Ticket Stub Tuesday... Round Twenty:
I’m warning you right now. This entire month, this series is dedicated to the Spice Girls. Not because February is Spice Girls Awareness Month, or anything like that… It just so happens that I saw four Spice Girls shows in a row. To think that it was already two years ago that “Spice Feaver” swept across the globe for a second time is madness! (And you thought you had to worry about Swine Flu!)
From the time that I first heard “Say You’ll Be There,” in 1997, I’ve been a huge Spice Girls fan. I was devastated when I couldn’t get tickets to the Spice World Tour during the summer of 1998. Then in late 2001, the group unofficially broke-up and I thought all hopes of seeing them live were shot to shit. But then the most miraculous of miracles! The girls (ALL of them, even Geri) announced a full-scale reunion tour, The Return of the Spice Girls, which, come hell or high water, I knew I would be procuring tickets for.
During the press conference at London’s O2 Arena, which was held to officially announce the world tour, the Spice camp had initially planned to do just 11 shows across five continents. To assure an orderly and fair process by which to obtain tickets, one was required to register at www.theSpiceGirls.com to be entered into a ticket lottery. Quickly, it became evident that 11 dates were not enough, and after tickets for the London show sold out in just 38 seconds, 36 more dates were added to the final performance schedule.
I, of course, signed myself up for the ticket lottery as soon as I possibly could, but when it came down to it, I ended up finding a pair of tickets on StubHub. There was no question of who I was going to bring. I knew @SimTilver would have a great time, and it was just in time for his birthday. Since the two of us were pretty obsessed with Victoria Beckham’s special, Coming to America, like the losers we are, we had tee-shirts made with quoted from the show. I believe his said “But, what about David and the children?” and mine said “Can you see my knickers?” We’re ridiculous. Clearly.
So, like the douche bags we are, we marched into the first concert at Nassau Coliseum, donning our tees, and prepared to spice up our lives. Since we like to be in the know, by the time we went to the concert, we had already downloaded (and listened to on repeat) the Live in London recording. It has never been officially released, but the 15 December date in London was recorded for BBC radio and was broadcast on 22 and 31 December. The set-list was pretty straight forward — all thirteen of the Spice’s singles plus a few other feel-good songs.
In addition to performing material from the Spice catalog, most of the girls (I say most, because Vikki B. did not sing, rather she copped-out and mocked a runway walk…) performed songs from their solo careers, all of whom enjoyed varying degrees of success. Melanie C. and Emma sang their own original material - “I Turn To You,” and “Maybe,” respectively. Geri sang “It’s Raining Men,” which was originally performed by The Weather Girls, which she recorded for the Bridget Jones Diary: The Edge of Reason soundtrack. The song was a smash-hit in the UK. Mel B. performed a raunchy rendition of Lenny Kravitz’s “Are You Gonna Go My Way,” which involved whips and restraints.
After the show, Sim and I knew that we had a one in five shot that one of the girls would be staying at the Garden City Hotel. Sure enough, we used our stalking prowess and located a convoy of tour buses heading towards the hotel. Obviously, we followed, and discovered that it wa in fact the dancers’ tour bus. Oh well.. Ether way, I had the absolute best time. More to come next week…
[[@SimTilver and Me wearing our custom-made tees.]]
[[Stop.]]
[[ Vikki, the Mels and Emma during Holler.]]
[[The girls bow right before Mama.]]
[[Goodbye.]]
