r v l . c o m

What could be more festive than blogging a review of the Spice Girls concert in London a week or so ago? Ho ho ho.

My weekend-o-Spice got off to an interesting (by which I mean emasculating) start at the UK customs checkpoint. When the burly customs official asked me what was the reason for my visit to the United Kingdom, at first I was just about to give the standard “just a vacation” answer, but then I thought it would be fun to see his reaction to “I’m going to the Spice Girls concert”.

So that’s what I said, after which he paused for a couple of seconds, looked at me like I was suddenly wearing a halter top, novelty-afro and feather boa (which was actually my second choice for that day) and replied very matter-of-factly “Oh, I didn’t know they were touring.”.

I managed to keep a straight(!) face for the whole exchange, waiting to see which one of us would crack first. To his credit, he did a very professional, courteous job. I’m sure after I left he had a chuckle about it though. Sometimes it’s fun to try to throw people off and watch their reaction.

So, the concert itself. These are the photo’s that Andrea took, actually not so great, but I was too ashamed to use my camera, so this is all we have…

The huge BMW thing was a display in the foyer of the 02 stadium. It was difficult for me not to run up and lick it.

Overall, as you’d expect, it was high camp, high energy and lots of fun. I think the ratio of men to women was about 1:50, but no surprises there also.

All 5 of them looked really on the top of their game - fit and stylish, amazing outfits (all designed by John Cavali apparently) and very well coordinated with each other. The entire 1.5hr show was choreographed, and I was impressed they could remember all the moves and where to be at what stage of each song. My finely-tuned eye for dance-stuff-ups did not detect even a slip!

The stage itself was a little disappointing I felt, but maybe we have been spoilt by stages and entrances from the likes of Cher (strapped to giant descending chandelier), Madonna (hidden in giant descending mirror ball) and Kylie (perched upon giant descending half-crested moon). Hmmm… I think there is a trend there.

I had no idea Posh was by far the most popular out of all 5 of them. She barely sang a word, but each time it was her turn to do anything solo, the English crowd went totally nuts. I guess “marrying well” more highly valued than actual talent - a demonstration of internalised sexism perhaps?

In addition to doing all their group hits, the girls that had released solo songs also performed those - Gerri did ‘It’s raining men‘, Mel C did the remixed version of ‘I Turn To You‘ and Emma did ‘Maybe‘. Posh also did a solo, but it was just her wearing sunglasses, dragging a huge piece of black fabric or paper through the air and pretending she was on a catwalk. It brought the house down!

There are heaps of generally poor quality videos on YouTube already, but this is one of the more watchable. Its the closing number and was one of my favourites.

Spice up your life!!!