Last month the Spice Girls closed the Brit Awards with a medley of their
greatest hits. The foursome had just been presented with gold statuettes
celebrating their Outstanding Contribution to British Music. And when you
look at what they have achieved in the four short years since they burst
onto the pop scene - over 36 million albums sold, a number one hit in 31
countries with their debut single Wannabe, and a box office smash with
the Spice World movie then the girls certainly seem to deserve it.

But taking a closer look at the prestigious music industry accolade
raises an interesting question. Past winners include industry stalwarts
such as The Bee Gees, The Eurythmics and Fleetwood Mac, whose varied
careers have spanned decades - so why did the Spice Girls receive an
award that celebrates longevity, rather than just the ability to shift a
colossal number of CDs?

A week later Melanie Chisholm, aka Sporty Spice, gave the question greater
momentum when she claimed that the girls deserved the award "because we
were a phenomenal success." Note the tense of the verb. The interviewer
certainly did, and went on to press the singer, who is currently enjoying
success as a solo artist, as to its significance. "Well, we were and we
will be with the next album," retorted the Spice Girl, as she quickly
covered her tracks.

Maybe it was just a slip of the tongue, but - and this could just be a
coincidence - there's currently much speculation in the record industry as
to how much longer the girls will continue to chant their "Girl Power"
mantra.


The first crack appeared around two years ago when Geri Halliwell left the
band. You could argue that the Spice Girls haven't really been the same
since Ginger walked. Apart from the 1998 Christmas number one Goodbye (a
tribute to Geri, apparently) there has been nothing new. The first six
months after the original five became four was spent on a world tour,
performing material from their first two albums. Then, while the girls
were in America, Melanie B and Victoria revealed that they were pregnant.
The group decided to take the next year off - an understandable move after
a non-stop two and a half years spent consolidating the Spice brand name -
to concentrate on personal projects. Baby presented a TV show and
collaborated on a single, Scary recorded a couple of solo efforts before
giving birth to Phoenix Chi, and Posh well, Posh shopped, wed and had
Brooklyn Joseph Beckham, although not necessarily in that order.

They might say they are the same four girls who shared a house with Geri
in Maidenhead all those years ago, but the truth is, Emma, Victoria and
the two Mels have changed. Gone is the brash lust for life and rent-a-
quotability that the girls once stood for. Instead you get the feeling
they're toeing the party line, reluctant to reveal anything too
interesting about themselves or their loved ones.

It is as if their lives have changed so much during the band's career
break that to return to a Spice life would be a chore. The band members
are a canny foursome and probably well aware that teen-pop bands have a
finite shelf life, as their original fans grow up and choose other role
models.

Although Mel B has been recording tracks for her new album, scheduled for
release later in the year, and Emma and Victoria are also rumoured to be
working on solo musical ventures, only Mel C and Geri seem to be actively
continuing where the band left off, with Sporty knocking her former
colleague off the number one spot earlier this month.

Of all the band members, it was alleged that Geri was the one to whom
singing and dancing came the least naturally. Yet her career has fizzed
and sparkled since she made the break, something Melanie Chisholm cannot
fail to have noticed. So perhaps the next girl to leave The Spice Girls
will not be Victoria, pleading family commitments, but Sporty, wishing to
further her solo career.


Here, Mel C talks about life as a chart topping solo artist.

"I'm really superstitious," she admits. "I always salute magpies, I don't
like putting new shoes on the table, and if I break a mirror I get
depressed. But you know how you're not supposed to walk under ladders?
Well, I always walk under them!"

Mel admits she's been superstitious since childhood and that it's a
characteristic she shares with the rest of the band. "When we were on the
Spice World tour there was a little ritual we'd perform before every
show," she reveals. "We used to do this little chant - a silly Musketeer
thing - like `all for one and one for all'. The funny thing was, every
single show went really, really well, so it must have worked.

"I'm also very, very fatalistic," she continues. "I think you can avoid
situations, but you can't stop what's going to happen from happening, so
there's no point trying to. But I've come to the conclusion that
everything happens for a reason, and whatever you do just makes you into
the person you are today, so there's no point worrying about it. After
all, you can't change history."

Fortunately for Mel, everything seems to be going right for her now. She's
part of one of the biggest girl groups in history and has just topped the
charts with her latest single Never Be The Same Again, from her debut
album Northern Star. The choice of title for the disc would seem an apt
one as the stars are definitely shining on her at the moment.

"I believe in the supernatural, the stars and astrology," says Mel. "And I
read my horoscopes, although I only believe them if they're good! At one
point I wanted to know what the future held for me. Now I don't; I want to
find out for myself. I think my new attitude is because I'm really happy
and enjoying life at the moment."


With the success of Never Be The Same Again, her first number one solo hit,
her good fortune looks set to continue. But Sporty Spice is reluctant to
tempt fate by making any predictions.

"I didn't want to know how the single would do," she said. "I just hoped
people would like it, the same way I hope they like the album. All I can
say is it's my best effort - the best music I could have done. The rest is
up to fate. "The album is very personal, so I hope people don't quite know
what I'm on about. It's a therapy kind of thing - just getting it all
out."


Something else Mel enjoys doing is performing on the big screen - a side
to her she discovered when the Spice Girls filmed their Spice World movie.
"I'd like to be a female Sly Stallone, or Bruce Willis' sidekick in a film
where I get to save the world," she says.

It's easy to picture Sporty Spice abseiling down a cliff, white-water
rafting or parachuting her way through an action-packed adventure in hot
pursuit of a Bond baddie, but there's also a more down-to-earth side to
Mel C - one which she's discovered since moving to London.

"There are a lot of homeless people in London, and it really annoys me
that nobody does anything about them," she sighs. "I always buy The Big
Issue if I see someone selling it and I always give homeless people on the
streets a bit of money. I'd like to find out what else I could do to
really make a difference, though.
"I'd also like to do something for kids who don't have anything," she adds.
"Recently I saw this programme about children living in poverty. They were
bunking off school and getting up to mischief, simply because they didn't
have anything else to do. It made me think that the Spice Girls should help
set up studios in council estates, or youth centres in poor communities,
just to give kids a focus."

This philanthropy suggests a certain spirituality on Sporty's part - is she
conventionally religious, and does she believe in life after death, for
example? "Yes," she replies. "I'd like to believe in it. I'm not a very
religious person but I do believe in something. I'm not sure if it's God,
but there is something there, some power, some force."

Moving on to thoughts of the future raises questions about her own plans
and - bearing in mind her fellow bandmembers' new roles as mothers - her
feelings about having children. "I'm not at all broody," she says. "I'm
only 26! Sometimes I think about it, but I know I'm definitely not ready
to have children because I'm too selfish!
"I haven't got time for them at the moment. It wouldn't be fair. I
wouldn't want to leave them with some nanny all day, so it's not right
for me to have any just yet."

She won't be drawn on whether or not any plans to settle down might
include J - Jason Brown - of pop group 5ive, who she is rumoured to be
dating. In fact, her only public utterance on the subject has been: "He's
a good friend of mine, but it's early days."

So what are her dreams for the future?
"I've always had this dream this ambition - to receive a lifetime
achievement award in music," she blushes. "I want to gain the sort of
respect and admiration from people that I have for my idol, Madonna. Also,
I want to go on making music for the rest of my life. I don't want to
stop until I drop!

"When I'm dead and looking down from my little cloud in heaven - because
I am going to heaven," she adds, smiling mischievously and yanking up her
top to reveal the word "angel" tattooed across her stomach - "I'd like to
be remembered for my music. I want my epitaph to read: `She'll be sadly
missed'."