50 Greatest Bands of All Time, No50 - The Spice Girls

Five loud, funny and relatable girls crashed onto the pop scene in 1996 bringing chaos and a message - Girl Power.

The Spice Girls felt fresh, fun and inclusive, aimed squarely at young girls who hadnt had a pop group quite like them before.

Their super power was in the branding, each member had a clear, memorable persona - Scary, Sporty, Baby, Ginger and Posh. Every fan had a member whose personality they could identify with, and - this being 1990s - lads also had a favourite they could plaster on the bedroom walls.

Plucked from 400 aspiring singers who auditioned at London's Dancework Studios in 1994 after advert in The Stage newspaper, The Spice Girls took a while to find their feet.

Five girls were chosen - Mel B, Mel C, Victoria Adams, Geri Halliwell ander, 17-year-old Michelle Stephenson. That long forgotten fifth member was, "the sort of girl you can imagine in a Flake advertaccording to Victoria in her memoir .

The girls moved into a house in Maidenhead for coaching, but Michelle didn't fit in. Step forward Emma Bunton - a former stage school pupil and the classic line-up was complete.

Following months of rehearsals the quintet got fed up with managers Bob and Chris Herbert, so decided to go it alone. There was one problem, their managers had the master recording of their songs, Wannabe and 2 Become 1.

Fear not Ginger Spice Geri saved the day, shoving the tapes down her knickers recalled Posh: "I don't know how she actually managed to get it - everything was so Bonnie and Clyde.

Annie Lennoxs manager Simon Fuller took them under his wing and set up a meeting with Virgin Records. But never ones to take things too seriously on the day they were due to sign contracts the girls sent five Ann Summers blow-up dolls in their place.

Geri recalled: "There were almost heart attacks. Victoria added: "If Virgin didn't know who yet they were dealing with, they did now. The girls eventually turned up and signed on the dotted line, throwing their dolls into the Grand Union Canal, where they floated for days.

Things werent plain sailing at first. The girls insistsed on releasing Wannabe - against record label advice who called it too weird. "It's not negotiable, they said.

The reaction from the media wasnt great either with BBC Radio 1 refusing to play it and breakfast show DJ Chris Evans telling the girls to go back to kids' TV.

Nevertheless they remained focused. If they decided they wanted to do something, then that's what was going to happen," Wannabe's co-writer Richard "Biff" Stannard told the BBC.

Wannabe was released on July 8, 1996 and quickly became a global pop-culture phenomenon, dominating charts in 37 countries.

It spent seven consecutive weeks at No1 on the UK Singles Chart and four weeks at the top in America going on to sell over six million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling single by an all-female group in music history.

Their debut album Spice sold over 23 million copies, becoming the best-selling album by a female group in history. In 1997 they starred as themselves in the film Spice World. Girl Power was everywhere.

In the first two years they put their names to over 100 products including Pepsi, Walker's crisps, Polaroid cameras, Benetton, Faberg, Chupa Chups lollipops, Asda, BT, Cadbury's chocolate and Impulse body spray (lavender and vanilla scented for Baby Spice; paduk wood for Scary Spice.)

They even made a reported 500,000 for recording an advertising jingle for Channel 5 and had their own ranges of pyjamas, beach towels, dolls, playing cards, bean bags, sponge cakes, beach towels and businessmen's ties.

Then came the wobbles. In May 1998 Geri quit the band in the middle of the Spiceworld tour citing exhaustion. Victoria married David Beckham in 1999 and their celebrity status began to overshadow the band.

The final Spice Girls album Forever dropped in 2000, a more mature collection that was influenced by US R&B but it lacked the fun element and peaked at No2 in the UK and only just scraping into the US top 40.

The Spice Girls officially broke up in February 2001 sparking a raft of solo work, with Geri leading the way.

But that wasnt the end - in 2007 all five girls returned for The Return of the Spice Girls world tour with tickets selling out in 38 seconds. Five years later they came back again for the 2012 London Olympics closing ceremony, performing on top of five black cabs.

And in 2019 they came back again for a huge European stadium tour - minus Victoria Beckham, who was feeling less like a popstar more like designer.

Recently, all five reunited informally at Victoria Beckhams 50th birthday, filmed by David Beckham singing Stop and have been teasing possible reunions to mark their 30th anniversary.

So far nothing had been confirmed but Melanie C said just last week at the Great Escape: "Im sure you can imagine the opportunities out there for the Spice Girls. People have talked about Abba-tar things.

"Obviously, live shows, residencies, documentaries I can only speak on my own behalf, and I would love to be back on stage with the girls. I think if there isnt an opportunity for the five of us to be physically back on stage together, that makes me feel really sad. We dont have anything in the works right now, but were talking which is good.

"Everyone is feeling nostalgic and positive. Its just difficult because, obviously, Im out there, doing gigs all the time. Im very comfortable in that space. Not all of the Spice Girls feel like that, you know. We all have to be respectful of each other. So yeah, fingers crossed. We have to manifest it."

At a time when a lot of pop and rock took itself very seriously, the Spice Girls were a breath of air. Lets hope they spice up our lives again soon.

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