The Spice Girls as we know them may never have made it. Photo / Getty Images
The Spice Girls as we know them may never have made it. Photo / Getty Images
Baby, Posh, Sporty, Scary and Ginger: Five women who changed the rules of the male-dominated music industry.
But a secret memo about the last name on that list reveals the Spice Girls might never have become the world-dominating girl band we know today.
According to a new book, a never-before-seenmemo details early plans to out Ginger, Geri Halliwell, from the group because management considered her a threat.
The people who built the Spice Girls, bringing together five unknown performers, reportedly became concerned that Halliwell was trying to turn the other girls against their creators.
The note has come to light by way of a new book, "Spice Girls", by Sunday Times biographer Sean Smith.
Sean Smith's new book details plans to out Geri Halliwell from the group. Photo / Supplied
In it, Smith claims the management team had gone as far as lining up a replacement for Halliwell. Head of the Spice Girls' first management company, Bob Herbert, is said to have penned the note.
Herbert went on to explain his issues with Halliwell.
"We included Geri because she had a very strong personality and her looks seemed to suit the image we were trying to project.
"Unfortunately she was tone deaf and had awful timing, which meant she was unable to sing in tune or dance in time."
But Smith credits Halliwell with "transforming" the band from hopefuls to massive stars, often because of some cheeky behaviour including pinching Prince Charles' bum at an event and allegedly telling Nelson Mandela: "You're as young as the girl you feel — and I'm 25."
Halliwell initially found her way into the group by bypassing the initial open auditions and instead hounded Herbert's son Chris, who first conceived of the idea of the all-girl pop group.
Her bubbly personality impressed Herbert and he allowed her to attend the short-listed call back auditions: "It didn't dawn on me at the time but I think she obviously knew she would have failed an early round audition and she wanted to bypass that."
However, his father's "confidential appraisal" details concerns over the fifth Spice Girls' lack of natural talent holding back the group.
"For weeks her lack of talent was a severe problem for her but with perseverance we found slots for her in the harmonies and the dance routines.
"Her strength of character started to dominate the other girls in the group but, at first, this was fairly good as it helped her to organise them into a daily routine," he said of the fivesome who had moved in together.
Chris Herbert has claimed after the group performed to a string of producers, song-writers and record executives who were outwardly impressed by them, "you could see Geri's eyes were like, 'Yeah, OK. This is something else now.'"
And his father wrote: "The response we had from the writers and producers went to Geri's head.
"From that point onwards she became more and more uncontrollable and wanted to take over the running of the group."
Smith claims there were considerations to replace Mel B (Melanie Brown) as well at this point and according to Herbert, Halliwell could see what was unfolding and initiated a "campaign to break away from the existing management".
Filmmaker Neil Davies, who shot a documentary about the Spice Girls, told Smith that were it not for Halliwell and Mel B, the group wouldn't have succeeded.
He recalled: "They were so brave. They would walk into any pub, any restaurant and take it over. They had a vision they were going to make it. Without these two, nothing would have happened."
And it was these two who took the band to meet with renowned songwriter Eliot Kennedy.
Eventually they were signed to Virgin Records and the rest, as they say, is history.
