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A possibly interesting fact about the Spice Girls

The director of the video for Viva Forever was Steve Box - animator on The Trap Door, and later did shitloads of stuff for Aardman (not least co-directing The Curse of the Were-Rabbit). Which explains a lot, as I've always loved the video - the shot of the huge vending machine near the end is especially beautiful. And watching it again, I'm struck by how nice the animation and character designs actually are.

I have no shame in saying I love the Spice Girls (the first two albums anyway, especially the first). And yes, that's love in the present tense. It's just a shame that their comeback single - Headlines (Friendship Never Ends) - is so absolutely fucking God-awful...

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You're right about the new single. There's just no heart to it. I think it's safe to assume that someone in the Spice Girls camp took a look at how successful Take That have been in the last year and thought "hmm, we were even bigger than them, we can come back and make a fortune!". But they've missed the fact that the reason Take That have been so big is that they've matured, both as people and musically, and are genuinely offering something new, fresh, modern and grown-up. The fact that the new song not only sounds like Viva Forever, but references Wannabe, shows that the Spice Girls are just rehashing their old sound, and not being creative enough to justify their return.

By Ian Symes
November 11, 2007 @ 12:42 pm

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What I think they needed is a big, bright, proper pop song, that reminded people why they loved the Spice Girls in the first place, and what pop has been missing these last few years.

But they chickened out. So they've come up with an absolute dirge instead, that - as you say - has none of the warmth or fun that they had at their height, and that they needed to recapture.

By John Hoare
November 11, 2007 @ 3:05 pm

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I don't think it helps that the song they've chosen is the official 'Children In Need' song this year, therefore it's bound to be shite. But it seems a bit desperate already to have to rely on prancing around in their underwear in the video (or, in Victoria's case, some sort of bondage outfit) just to get talked about.

By Pook
November 11, 2007 @ 7:47 pm

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Didn't they already release one "grown up" album and everyone thought it was shite?

By Michael Lacey
November 12, 2007 @ 3:43 am

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Yeah they did, I just looked it up, and they all look rough as fuck on the cover too.

By Michael Lacey
November 12, 2007 @ 4:55 am

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As far as I recall, Forever is pretty much a waste of everyone's time, yes.

By John Hoare
November 12, 2007 @ 5:25 am

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>I don't think it helps that the song they've chosen is the official 'Children In Need' song this year, therefore it's bound to be shite. But it seems a bit desperate already to have to rely on prancing around in their underwear in the video (or, in Victoria's case, some sort of bondage outfit) just to get talked about.

As Ian suggested, it seems a marketing exercise rather than something that the band themselves were that keen on, in contrast to Take That, who appear to very much 'own' their comeback. The underwear stuff is rather desperate; see Britney for much of the same. Still, in a media climate where the best thing for a young woman to do to get attention is to pose in her underwear, I'm not surprised the Spices are trying to pull off the same trick.

By Tanya Jones
November 12, 2007 @ 1:59 pm

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The Viva Forever video. Forgive my poor memory but isn't this with the two young kids and the girl is tarted up by the Spice Girl fairies and then disappears? Not sure about what the intention is, but I agree it was well made.

Can't stand them though. Literally hate everything about them. Their music, with the (mild exceptions of "2 Become 1" and "Viva Forever") was awful, most of them are piss-poor singers and they're not even good to look at. I'll take Girls Aloud any day.

By Pete Martin
November 13, 2007 @ 5:53 pm

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Bang on about the song. As with Girl's Aloud, it's all about catchy pop numbers and packaging them. This new thing...meh.

Their Tesco ad, though, is great. :-)

By Andrew
November 13, 2007 @ 7:38 pm

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>Girl's Aloud

Andrew! I'm disappointed in you!

By Tanya Jones
November 13, 2007 @ 8:06 pm

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Apostrophe crapness. I can only hang my head on shame...

By Andrew
November 14, 2007 @ 1:03 am

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Apostrophe crapness. I can only hang my head in shame...

By Andrew
November 14, 2007 @ 1:03 am

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OH FUCK RIGHT FUCKING OFF FUCK

By Andrew
November 14, 2007 @ 1:04 am

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To be fair, double posts are MY FAULT because the system is so FUCKING slow.

A fix is "on it's way".

By John Hoare
November 14, 2007 @ 1:11 am

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>A fix is "on it's way".

*chuckles*

By Tanya Jones
November 14, 2007 @ 7:26 pm

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