After a year and three months since the last Spice Girls concert, and a year 
since the release of their last single, the question on everybody's lips 
was: "Will the Christmas concerts be as good as their previous concerts?"

And the answer?

Yes.

Sunday 12th December. Earl's Court Arena. Four Spice Girls and thousands of 
screaming fans.

I had been waiting for this concert for so long. The fact that I actually 
had a ticket was, to me, extremely lucky as I arrived in the country after 
they had allegedly sold out.

Cue Chris Coulson, creator of 100% Melanie C.

What did I get for my birthday?

No prizes for guessing, by the way.

So here I was in August, holding a ticket to the Spice Girls concert in 
December. A ticket I never actually imagined I would ever be holding. Once 
again, no prizes for guessing who could not wait for the next 4 months to 
fly by.

I absolutely COULD NOT wait. I had never seen the Spice Girls live before, 
due to the fact that they never played in Australia, and I was in America a 
good 6 months after they played the world tour concerts. I was one very 
excited bunny. When Sunday the 12th finally arrived, I was excited, but I 
also wondered what they would be like after such a long break.

I needn't have worried. It was everything I expected and more.

So here is my review of "Christmas in Spiceworld". I hope after you have 
read this, you can get a taste of just how wonderful Sunday night really 
was.

Any fan of the Spice Girls should know that they never do anything by 
halves, and their Christmas concert setting was definitely no exception. The 
background was beautiful, with a White Christmas theme and the 
lighting...just sensational. It was like a mini laser display with the 
lasers flashing in time to the music as the introduction to their opening 
song, "Spice Up Your Life", started playing. And of course, that's when the 
girls made their entrance. Cue loads of screaming and stamping of feet.

Their outfits were colourful, to say the least. Melanie C was dressed in 
blue (my favourite colour - how fitting) pedal pushers and a tiny top, 
Melanie G was in green pants and a similarly tiny top, Emma was in a pink 
(no big surprise) dress, and Victoria was in a purple dress. As soon as they 
started singing, I just knew they had not at all lost their touch. And of 
course, being a huge Melanie C fan, every time she sang I kind of went 
ballistic. She was so energetic on stage, bouncing around like crazy and 
really getting into the whole concert, body, mind, and soul. Everything she 
had she put into it and I don't know how it is possible, but it made me love 
her even more. At the end of the song, I was completely energised. If, that 
is, I wasn't already.

They launched straight into "Something Kinda Funny" and that was, as always, 
brilliant. I just love Melanie C, so I was watching her the whole time, but 
I must say, the others put on a fantastic show as well.

My favourite Spice song of all time is "Say You'll Be There", so when they 
launched into an acapella version of the chorus, I went absolutely mad. And 
oh my GOD, did they handle that well! It was the perfect way to introduce 
the perfect song and of course, as always, when Melanie did her high bits, I 
went crazy. As before, she also took the parts that Geri used to do. 
Brilliant. I would say this (apart from Melanie) was my favourite part of 
the concert.

"Say You'll Be There" finished and it was time for a treat. A new song from 
the up-and-coming album due for release next year. This song was called 
"Right Back At Ya" and although I didn't catch all the lyrics, I can say 
this much: I am going to thoroughly enjoy the third Spice album. It had a 
good beat to it, and from what I did catch of the song, the lyrics are 
excellent as well. Melanie G introduced it and she said it was called "Right 
Back At Ya" because "We are coming Right Back At Ya" Victoria cheekily asked 
Melanie G to tell the audience what the new album was called to which 
Melanie G replied, "We haven't named it yet. Don't put me on the spot, 
Vicky, you did this to me last night as well" which I thought was quite 
cute.

Of the two Pepsi songs that they did during their promotional blitz, my
favourite is "Step To Me" so when Melanie G announced that they were about to
launch into that particular song, once again, I went crazy. I love it for the
low part that Melanie C sings, I love the lyrics, I love the beat, I just
love the whole song. It was brilliant. They all four really got into it (and
into the whole night as well) and I can honestly say I have never seen
Victoria smile so much during any of the performances I have seen. She looked
great, if not a little thin (okay, a lot thin) but I really think she was
having a great time.

At the end of this number, four chairs appeared on stage and my first 
thought was, "They're going to sing Mama". I love this song for it's 
sincerity, so I was thrilled that they were going to do it. It's a beautiful 
song already but when they started signing during the chorus, it made it 
just that little more beautiful. They all signed the first time they came to 
the chorus, but after that I noticed it was only Melanie C that was still 
signing. Or was that because I could not take my eyes away from her????

Straight after "Mama" came "Too Much" and this is definitely my second 
favourite Spice song so again, the adrenalin rush got the better of me. I 
was fixated by Melanie again, and her facial expressions during all her bits 
so I can't give a good review of the other girls but I do know that I was 
quite impressed by how strong Victoria's voice has become. It has really 
developed from their first concerts and even from their Wembley gig.

Another treat, another new song, this one aptly named "Woman." I love this 
one, another preview of what looks to be a brilliant album. And I am not 
entirely sure if it was during the break after this song or before hand, but 
Melanie C choked on her mouthful of water, leaned over the side, and threw 
it all up over the cameraman's head. At least she does things in style!

The final song before a very brief intermission was 2 Become 1 and for this 
song, Emma picked a small child from the audience and Melanie G picked a 
young man. I was briefly wishing I was in the guy's place (when Melanie G 
introduced him to Melanie C) but I wasn't too gutted as he spent the entire 
time on stage dancing with Melanie G and actually had to sing part of the 
song. I had to applaud him for that - how brave. The little girl that Emma 
had chosen got scared halfway through and had to go back to her mum, but it 
was sweet anyway.

So that was the first half of the concert. I was in some kind of heaven, and 
the intermission seemed longer than it actually was. They had some skaters 
come on while they were getting changed, and when the next half of the show 
started, there they were on stage in a silver number, launching right into 
"Stop". Melanie C was in silver pants and a halter top, as was Victoria, 
Melanie G, and Emma.

They got right into "Stop" with the inevitable dance, and of course, 
Melanie's high bits had me absolutely "Ga Ga" (Sorry, couldn't resist the 
small reference).

After "Stop" finished, they introduced another new song called "Holler" and 
once again, I quite liked it, though not as much as "Woman".

Next song, we were instructed by Emma to stand up and dance so of course, 
the next song was "Who Do You Think You Are?" which is another favourite of 
mine. Especially the - yep, you guessed it - high bits that Melanie does at 
the end. MOST of the crowd listened to Emma and stood up and got right into 
it, so it was good fun.

The next song was quite a treat as I really love it. "Never Give Up On The 
Good Times" which for me is quite fitting for the Spices, since they had 
such a long break between gigs etc but I really love this song so I totally 
got into it.

No Spice concert would be complete without them singing "Wannabe". Once 
again, they all completely went off, especially Melanie, who had been 
carrying on throughout the whole concert. I am not sure which song it was, 
but there was one where she was carrying on and afterwards, Melanie G said, 
"You weren't supposed to be doing ballet, Chisholm" so of course, Melanie C 
broke into a small ballet leap routine. It was so cute.

The last song before the encore was "Goodbye" and this was so beautiful. I 
love this song, it always almost (but not quite) makes me cry. During the 
song, "snowflakes" started floating down. It was so beautiful, they all 
really got into this song, and Melanie C looked so emotional during the 
song. I can understand that since the song is partly about Geri.

They all left then, waving as they went, and of course we all knew there was 
an encore in store. I remember saying to Chris, "Oh they didn't sing "Viva 
Forever!" and feeling well gutted about that but when they returned for the 
encore dressed in red with white boas, that is the first song they launched 
into. It was, as ever, completely beautiful and at the end of the song, 
Melanie C gave Melanie G a huge hug and it was just so gorgeous. In the part 
where Melanie C does her high bits she replaced the words "Viva Forever" 
with "Spice Girls Forever" and changed the entire part to suit. I thought it 
was great.

Karaoke Spice time. The Christmas Medley where the words were displayed on 
the screen and the entire audience joined in. It was great, a mad laugh, and 
a great way to end the concert....

....was them singing "Wannabe" again. Perfect. Start on a complete adrenalin 
rush high and end on a complete adrenalin rush high. Who said you had to 
come down from every trip? At least this one was a drug free high! It's 
cheaper that way, innit?

In all, the concert was beyond fantastically amazingly wonderfully fabulous. 
It was completely beyond any of my expectations of seeing the Spice Girls 
live for the first time ever. It was everything I expected and more. And it 
was an added bonus that the first ever live show of theirs that I attended I 
managed to attend in England, their home country.

The Spice Girls are back - with a vengeance. And to all the critics who were 
convinced that Geri's departure, the birth of two Spice Babies, and Melanie 
C launching her solo career was the demise of the Spice Girls, all I have to 
say is when they said "Goodbye" last year, they forgot to mention that they 
would be coming back. "Right Back At Ya".