Dark Side of the 90's Season 3 Episode 7
Dark Side of the 90's Season 3 Episode 7
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00:00In the late 90s, five wannabes become the best-selling girl group of all time.
00:13That level of fame wasn't juggling a lot.
00:19But a brazen attitude about their own success.
00:22Phil Spector called them the antichrist.
00:25Has critics saying it's too much.
00:28People don't want to take their kind of arrogance anymore.
00:33More or less telling them to stop.
00:35They were very open about it.
00:37And even some fans wondering, who do you think you are?
00:44Fame definitely comes with a price.
00:48But their biggest test will come when one of them says, goodbye.
00:54I would like to confirm that I have left the Spice Girls.
00:57Jerry left.
00:57Oh, why? What happened?
00:58No way!
01:00Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!
01:01Where do you go from there?
01:07Oh, no!
01:28The London Olympics coming to an end with a rocking closing ceremony.
01:32Oh, yeah.
01:33The five Spice Girls last take the stage together at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
01:40Their appearance was like the last Spice Girls music video.
01:45It was capital G, capital P, girl power.
01:49But as they take their closing ceremony victory lap, they're also closing out a career that
01:56began with a sprint to stardom in the late 1990s.
02:05Earlier in the decade, America's grunge scene is threatening to take over the global music
02:09market.
02:13But in England, music magazines are heralding an anti-grunge movement called Britpop, which
02:19is about to launch a new British invasion.
02:22Led by bands like the Stone Roses and Blur, the groups provide the soundtrack for the
02:27birth of cool Britannia, marked by an increased pride in UK culture and especially by Britain's
02:33young artists.
02:38Britpop was a very male-dominated thing.
02:40They are the band of the people, they are Oasis.
02:44Oasis were the biggest.
02:48I'm David Sinclair.
02:49I'm the author of The Spice Girls.
02:51Now the Spice Girls reinvented pop fame.
02:55In Britain, there was no girl groups around.
02:58It was all boy groups.
03:00East 17 and Take That were very successful.
03:04We want Take That!
03:06We want Take That!
03:08We want Take That!
03:10It was the start of a real pop scene in London dominated by manufactured boy bands, really.
03:16Boys Own, Gemini, Backstreet Boys, Upside Down.
03:19The list of boy bands around these days is endless.
03:22In the early 90s, I was really looking for an act that would get me some recognition.
03:27My name is Chris Herbert.
03:29I'm a music manager by trade and I'm responsible for putting The Spice Girls together.
03:35Boy bands really only appeal to a female and a gay audience.
03:39I thought if you could put a girl band together that was both aspirational to girls, appealing
03:45to boys, I think, and also a bit camp, you could double that audience.
03:4921-year-old Chris successfully pitches the idea to his partners, his father Bob, and
03:55financial backer Chick Murphy.
03:58He then begins scouting London for female talent with a distinct type of girl in mind.
04:03There's a different work ethic with working class girls.
04:08We wanted girls that were hungry for it.
04:12I just put an advert in the stage newspaper.
04:15It was kind of an Uncle Sam recruitment poster, basic, but they did the job.
04:25I probably saw a few hundred girls.
04:30I managed to certainly tick off a few.
04:33I got it down to 10 or 12 girls.
04:38I'm Melanie Brown, I'm 19 years old.
04:42Chris eventually spots a couple of girls he wants.
04:45Mel B actually turned up to audition for a cruise and I plucked her out and we pulled
04:50her in and put her upstairs and I knew the minute I saw her that she was hot property.
04:57Mel C was great.
04:58She had that northern soul.
05:00She was good.
05:01She just snapped into it.
05:02I went on to the audition and luckily I got it.
05:07Another girl, Victoria Adams, doesn't fit Chris's working class ideal.
05:11She was different to the others, sophisticated.
05:14She is the foxy lady of the group.
05:18But he makes an exception.
05:21Michelle Stevenson is Chris's fourth pick, but the girl he desperately wants to fill
05:26out the group is playing hard to get.
05:28My name's Geri.
05:29I come in Geri.
05:31Geri wasn't at the original audition.
05:34Every time I asked her to come, there was always an excuse.
05:37Basically, I don't think I would have got the audition because my vocal technique was
05:41not exactly very good then.
05:43Now, I now know that what her tactic was, which was to try and bounce her way through
05:50those preliminary auditions, fast tracking everything else and getting into the main
05:56event.
05:57I want to be a pop star.
06:00And to help them make that happen, Chris moves his ragtag group of girls into a house to
06:04begin their transformation.
06:08It was a boot camp to get these girls really singing and performing like a fully formed
06:15unit.
06:17Their drill sergeant is a vocal coach and former backup singer who has performed alongside
06:21the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Tina Turner.
06:26So I had a call one day, would I come up and have a listen to see what I thought.
06:34I'm Pepe Lima, and I train the Spice Girls.
06:39Oh gosh, who says Ben Neeson's a lot of work?
06:45Right away, there's a problem.
06:47Michelle Stevenson is out of harmony with the other girls.
06:51She just wasn't fitting in.
06:58She would never gel with it.
07:00And we had to tell her to go.
07:04But Pepe has a replacement in mind.
07:07Eighteen-year-old Emma Bunton.
07:12I had taught Emma a couple of years before, and I always remembered her because she's
07:19a pretty, pretty voice.
07:21I just had to sing a song.
07:22I sang SWV.
07:23She was cute, really likable.
07:27You know, they loved her.
07:28Because she's blonde.
07:29She's the only blonde in the group.
07:30I've got a strip of it.
07:31And I've got a strip of it.
07:32And I've got a strip of it.
07:33And I've got a strip of it.
07:34I'm a little bit dizzy.
07:35So is it.
07:38When you saw them lined up, the whole thing just kind of fell into place.
07:44Chris names his new girl group Touch, and hands them off to Pepe to begin grueling rehearsals.
07:49We'd got off to a bit of a rocking start.
07:57Joey was more hesitant because of her voice wasn't strong, neither was Victoria's.
08:12And at the end of the day, Joey got hold of my notes.
08:18And she was very upset because I had said she was going out of tune.
08:25I would try to say to her, learn from it.
08:29Don't cry about it.
08:30It's just it's a beginning, beginning of learning.
08:34None of them were the best singers.
08:42None of them were the best dancers.
08:47We were looking for great characters.
08:50And we felt that we could do the rest ourselves.
08:56We were doing eight days in the studio, and it was rehearse, rehearse, rehearse again,
09:00again, again.
09:01What keeps the girls going is their dreams of fame and fortune.
09:04Hopefully, when we get where we want to be, we'll be able to lay back in the limousines
09:13and all that.
09:14But it's just been a lot of hard work now.
09:15I'm just getting a piece of bread.
09:16I thought I'd show you some of my outfits.
09:17Look, because I am the original pop queen, everyone says.
09:29They didn't have very much.
09:32I remember I bought a big bag of clothes.
09:36They took the clothes because, you know, they were struggling.
09:46They were struggling and working class, but not stupid.
09:48The girls keep being told they're going to be hugely successful.
09:51Convince yourself it's going to happen, so it does happen.
09:59So they tell their management team they want something in writing for when that day comes.
10:03Obviously, I would have put a management contract in place, but my father and the financial
10:12backer at the time were much more old school in their way of thinking.
10:16What I would do is work them.
10:21You know, you kind of keep everyone fighting for their position, feeling slightly insecure
10:26that they could actually be replaced at any time.
10:31That way, you get people fighting for it.
10:36I didn't think that that was the right way, so, you know, I was all for them, us getting
10:41a contract together.
10:44You really just bought the Harmony line then.
10:47Oh, it was a mistake, it was a mistake.
10:49But you made a big mistake, I made a big mistake.
10:52Chris's partner's plan to keep the girls anxious and fighting works to drive them apart,
10:58until a leader emerges to pull them back together.
11:01Millions of kids out there want to be pop stars, do you know what I mean?
11:04And we're actually taking this closer and closer to a dream, do you know what I mean?
11:09Without a doubt, Geri was the leader.
11:11And the brains behind it all.
11:13She was a little bit older.
11:15She knew that she had the least talent in terms of singing and dancing, but Geri bought
11:21an energy and a camaraderie that was the nucleus of what that band became.
11:27So she steps up immediately, and her sidekick was Mel B.
11:35With five unique ingredients that create a savory dish, the girls blend together in a
11:39way that gives rise to a new name.
11:41We wrote a song called Sugar and Spice.
11:43We wrote it very individual, very spicy, and we all like to get up and have a good old laugh.
11:49Along with their new name, Spice, comes a two-word slogan that one day will become a
11:54rallying call for girls across the globe.
11:56Your power's coming at you!
11:59Girl power.
12:02The slogan is borrowed from American punk band Bikini Kill, who pioneered an underground
12:07feminist movement called Riot Grrrl in the early 90s.
12:11I think it's a long way to go, baby!
12:14No, stop it!
12:15It's too late!
12:16You're crazy!
12:17Look at that!
12:18Geri had borrowed that whole attitude, but she quite cleverly, she sort of repackaged
12:25it, but in a much more pop, palatable way.
12:32In 1994, in a tiny London rehearsal studio, Pepe's efforts to energize girl power seemed
12:38to happen in a flash.
12:41I had them in a semicircle, going one, two, three, four, and then they started to sing
12:47with this four-part harmony.
12:50I remember tingles.
12:56Take me away!
12:58I only thought, oh, that's magical.
13:03The music world was waiting for something like this to happen.
13:10Soon, these five girls from London, Ginger, Posh, Sporty, Baby, and Scary, will take over
13:16the BRIT Awards.
13:19The all-conquering Spice Girls!
13:24And then the world.
13:27Take me away!
13:32In December 1994, Spice, the girl group Chris Herbert put together, and Pepe Lemur spent
13:38months meticulously training, is ready for their first industry showcase.
13:43Oh, boy.
13:44Oh, my God.
13:45I want to hear something.
13:46Oh, my God.
13:48I had invited along the best writers, producers, managers of writers, and publishers.
13:59We were all on edge.
14:02It was a huge deal for them.
14:05They have worked so hard.
14:08We're going to make it happen.
14:11Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho.
14:13And we're like, oh.
14:14It was fantastic.
14:19They were just not phased by it at all.
14:21And in fact, they took control of the room.
14:23We think that there's a massive gap in this room.
14:26Definitely, yeah.
14:27This is a girl's room.
14:28They were sitting there interviewing the writers, saying, look, you know, well, he's written
14:33for Take That.
14:34Who have you written for?
14:35You know, we're not as poppy as Take That.
14:39People wanted to work with them, so I was rubbing my hands together.
14:42It was everything I wanted.
14:45But like the saying, be careful what you wish for, Chris soon discovers that the girls'
14:49confidence in front of those music executives foreshadows a problem when he and his partners
14:54finally offer Spice a contract.
14:58By the time we had presented it to the girls, I think there was a slight misunderstanding
15:04and there was a slight, you know, change of thought on their part where they weren't
15:09coming to us cap in hand and saying, when are you going to sign us?
15:12It was more like, we don't necessarily think that we need your contract now.
15:20Chris still believes the girls will sign with him.
15:25So he sets up a recording session at Sheffield Studio for them to work with songwriter Elliot
15:30Kennedy.
15:35But on the day, the girls stop answering Chris's calls.
15:43I didn't really know what was going on.
15:45So I run Elliot and I said, look, the girls won't be making the session.
15:51We'll reschedule.
15:54He said, look, Chris, I've got to tell you, he said the girls are already here.
15:57I was like, oh.
15:58They had gone up to Sheffield, eventually got to Elliot, said, hi, where's Spice?
16:05We've kind of fallen out with management.
16:07Would you have the session anyway?
16:10He said, look, the girls don't want to speak to you.
16:13And that was it.
16:19That just superpowered them and gave them the belief that they can do this themselves.
16:25And take, you know, be in control of their own destiny.
16:29I didn't see the girls for dust after they had left.
16:34You know, I was a young manager.
16:35You know, I was kind of their older brother and friend.
16:42So I was more hurt personally because we had hung out and we were friends and everything else.
16:49And we'd spent so much time together.
16:51I was more hurt about that than I was at the prospect of, oh, God, we've lost this band.
16:58I mourn the loss of our friendship.
17:02And the fact that they felt that they could do that to me.
17:08There was one particular guy and he was like, he was auditioning for a girl band.
17:12And we went with him for a little while.
17:14But then what did we do, girls?
17:15We did the op.
17:17We did the op.
17:18And did our own thing and started our own spicy movement.
17:22But in the 90s, for women to launch a movement in the music industry, spicy or otherwise,
17:28it still requires getting past the gatekeepers.
17:31And that means men.
17:33You know, we're doing it for the girls.
17:34We want the girlies out there to join our gang.
17:36It was always manipulated, the industry, by men.
17:41Very, very few women.
17:42Very few managers were women.
17:44I think girls like to see some of the girls doing it for a change.
17:49The personalities were on a par with our music.
17:52You know, that independent, feminist spirit of young girls saying, up yours.
18:00Understanding they need men to help guide their career,
18:03Spice decides to go after the most powerful men in London's music scene.
18:08They would find someone that they wanted to work with.
18:10And they'd march into these offices.
18:14And they'd start doing an impromptu performance.
18:19They'd flirt with these executives, or they'd pinch their bottoms.
18:28Geri once was told that the executives she wanted to see wanted to be men.
18:32And she was told that the executives she wanted to see wanted to be men.
18:36Geri once was told that the executives she wanted to see wasn't in the office.
18:41So she went over to the photocopier and just pulled up her top and ran off a copy of her boobs.
18:50Put the photocopier on his desk and said, well, tell him that's what he missed.
18:59What they did was they reversed the casting couch role.
19:02They kind of seduced the male people in charge.
19:06Including Simon Fuller, one of London's top music managers, who represents Annie Lennox.
19:12He later creates the show's pop idol and the wildly successful American idol in the States.
19:18Simon Fuller was the one that was the winner.
19:21And a few people were left in the dust, including me.
19:25After making one manager disappear and hiring Fuller,
19:28the magical young women rebrand themselves Spice Girls
19:32and soon secure a lucrative recording contract from Virgin Records.
19:36But on the day of the contract signing, they once again perform a disappearing act.
19:42The Virgin executives are waiting at their HQ and they sent a limo off to pick up the Spice Girls.
19:49Well, the limo arrives.
19:51It's got five blow-up dolls in it.
19:53Sex dolls corresponding to the five girls.
19:57And the Spice Girls are nowhere to be seen.
19:59They were out doing who knows what.
20:03Finally, the girls arrive.
20:05They had a few drinks, I think.
20:09They signed the contract, chucked the dolls in the canal.
20:15Apparently, Victoria's knickers had been removed before they got to wherever they were going.
20:20And chucked out the window.
20:22And it was an uproarious drunken night out that they had.
20:30Hi, we're the Spice Girls.
20:35A year later on the BBC.
20:37Spice Girls on top of the world.
20:40The Spice Girls perform their first single, Wannabe.
20:44It's a bittersweet moment for their one-time manager,
20:47It's a bittersweet moment for their one-time manager,
20:50who helped get them there.
20:55I was blown away by it.
20:57The whole thing had come together and I'm watching it on TV as a punter.
21:03Which was a kind of strange thing.
21:05Wannabe quickly climbs to number one on the UK singles charts,
21:09selling 7 million copies.
21:11It will soon reach number one in 37 countries worldwide.
21:15It's Spice Girl mania.
21:17Young wannabes all over the place.
21:20If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends.
21:24We want the Spice Girls!
21:27The kids just went nuts.
21:29They were just so excited.
21:30We want the Spice Girls!
21:32The kids just went nuts.
21:37It turned that whole generation on to music virtually overnight.
21:40I thought to myself, yeah, that's certainly gonna stir things up.
21:45But when the Spice Girls stir things up in the media,
21:48it's often the people around them whose lives get shaken.
21:52They've fired the whole Spice Girls machine that surrounds them.
22:01The Spice Girls' song, Wannabe, is making girl power a catchphrase of the 90s.
22:09And launching a wave of Spice Mania.
22:15She's the best group in the world.
22:17That sweeps across Europe and Asia before invading America.
22:21All right, America, here they come, the Spice Girls.
22:26Girl power!
22:27Girl power!
22:29Girl power!
22:33The Fab Five thrill U.S. television audiences on shows like
22:37Live with Regis and Kathie Lee and Saturday Night Live.
22:40Where they perform Wannabe and their next number one hit, Say You'll Be There.
22:46The girls are the hottest group around. They even have mom's stamp of approval.
22:52As for the man who invented the Internet, U.S. Vice President Al Gore,
22:57he can't escape the Spice Girls either.
22:59Who's your favorite Spice Girl?
23:13I couldn't believe the enormity of it all.
23:19To be plucked from where we were in a little house.
23:24Could this happen? Yeah.
23:27Girl power!
23:33With the Spice Girls, that level of fame wasn't juggernaut.
23:38Probably not seen since the Beatles.
23:43I'm Shanann Govani. I'm a long time social and pop culture columnist.
23:48She's brilliant.
23:50Here we had the only girl band up until then who had really sort of
23:53played into the idea of their own brashness and their own femininity.
24:00In March of 1997, the British press prints 141 Spice Girl stories in one week.
24:07That summer, the group rides girl power to the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.
24:15Now Britain's biggest pop culture phenomenon,
24:18these once working class girls get invited to the most privileged of U.K. events.
24:24A royal gala.
24:30There's the famous sequence meeting Prince Charles,
24:34where Jerry Hollowell gives a pat on the butt of the future king.
24:43Charles host Diana was seen as somewhat of a fuddy-duddy.
24:47By putting their pixie dust on him, they made him instantly cooler.
24:57We're just having a laugh. We're just a girl gang here doing music, enjoying it to the max.
25:03Just ten months after the release of Wannabe, the Spice Girls achieve Mel B's goal.
25:08Hopefully, when we get where we want to be, we'll be able to live back in the limousine.
25:15Helped along by a movie deal and endorsement contracts for over 100 products.
25:20They could have sold anything, anywhere, to anyone.
25:27Sporty Spice. I have Baby Spice. And I have Paw Spice.
25:30They were leveraging their fame.
25:34Their moment.
25:36Is there such a thing as too much spice?
25:39The Spice Girls may be suffering from overexposure.
25:43I don't think that the Spice Girls were doing anything that legions of male pop stars had not done for decades.
25:57Michael Jackson was in Pepsi commercials.
26:05English band the Spice Girls has made a commercial for the soft drink giant.
26:10The Spice Girls were a brand onto themselves.
26:14But when the press announced in 1997 that the Spice Girls were earning an estimated $500 million from sponsorships, the backlash is swift and stinging.
26:24There's just too much marketing and not enough music.
26:28And the money comes, of course, from the fans.
26:31Spice Girls Limited operate a mail order business, selling everything from jackets to mugs and T-shirts.
26:37Oh, God, there was nothing that the Spice Girls would not endorse.
26:41Spice Girls merchandising is big business.
26:44People didn't like that very much. They felt that music should exist for a higher purpose.
26:48And art should be taken more seriously than the Spice Girls were taking it.
26:52Here's the book. This is it. This is the book.
26:55The Spice Girls' commercialism is so over the top that Liam Gallagher of the band Oasis sparks a media feud by announcing he's refusing to attend the 1997 Brit Awards because he fears he will smack them.
27:12On awards night, Geri tries to win back British favor by performing in a dress she and her sister crafted from a single Union Jack tea towel.
27:21And the winner, the little Spice Girls.
27:31When the Spice Girls' song Wannabe beats out the Oasis song, ironically called Don't Look Back in Anger, Sporty Spice can't resist challenging Liam Gallagher.
27:41I just want to say, Liam, come and have a go if you think you're all good enough.
27:47That was girl power personified, calling out, you know, this rock hard man at an industry event.
27:58A month later at the Capitol Awards, Liam's brother and bandmate Noel Gallagher takes his shot at the Spice Girls for doing marketing, not music.
28:08It's about time the Spice Girls do something, don't you think?
28:11True to their brand, the Fab Five aren't going to let Gallagher have the last word.
28:22Later that year, the Spice Girls do get back to the music, performing two sold out shows to ecstatic fans in Istanbul that are recorded and sold on VHS.
28:33And releasing a second hit album, Spice World, along with an autobiographical movie of the same name.
28:41But behind the scenes, the girls are beginning to rebel against their manager, Simon Fuller's, grueling schedule.
28:51They were getting called at five o'clock in the morning to go and do the filming.
28:56And they were ending up in the recording studio until, you know, 11 or 12 o'clock the same night.
29:02They were hardly any time to even go to bed, let alone have a life.
29:06Once willing to pay any price for fame, the Spice Girls now seem tired of the cost.
29:12Something they dramatize in their movie.
29:15We're old enough to take responsibility for our own lives, do you know what I mean?
29:19You don't have a life, you have a schedule. You are part of a well-oiled global machine.
29:24In the movie, they were just pleading for some time off and Richard E. Grant wouldn't give it to them.
29:29And in real life, Simon Fuller was more or less doing the same.
29:33You know, he was saying, no, we've got to keep going, we can't stop.
29:36It all came to a head, really, when they went to Johannesburg and did a charity show for Nelson Mandela.
29:43And Prince Charles was there at the same time.
29:46And they spent a weekend there. They were allowed a little bit of time off.
29:50What do you think of the Spice Girls?
29:53It's one of the greatest moments in my life.
29:55It's the second greatest moment.
29:59During that South African trip, I think they got a bit fed up with hearing how much they owed to Simon Fuller.
30:08And so, like they did at the dawn of their careers,
30:14the five girls huddled together to make a fateful decision.
30:18That was the time at which they cooked up getting rid of Simon Fuller as their manager.
30:23It was a complete bombshell.
30:26And it was a gift to the tabloids.
30:29Wild fans screamed as the British sensation Spice Girls made a grand entrance at the long-awaited premiere of their new movie.
30:36Charles is our new manager.
30:40But with no Simon Fuller to protect them, the Spice Girls are more vulnerable.
30:46But with no Simon Fuller to protect them, the Spice Girls are more vulnerable.
30:51Suddenly, it was open season.
30:54The girls have hit back, saying it was all a misunderstanding.
31:04The Spice Girls have been booed for delaying an awards ceremony in Barcelona.
31:08The Spice Girls have been booed for delaying an awards ceremony in Barcelona.
31:14A week after firing their manager, the Spice Girls refused to take the stage at a Spanish awards show,
31:21until the photographers are removed.
31:24The girls insisted they had the copyright on any pictures of them.
31:29When they finally came on stage, the reaction was mixed.
31:32After they'd sung, the floor manager desperately tried to whip up applause, but to no avail.
31:41Headlines and news reports tell the story.
31:45The girls' spicy prima donna routine is beginning to leave a bad taste in people's mouths.
31:51What happened last night is basically the Spice Girls displayed quite a bit of arrogance.
31:56I think they did themselves no favors at all by getting rid of their manager Simon Fuller,
32:00who actually was responsible for their success, no matter what they might think.
32:06There was always going to come a point where enough was enough.
32:10Historically, pop groups have a very limited time frame.
32:13They come and they go and that's it.
32:15In the press, in the media.
32:17I think it was just felt it was time to take them down a peg or two.
32:20I mean, Phil Spector called them the Antichrist.
32:23The 1997 Christmas season delivers a sobering blow to the five Spice Girls
32:28when they're beaten on the UK singles chart by the four Teletubbies,
32:34whose big hit, Teletubbies Say Ayo, wins over the hearts and minds of children during the holiday rush.
32:42You think this is the beginning of the end.
32:45Yeah.
32:47But while critics are quick to write the Spice Girls' obituary,
32:49News of their demise proves premature
32:52when their announced 102-date world tour sells out in minutes.
32:56Richard, how long do you think the Spice Girls are going to last?
33:01As they perform before screaming fans, it appears Spice Mania can't be stopped.
33:07It's like a marriage.
33:09It is, totally, and I don't think we'll ever lose that.
33:12I think we always say we're going to be like the Golden Girls.
33:14All of these girls are strong individuals.
33:16They just ignored the tabloids, went on on their business,
33:20and what they had to achieve and what they had to do.
33:24Steak Anoia.
33:26My name is Steak Anoia, and I was one of the main dancers on the Spice Girls' world tour in 1998.
33:33Just wanted to make sure, you know.
33:36I'm a street dancer, and I was a street dancer for a long time.
33:39Just wanted to make sure, you know.
33:42I'm a street dancer, and I was lucky to end up as a Spice Boy.
33:47To be on stage with the Spice Girls, that was incredible.
33:53As Baby Spice's dance partner, Azteca basks in the glow of the spotlight.
34:00The view here is nice.
34:02And offstage,
34:04Here we are with Bodyguard, all fans here.
34:08Azteca has a front row seat to what happens in the shadows of Spice World.
34:12Azteca, you're a lazy bitch.
34:15Surprise, girls.
34:17The daily routine just exhausts you.
34:24The girls were always getting homesick as well.
34:29So the girls try to keep things light to relieve the tour's daily grind.
34:34What's the craziest story you heard the next morning?
34:39Yeah, there were some specifics of which I heard about pajama parties, but I'd rather not tell that.
34:48But he will confirm that some of the girls are relieving homesickness in the company of their male dancers.
34:57We've got Spice Boys!
35:00You heard Christian is together with Jerry,
35:05and Mel B is together with Jim.
35:08It was like, okay.
35:11Okay, cool.
35:13They didn't hide it. They were very open about it.
35:17That's how it all went into the media.
35:21As did a Spice Girl relationship not involving a member of the crew.
35:25Posh Spice lives in the tabloid headlines alongside her equally famous fiancée.
35:30David Beckham, one of the most famous faces in football,
35:33and Victoria Adams, better known as Posh Spice, posing for pictures after announcing their engagement.
35:38The paparazzi hound Posh and Becks on the European leg of the tour.
35:43They were both just so hot.
35:46We had just come out of the Diana, Charles rise and fall.
35:53I'm embarrassed now, stop it.
35:55If Posh and Becks didn't exist, the British tabloids, they would have had to make them up.
36:01And like with Princess Diana, the tabloid encounters with the Spice Girls become increasingly ruthless and relentless.
36:09Something Mel C speaks frankly about during a 2022 podcast.
36:13They called me Sumo Spice.
36:15I mean, how disgusting is that?
36:18There was a lot of focus on their bodies at the time.
36:22As Jerry reveals when interviewed, the cruelty of the tabloids is hard to bear.
36:27When somebody calls me a fat old slag, you know, if I wasn't sure of what I was doing, I wouldn't be able to continue.
36:33They were privy to all kinds of headlines that would certainly not pass muster in our time today.
36:40When you become famous at that level, it is Pandora's box.
36:47It's inevitable that the fame begins to eat you alive.
36:53And also devours relationships.
36:56Have you cut short the tour out there?
36:58No, we've got everything.
37:00The pressure and the pace and the amount of work that they've done, it all started to take its toll.
37:06People start to wear down, spit out what they really felt inside.
37:17We were asking ourselves, like, wow, there's something going on.
37:27But we didn't know what was going on.
37:30But we didn't know what was going on.
37:37Something snapped at that point.
37:41In May 1998, the Spice Girls performed together in Helsinki, Finland.
37:46And everything seems normal.
37:49It's the midweek national lottery draw.
37:53But when the group returns to London for a TV appearance, not all of them make it to the studio.
37:59Are we not missing somebody?
38:01We are, unfortunately. Jerry's not very well tonight, so get well soon, Jerry.
38:08When Jerry just didn't show up, it was a pop culture earthquake.
38:16Girl power may not be enough to hold the most popular girl group of the 90s together.
38:21Ginger Spice missed a concert last night.
38:24Ginger Spice is missing.
38:26No way!
38:28Where's Jerry gone?
38:30Where has Jerry gone? Where's Jerry gone?
38:33What happens now?
38:38After four days of wild speculation over Ginger Spice's whereabouts,
38:43Geri Halliwell's lawyer reads her statement to the world.
38:47I wish to apologize to all the fans.
38:50I would like to confirm that I have left the Spice Girls.
38:53This is because of differences between us.
38:56Geri hasn't revealed her future plans, but the remaining four Spice Girls
39:00say they'll be pressing on with their American tour.
39:04When Geri leaves the band, for those who were invested in these five women,
39:11it represented an abrupt break, death, end.
39:16And it invited so much speculation about who was to blame, what led up to it,
39:22you know, where do the Spice Girls go now?
39:26What did she say that day?
39:28Funny enough, she didn't.
39:30Geri has asked the same question since leaving the Spice Girls.
39:34Why? Why did you leave?
39:36You know, I have my reasons why I left the Spice Girls.
39:39It's like a marriage. I don't want to leave.
39:41I have my reasons why I left the Spice Girls.
39:44It's like a marriage. I think, you know,
39:47you should keep those kind of things private to a degree.
39:50But time will do what Barbara Walters couldn't.
39:53Get Geri to reveal how her struggles as a Spice Girl helped contribute to her leaving.
39:59They called her old, fat and ugly, as they often did.
40:03Isn't that horrible?
40:05And in 2016, Geri reveals to Oprah Winfrey just how serious her problems became.
40:11We all use different tools to get by.
40:15You know, coping mechanisms.
40:17Mine was controlling my body weight.
40:19I started being bulimic.
40:21If you're under that kind of spotlight,
40:25all kind of scrutiny can affect one's imbalances.
40:33Victoria and Mel C have both revealed their own struggles with eating disorders and depression.
40:38Victoria Adams!
40:39Made worse by the media's obsession with their weight,
40:42which includes live humiliation on TV two months after Posh has a baby.
40:47Is your weight back to normal?
40:49Yeah, it is.
40:51Can I check? Do you mind?
40:53Oh no, you did this to Geri, didn't you?
40:55No, but Geri was that really small.
40:57The media's quick and constant reactions to the Spice Girls' weight fluctuations
41:01may have led to their instability and mental health issues.
41:04Something Mel C has been honest about in recent interviews.
41:07I'd spent years trying to make myself smaller and it was killing me.
41:12I had depression. I just knew I'd lost control over my eating.
41:17Fame definitely comes with a price.
41:20For the girls, it probably got too much for them through those pressures.
41:26When you're trying to kind of keep a steady ship,
41:29that becomes, you know, quite damaging.
41:34No, no!
41:36In a documentary filmed shortly after she leaves the group,
41:39Geri drops hints that another Spice Girl prompted her exit.
41:43I had no choice. I had no choice. Absolutely no choice.
41:48Do you think they wanted you out?
41:50Yes. One particular moment did.
41:53Rumours involving Mel B, who helps Geri pull the group together
41:57back during their boot camp days, have never gone away.
42:00In a recent interview, Mel B speaks candidly about their relationship.
42:05There were rumours that you and Geri were, you know,
42:09more than just good friends. You'd had a little dabble.
42:12Oh! She had great boobs.
42:16So you did? Yes? Really?
42:21Even Mel C seemed shocked by the admission.
42:24This was like an earthquake. Rather shocking.
42:27This was like an earthquake revelation.
42:32Geri has denied this, so I guess the truth lies somewhere.
42:42After Geri's departure, the four remaining Spice Girls
42:46finish the world tour in America.
42:50Then they record a third album called Forever.
42:54Aside from their reunion tour in 2007,
42:57the Spice Girls haven't performed as a full group
43:00since the 2012 London Olympics.
43:03The Spice Girls effectively only existed for a few years.
43:07Of course, their legacy lives on in a whole new generation
43:12of female pop stars inspired by them.
43:15What it did for me was springboard me into the music industry.
43:20When I look at the Spice Girls, I don't feel any bitterness,
43:24remorse, because I still look at that band
43:28and it's still part of my legacy.
43:31They still hold the crown.
43:34They're still the biggest girl band.
43:37They've all come through it.
43:40They all have children who seem to be reasonably adjusted.
43:43They've all found their own place in the scheme of things.
43:46At the end of it all, that was what girl power was all about.