If the story of the Spice Girls has taught us one thing, it is that the best groups are greater than the sum of their individual parts. The chemistry that was created by the precise combination of Geri, Emma, Victoria and the two Mels produced a worldwide musical and cultural explosion that reverberates to this day. Together they switched on a generation born in the ’80s and ’90s to pop music and, with the help of manager Simon Fuller, invented modern celebrity culture.
The idea that a lesser combination of three of the original girls could reunite 20 years after their first hit and still have the same effect is wishful thinking. And there’s been a lot of that in recent months.
‘I will be a Spice Girl until I die,’ Melanie C said last year. ‘But the continuous speculation on whether we will reform to celebrate 20 years of Wannabe has been exhausting. Is it a new rule that bands have to reform?’
The Spice Girls have, of course, already reformed – several times. The definitive reunion was in 2007/8, when the five girls tied up all the loose ends with a massive, sold-out world tour and a Greatest Hits album. The key point about that reunion – and arguably the reason it was a resounding success – was that it marked the return of Geri.
Instagram: @officialmelb
In hindsight, it’s clear that the Spice magic started to wane the moment Geri left in May 1998, on the eve of the group’s first North American tour. Her abrupt departure not only undermined them as a unit (Geri would never have allowed the group to pursue the R&B route that led to the underperforming third album Forever), it also diminished the core strength of the girl-power philosophy, in which the bond between the girls assumed an almost mystical importance. ‘Friendship never ends,’ they sang. But clearly, it did, or at least took a hiatus. The integrity of the group had been severely dented in a way that deeply affected their young fans.
Their spectacularly choreographed cameo at the 2012 Olympic Games was another magical moment. Once again, all five girls were there to produce one last dazzling blaze of glory. Mel C called it ‘the absolute pinnacle of my Spice existence’. So how do they top that?
Well, not by hanging around on a red carpet for the launch of Viva Forever: The Musical. The idea was to emulate Mamma Mia! and raise the Spice Girls’ legacy to Abba-like proportions. Sadly, it only dented their stock.
And they certainly won’t top their Olympics reunion by getting together as GEM (Geri, Emma and Mel B), in some low-calorie, three-girl version of the Spice Girls, with a number that might pass muster as a Eurovision entry, but isn’t a patch on the songs of the glory years.
Better to cherish the Spice Girls as they were, than to keep hoping for an improbable pot of gold to turn up at the end of the rainbow.
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