“All that I want from you,” the Spice Girls once sang, “is the promise you will be there.” Husbands, lovers and PVC catsuits may have come and gone for the five women in the band, but true to the pleas from their idols, their fans have remained devoted.
Twenty-three years after high-kicking and peace-signing their way into the charts – and with Spice remaining the best-selling album by a female band in history – Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm and Geri Horner (minus Victoria Beckham, who declined to join the comeback) have reunited for Spice World, a 13-date UK and Ireland tour that started in Dublin this weekend.
A million people tried to buy tour tickets
Ticketmaster’s systems crashed in November last year when tickets first went on sale, with a reported one million people clamouring to get their hands on them, and all the shows sold out in mere minutes.
Fabio Bergonzini, 36, is one person who bought tickets. He is from Bologna, Italy, and has been a superfan since he was 14. He will travel to the UK to see all three Manchester shows this week and will return in September to see the band play in London.
Everyone loves the Spice Girls and wants to be their friends
“I remember the first time I heard the Spice Girls. It was 1997 with ‘Wannabe’, and bam! I was hooked,” he says. “They changed my life – they really did. I’m an only child and they were like older sisters to me. Everyone loves the Spice Girls and wants to be their friends – you just see them and you still want to be part of that. That’s the reason why they’re so popular, even now, and why they’re still selling out shows. There’s something magic that happens when they’re together.
“They came to Bologna on the Spice World tour in 1997, so of course I got tickets. Then they came back and did a Pavarotti show. It was 3 June 1998 – I remember all the dates. They performed as a foursome – it was lovely. Of course, I minded that Geri wasn’t there.
I worried that Geri leaving might have destroyed their legacy
“I was devastated when Geri said she was leaving the band [in 1998]. I cried about that. I was afraid – like a lot of fans were – that she might have been destroying their legacy and everything they conquered and achieved, all of the magic that was there. But that didn’t happen.
“I don’t have a favourite Spice Girl as I love all of them. I’ve seen them five times over the years. I’ve met Melanie C a couple of times – I knelt down and kissed her hand. I brought her flowers, too. Emma I’ve also met – she’s so lovely.
“The band talked about girl power but it was so much more than that: it was to be accepting, to be open-minded, to get on with your friends as they are your family.
“I made so many friends on the Spice Girls online forum, which has since closed down, so now we have a Facebook group called the Spice Circle – that’s the name the band gave us.
One of my friends met his husband at one of their concerts
“I keep in touch with lots of other fans on the group – one of my friends met his now-husband at a Spice Girls concert. Other people I know travel from all across the world just to watch them play – I’m coming from Italy, but other people come from Australia or Israel or America.
“I’ll hopefully be meeting up with some of the other fans when I am in Manchester. I’ve already planned my outfit – I just hope I’m warm enough as I hear it can get quite cold there.
“It’s OK that Victoria is not on this tour – she just grew up. I’m not one of those fans who complains about it. She struggled in their last tour as she doesn’t like performing any more, but she soldiered on. That was very cool of her. She’s super supportive of the girls even if she’s not performing with them.
People need positivity right now
“I work seven days a week as a tour guide, which has allowed me to buy so many tickets for this tour. I’ve spent hundreds of pounds on it. I was online for hours to get them.
“It’s not that I agree with them all the time – like Geri being a Tory – but I will always love them.
“Some people might say they’re cheesy, and maybe they are a bit. But there are so many people needing positivity right now. And that’s what they do best.”
