Do Go On - 15 - The Spice Girls

Episode Date: February 3, 2016

I tell you what I want what I really really want? An hour of Spice Girls trivia, that's what! This week, Jess takes us on a trip down memory lane with some 90s nostalgia about the most successful female pop group of all time! She also sings a lot in this one and is very sorry. Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] the show and get rewards like bonus episodes:www.patreon.com/DoGoOnPod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serenji Amarna 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there. Canada, we are visiting you in September this year.

If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. Hello and welcome to do go on a show where we like to talk about something. And we is me, Dave Warnocky, and I'm here with the other two-thirds of the Wii with Matt Stewart. I'm one-third of the Wii. The other third of the Wii is Jess Perkins.

Third Way. You are the third wee. No, that's kind of beautiful. I saved the best Wii for last. That's like, yeah, just before bed we. Or the morning after we Or the one after, like you're out of the shops And you're walking home after the train station

It's been aged since you've seen a toilet And you're like, oh, I need to weed you. Oh, guys. And then you have that moment of, ah. I've got a wee story. Yeah. I think I, um... Go on.

So I was doing my silly little world record show at the Falls Festival over New Year's Eve and in the show, I mean a couple other comedian gays like to break made-up world records. but the only record I feel I actually broke for the whole festival was because it's a camping festival and they didn't have any like toilets there

so you had to use Port-a-Looze and it had this situation where every time you pee it was onto a paddle and then it would get to a certain weight and then it would dip and I would just keep dipping and everyone was counting how many dips they were getting and everyone was like, yeah, five, six and I'm like, I got 11. Eleven dips!

And then the other guys in my camp and these people that we had made friends with in the camp didn't really believe me. So I'm like, and I was a bit drunk, and I'm like, that's it. So I drank a couple of beers and like, held on to the last possible second. And I'm like, that's it. We're going to the Bortalo. And I ran up like seven people. And they watched you pay.

And we just left the door open and then they just canned it out triumphantly every time I did the dip. One, two, I got 14 dips. Oh, that's great. So it's more impressive if you realize that you are only doing it. like six or seven. So I don't know. It's probably a medical issue, but I got... I'm so disappointed I was there.

That's right at my alley. I would have found that so entertaining. It was really fun. I reckon I could have done more. Do you reckon? Yeah. Well, we'll find out. Let's get a Port-a-Loo.

Let's get all building, like, worksides. Okay. Let's do it. We'll pause this now. Yeah. You guys go, I'll just do the report. You guys go do that. Just talk to no one.

Yeah. It's probably more fun that way for me. Oh, all right. Matt, let's get out of here. It's early for him. Piss on a paddle. The paddle pisses. The paddle piss boys.

It's unfair that women, pregnant women get to do all the paddle pissing. What about our chance? You piss on a paddle to find out if you're pregnant. Oh, that's what you mean by paddle. Okay, I'm with you. It's a stick, but right-o. Shall we? Shall we?

Well, the paddle piss club as we have... No, I mean... No, I like paddle piss boys and I'm okay with being one of the boys. All right. Boys. Sounds like a crime-fighting trio. What we do on this show is we write a report about something.

It can be where you were related and it might not be at all. Who knows? And it is Jess's turn to report to Matt and I on something we don't know what you're going to talk about. Jesse, you ready? I'm ready. I'm ready to go. And we always start with a question. That is right.

So my question this week to you, lads, is who would you say is the biggest pop act of a Probably, I was going to say of the 90s, but it branched into the 2000s as well. Madonna. No. Oh, so not Madge.

Okay. Brittany. Not Brittany. Michael Jackson was still having some hits in the 90s? It is being in the 80s, right? Okay, it's a group. Oh, backstreet stories? No.

Backstreet Boys. Spice girls. Spice girls. Spice girls. I love them. We are talking about the spice girls. Yes. Whoa.

That's walking at the car wash. What I'm talking about. I think before you go too far into this, everyone has to say who their favorite spice girl is. Of course. Oh, it's pretty hard to say. No, I've definitely got a favorite. Me, Mel C, sporty spice for life. Scary Spice Man over here.

Yeah, been scary? A Mel B. See, I was on the fence. Actually, do you know what? I wanted to be sporty spice because I was a sporty kid, believe it or not. So was I, and I still am. A sporty kid. You weigh 52 kilos.

The tennis racket is heavy for you. Well. Table tennis is a challenge. I'll take the criticism on board. I will. I will. I think I told myself I liked Sporty Spice, but definitely a baby spice girl.

A baby. Definitely a baby. Yep. Who do you think would win in a fight to the death? Scary. She's scary but sporty. Have you seen her do those backflips? Yeah, but, and it's a fun fact from later.

Oh, great. Don't ruin your fun facts now. Please. back to that. Oh man, now I'm hanging out for fun facts already. See? Man, oh, were you, so were you big into the Spice Girls, Jess? Um, well, that's the thing.

So they sort of started in the early 90s, and I was born in 90s. So when they first started, I was kind of a bit too young for them. They started in the early 90s. I didn't know they went that far back. Wanabees, their first single, was that 95 maybe? 96, yeah, so I was six years old. So you can still appreciate the... Oh, for sure.

And I definitely liked them, but I wasn't fanatic. I wasn't huge on them. I think what's kind of interesting about this is a lot of the topics that we do is, like, things that I know about, but I don't know how much I don't know. Yeah. You know what I mean? So it's been kind of nice to look at how they started and everything like that. So that's what we're going to do now.

Oh, man. I'm excited. I really do enjoy the music of the Spass Girls. You know, there are different kinds of knowledge. There's known knowns, things you know you know. There's like a, this is an, like, George Bush era report that came out about the war, about the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. There are known knowns, things we know we know.

There are unknown knowns. Things we know we don't know. And then there's unknown unknowns. Things we don't know, we don't know. Okay, well, as I go... And that is the scariest part of this report. As I go through this, you can tell me what level of known it is. Yeah.

How about that? Where was Posh hiding that weapon of mass destruction? That's what I want to know. That's what we all want. That's a big question. And will we get to it by the end of the show? No. Find out.

On this episode of Duke Go On. Okay, so I'll start with their formation. Seems like a logical place to start. So in the mid-90s, there was this management team made up of Bob Herbert, Chris Herbert, and Lindsay Caspin. And they set about creating a girl group to compete with all the popular boy bands that were really dominating the music scene at the time. So you've got bands like Take That, East 17, big groups that were really dominating. All right, all right, everything's going to be all right, all right. All right.

It's going to be all right. Is that 17th? You better bloody hope so. Me too. So in February of 94, heart management, which was these three, plus they got financier, whose name was Chick Murphy, great name. So Feb 94, they placed an ad in the stage, which is a trade magazine, asking this is what the ad said. It said, wanted, are you, and that's literally letter R, letter you.

Saving money. They pay per letter. smart, 18 to 23 with the ability to sing slash dance. Oh, it was up until a couple of years ago. Are you, still are you? Streetwise, outgoing, ambitious and dedicated? Yes. Heart management are a widely successful music industry management consortium,

hello, currently forming a choreographed, singing, dancing, all-female pop act for a recording deal. Open audition. Wow. And did it say, but it did say female, did it? It's an all-female group, yes. Damn, Matt. And I've got the songs that the girl sang at their auditions. Oh, wow.

Yeah. So what was the brief you had to bring in a song, do a dance? You had to bring either sheet music so that you could be accompanied on a piano or a backing cassette. I want to brought a cassette because I am new school. Yeah, you're not messing around. But then again, maybe some of that old school, you know, anyway. Victoria Adams, as she was known, Adams, not Beckham. She sang Mine Her, which is like a well-known cabaret song.

Mine Her. Sounds like a Nazi song. It's quite... Mine. Oh, that's what I'm thinking of. What's mine? How do you spell mine? M-E-I-N.

All right. Mel B, scary spice. She sang Greatest Love of All. Mel C saying, I'm so excited. I'm so excited. So what's Mel B stand for? Brown. Brown.

And Melny Chisham. That's right. Very good. Now, so patronising, I'm sorry, very good. She's my favourite. I should know my last name. You have a sister, like, did you? Yeah, so I've got a younger sister who's about Jess's age, and she was, and she was all, she was all about.

Spice Girls, yeah. So I have a sister who's three years older, so she's sort of eight when the first song comes out, and that says perfect, yeah. Perfect. Yeah. Or nine. So you were probably exposed to it a lot more. See, I have a brother who's seven years older than me, so I would have been at that age, trying to be like him.

That's when I was really idolizing him, so I did everything he did. So I probably didn't listen to the Spice Girls as much. You were more of an East 17 kind of boy. Yeah, like Metallica, what he was really into at the time. Okay, so I'm so excited, that's Mel C. Jerry Halliwell saw the ad, but went skiing in Spain and missed to the audition because her face was sunburnt. She didn't want to go to the audition with a sunburnt face.

Oh. So she originally didn't even audition. Okay. Yeah, she sort of came in later in the process. So they go through this big process. I think they had something like 400 people turn up at the audition. It doesn't even feel like that many though, does it? 400.

400. That's a lot of people, to whittle it down to five. If you're a... From an ad in a paper. But if you think about Australian Idol, they have thousands of people do that. But that goes up on social media. That's, you know, and that's a TV program. That's what I'm saying.

This is, obviously it's a bit smaller scale. But if you did a search now, you'd get thousands of people. Yeah. Yeah. But from a newspaper ad, it wouldn't just be put a... But I guess also these days, they'd send a YouTube link and you'd be like, next, next, next, but you're 400 people. They can't just walk in and you go, like, they probably instantly know who they don't want. And it's an open audition.

They can't say, don't bother singing your song, mate. You don't have to get your agent to book the audition for you. It's an open audition. Anybody turns up on the street? So it is pretty much what an Australian Idol or X Factor or something is, but without the TV cameras. But I think it's hard to be a band formed on one of those shows. and still be big because you're sort of seen as a joke band from the start. Yeah, that's right.

Whereas these... Although, isn't that huge boy band now? One direction. They came from one of those shows, I believe. Yes, they did. Well, they didn't win. Didn't they? No, I think they came third.

Oh, okay. And then they've made more money than all of those acts. So anyway, and so have we talked about Baby Spice's song? No, because she did audition, but she was too young. Emma Bunton. So she actually was about... How old was she? 18.

The others are like 19, 20. Oh, well, to be fair, they did say 18 to 23. They did. Oh, no, no, but I think... No, sorry, but I don't think she made it through or was offered it and wasn't sure, something like that. Okay, so have other people been chosen then? Yes.

So they whittle it down into groups. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah. Well, there is a Stuart Sutcliffe kind of person. So this is the final five by... by the time they've whittled it all down. So you've got the two Mel's, Melchis and Mel Brown. You've got Victoria Adams, Jerry Halliwell, and Michelle Stevenson.

Have I heard of Michelle Stevenson? No one has. Oh, no. What kind of spice is she going to be? I don't know. Average spice. Average spice. Do you know what they were originally called?

Oh, I read this recently. No, I don't know. It's a great name. They were called Touch. Oh, that's gross. So creepy, right? And they moved into this big house together. Hold on, but they're going to be like, we're all different types of touch.

I'm sensual touch. I'm creepy touch. I'm unwanted touch. I'm Uncle Jeff touch. Sorry, Uncle Jeff. Do you have an Uncle Jeff? Oh, I do. No.

He's lovely. Did you get onto where the spice names came from? Yes. Yeah, I'll get to that. It wasn't, I don't think it was the band themselves that came out with them. It wasn't. Those names were sort of given to them and they just stuck. I'm not surprised at all.

Yeah, so it's pretty interesting. So yeah, those are five. So Michelle Stevenson is number five. They move into a house for the spring and summer. They're rehearsing all the time. I think the house was owned by one of the management people. So they've all moved in together. Now it sounds like, um, Jordy Shore or something.

Yeah, it's not good. They've combined all these reality shows without cameras. It's so strange. So the Mel's shared a room too. The two Mel's, Scary Spice and Sports. And the others had their own rooms. Victoria Beckham and Michelle Stevenson shared a room. Jerry Halliwell had a little room to herself.

So how did she get in if she didn't audition? She did, Michelle. No, Jerry. Jerry eventually. So she missed the original auditions. And then I think at like second or third level, she'd contacted them again and was like, can I please come an audition? And she did and did really well.

Look, I'm not Sunburn anymore. I've been skiing. Yeah. I've travelled. I'm well travelled. Right. So they're all rehearsing. I'm well travelled.

I'm well travelled. I'm a jerry Halliwell Spanish way guys So it soon became apparent That Michelle Stevenson Did not have the drive and belief That the rest of the group did

That's how they've worded it Didn't have the drive and belief She just wasn't fitting in She wasn't jelling with the rest of the group Was posh bullying her? This is so brutal You'll love this So Matt

Matt loves brutality So Bob Herbert So one of the managers He said She just wasn't fitting in She'd never have gelled with it And I had to let her go However

Michelle has turned around later and stated that it was her decision to leave the group. She's like, no, it was my decision to go because of the illness of her mother who was diagnosed with breast cancer, which is a perfectly reasonable excuse to leave. But then Victoria Adams, Beckham, later dismissed that claim saying she just couldn't be asked to put in the work. Oh, slammed her. Imagine if the story about the cancer is true. Yeah, that's...

That's what she said, but it was just a story. Are you going to believe some woman called Michelle Stevenson or Posh Spice? Oh, that's a good point. Yeah. Come on. Posh just wanted a room to her herself. No, fair enough. So Michelle Stevenson is the first Stuart Sutcliffe.

And there's another Stuart Sutcliffe in the Spice Girls history because... Michelle Sutcliffe is his granddaughter. Is this a Pete Best, maybe? This is a Pete Best. These are all Beatles people if you haven't heard our episode about the Beatles. Yeah, listen to the Beatles. I have a thing for British bands, obviously. So the management team, the Herberts, they searched for a report.

placement and first came across Abigail Kiss, who sang a soul song to the management, and two days later she was selected. They're like, you're great, you're going to fit in wonderfully, but she decided not to join the band, here we go, because she was too young and didn't want to have problems with her boyfriend having to live with the girls for a month. One month. Do we know how things worked out with her and her boyfriend? I hope it ended badly, like two weeks later. Or I hope they got married, and then the spy skills did really.

really well and then it just sort of slowly ate away at her. It's her own fault for being... I hope she lived a great life and she's really well adjusting. No, fuck her. Fuck you, Abigail. She had her first wedding dance to a Sparse girl song. What's your one or something? Two become one.

Two become one. What's what you want? What you want? Oh, don't want I want. That's want to be. Wanna be. No, fuck you, Abigail. More like Abigail kiss millions of pounds goodbye.

Yeah, grow a pair. Tell your boyfriend to fuck off. if he's not going to let you follow your dreams for a month. Oh, the boyfriend stopped her. Well, that's sort of the reason. She's like, I don't want to have problems with my boyfriend. Oh, that's not good. Well, get a better, less possessive, creepy boyfriend.

You listen to Wanderbe. If you want to be my lover, you've got to get with my friends. Oh, boy. And he was not into that at all. He was not into that at all. So, she goes, no thank you. So then the hervets were then led to 18. So why did you audition, Abigail?

Anyway. Sorry, I don't think Emma Bunton did audition. I'm sorry. I think I got that wrong before. When I was thinking of too young, I think I was thinking of Abigail, because they were led to Emma Bunton at the suggestion of a vocal coach, whose name was Pepe Lemma. Great name.

So she instantly impressed the Herbets, and she came and met the rest of the group in July of 1994, who apparently just welcomed her with open arms. Absolutely loved her. Jerry Halliwell said, straight away, I knew she was the one. Isn't that nice? I knew she was one of the five?

The one. Of the five. Right, so that's in July of 94. So then they're all rehearsing, you know, working on all sorts of things. And then in March of 95. I've just got to know, is Emma Bunting in the same room as Posh? I don't know. What are the sleeping arrangements?

I think they were... How much has their lives been shaken up by the passing of Michelle Stevenson? I don't think they had to live together forever. Great. So they're kicking at large now. There's the five, the Fab Five. So we get to 1995, and they start to get a bit frustrated with the management and their unwillingness to listen to their visions and ideas.

So this management group has created them, and then the Spice Girls turn on the management group. And they're like, we want more control over... And then they're all like, wow, we should have got Michelle Stevenson. She wouldn't have got together this revolution. She was too lazy. She was too lazy to rebel. She would have done what we said.

So they parted ways with them. They bailed. Got rid of the management. Got rid of them. And to ensure they kept control of their own work, the group allegedly stole the master recordings of their disography. from the management offices. When did, so when this before they'd...

Before they didn't even have a record label. They didn't have anything. They were just kind of working on stuff. Well, I imagine that that management group sued later on and got a lot of cash, right? No. No. Oh, my God. All right.

And that same day that they stole those and bailed on the, on the heart management, they tracked down Sheffield-based producer Elliot Kennedy, who'd been, they'd had this showcase. earlier in the year. So I think towards the end of the night of war. I imagine it's just like a shitty shopping centre or something. Yeah, I don't know. They invited a whole bunch of producers and stuff like that down. So this guy, Elliot, had been at their showcase and they persuaded him to work with them. As a producer.

Yeah. Go with that. So Elliot Kennedy. That's kind of cool. So then I think we all remember where we were on the 7th of July, 1996, when the Spice Girls released their debut single, Wonna Be in the UK. So they obviously got a record label as well Yeah So they went from there So 96, wannabe comes out It was an instant hit

Was aired up to 70 times a week at its peak That's 10 times a day It on TV On TV On one station You're presuming not You're talking about worldwide Because worldwide

No that's just in the UK That's just in the UK How many music stations they have there They have like 100 There then that's not that many times per day I think she's talking about film clip though, not radio, not like BBC Radio. Yeah, I'm saying if they go like MTV1, MTV2.

Okay, but this is like 96. Yeah. There were less options. You're being a shithead. I know. Like, yeah, that's, isn't that not clear? Ah, you've got V. V2.

They didn't have Foxtale in 96 of the UK. They got Sky. Anyway. Music. The song entered the charts at number three before moving up to number one the following week and staying there for seven weeks. Boom. Want to be sat at number one for seven weeks.

Pretty good, Matt, for a debut single. Proved to be a global hit hitting number one in 37 countries. Whoa. Becoming not only the biggest selling debut single by an all-female group, but also the biggest selling single by an all-female group of all time. So wannabe is... The biggest selling... Bigger selling by an all-female group of all time.

Cop that banana-rama. Oh, don't cop that banana-rama. No, I cop that. No, I cop it. So, writing the wave of the publicity and hype, there's just so much happening around them at the time. They released their next singles in the UK in Europe. So in October, Say You'll Be There was released,

topping the charts at number one for two weeks. And in December, To Become One was released, becoming their first Christmas number one. I need somebody like I've never needed love before. Want to make love to you, baby. I had a little love. Oh, my God. I don't know.

I thought we promised the listeners no singing on this episode. Make your spirit free. Set your spirit free. It's the only way to be. I really didn't think I was going to be that far, but I reckon I have a lot of spy skills in my brain. That's impressive. That's very good.

Are you going to do Two Become One? When Two Become One, I need some love. All right, here we go. I once heard. Wait, is it? If I merged it in another song. I once heard that two become one. It was obviously quite a sexual song

But when they're like Put it on, put it on Talking about a condom That's what someone once told me Is that true? I think so I didn't write the song So I can't confirm that

Have you ever thought that? Have you ever thought that? That blew my mind I thought it was about like some sort of a Like one of those crazy You know mad scientists Sewing two humans together kind of scenarios And they're saying put it on

It's talking about like the head Ont to the body The corpse Yeah No it was not a corpse It's another living human. Just without a head. But the head is dead.

It's off a dead corpse, but they're able to keep the brain going by putting it on the shoulder of the... That's probably more what they meant, yeah. Yeah. Tonight is the night. Tonight's the night. For Frankenstein.

I love it. That's very good. Okay. So To become one becomes their first Christmas number one. It's sold 430,000 copies in its first week. This is before Apple downloads. That's, yeah, people physical CDs. Yeah, making it the fastest selling single of the year.

And those two tracks continued the group's remarkable sales by topping the charts in over 53 countries. Wow. And cementing the group's reputation as one of the biggest pop acts in the world. That's pretty crazy. It's just amazing how quickly, like, so this is still only in... 1999. Yeah, 96.

And how old are they, a little early 20s? Early 20s. And Emma Bunton's, what, like seven? No, she's only like a year or two behind them. Oh, is she actually not that young? She started out literally as a baby. Yeah, Baby Spice. She came in as an infant.

Not an infant, a baby. I just said baby. Is an infant and a baby the same thing? Yes. Yes, good. You have a baby. You should know that. It's funny semantics, isn't it?

Baby Barbie. Potato potato. In November 96, the Spice Girls released their debut album, which was called Spice. Spice. Yes. Very good. So that was released in Europe in 96. And it had a cover.

It was all wide. and had a ring on it? Maybe? No. I think it says the word spice, with them inside the letters. SPICE, isn't it? Oh, they're inside the letters.

Why are you winking at me when you say that? Stop it. So they were hugely successful, and people drew a lot of comparisons to Beatlemania, which we sort of spoke about on the Beatles episode. I feel like every time a band

becomes big in the UK, they're like, it's the new Beatles. There are a lot of ties. Yeah, people compare the Beatles to the spice girls quite a lot. there's a few little things where it comes up. So in seven weeks, Spice had sold 1.8 million copies in Britain alone,

making the Spice Girls a fastest selling British act since the Beatles. Okay. Fair comparisons. In total, the album sold over 3 million copies in Britain, the biggest selling album of all time in the UK by a female group, and it went 10 times platinum. That's crazy. So they could have two platinum records each on their wall.

It's pretty cool. That's quite nice. Nice, isn't it? Two each, but you probably give one to Elliot Kennedy, the producer. Whatever, Elliot Kennedy. So that... Probably send one to Michelle Stevenson. Nah, fuck that.

But like a big, like... One to Abigail as well. Yeah. Kiss my platinum record. Hope your dickhead boyfriend's dead. All righty, there it is. So in that same month, so this is like November. This is just to give you an idea of how quickly their star power had grown.

They were invited to switch on the... Christmas lights in Oxford Street? Oh my God. In London? That is big. Yeah, that drew a crowd of 500,000 people. That's big. That's a lot of people.

That's a lot of people. Matt, that's half a million people. How many Olympic swimming pools is that? Full of people. How many MCGs is that? That's five full MCGs. There you go. That's a lot of people, Matt.

Yeah, that's pretty good. That's big. They saw them turn it like a switch. I know. So why would you turn up for that? But, okay. That sounds ridiculous. Right.

So they're getting, pretty popular. It must be in, like, actually awful to become popular that quickly. So fast. It would be very hard to deal with it. It'd be so overwhelming. And you're still figuring out what you're doing and, oh, it's crazy. It would also, you'd be so aware how unjustified it was as well.

So, like, I've slowly worked hard for this. I deserve this. You'd be like, yeah, I'm a massive fraud. Yeah, I just turned up to an audition. I answered an ad and then when they weren't too good, we left the mansion. and they're going to find me out eventually. Yeah, you would feel like that, but they just, and it just kept going. So in January of 97, they released Wanna Be in the United States,

and that sort of proved to be like the catalyst in helping the Spice Girls break into the US market, which was notoriously difficult, debuted on the Hot 100 chart at number 11 in this US, which is pretty good. At the time, that was the highest ever debut by a non-American act, beating the previous record held by Who do you reckon? Hooty and the Blowfish? They Canadian?

No, they're American. Probably the Beatles. The Beatles. I want to hold your hand. Who? Yeah, the Who. Hootie and the Beatles. So they're beating the records of the Beatles

in terms of their US debut, which is pretty cool. In Feb of 97, Spice was released in the US, so the album was released, became the biggest selling album of 1997 in the US, peaked at number. number one.

Wow. We certified seven times platinum. And that means seven million, by the way. A platinum record in the US is a million copies. Yeah, well, it's for sales in excess of 7.4 million copies. That's so many million. That's so many million. Man?

That's a lot of, like, that's seven million. I reckon seven. We can be specific. You're saying so many million, but I reckon we can be specific. If you go one better. That's seven million. Very good. I reckon you could fill an Olympic swimming pool with that many CDs.

Do you reckon? I wonder how many. Seven million. Depends how big the case is the deluxe editions, etc. Yeah, no, true. And if there's like a box set that comes to the poster or something. Imagine. It's a nightmare logistically to fill that pool.

It's just, and you know what? Wasteful. You have to empty the pool, put in all their CDs. Come on, we've got better things to do. Come on, we've got lights to turn on. So Spice, the album in total, sold 28 million copies worldwide. That's just too many. Becoming the biggest selling album of all time by an,

all-female group. 28 million copies. It keeps sounding so good. Now it mentions all-female? Well, not just all-female, but all-female group. So there's more, there's female solo singers with more. Yeah, like Chennai. There's groups with some female, some male, like Step Club 7.

How many albums have you sold, Matt? S-Club 7 would not have out-sold Swiss girls. Well, they could have, though, because that doesn't... A small party like an S-club party. But an all-girl group means not... necessarily. They would have, but not necessarily. I think a mixture is probably like Fleetwood Mac,

I reckon may have sold more. First one that came to mind was Steps Club 7. So that's not my fault. Are you calling them Step Club 7? Because it's S Club 7. Steps. Steps is a different band. Can I go on?

Please, do go on. All right. So they're just some shitty, popular, all-female group. And later that month, so this is just in Feb. How long, sorry, it's only been seven months. Feb of 97. And they released the first one in the album in the UK in July 96. And they only made their, when was the first song, 96 as well, wasn't it?

Yeah, July 7th, 1996, he said. So seven months later, they've already, wow, it's insane how popular they've become. It's crazy. Right, so they won two Brit Awards for Best British Video for Say You'll Be There and Best British Single for One. to be. Say you'll be there. I need somebody that I can never need a love before.

Is that two songs together? That's definitely two songs together. And it was at the 97 Brut Awards that Jerry Halliwell wore that famous Union Jack mini dress. Because every time I imagine she's wearing that, but does she wear that any other time? She's worn it a few extra times because it was so popular that time. It became one of pop history's most famed outfits. And did people start wearing it on the street like as an outfit?

I don't know. I think it sort of made Union Jack stuff a bit cool. I had a dress, a music dress-up birthday party. I'm going to say music dress. And some friends came as the Spice Girls and, yeah, the Union Jack dress. Well, it might have been... Who were you dressed as, I want to know, Matt? I wasn't...

One of the Spice Girls. Who would have been Ginger, obviously. I was there as Bruce Springs thing. Oh, that is awesome. That's very cool. What were other people dressing up as? So I'm just really intrigued by these little kids dressing up as. Andy Matthews came as Annie Lennox.

Oh, how long ago was this? Like a year and a half? Oh, no. You said, I had a birthday. I thought I said a couple years ago, but I'm maybe... Yeah, no, I think you got it in your head that it was a kid's party. I thought you were nine years old. That's what I imagined.

And then you start mentioning people that I know. Bruce bringsfield. That's what I meant. That's why I thought... Bruce said a nine-year-old, that would be pretty cool. That would be so badass. All right, please do you go on. Well, if your friend who came as Ginger Spice was wearing the original dress,

Oh, it's worth a lot of money, isn't it? A lot of money. It became, so one of the most prominent symbols of 90s pop culture, and the dress was sold at a cherry auction to hard rock cafe in Vegas for a record amount, which gave Halliwell the Guinness World Record for the most expensive piece of pop star clothing ever sold. Do you want to have a crack at how much it's sold for? Yeah. It's in pound.

Okay, let me think about this, because I know that the most expensive dress ever sold was worn by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's. It's a good dress. And how much was that? And I think that that is close to one million US dollars, which is about 500,000 pounds.

So I'd say probably 300,000 pounds. I'm going to say, because I was thinking, I'm just going to go crazy. I'm going to go over your head here. I'm going to say 2 million pounds. I were really disappointed.

It was 41,320 pounds. Yeah, what I said was fucking stupid. Pop star. I think it's, I just blew a fortune on a shitty dress, man. What are you doing? You're not a good investor. I'm not a good at an auction.

I get a rush of blood. I'm putting my hand up for everything. Yep. Two million pounds. Oh, fuck. What have I done? That's a lot. Pounds are worth more than Australian dollars, aren't they?

Not less. So she's in our little subcategories. That's just for the pop star clothing ever sold. Still pretty good. Still pretty good. She didn't get that money, obviously. 41,000 pounds is a lot of money. For a dress.

For some reason, I'm just like, oh, expensive. It's going to be crazy. Yeah. Why would Jess bring it up if it was only like 40,000? She wouldn't. It's going to be ridiculous. Jess wouldn't waste our time unless it was millions of pounds. And it wouldn't be the Guinness World Record for 41,000 pounds.

I mean, anyone can buy a Guinness World Record record. I'm going to bloody buy Matt's t-shirt. Off your 50,000 pounds. Pop Culture History. Bang, World Record holder. Podcast History. That's right. Most expensive item of podcast star.

If you paid $5 for a t-shirt, it'd be the most expensive podcasting t-shirt. You have 500. Okay, so moving on. So we're now into March of 97. So it's still, so what have you written down there, David? What was July and 96? Is that the album or the first single? Okay, yes.

So they're only in March. And they've been around for eight months. Yeah. The double side of Mama and who do you think you are was released in Europe. Mama, not going to know that. I love you. It's really. Oh yeah, it's slow.

That was released, which once again saw them at number one, making the Spice Girls the first group in history since the Jackson 5 to have four consecutive number one hits. Boom. Is that in America or in... Well, that's as in Europe.

That was released in Europe. Right. So then they released a book later that month. Seriously, they've been around eight months. A book. They've got a book. Girl power.

The thing to have when I was in primary school was a Spice Girls pencil case. Yeah, big time. And inside was Spice Girls' Rubber, Spice Girls Pencil and Spice Girls' Shatner. Did you have that? I did not, but actually I had like a pencil tin. Heaps of girls in my class had that.

It was white pencil. It looked like the album. Yep. I've got fun facts about some of the merchandise as well that they had. Nice, but now they've already got a book. What's the book about? They've got a book. It's called Girl Power.

It's the Spice Girls' first book and Manifesto. I don't know why you need a manifesto eight months in. Usually manifestos are for mass murderers. Well, it was launched and it sold 200,000 copies within a day. It was eventually translated into more than 20 languages. Matt, how many languages do you speak? I love to keep impressing Matt with his back. Hey, Matt?

One and a bit. I was just thinking, what about Wayne's Manifesto? He was no serial killer. That's all I'm going to say on the topic. It's a kid show from probably before your time. I was going to say, I don't know what that is. What's the bit? The bit?

I did four years of Italian. I did two years of Indonesian. And I did two years of Mandarin. So you put all of those together as a bit? That's a bit, yeah. You dabble. I wouldn't say I speak any of those at all. Sure.

But I, in somewhere in my brain, like if I remember, I giving you everything. Now in Indonesian. If I remember that in my brain for some reason, I've got to remember Salamat Pargi or something in Indonesian. Salamat Pargi, yes, good call. I don't know what. What does that mean?

I think it's like hello. Oh, good morning. It's a greeting. In Indonesian? Yes. Right, I was going to say it because I don't recognize that. Oh, okay. How many?

or just do you speak, Dave. 45. Wow. I'd list them all, but it will take too long. Please do go on. So in October of 97, the Spice Girls released the first single from Spice World, which is their second album.

Spice Up Your Life. Spice Up Your Life. That's a fun one. That's a fun. Yeah, that's a good one. It entered the UK charts at number one on the 19th of October, making it the group's fifth consecutive number one hit single.

Is that like a new record? Um, nah. Because wasn't there a time where the Beatles had like the top five? They top three, I think. No, five. Five was it? Pretty sure it was five. It was my podcast.

All right. I don't remember. It might have been, yeah, four or five. You might be right there. There was something stupid. I imagine the Beatles probably did stuff of that before. Yeah. And so then they went on a bit of a tour.

Their first live major concert, they... Oh, so they didn't do concerts for the first album. have had but it was um this is sort of into like leaving the uk they hadn't really done that yet so they went to uh turkey naturally performed for 40,000 fans. They must have just looked at where the albums were selling well and gone off we go. Turkey. It's a growing economy. We'll cash in on that.

This is one of my favorite things that I read. Later the girls traveled to South Africa and they got to meet Nelson Mandela who announced these are my heroes. You're kidding. Nelson Mandela said the Spice Girls were his heroes. Well, he would never lie. He would never use hyperbole. In what way would he say?

I don't know. I... What? Musical heroes. These are my heroes. Does he love pop music? He must have. Is he an inter-girl power?

Well, who isn't into girl power? That's a good point. So, okay, November they released their second album, which was Spice World. So they've released a couple of... And is there a movie tie-in yet? Coming. It's coming. Oh, yeah.

Oh, I can feel it. Yeah. My waters. So even this album, Spice World, was, again, just a global bestseller. So it set a new record for the fastest selling album when it shipped 7 million copies over the course of two weeks. Got heaps of really good reviews. The album went on to sell over 10 million copies in Europe, Canada and the US and 20 million copies worldwide. Doesn't make sense, does it?

Yeah. Combined. Yeah. Yeah. It was actually quite criticized. though in the United States, they were criticized for releasing the album just nine months after their debut in the States

because they'd kind of released her album obviously earlier in the UK. People were like, we hate, stop giving the fans more music. Well, that's the thing, they were kind of what's the problem? They were saying it was like, well, they were getting that sort of backlash, like you've only just arrived here and you've already got another album, like settle down

and they were suffering a little bit of over-exposure at home, like there was just too much spice girls. So they began to experience quite a bit of media backlash. And they were really criticised for the number of sponsorships deals they signed for,

which was like over 20 in total. For all sorts of different brands and companies and stuff like that, they were like, they were not afraid to sell out. They would put their name on anything. They were a manufactured girl band. Like,

what are they selling out? All their legitimacy. Well, they are Nelson Mandel's heroes. Let's not forget. So, you know, if they're going to sell some Pepsi, so be it. And those boy bands and girls. girl bands never have a long shelf life.

Not in the modern, like the modern style. So just cash in while you can. No one's judging you. Unless it's like fucked stuff. I imagine they weren't. No, there's nothing fucked. There's some funny ones and I'll mention those later as well. Part of fun fact.

But then again, this comes to a date that we all remember. Obviously, the 31st of May 1998 when... Ginger left? Yeah. Oh, so that's the... The day the music died. The day the music died. Jerry Halliwell announced her departure from the Spice Girls.

Wait, in 98. 98. Fucking hell. So it all happened in... Jesus. That's the thing. That's less than two years after the first single. They've blown up so quickly.

I had no idea. So that's less than two years. So let's just do a timeline. So July, 1996. Wannaby comes out. Fast forward to May 98. Jerry's gone. That's crazy.

She's out and she's announced it. And they let her sleep in her own bedroom and everything. I know. They did everything for her. I'm still imagining that they're still sharing bedrooms, even though they've become multi-millioners. Are you imagine them living on the Spice Bus? They're all in like, they're just like cramped together.

They're like, guys, my bank balance is 15 million pounds. Can we not just get set up on my own? No. No, Jerry, stay in that tiny little room. What I liked is that she announced it through her solicitor. Oh, wow. She stated, sadly, I would like to confirm that I have left the Spice Girls. There must have been some serious problems.

This is because of differences between us. I'm sure the group will continue to be successful, and I wish them all about. Did she say any differences? Some of the girls, the differences are, I think of myself as a ginger spice, which is very different to say a sporty or a scary spice. I'm surprised that we could continue to do a podcast knowing that we have such different opinions on who the best spice girl is. Look, I asked the question then I just said one.

Oh, look, I should really commit to that, should I? Melby is the best because she has... Great hair. Attitude coming at the wazoo. And I think some of the others... We don't need to talk about her wazoo. Some of the other guys, you know, they're a little bit sit-backish. A little bit posh for you?

Yeah, a little posh, or a little bit baby for me. A little bit young. Or a little bit sporty. Or a little bit... English. Ginger. Sure. Are we going to talk about the names later?

Yes. Okay, great. I was going to say, because Ging is always... Yeah, that is weird. We'll get to it. We'll get to it. So, Ginger's gone. She's gone.

And so she claimed she was exhausted, wanted to take a break. It shocked fans, obviously. People were pretty devastated about it. I can imagine... Did you cry, Jess? No. It was 98. Because a lot of people did...

I'm sure that you can find footage of people crying. Sure. Like when a dictator dies. Sure. Same thing. Jerry Halliwell, Dictator. Honestly, Dave, though. There are bigger issues in the world.

Oh, I've got to keep reminding ourselves. Of that, of that, of course. There were rumours that she was fighting with Mel B. See that, Matt? You're always causing problems. But the thing is, like, her leaving the band was, it was major news. Like, it was covered by media all around the world. It was in the covers of magazines.

So it should be. It was huge. And then she went on to do her solo career. I am going to go into what each of them has done, post spy skills as well. Including Mel C's duet with Brian Adams. Yeah, of course. So they released a new song Goodbye

before Christmas of 98, and the song was seen as a tribute to Jerry Halliwell. Oh, I thought that that might be it. And Jerry Halliwell's not in Goodbye. She's not in it. She's gone. How does Goodbye go? I don't know.

I don't think I know goodbye. So they pretty much just fell off the face of the earth after Jerry Halliwell. Kind of. Well, they started. No, no, I think there's a third album coming. There is. but so when they released goodbye, it topped the UK singles charts

became their third consecutive Christmas number one, equaling the record previously set by Barry White, I mean the Beatles. So they just keep bloody catching up to them Beatles. So then this sort of skips ahead a little bit. That was sort of Christmas of 98. I'm not sure what they were doing for 99, probably just travelling and stuff.

In November of 2000... I just took a gap year, working in a coffee shop. They had a lot of stuff on. They released forever. The final album, forever. Final album. Sporting a new edgier R&B sound, the album received lukewarm responses.

Too edgy. In total, forever, achieved only a fraction of the success of its two best-selling predecessors. Here's a fact. I don't want toot my own horn here, but I was once in a band that recorded a song

with a guy that worked on forever. Get out. Yeah. That's pretty cool. I wish I was just like an engineer type person on the record, but still... Tute away, dude. Tute away.

Tute. Tute. Tute. Tutin. Very good. So it only sold 5 million copies. Oh,

what a paltry, paltry album. Yeah. You may as well, Matt, if you're only selling 5 million, like when this show only gets 4 million downloads,

I pretty much will delete it from iTunes because... I will kill myself if this only gets 5 million. 5 million. I don't even know what I'd do. I will kill everyone. What a threat.

So please tell your friends. Or you're, You're all going to die. Oh, you know, you want that on your conscience? By not signing up 5 million friends to subscribe? What could you have done? You could have saved the world. Oh my God.

In December 2000, guys, this is when the day... Oh, the day the music really died. Like, before it was dead, now it's dead. So the album, what was the third album called? Forever. And that didn't have any songs that anyone would know now. Oh, I'm sure it would, but I don't have a list of them. I don't think there was any of their really good ones.

Right. So it came out in November, and in December, they sort of unofficially announced that they were beginning and indefinite hiatus. We'd be concentrating on their own solo stuff, but they were like, we're not splitting up. It kind of sounds like parents splitting up. Like, we still love you,

and it's not going to change anything. Please keep buying the sweet merchandise. We just need a little bit of time and space. Okay. Right, so 2000, the music died, and our lives have been meaningless ever since. End of podcast. That was great.

Nah, jokes, I've got more. God, what a twist. Now we skip ahead a little bit to 2007 where they held a press conference revealing their intention to reunite. 2007? 2007, seven years later, reunite. There'd been rumours floating around for ages,

speculating that they were going to get together, but they finally confirmed it, and they embarked upon a worldwide concert tour starting in Vancouver. I don't remember. that happening at all, do you? Yeah, that happened. No.

So, did they come to Australia? I think so. I believe. Hey, Spice Girls, just promise you'll always be there. Ticket sales. Here we go. This is a fun fact. This is an early fun fact for you.

Okay. Ticket sales for the first London date of the Return of the Spice Girls World Tour. Sold out. How long do you reckon it took them to sell out? Three weeks. Three and a half weeks. Three and a half weeks. Probably, 45 minutes.

It's under a minute. Are you serious? 38 seconds. To sell out how much? To sell out their first London show. Would it mean O2 Arena or something? Yeah, it was O2 Arena. It was like 15, 20,000 tickets or something.

In 38 seconds. Come on, Matt. That's impressive. Yeah. Look, it's pretty good. I'm not arguing with you. If you did that at your Comedy Festival show, you'd never have to work again. And also, I think around that time, they teamed up with,

Simon Fuller, Judy Kramer and Jennifer Saunders of French and Saunders fame. Yes. To develop a Spice Girls musical entitled Viva Forever. Now the group weren't in the musical obviously, but they influenced the show. And was there five Spice Girls in the musical? No, I think it's more to do. It's a Duke Buck musical. They're the worst kind.

So that is a stage or film musical that uses previously released popular songs as its musical song. So they're trying to write. the movie around like a Green Day album or something. Exactly. So it's not the story of the Spice Girls. It's just a story that, but the music is all Spice Girls' music. So that's kind of cool. It was written by Jennifer Staunders, so that's nice. So when was this jukebox musical?

That was at the end of 2012. Okay. Is it still going? No. Sadly, no. Damn. We missed our chance. Yeah, I don't know exactly what happened, but there was, I looked on the website for the musical, and there was a note that, like, does it?

Despite grave reviews and standing ovations, most nights were just unable to go on. So they stopped it. And there was a little note down the bottom, like if you've purchased tickets for this particular date, you need to contact this number because you weren't going to be able to go. Oh, they just had to pull it. Brutal. And it was ironically called Viva Forever. And it did not last forever at all.

It lasted not long at all. Also in August 2012, after much speculation, probably one of the best things that's ever happened to me in my life the group performed a medley of wannabe and spice up your life at the 2012 Summer Olympics Closing Ceremony in London. London one?

The London Olympics. But did Posh perform? They were all there. Did Posh perform? They were all there. I thought that she'd given it up. No. What about this?

Posh left as well. Well, they'd all disbanded. And what about the 2007 tour? Was Posh there? Yes. Because she's so rich, she just doesn't. The others probably need the money a lot more than she does. But isn't Jerry the one that left?

Jerry left. But then they were given awards and stuff like that and then only several one or two of them would show up. It was sort of rare that they were all together, but they were all together for the Olympics. And they reunited just for that event. But this is what's interesting. Their performance received huge response from the audience.

It became the most tweeted moment of the Olympics with over 116,000 tweets on Twitter per minute. Whoa. Isn't that insane? Just people going nuts for the Spice Girls. So that's pretty cool. Is that still a thing? Like every minute is there still 116,000 tweets about that moment?

Probably. They're all from me. Three and a half years on this, people are still tweeting at that right. Still good. So yeah, so they only released three albums. So we're kind of done with their timeline up to now. This isn't really anything they're doing now. So Spice in 96, Spice World in 97, and Forever in 2000.

and Forever in 2000. That's it. Has there been rumours of them doing another world tour? Yeah, there's been rumours. I don't think. I thought they might be teaming up with someone. Not that I'm aware of. I could be wrong. I'm never wrong.

Don't worry about that. Don't worry about that. You asked before about the nicknames. Yes, I'm just wondering. So, in the summer of 96, this is back when they first started. They had a lunch meeting with the editor of Top of the Pops magazine, his name was Peter Lorraine. Lorraine. And he sort of, in a bit of,

inadvertently led the Spice Girls to adopt these nicknames because it's sort of how he referred to them in the article that he wrote. So he said in the magazine we used silly language and came up with nicknames all the time. So it came naturally to give them names that would be used by the magazine and its readers. It was never meant to be adopted globally. So the magazine actually published it saying, and then there's the one who looks real scary. Yeah. Yeah, that's brutal. that one.

Oh, baby, sporty, posh. Oh, okay, yeah. So Victoria Beckham or Adams, as she was then, she was called Posh Spice because of her more upper middle class background, her choppy brunette Bob hairstyle and refined attitude, form-fitting designer outfits, and her love of high-heeled footwear. I'm pretty posh, yeah. That's not how she would talk.

She's actually a posh accent. No, I, um, yeah, she's got a, she doesn't have a posh accent, does she? She's a bit more posh than who's next, Melanie Brown. Oh, come on. She's a bit rough. Come on. She was given the nickname Scary Spice because of her outrageous, in-your-face attitude. Loud Leeds accent.

Can you do a Leeds accent? I'm from about halfway up England. Very good. Throaty laugh. That seems hurtful. Why would that be scary? Her manner of dress, which was often consisted of leopard print outfits. She'd often dressed like a vampire, quite scary.

And her crazy Afro hairstyle. Oh, African hairstyle is scary. Why don't they call it crazy spice? Oh yeah, good cause. She could have been crazy spice. She's more crazy than scary. Mental illness, awareness and stuff like that. I think crazy is, I don't know if it was back then,

but it seems as being a bit of a no-no. You can't call someone crazy. Well, that is just crazy. Well, babe, you said it. And you know what you are, Matt? You're crazy. Scary? No, that's offensive, please.

Emma Bunton, my favourite. Emma was called Baby Spice because she was the youngest member of the group. She wore her long blonde hair and pig tails, wore baby doll dresses and had an innocent smile and a girly girl personality. I don't know what a girly girl personality is, but, girl. Anyway. I feel like she's the one that it's hardest to keep up being a baby when you're now in your mid-40s. Well, I don't know. Like ACDC, Angus is still wearing his schoolboy. Yeah, and he is a worldwide joke.

How dare you? How dare you? Worldwide joke all the way to the bloody bank. Yeah, he's doing A-O-G. Okay, thanks Dave. Nice t-shirt over there, you dickhead. I have a much better fashion sense than Angus Young, and I'm going to put that on record.

Okay, well, you're off the podcast. Next up, sporty spice, Melanie Chisholm. And I would pull off a ball boy and schoolboy outfit better than he ever would. A ball boy. Can we take that out of context? I would pull off a ball boy. Well, well, no, you've just said it out of context. Oh, no.

Just quick, Jess say it. Got you. No, I'm not doing it. I'm a run an idiot. All right, who's... Okay, sporty spice. All right, guys, move over. It's time for my fav.

She usually wore a track suit, her long dark hair and a ponytail, and sported a tough girl attitude as well as tattoos on both of her arms. Ooh, tattoos. That's very sporty. She also possessed true athletic abilities. Yeah. Her signature being able to perform back hand springs. She was always doing, like, high kicks in their photos.

She was wearing track suit pants like she was ready to run. But a crop top as well, because she's cool. Exactly. And she needs support. Exactly. Terry Halliwell was called ginger spice Because of her liveliness Zest and Flaming Red Hair

Would we say ginger is lively and zesty? Ginger It adds a bit of zest To a dish She often wore outrageous stage outfits As like the iconic Union Jack dress I don't know if I'd call ginger lively though I mean it's a root

If you see him It's like a beige looking When did you like how is ginger got anything with red hair either Zanda, Alan has a joke about that because, yeah,

he talks about how people with mousy brown hair are the real ones we should be teasing and what colours ginger, mousy brown. Fact. Yeah, so you're not even the first one to think of that. Shut your beautiful hair in mouth.

You don't think I've thought about that before? No. Look at my face. Look at my face until I haven't thought about the word ginger before. Look at my face. Look at my face.

face. Okay. I'm not looking at your face. Merchandise. We mentioned merchandise before. They're pencil cases. Pencil cases. So there was all sorts of crazy stuff.

I picked out a few that I thought were quite interesting or a little bit funny. So there was one for Walker Crisps. Oh, I love them. They're really good chips. Right? And it was a promotion with over... Are they thinns equivalent? Oh, yeah.

Yeah, they're not crinkled. Yeah. Yeah. They made over 51 different packaging designs. What for? 10 for each member. They had their own 10 different designs, plus a group package.

So that's the 51. They had a Polaroid camera. It was a regular Polaroid instant camera that had pink and purple shell and a Spice Girls badgeing. And it came along with like a disposable Polaroid camera and a flashlight and stuff.

They had their own camera. That's awesome. That's pretty cool. Impulse, you know, the like sprays, impulse deodorant, launched a fragrance known as Impulse Spice. Ooh. They also had shower gels and stuff like that.

These aren't particularly, like, these are fairly standard for, like, girly products aimed at young girls. But then they also had a PlayStation game as a video game. Oh, what can you do? Spice World. It was a computer animated cartoon of the girls. It was developed in, like, 98. Pretty cool. So I bet it holds up real well.

Oh, it'd be really cool now. Apprilius scooters. There were five different scooters, each promoting a Spice Girl. And they were created and marketed as the Spice Sonic Effect. What kind of crossover market would there be in Spice Girls fans and adults who can drive scooters? I don't know there's like a Vespa, I think more like the little push toy scooters. I was also imagining Vespers. Were you?

Oh, maybe. I don't think so, but maybe. The favourite one though, my favourite, is Domino Sugar. The girls promoted sugar as part of, it was one of their sponsors for their North American tour. Sugar. I'm imagining just a bag of sugar with the Spice Girls. Like a two-killer bag of sugar That's amazing

That's very strange This tour bought to you by The Sweet Taste of Sugar Yeah But like who are you marketing The Spice Girls at? Young people You want young people

Eating your sugar Yeah What Yeah Kids don't buy bag They eat things with sugar in it In it Not just bag

Not just bag That's not the problem I want to finish up with Where are they now And then a few fun facts Yeah Are you going to talk about the movie at all Yes

Great Have you got it? No, I was just, I was just wondering, because I, I'll, I'll talk about Richard E. Grant doing it only, because he's like a legit actor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think he only, he only did it because it was for his kids. Oh, that's nice. There's a few little, yeah, fun tidbits about the, about the movie. But, so I wanted to go with, where are they now?

What happened to them after the Spice Girls? So Mel C, Sporty Spice. She is now 41 years old. Oh, my God. This is really interesting. She's not that much old. I was thinking they'd be older, but I was really just reacting like, that's where she is now?

You know, I was meant to be a joke, but I did not. Anyway, cool. And again. Sorry. So Mel C, sporty spice. She currently, this is kind of interesting, she currently is the female artist with the second most number one singles in the United Kingdom, and also the only female to reach number one spot as part of a quintet,

quartet, duo and solo. So she's hit number one in all of those categories. So Spireskills 4 and 5? And then a duo, I'm missing would be Brian and solo by herself. What was their solo hit? She's had a few songs. Never be the same again. Oh, yeah.

It's not a secret anymore. No, I'm not going to. Isn't that Spice Girls? No, I think never. Oh, cool. It'll never be the same. Gosh, she's my favorite. So she has had six albums

Six, two, four, six, yep, six albums. Wow, when was the last one come out of there? 2012 was her most recent one. Wow, good on there. She's still kicking. She's still kind of going. She's the one who's kind of gone on to do the most music stuff. Like, she just really went.

She always seemed like the one that could sing, right? Well, I don't like her voice. Okay. Wow. I don't like it. There is. There, I said it. You put that on record.

Are you worried about the backlash about that? No. She's the one that could sing, though. Like, she was the one that. one, you could hear her singing and everyone else was like dulled in the mix, right? I don't like her voice. It's because she's the only voice you could hear.

If you don't like her voice, you don't like the spice girls. I don't like the spice girls. All right, fair enough. She was in a relationship with property developer Thomas Starr and on February 22nd, 2009, gave birth to her daughter Scarlett. So she's got a little girl. Mel B., she turned more to TV. She did a lot of reality shows,

like whether she was judging on panel shows. talent shows that sort of thing. She also had her own reality series. Mel B., it's a scary world. Oh, wow. She also did those Jenny Craigads. Jenny Craigads. She's on a lot of radio and TV here in Australia.

She had her own video game, get fit with Mel B. Pretty sick. And in 2006, she became the subject of tabloid stories because of her relationship with Hollywood actor Eddie Murphy, who denied, denied that he was the father of her unborn. second child, but paternity tests suggested otherwise. So her second child angel is the child of Eddie Murphy. It's kind of cool.

I mean, it's hard to blame him. He does party all the time. You're never going to remember all the... Sure. All the babies you've had. Sure. Party all the time. All their babies.

Emma Bunton. Remember his hit song? No, I didn't get the reference, sorry. Of his song. Yeah, to hit song, party all the time. Emma Bunton had three solo albums, a girl like me in 2001, free me in 2004 and life in mono in 2006. Oh, so she's been off the charts for a while. Yeah, she hasn't done as much.

She's married or engaged? Engaged to or married, they're probably married by now. She's married to... I'm still waiting for the wedding invite, so... She's married to singer Jade Jones, and they have... two sons together. Again, she's not a lot of TV work either appearing as a celebrity in TV shows

or hosting or judging that sort of thing. Here we go. This would be the prime Emma Bunton TV appearance is when she appeared as a small cameo role on the Australian soap series Neighbours. Oh. In an episode called

What's a Spice Girl like you? Dot, dot, dot, question mark. Oh, really? So she was playing herself. Yeah, I looked it up. on YouTube. Carl and Susan are in London, and Carl's lost a ring, and he's sitting on the street looking all sad, and Emma finds it and saves the day. Good right, Emma. As herself? Yeah, as herself. Wow, she's still got it. It's so lame. When we release this, I've got to tweet the link to that

video. It's fantastic. It's so good. So that's what Emma's been up to. Jerry Halliwell had three solo albums between 99 and 2005. In 1999, she wrote a biography called, an autobiography called If Only, in which she describes her life as a spice girl, having only just left the year before. If only. If only. If only she hadn't joined, is what that means?

I don't know. And in 2006, she gave birth to her daughter Bluebell Madonna. The father was a screenwriter, Sasha Javasi, who she dated for six weeks in 2005. And Victoria Beckham and Emma Buntan are the godmothers of her daughter Bluebell. Isn't that cute? That's nice. Isn't that nice?

Now, I would have probably chosen to sporty, but yeah, well, maybe they don't get along with a way. As a name or is a god, God parent? As both.

Yeah. Good decision. On both counts. Sporty Bluebell. Sporty Bluebell Halliwell. Hara T'A. Oh, that works really well. Sporty Bluebell Halliwell.

That's nice. So its name is Bluebell Halliwell. Oh, boy. That's a bit much, isn't it? A bit much. And that brings us to Victoria Beckham. I left her to last because I feel like she's had the most illustrious post Spice Girls' career.

What has she done since? Well, She's got a fashion line. I'm not only kidding. I was like... It was well sold, wasn't it? It was like, what the fuck? She only had one solo album.

Did she even have one? Yeah, it was called Victoria Beckham. Because she's the one who can't sing. Yeah, she can't sing. Out of all of them that can't sing, she's the one. She was in an episode of Ugly Betty, though, so she's doing okay. Yeah. No, but she's like worth millions and millions.

Married to David Beckham. I didn't know she was in... I had a fashion label. Fashion label. And it's very successful. I think she's actually quite a business-savvy woman. Yeah, no, she's quite talented, yeah. She's like, she pulls in as much as he does.

Oh, yeah, they're a power couple. Well, he probably doesn't even do anything anymore, does he? No, in the last year, he's made more money since retiring than he's ever had before. Has he really? Just because he signed these new deals. I think of something like $75 million for the year. I wonder if, did he make any money out of Benderdab, Becum? That's not what it's golf.

Bended over Becum. That's the porn version of Benderlebeckham. Not it. He wasn't... He wasn't in that film. At the end, they pretend that he's doing a cameo. I watched it like two months ago. And, um, but it's someone looks like him.

So no, I don't think he probably made all that much money or anything from that. Really? Yeah. So you can just call a movie. So someone could make a movie called... Mood Like Stuart or Move it like... Suck it like Stewart? Well, that was not...

That was not an ideal first instinct. Suck it like... I'm going to make it. I'll Photoshop up a day. design a anyway, so Victoria Beckham I've got a couple

of interesting sink it like Stuart and it's a thing about like a billiards competition sink it like Stuart what could Perkins be or a plumbing competition

where they're installing sinks installing sinks it's very good yeah mine's called a willet like Warnacky and it's about a lawyer that works

in Last Will and Testaments one's called preparing with Perkins it's just about time management Preparing with Perkins That's good You should actually make that And become a corporate face

I'm terrible at time management Hence I was up to 3 a.m. doing this goddamn report That's good time management Because otherwise you would have just been sleeping Wasted time What a waste You've squeezed more into your day

You're right You're right But please do go on with these Victoria Beck and Funfax I can get more into my day So in January of 2000 There was a tip off to Scotland Yard Detectives exposing a plot To kidnap Victoria

and Brooklyn Beckham, their first child, and hold them at a house in Hampstead in London. This is the plot for the Spice Girls movie, isn't it? But it was after the movie. No, it's serious. So there was a plot to kidnap her. So they moved to a secret location. And then later, in March of 2000,

she received a death threat prior to performing at the Brit Awards with the Spice Girls. And in the show's rehearsal, a red laser light appeared on her chest and she was rushed off stage. And they found that, like, Like a gun site. A fire door had been lodged open.

So somebody who got in. How scary is that? Did you know? I didn't know any of that. How scary spice is that? That is. Oh, yes. It was definitely scary.

She wanted Beckham for herself. Yeah, so that's a bit scary, isn't it? Wow, that's full on. Why, like, wanting to kill, like, unless she's personally slotted you, then fair enough, kill away. But it was just some sort of weird fan. I think that it's Abigail Kiss and Michelle Stevenson teaming up against their old nemesis.

That's fair game. Fair enough. Yeah, no, fair enough. She forced him out of the Spice Girls. And Posh said that thing about her mum not being sick. Oh, that's so brutal. Oh, there's motive. Motive.

So Victoria Beckham has participated in five official documentaries. I'm moving on from YouTube. Five official documentaries. Yeah, and reality shows about her, including being Victoria Beckham, the real Beckham's. and Victoria Beckham Coming to America Not to be confused with the Eddie Murphy I was about to say Eddie Murphy

That's where he met Melcy How did To party all the time Party all the time Was that an Eddie Murphy song Yeah it was a hit song It was written and recorded by Rick James

Bitch Wow cool Yeah So obviously Victoria Beckham Married to David Beckham I was wondering if there was a connection. From the film, Benderlakebacom, we've already started this.

They have four children, Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz and Harper. Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Staten. Alrighty. And as of September... You're missing one. From the... To the top of Manhattan. Asian, Middle East, something in Latin.

Black, white, New York, you make it happen. How much... anything do you want me to do? Is that Wheatang Clan? I'd leave that in, for sure. Becci Boys. Oh, cool. From the five boroughs.

Oh, that's right. That's how I remember. But it's not their names. That's how I remember the children of... What are their names? Brooklyn, Bronx. No. No.

No. That's not their names. Brooklyn? Brooklyn? Brooklyn? Yes. Bluebird. No. Brooklyn.

Yes. Jeremy. No. Brooklyn. Yes. Gary Jr. No. Are you done?

Yes. So they've got four children. Brooklyn Bronx. Anyway, as of September 2015, the couple's joint wealth is estimated at 508 million pounds. Wow, that's a million, a billion Aussie dollars.

They got a lot of money. That's a lot of money. Okay. Now, I do have a few fun facts. A lot of them, or there's only a couple that aren't about the movie. I'll touch on the movie a little bit. They produced a total of nine number one singles in the UK.

So they tied with Abba, who also had nine. They were behind Take That, who had 11, The Shadows who had 12, Madonna with 13, Westlife with 14, Cliff Richards with 14, the Beatles with 17, and Elvis Presley with 21. So that means...

They're among some pretty big names there. That means they're ahead of the Rolling Stones. Yeah. That's cool. That's pretty cool. Fucking hell. Sucker Dicks, Stones, fans. Beatles are both.

Victoria's the only one. We're in the fun facts, by the way. I feel like I didn't. Oh, fun fact, fun fact. I didn't talk that up enough before. Look, the thing about fun facts is, you know. You don't need someone to tell you. You just know.

Thank you. That's right. Victoria was the only member of the band who didn't have a number one hit in the UK as a solo artist. Really? They all had number one. They all had number one hits. That's crazy. Baby Spice had a number one solo hit. Sure did.

But she also recorded a song for the Pokemon movie. So, you know, swings around about. It's Emma. Oh, right. Emma. So, so, Ben Spice. Got to catch a mile. The wannabe music video was shot in one take.

It's one take. It's really cool if you watch it. One take. Which one? Wannaby, the first one? It was really cold apparently. They go through that hotel. Yeah, and the director wanted to do it again.

And they were like, not doing it again. Uh-uh. And they go on the bus at the end. But by the time, he's, head, like, said stop. They've already home, so they've already made a cuppa. That was worth me as time to link through it. And he has to like, yeah, call them one by one.

Yeah, on the landline. Yeah. Hey guys, can we do it again? And Posh's like, I've just made a cup. I've taken my shoes off. Nah, I'm in for the night. So we were talking before about Mel C. This is a sizzle right at the beginning of the program.

Oh, yeah, I love her. Mel C was kind of sporty spies because of her active image, but Emma Bunton was actually the sporty one. She had a blue belt in karate and often would teach the girls how to kick. Her mama, I think, was a karate instructor. She had a blue belt. You'd think her mom was a karate instructor.

Is she the one who had a kid called Blue Belt? No. There was no child called Blue Belt. It's Blue Bell. Jerry Halliwell had Blue Bell. Named after Emma Bunton's belt. That would have been pretty great if they'd name their child after a belt. Now, I've got two facts about the film,

and then I think you had others as well. I don't have any. Okay, cool. I just remember because I'm a bit of a Richard E. Grant fan. I know he was in that movie. He was, yeah. And I do remember reading something about him, but I didn't note it down. I think the thing was that he, because he's like, he's in great movies, like,

With Mal and I and stuff of that. And then he did take this part because I think his kids, he's like, this one's from the kids. That's nice. When I see With Mal and I, they're not into it. They're not impressed by me. But if I say I'm in the Spires Girls movie, they'll be pretty stoked. They're staked, yeah. So I think that's a kind of fun reason.

Now, Gary Glitter filmed a four-minute cameo appearance. There was heaps of cameos in the... Oh, no. Well, yeah, so there was heaps and heaps of famous people cameoing in the movie. And Gary Glitter filmed a four-minute cameo. But shortly before the film was to be released, he was arrested on child porn offences. And the Spice Girls and the production team agreed

that his cameo should be deleted from the final print. Probably a good decision. Does the film not make sure? sense now, though. No, I think it's still... Gary Glitter arrives with the secret wand we've been waiting for. And now it's just...

Oh, we just got it somewhere. Secret wand. You do not want to see Gary Glitter's secret wand. But he'll show you. He will show anyone. And finally, my final fun fact. Oh, here we go. This better be good.

Meatloaf. Is that right? Meatloaf is in it? Yeah, and that's my final fun fact. But he plays their bus driver. Right? And there's heaps of in jokes throughout the film. At one point, he's asked. to fix the toilets and he says he'd do anything for the girls

but he won't do that I would do anything Is that awesome or horrible? I don't know But I won't do that Clean a toilet And thus concludes A brief summary of the Spice Girls

Oh spice girls forever Spice up your life Forever Forever I don't normally give a standing ovation for a podcast. I've done occasionally a couple of WTFs

that really went off with the president. You just started clapping at the end. Just started clapping. But this one, Jess Perkins, my word. You've outdone yourself.

All time. All right. Well, let's just... Can we finish... Can we finish... By saying, if you were a spice, what would you be?

Paprika. We've got Perkins' paprika spice. That's good. I'm be oregano. Yeah, you would. Would you be? Dave? I think I would be

It's not a spice But Basil That's not really answering the question Yeah you ask the question And then you don't even answer it properly Well none of their spices are fucking spices are they Yeah but we answered under the impression That we were allowed to be only a spice

If I was just allowed to be anything I fucking wanted to be Do you think I'd be paprika? I'm pepper You dickhead Pepper Pepper that is such a vanilla spice Yeah good one I think that makes sense for me

It does, you're pretty plain. A vanilla boy. You're plain little vanilla boy. So thank you for listening to my rant about the Spice Girls. Thank you. I reckon you had a great time looking into that one, which is always fun.

We're looking to something that you're a fan of. Thank you very much. I didn't know a lot of that stuff. Yeah, that's what I mean. I knew bits, but not... I found it a bit scary about how much of the lyrics is still in my brain. What a waste of space, but still.

And I thought that you were quite sporting about the way you chose to. Thank you, baby. No worries. Ginger beards. All right, well, um... All right, uh, let's go down for a... A cup of tea.

Posh. A cup of tea. Yes, I was going to go there as well. Thank you so much for... Oh, that's so gross. Can we just edit out most of this? No, I'm leaving it all in. Oh, fuck.

But if you... Don't forget, you can always tweet us at Do Go on Pod. Ors if you review the show. Man, it's genuinely. It warms your heart, doesn't it, when you see your nice little review there. Yeah. We have a little group chat and we send each other. Screenshots.

It's nice. People like us. And people are into it. So thank you very much for everyone who's done that. Or if you want to do that, brighten up our lives. And people have started also to send in suggestions. Yeah. Open a suggestions of new topics.

If you have any. Oh yeah. And if you're not on Twitter, do go on pod at gmail.com is the way to get in touch. Or Facebook. We're on Facebook as well. Oh, yeah. My God. We're on all of the things.

But thank you so much. I'll be back next week. with my report for you guys. We've got two music's in a row. We're going to do three. Backstreet's back. All right. I'm going to stop singing the podcast. All right. Well, thank you so much. We'll see you next week.

Bye. Oh! Hey guys, Jess here again. Just a quick little note that the Perth Fringe Festival is on at the moment. And Dave's on his way over there in the next couple of days to perform his show Factorifact versus the audience. If you like Dave's trivia on this podcast, you will very much enjoy this show. I've seen it before. It's fantastic. It's so good.

So make sure you go along. It's on at Noodle Palace in Northbridge, and he's also doing a few shows at the Midland Junction Art Centre. And they're running from Feb 4th to 13th. Tickets and info are at fringeworld.com.com. And just search FACTifact, and you'll find him that way. So definitely go along and check that out. All three of us have shows in the Comedy Festival in Melbourne, which is coming up at sort of the end of March. So we'll talk more about that as that gets a bit closer and we get less terrified about those shows.

So make sure you go check Dave out and we'll have heaps more to plug very soon. Bye. Don't forget to sign up to our tour mailing list so we know where in the world you are and we can come and tell you when we're coming there. Wherever we go, we always hear six months later, oh, you should come to Manchester. We were just in Manchester. But this way you'll never miss out. And don't forget to sign up, go to our Instagram, click our link tree very, very, very, easy. It means we know to come to you and you also know that we're coming to you. Yeah,

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