Officially? Around 2002. A lot of people say they jumped the shark when Geri left, but they put out an album in November of 2001 (Election Day, actually). It's.. different, but I like it.
Now for a timeline. Awww, I'm a geek.
The ad in the newspaper was placed in 1994. That's when they had all the auditions (which are hilarious, I might add). Out of everyone who came, five girls were picked: Geri, Melanie C, Melanie B, Victoria, and Michelle Stephenson. They would form a band called Touch.
Michelle leaves to either pursue her education or because her mum had cancer -- I've heard both and I'm not sure which is more accurate.
Emma gets called in, and they all move into a house together in England to become a more coherent group as opposed to five girls from five different walks of life. They practiced there, ate there, slept there, fought there, etc. There are a good amount of demos that may or may not be from this era of the band. Sooo crazy. They weren't yet a "unit" at this point, all the girls were still doing their own thing, but you could see where they were headed.
They have a few shows for some record companies, and Simon Fuller ends up signing them to Virgin. In 1996, they change their name to the Spice Girls (I think it was Geri's idea -- it came out of an exercise routine, I think. They were going to call themselves "Spice" but there was a rapper in America called "Spice One" or something, so they went for "The Spice Girls").
In July of 1996, they release "Wannabe," and everyone goes crazy, etc. A magazine gives them the Scary/Baby/Ginger (Sexy)/Posh nicknames and they stick with it. "Say You'll Be There" is released, and in late 1996 "Spice," the debut album, is released. It was apparently the 13th highest-selling album of all time in England at some point! Woot.
In 1997, "Who Do You Think You Are" and "Mama" are released as a double A-side to benefit Comic Relief.
They do a few shows here & there, most notably one in Istanbul (advertised as their first concert). It was a Pay-Per-View thing and ended up being played on Fox Family ALL THE TIME. It was also released on VHS. Mmm, VHS. They did songs from "Spice," some new ones from "Spice World," and some b-sides. It was glorious.
So in autumn of 1997, they released the first single from "Spice World," "Spice Up Your Life." I remember it being a big deal on MTV at the time. The second/Christmas single was "Too Much," which had a really neat video. All the girls acted as a character in a film.. Victoria was Catwoman, Geri was Ilsa from Casablanca, Melanie B was Mad Max, Emma was that girl from Poltergeist, and Melanie C was in some Chinese film.
Later, the video would have an alternate version with clips from Spice World, the Spice Girls movie.
"Spice World" (the album) was released toward the end of 1997 and ended up at #3. Aww, The Dance. It didn't sell quite as well as "Spice" had, but it's an awesome album. /personal opinion.
So they do the movie and all. That was a pretty big deal in England. I remember seeing it in theaters. Heee. That was fun.
A little after they released "Stop" as a single and in the middle of their tour in 1998, Geri stops showing up with the girls on TV shows. She says it's because of a "blazing row" or because of a stomach illness. Whatever, Geri. What apparently happened was Melanie B got in a fight with Geri and Geri just left. The statement is released in June of 1998 and MTV shows a bunch of Spice Girls clips and stuff. Geri finishes the statement with "I'll be back!"
The Spice Girls release their final single from "Spice World" called "Viva Forever," which is totally their best song ever. It was the last video of theirs to have Geri in it, although she's in doll form (the girls don't show up in the video aside from little fairy dolls made of tin. it's really pretty, actually). The video is only shown in the States as part of a VH1 special on the American tour. The girls go on tour without Geri and they rearrange their routine to fill in for Geri's vocals. A VHS of the tour was released (Live At Wembley) and a documentary about their stay in America is released (Spice Girls In America: A Tour Story).
After the tour, they cool it down a bit. By this time, a couple of the girls had experimented with solo stuff, namely Melanie C. As a foursome, they released "Goodbye" in 1998, which would end up on their 2001 album (and as yet final) "Forever." No Geri in the song, no Geri in the video. Instead, we got a pregnant Victoria and Melanie B.
So everyone goes solo. Melanie C releases "Northern Star," Melanie B releases "Hot," Emma releases "A Girl Like Me," and I'm not sure if Victoria released anything here or if it was a little later. Geri released her debut solo album, "Schizophonic" in 2001. Geri also writes an autobiography called
If Only, which is actually a pretty good read.
In 2001, the girls get back together and go for a more urban, soulful sound. The demos from this era are AMAZING, and what we got was sort of bland. It's still decent, though. So "Forever" is released. "Holler" is on it, which was released as a double A-side with "Let Love Lead The Way." It didn't do so hot over here, but it did okay in England. Worldwide, though, it's considered a flop. Awrrr. <3
So the girls end it. Boooo. They all do more solo stuff, some get TV shows, Victoria becomes a baby factory, Melanie B gets divorced from her husband (she was Melanie G for a while), Emma... I don't really know what she did, since she's not my favorite. Geri was all over the place. Melanie C releases "Reason" and most recently "Beautiful Intentions." Geri releases "Scream If You Wanna Go Faster" and most recently "Passion." She writes ANOTHER autobiography (an "update") called
Just For The Record.
Melanie B does some broadway work as Mimi in Rent in New York and she's working on her solo album right now. She wrote an autobiography called
Catch A Fire.
Victoria's just weird. She has an album out (maybe two, I don't care). She wrote an autobiography. Etc.
Emma released "Free Me" a while ago. Fun album. She's apprently going to play Emma Frost in XMen 4! Fun times.
As of right now, there are talks of a Greatest Hits album, but they've been talking about that for ages. A while ago, there were rumours of a foruth album (there was even a tracklisting) and a ton of demos surfaced, like "Walking On Air" and "Do You Think About Me" as well as a couple from Touch and stuff. So the GH package might be the driving force behind this.
And now you know... the rest of the story.
