abandoned café where they practised during their adolescent years; they reconcile and decide to take Nicola out dancing. However, Nicola's contractions start at the nightclub and she is rushed to the hospital, where she gives birth to a healthy baby girl. When Emma notices that the delivery "doctor" has a camera, the girls realize that he is Damien, who flees with the girls in hot pursuit, only to hit his head after accidentally colliding with an empty stretcher. When Damien sees the girls standing over him, he tells them that they have made him realise he's "been living a meaningless lie", and he goes after McMaxford, who is subsequently fired in a "Jacuzzi scandal". After noticing that the girls' bus driver, Dennis, is missing, Victoria decides to take the wheel. It becomes a race against time as Victoria drives recklessly through the streets of London to the Albert Hall. While approaching Tower Bridge , the bridge starts being raised to let a boat through the River Thames . Victoria drives up the bridge and over the gap. The bus lands safely on the other side, but when Emma opens a trapdoor in the floor, she discovers a bomb, and the girls scream before Emma slams the trapdoor shut again.

The girls finally arrive at the Albert Hall and then run the Rocky Steps for their performance. However, the girls have one more obstacle to overcome: a London policeman charges them with "dangerous driving, criminal damage, flying a bus without a licence, and frightening the pigeons". Emma is pushed forward to explains to the policeman that she and the other girls were late for their performance at the Albert Hall. Emma smiles at the policeman, and he lets the girls off for their performance. The girls open their Albert Hall concert with their song " Spice Up Your Life ", which is broadcast live on global television. The supporting cast later talk about the girls' film during its closing credits. Melanie C breaks the fourth wall and tells the other girls that the outgoing audience is watching them. The girls talk to the audience, commenting on "those two in the back row snogging" and on one's dress, and discuss about their film, just minutes before the bomb on their bus explodes.

Template:Cast list

Production [ ]

Development [ ].

Geri Halliwell's red swimsuit from the film

As the popularity of the Spice Girls grew, The Walt Disney Company approached the band about making a film. The band turned down Disney's offer as they did not like the "Disney-fied" script, which was about "a young single mother of one of the girls, fighting hardship to form the band." [3] Kim Fuller , brother of the band's manager Simon Fuller , decided to write the screenplay for a Spice Girls movie himself. [3]

According to Fuller, the script had to be revised many times to accommodate the growing number of celebrities hoping to take part in the film. [3] Director Bob Spiers had been working in America on the Disney film That Darn Cat at the peak of the Girls' popularity. He was unaware of the group when first offered the job until his friend Jennifer Saunders advised that he take it. He arrived at a meeting with them in a New York hotel, unaware of what they looked like. [4]

Casting [ ]

Frank Bruno was originally cast as the tour bus driver, but withdrew after a security guard prevented his son Franklin having an on-set photo taken with the girls. Mentions of Princess Diana and scenes featuring the designer Gianni Versace had to be edited out in post-production following their deaths shortly before the release of the film. [5]

"Their company rang me up and asked if I would be in it", remarked Elvis Costello of his cameo. "I wouldn't have thought I was the kind of face you would get to do a cornflakes advert. Maybe twenty years ago. I was surprised." [6]

Gary Glitter references [ ]

Glam rock singer Gary Glitter filmed a four-minute cameo appearance as himself, but shortly before release, he was arrested on child pornography offences . The Spice Girls and the production team agreed that his cameo should be deleted from the final print, although the band's performance of Glitter's " I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am) " was retained. [5] Glitter's scene has since been leaked online. [7]

Filming [ ]

Spice World began filming in June and wrapped in August 1997. [8] The film was to be set to the songs from the Girls' second studio album, but no songs had been written when filming began. The band thus had to do all the songwriting and recording at the same time as they were filming Spice World . [9]

An official motion picture soundtrack was not released. Their second studio album, Spiceworld (1997), was heavily promoted and served as the film's soundtrack. The only song from Spiceworld not to appear in the film is " Move Over ". The songs appearing in the film are in order of appearance.

" Too Much " was released in part to promote the film, and debuted atop the UK Singles Chart , [10] becoming the Spice Girls' second consecutive Christmas number-one single . [11] It made the group the first act to reach number one with their first six singles, and the first to debut atop the chart five times in a row. [12] The single spent two weeks at number one, [13] and was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on 9 January 1998. [11]

Template:Col-begin Template:Col-2

Spice Girls - " Too Much " ( Opening sequence )
Spice Girls - "Do It"
Spice Girls - " Say You'll Be There (Concert Version) "
Spice Girls - " Mama "
Spice Girls - "Denying"
Spice Girls - "Saturday Night Divas"
Spice Girls - " Stop "
Spice Girls - " 2 Become 1 "
Spice Girls - " I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am) "

Template:Col-break

Spice Girls - "Never Give Up on the Good Times"
Spice Girls - " Sound Off "
Millie Small - " My Boy Lollipop "
Spice Girls - " Viva Forever "
Spice Girls - " Wannabe (Demo Version) "
Spice Girls - " Who Do You Think You Are (Morales Club Mix) "
Spice Girls - " Spice Up Your Life "
Spice Girls - "The Lady Is a Vamp" ( Closing titles )

Template:Col-end

Release [ ]

In the United Kingdom, Spice World was granted a PG certificate by the British Board of Film Classification for "mild bad language, mild sex references". [14] In the United States, it received a PG rating from the Motion Picture Association for "some vulgarity, brief nudity and language".

Merchandising [ ]

Official toy versions of the Spice Bus were produced upon the release of the film. [15]

Home media [ ]

The film was released on VHS in May 1998 in many regions including the UK, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Japan and Australia. In June 1998, it came out on VHS in the US and Canada. Despite concerns that the high-profile departure of Halliwell from the Spice Girls would affect sales, global demand for the VHS was high. [16] In the UK, the film was number one on the video charts for six consecutive weeks, [17] was certified 11× Platinum, and became the ninth best-selling video of 1998. [18] In the US, the film peaked at number one on the video charts for five consecutive weeks [19] and was the fifth best-selling video of 1998. [20]

Spice World: The 10th Anniversary Edition was released on DVD on 19 November 2007 in the United Kingdom and Australia and on 27 November 2007 in the United States.

Spice World: The 20th Anniversary Edition was released on DVD on 7 February 2018 in Australia. [21]

2017 re-release [ ]

In 2017, the film was screened at various cinemas in the UK, Ireland and Australia to mark its 20th anniversary. [1]

Reception [ ]

Box office [ ].

Spice World was a number-one box office success in the United Kingdom, grossing £2.3 million during its opening weekend on Boxing Day 1997. It was the highest opening gross for a British production in the UK, surpassing the record set earlier in the year by Bean (excluding previews for Bean ) [22] and also set a record opening week gross for a British film in the U.K. with a gross of £4.8 million. [23] The film was also successful in the United States, breaking the record at that time for the highest-ever weekend debut for Super Bowl weekend (25 January 1998), with box office sales of $10,527,222. [24] The film took in $56 million at the box office worldwide, [25] though media articles have referred to a higher figure of $100 million after DVD sales were included.

Critical reception [ ]

The film received generally negative reviews from critics. Film review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave Spice World a rating of 35% based on reviews from 68 critics, with an average rating of 4.7 out of 10 and a critic consensus that reads " Spice World Template:'s lack of cohesive plot will likely lose most viewers, but for fans of the titular girl group there's more than enough fun to be had in their wacky -- albeit superficial -- whirlwind of an adventure." [26] On Metacritic , the film has a 32 out of 100 rating, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". [27] AllMovie gave it two out of five stars. [28]

Noted American film critic Roger Ebert gave one-half of a star and listed Spice World as one of his most hated films, saying: "The Spice Girls are easier to tell apart than the Mutant Ninja Turtles , but that is small consolation: What can you say about five women whose principal distinguishing characteristic is that they have different names? They occupy Spice World as if they were watching it: They're so detached they can't even successfully lip-synch their own songs." And when he reviewed the film on his and Gene Siskel 's film critique programme Siskel & Ebert , only three weeks into 1998, he declared that he had already seen the worst film of that year, and called it "an entertainment-free dead zone". Ebert included the film on the Worst of 1998 special, but he chose Armageddon as the worst film of 1998. [29] [30]

Janet Maslin of The New York Times stated that the film "is pleasant and painless enough to amuse ardent fans, who figure in the film quite often." She also noted that while it got a PG rating in the United States, "nothing about it should disturb its target audience of media-wise, fun-loving 8-year-old girls." [31] Writing for Sight and Sound , in a positive review, Mark Sinker placed it alongside the Monkees ' 1968 cult film Head . He went on to say that it "sends up the amiable idiocy of pop packaging - and the slow witted mass-media response to it" and it was "tirelessly generous in its energy". [32]

Derek Elley , resident film critic for Variety , gave a mixed review, calling the film "bright and breezy" and "as timely but evanescent as the Cool Britannia culture it celebrates". He stated that the film would "delight the Fab Five's pre-pubescent fans" but that it would "be forgotten within six months". [33]

Reappraisal [ ]

Several critics have reevaluated the film more positively in the years after its initial release. Re-watching Spice World in 2019, Alice Vincent of The Daily Telegraph was "pleasantly surprised" that the jokes had not aged badly and found the sets and costuming had a "now-retro charm". Vincent stated: "It's an irreverent, lighthearted romp that captured the brash, patriotic positivity of a London swept up in Cool Britannia." [34] Writing for The New York Times in 2019, Eleanor Stanford found the film to be "much smarter and more self-aware than I once gave it credit for," particularly enjoying how the Spice Girls poked fun at themselves. Stanford concluded: "The Spice Girls were absolutely working the (very sexist) system, and making a lot of money off it, but they were doing it slyly, with a wink and a grin. They were, I think, misunderstood at the time, and I wonder if an irreverent, breezy group like theirs could even exist today." [35]

Accolades [ ]

The film has been listed in Golden Raspberry Awards founder John Wilson 's book The Official Razzie Movie Guide as one of "The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made". [36] Along with the nominations and wins racked up at the 1998 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards , Spice World was listed in their upcoming "100 Years, 100 Stinkers" list, in which people voted for the 100 worst movies of the 20th century. The film was ranked at #5. [37] [38]

The bus used in the Spice World movie

Although Spice World negatively reviewed during its original release, retrospective reviews have rated the movie more positively. [40] It has arguably achieved cult status . [41] [42] [43]

Several commentators consider the film to be a cult classic , with Sara David of Vice naming the movie a "deranged, postmodern masterpiece". [44] Some reviewers have appreciated the mockery of celebrity culture and cinematic clichés in the film, [45] while adding excerpts of popular culture at the time. [46]

On 18 July 2014, the Spice Bus used in the film was put on permanent display at Island Harbour Marina , on the Isle of Wight of England. [47]

Potential sequel [ ]

In 2010, Bunton revealed that there were plans for a sequel following the first film's release, stating: "We would've liked to do another film, but after Spice World , there was an album, then a tour and then Geri left, so it didn't happen." [48]

Speaking in January 2019, following the announcement of the Spice Girls reunion tour , Simon Fuller confirmed plans to make an animated sequel to Spice World. [49] On 13 June 2019, it was reported that Paramount Animation president Mireille Soria had greenlit the project, with all five members of the band returning. The project will be produced by Simon Fuller , with Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith writing the screenplay, and will feature both previous and original songs. [50] The film would feature the band as superheroes . A director has not yet been announced. [51]

References [ ]

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Book references [ ]

Template:Cite book

External links [ ]

Template:IMDb title
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Template:Spice Girls Template:Films directed by Bob Spiers Template:Navboxes

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↑ 1.0 1.1 Vincent, Alice (29 September 2017). Five go mad on camera: how the Spice Girls made Spice World . The Telegraph .
↑ All Time Domestic Box Office for Based on Musical Group Movies (13 July 2020).
↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Kale, Sirin (23 January 2018). How the 'Spice World' Movie Became a Deranged, Postmodern Masterpiece . Vice .
↑ Bob Spiers and Stacey Adair, Joking Apart , Series 2 Episode 2, DVD audio commentary, replaydvd.co.uk
↑ 5.0 5.1 Template:Harvnb
↑ Template:Cite magazine
↑ The Truth Behind The Deleted Gary Glitter Cameo In The Spice Girls Movie . Yahoo! Movies (5 May 2016).
↑ Template:Harvnb
↑ Official Singles Chart Top 100 | Official Charts Company .
↑ 11.0 11.1 Myers, Justin (14 December 2017). Classic Christmas Number 1s: Spice Girls' 2 Become 1 . Official Charts Company.
↑ Template:Cite news
↑ All The Number 1 Singles . Official Charts Company.
↑ Spice World – The Movie (PG) . British Board of Film Classification (27 November 1997).
↑ Toy Spice Buses . VivaSpice.net.
↑ Official Video Chart Top 100: 31 May 1998 – 11 July 1998 . Official Charts Company . Retrieved 17 February 2017.
↑ End of Year Video Chart Top 100 - 1998 . Official Charts Company . Retrieved 17 February 2017.
Template:Cite magazine
↑ Spiceworld - the Movie - 20th Anniversary Edition .
↑ Opening weekend box office sales in the US . Internet Movie Database . Retrieved 25 June 2006.
↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named The Numbers
↑ Spice World (1998) . Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media .
↑ Spice World Reviews . Metacritic . CBS Interactive .
↑ Template:AllMovie title
↑ Template:Cite journal
↑ Vincent, Alice (24 May 2019). When the Spice Girls hit Cannes: the inside story of Spice World, 'the worst film ever made' . The Daily Telegraph .
↑ Stanford, Eleanor (2 September 2019). 'Spice World' & Me . The New York Times .
↑ Template:Cite book
↑ The 100 Worst Films of the 20th Century .
↑ The Top 10 [sic Worst Films of All Time].
↑ Past Winners Database (3 January 2007).
↑ Duke, Simon (2017-08-02). Spice World returns to cinemas for limited edition screening .
↑ Duke, Simon (2017-08-01). Spice World The Movie set to air at North East cinema as it turns 20 .
↑ Donahue, Anne T. (2017-06-22). 'Spice World' is a Brilliant Movie. It Might Even Be Better Than 'A Hard Day's Night.' .
↑ Stopera, Matt (21 March 2013). 37 Reasons "Spice World" Is A Cinematic Masterpiece .
↑ The Spice Bus . Island Harbour. Retrieved 25 June 2016.
↑ A new Spice Girls film is coming (13 January 2019).
↑ 'Spice Girls' Movie in the Works as Paramount Unveils Animation Slate (Exclusive) (12 June 2019).
↑ The Spice Girls are getting an animated movie — and all five members are on board (12 June 2019).
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Since its initial 1997 release, the iconic UK girl group’s second album has since sold more than 14 million copies worldwide.

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Celebrating the 25th anniversary of Spiceworld , the multi-million selling second album by the biggest girl band of all time – the Spice Girls release new and expanded versions of the album on multiple formats via UMC / Virgin Records – out November 4.

Curated by the band themselves, Spiceworld 25 brings together the original chart topping album with some of their favourite bonus tracks and B-Sides, along with previously unreleased live recordings from the Virgin Records archive.

The band say, “The ‘Spiceworld’ era was such a fun time for us; we’d just had a number one album with Spice , we were travelling all over the world and meeting our amazing fans, we released our second album AND we had our very own movie! Who would’ve thought it? It’s crazy to think that 25 years have passed.”

The iconic Spiceworld album, released on November 3, 1997, spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Official Charts UK album chart and 48 weeks on the UK Top 40. It sold 192,000 copies in the UK Week 1, passing a million sales after just eight weeks, reaching No. 1 in eleven other territories, No. 2 in Canada, No. 3 in the US and No. 6 in Japan. Spiceworld has since sold more than 14 million copies worldwide, including more than 1.6 million in the UK (where industry trade body the BPI has certified it 5 x Platinum) and 4.2 million in the US (certified 4 x Platinum by the RIAA).

Spice Girls - Spice Up Your Life (Official Music Video)

Across the formats, highlights include fan favourite “Step To Me”, originally the soundtrack to a 1997 soft drinks campaign where fans were required to collect twenty pink ring pull tabs from cans in return for a four track ‘not in the shops’ CD single. ‘SPICEWORLD 25’ digital and 2CD formats include the previously unheard original demo recording.

Fans who have long clamored for a live album that captured the excitement generated by the Spice Girls’ hugely successful 1998 ninety-seven-date European and North America tour will delight at the four previously unreleased live recordings included on both the 2LP set and the 2 Cassette tape set, all captured at different venues.

Together with some timeless remixes, a search of the archives revealed a previously unreleased version of “Viva Forever” – the ‘John Themis Ambient Mix’ is named after the much in demand Australian-born guitarist who later co-wrote Emma Bunton’s April 2001 solo No. 1 “What Took You So Long”.

The digital, CD and cassette formats are rounded off by a brand new “Spice Girls Party Mix”, which pulls together some of the bands biggest and most popular hits in a near-fifteen minute fiesta of brilliant Pop music.

After their iconic 1996 debut single “Wannabe” topped the charts in 37 countries, Spice Girls’ debut album Spice went on to sell more than 31 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling album of all time by a female group. The girls have gone on to sell more than 90 million records around the globe, releasing three studio albums and 11 singles and winning a host of awards including a BRIT Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music.

Pre-order Spiceworld 25 .

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It's the final evening of the Spice World tour, will Victoria Beckham make an appearance?

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Spiceworld Tour
The Spiceworld Tour (also known as Spice Girls in Concert and the Girl Power Tour '98) was the debut concert tour by English girl group the Spice Girls.It was launched in support of their first two studio albums, Spice (1996) and Spiceworld (1997). The sell-out European/North American tour ran from February to August 1998, after which it returned to the UK in September 1998 for a series of ...
Christmas in Spiceworld Tour
Christmas in Spiceworld Tour was the second concert tour by English girl group the Spice Girls.The eight-show tour was launched following "solo projects, marriages, motherhood and another round of slagging in the press", as a reunion for the girls. [1] The eight-show tour was attended by more than 153,000 people, grossing $5.7 million in ticket sales.
Spice World
Spice World - 2019 UK Tour was the fourth concert tour by English girl-group the Spice Girls, and the group's first large-stadium tour.It was the group's only tour without "Posh Spice" Victoria Beckham, and only visited cities in Great Britain and Ireland. Spice World commenced on 24 May 2019 at Croke Park, Dublin, to a sold-out crowd of over 74,000 people, and ended on 15 June 2019 at ...
Spiceworld (tour)
The Spiceworld Tour (also known as Spice Girls in Concert and the Girl Power Tour '98) was the debut concert tour by British girl group the Spice Girls. It was launched in-support of their first and second studio albums, Spice (1996) and Spiceworld (1997), respectively. The sell-out European/North American tour ran for around six months, kicking-off in Dublin, Ireland in February 1998 and ...
Spice World
Spice World - 2019 UK Tour was the fourth concert tour by English girl-group the Spice Girls, and the group's first large-stadium tour.It was the group's only tour without "Posh Spice" Victoria Beckham, and only visited cities in Great Britain and Ireland. Spice World commenced on 24 May 2019 at Croke Park, Dublin, to a sold-out crowd of over 74,000 people, and ended on 15 June 2019 at ...
Spiceworld Tour
The Spiceworld Tour (also known as Spice Girls in Concert and the Girl Power Tour '98) was the debut concert tour by English girl group the Spice Girls.It was launched in support of their first two studio albums, Spice (1996) and Spiceworld (1997). The sell-out European/North American tour ran from February to August 1998, after which it returned to the UK in September 1998 for a series of ...
Spiceworld Tour
The Spiceworld Tour was the debut concert tour by English girl group the Spice Girls. It was launched in support of their first two studio albums, Spice (1996) and Spiceworld (1997). The sell-out European/North American tour ran from February to August 1998, after which it returned to the UK in September 1998 for a series of stadium shows. The final concert at London's Wembley Stadium was ...
Spice Girls Spice World 2019 Wembley Stadium, London live review
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Spiceworld25
Celebrating 25 years of the Spice Girls' second album. Spiceworld25 celebrated of 25 years of Spiceworld and is available on multiple formats, out now. Spice Up Your Life (2:53) Stop (3:24) Too Much (4:31) Saturday Night Divas (4:25) Never Give Up On The Good Times (4:30) Move Over (2:46)
Y2K! World Tour
The Y2K! World Tour was the debut concert tour by American rapper Ice Spice in support of her debut album, Y2K! (2024). [1] It began on July 4, 2024, at the Roskilde Festival, with shows across North America and Europe. It will conclude in Adelaide on January 5, 2025 comprising 43 shows. [2] Cash Cobain and Cleotrapa served as the opening act ...
Spiceworld Tour
The Spiceworld Tour (also known as Spice Girls in Concert and Girl Power Tour '98) was the first concert tour by the British girl group Spice Girls.Between 24 February and 20 September 1998, the group performed a total of 96 concerts in front of an estimated 2.1 million spectators in Europe and North America.
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The Return of the Spice Girls Tour was the third concert tour by English girl group the Spice Girls, running from December 2007 to February 2008.It was the group's first tour since Christmas in Spiceworld (1999), a small British holiday-season tour, and their first tour with all five members since the Spiceworld Tour (1998)—of which only four members were present for the North American leg ...
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Spice World (film)
Spice World is a 1997 British musical comedy film directed by Bob Spiers and written by Kim Fuller. The film stars pop girl group the Spice Girls, who all play themselves. The film—made in a similar vein to the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night (1964)—depicts a series of fictional events leading up to a major concert at London's Royal Albert Hall, liberally interspersed with dream sequences and ...
Spice Girls' 'Spiceworld' Turns 25 With New Expanded Editions
September 27, 2022. By. Tim Peacock. Spice Girls - Photo: Adrian Green. Celebrating the 25th anniversary of Spiceworld, the multi-million selling second album by the biggest girl band of all time ...
Spiceworld (album)
Spiceworld is the second studio album by English girl group the Spice Girls, released on 1 November 1997 by Virgin Records.Its music incorporates dance-pop music and production. The album became a commercial success worldwide, lengthening the so-called "Spicemania" of the time. It debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, with first-week sales of 190,000 copies and shipped 1.4 million ...
Spice World (film)
Spice World is a 1997 British musical comedy film directed by Bob Spiers and written by Kim Fuller.The film stars pop girl group the Spice Girls, who all play themselves.The film—made in a similar vein to the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night (1964)—depicts a series of fictional events leading up to a major concert at London's Royal Albert Hall, liberally interspersed with dream sequences and ...

Spiceworld (tour)

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Spiceworld Tour

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Spice World (film)

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‘Three Little Birds’: The Story Behind Bob Marley’s Slow-Burning Classic

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