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00:00:00And the winner is
00:00:22We have been together for 10 years
00:00:25Can I just say 10 years
00:00:27It's been the best years of our life
00:00:29We have gone through so much
00:00:33It's not easy being a female in the UK pop industry
00:00:37I'm hoping with this documentary
00:00:40People will get to realise that it really was all smoke and mirrors
00:00:45We've seen the white male dominance
00:00:47Misogyny, sexism and lack of diversity
00:00:51There are so many times I could have given up
00:00:54So many times where I felt like I was on my very last legs and I didn't
00:01:00We're proud of how we've stuck together
00:01:03Stood our ground, surrounded ourselves with strong women
00:01:06And are now using our voices more than ever
00:01:09This is my journey
00:01:11This is where it all began for me
00:01:13It was fucking hard
00:01:14So this award isn't just for us
00:01:17It's for the Spice Girls
00:01:19Sugar Pigs
00:01:21All since Girls Aloud
00:01:23I didn't want to do this documentary
00:01:26But at the same time for the shit and the traumas and triggers and the toxic stuff
00:01:32We were part of pop culture
00:01:34And I want to be proud
00:01:39And I am proud
00:01:43This is the story of an unlikely group of musical disruptors
00:01:48Who sang, danced and wrapped their way to pop stardom
00:01:51The northern working class girls, they won the battle
00:01:56Cool, raw, sassy
00:02:00We weren't one hit wonders and we were a force to be reckoned with
00:02:03Propelled and shaped by musical visionaries
00:02:06And they were still kids, you know, they were so young
00:02:08Essentially we became their pets
00:02:13They were idolised by millions
00:02:15You're the best, the best women in the world
00:02:19I associate fame with being loved
00:02:21But it almost killed me as well
00:02:24Hounded by the media
00:02:26You were too fat, you were too thin
00:02:28The press were brutal
00:02:30And pushed to the edge by an industry that wanted to tame them
00:02:33They were controlling what we ate
00:02:36That was crazy
00:02:37But that's what they did
00:02:41Girl bands
00:02:42It's a hard world
00:02:44It's a tough business
00:02:45All safe, eternal
00:02:46The Spice Girls
00:02:49If it means that I need to leave this band
00:02:51To have this baby
00:02:52I'm gonna leave
00:02:53We battle the social media trolls together
00:02:59You become a sisterhood
00:03:00You can't really survive that unless you do
00:03:16I wanna pack, I wanna pack, I wanna pack, I wanna pack
00:03:18I wanna really, really, really wanna dig, I think
00:03:221997 and just one year after the Spice Girls released their debut single Wannabe
00:03:27The group had achieved world domination
00:03:30An amazing thing has happened today
00:03:32Spice Girls outsold boys on by about five to one
00:03:35And was unleashing girl power on the nation
00:03:38Go to the Spice Girls
00:03:41You're welcome coming at ya
00:03:47Do you wanna be my lover?
00:03:52But watching on with mixed feelings were some of the Spice Girls' forerunners
00:03:56is it called zigzag or is it called if you want to be my lover it's called wannabe that's it
00:04:02i think the first time i heard it i remember just thinking well really
00:04:08i thought it was an unfinished mix that had got leaked to the press so i was like oh this
00:04:19can't be a record really and then they just blew up so quickly and we're like hello what about us
00:04:25because we've been working for so many years
00:04:27five years before the spice girls went global britain was in a royal mess a scene of chaos and
00:04:37destruction this castle dating back to the ninth century now struck at its very heart
00:04:43utter turmoil in the money markets for the first time ever the government has put up interest rates
00:04:51twice in one day officials on the tour admitted for the first time that the marriage was in trouble
00:04:561992 just turned out to be an anus or rebellious
00:05:02luckily for the nation's morale relief arrived from the usa
00:05:12american girl groups with lyrics full of attitude were storming the uk charts
00:05:26and caught the attention of an ambitious music producer i never look for a gap in the market
00:05:32i make a gap in the market we'll take a leaf out of a movie that i watch with kevin costner
00:05:38build it and they will come
00:05:54in the 90s we had a lot of american girl bands coming to the united kingdom
00:05:58my father was a minister so i'm heavily influenced by three-part harmony
00:06:10but i wanted to put a girl band together with a british twist to have a twinge of london underground edge
00:06:18i'm a dream maker baby
00:06:29as look would have it ron wouldn't have to wait long to find the first member of his new three-piece
00:06:34hello i am mel from the 90s
00:06:38born in north london to a french mother and british father melanie was a young team when she
00:06:49decided to pursue her dream of becoming a singer
00:06:55i love music singing and dancing but no one was telling me you were supposed to train like an athlete
00:07:02and run on the treadmill and practice your singing while you're dancing i was just smoking silk cut
00:07:07and hoping for the best at that time we were suddenly getting all the videos all the rmb and hip
00:07:13hop videos from the states which i'd never really seen before swv on vogue and all these bands
00:07:23i mean they were just so cool i'd lived in france before and we never lived long enough
00:07:30anywhere for me to sort of have like a group of friends so i was just super like attracted to that
00:07:36like i just thought i want to be a part of that gang
00:07:42mel's passion for music took her to a studio in west london's ladbrook grove
00:07:47which happened to belong to ron
00:07:50i started going down there and hanging out singing and dancing waiting kind of to be discovered
00:07:57melanie she was beautiful i thought she had the most beautiful little voice but
00:08:05having one girl would not be enough three is a magic number
00:08:08we're all working and separate artists and then um a couple of years ago i decided to put together
00:08:24to complete his three-part harmony ron enlisted singer shesne lewis and simone rainford
00:08:29this guy called people and formed a band named after their studios road and the year they were born
00:08:41simone sang lead while shazney and mel provided backing vocals
00:08:46when shaz and i started off harmonies were everything to us
00:08:50that was i think the thing that clicked with us when our voices blended so well together
00:09:06i think one of the great things is the fact that they are fresh um they have fresh ideas fresh voices
00:09:11and the record company they offered us 500 quid each and i was like come on let's do this that's
00:09:25what it took in those it that to me was like a million pounds my plans for the future uh to see
00:09:31all saints go right at the top but chaz and i wanted to make our own music
00:09:38music and we weren't choosing what music we were making it was being chosen by the production studio
00:09:45where we were coming from and perhaps they felt like they could do better without me
00:09:54girl bands it's a tough business great idea ron thank you very much bye-bye
00:10:08leaving ron and simone in the dust mel and shazney set off as a two-piece to search for a sound
00:10:15they could call their own i'd never been to college i'd never been to uni i'd never really even had a job
00:10:25but full of dreams and hope
00:10:28i really wanted to make it
00:10:40across london another group of girls were starting out as a four-piece
00:10:44the higher you build your very from a very different musical tradition
00:10:58hello hello i am kelly bryan formerly of the band eternal
00:11:04there wasn't another band like us in the landscape at the time three black girls one white
00:11:20originally we were called him hymn as in our gospel roots
00:11:24you can deny me esther and verney they're really amazing singers they had church backgrounds i grew
00:11:33up in church also something inside so strong
00:11:40him is a terrible name
00:11:41born in plaster east london kelly's quest for stardom started when she won a scholarship to stage
00:11:50school aged 11. being black being the shape that i was you were never seen as having an opportunity or
00:11:58hope of being successful it made me work extra hard
00:12:03and it was here that kelly met someone who would change the course of her life
00:12:10louise and i we were both scholarship kids both from working class backgrounds
00:12:17we instantly just gravitated to each other she was so super cute and she was just delightfully pretty
00:12:24and summery
00:12:25we'd always be like singing into hairbrushes making up dances yeah we had a lot of fun together
00:12:41in those days we were coming off the back of a massive explosion of acid music and that kind of stuff
00:12:49louise and i used to go out clubbing it was underage sorry about that
00:12:55we're on the dance floor and this guy came up to louise and he was like oh i'm a record producer
00:13:04here's my card and we were like yeah sure you are
00:13:10one day we're in class and she was like trying to build up the courage to call the number so we
00:13:15were like you can do it she put the money in we were standing around the phone
00:13:20and she got put through it was him he was a real record producer
00:13:30the pair auditioned and both girls were taken on by first avenue management
00:13:35i was hugely excited i mean you're 15 you've been paid 300 pounds a week i just thought i'd made it
00:13:41like 300 quid a week what you know like yeah and i was going to be with louise i was like it's your
00:13:49dream job with your best friend to complete the girl group the duo was teamed up with a pair of gospel
00:13:57singing sisters from south london i'm esther hi i'm kelly hi i'm bernie and i'm louise and guess what we're
00:14:10after months of rehearsals the group put on showcases for record labels but struggled to get signed
00:14:18eventually we met emi jean francois i feel so comfortable i feel so good this one is good this one
00:14:26actually is really good i worked with kate bush diana ross you know turner queen they were for me
00:14:39the archetype of female music power at the time i was ready for something new first time i saw the
00:14:49eternal i think they were gorgeous but people were actually saying you're taking a risk signing the girl
00:14:55and breaking them some record companies just didn't get it there wasn't another band in the
00:15:03landscape at the time that had that interracial dynamic they didn't get the music being sort of
00:15:11r b and a lot slower in terms of the bpm they just didn't get how it was going to be marketable
00:15:16i see but then you see them singing and say wow nobody knows
00:15:28okay let's give them a shot he was like i get it i get it he just totally he got it immediately and
00:15:34completely loved it i was like perfect where do i sign
00:15:50i want you back
00:15:58john francois bet on the girls with a five album deal
00:16:04and the group launched their debut single stay
00:16:07they really brought strong church influenced vocals you could tell those girls love the lord
00:16:22they had a slickness about them just the vocal production the styling they just sounded amazing
00:16:30together
00:16:44stay climbed to number four in the charts the first hit of the uk girl band era
00:16:51when i first heard stay on the radio i was with louise we screamed and we were jumping around her roof
00:16:59go
00:17:16number four i was i was not happy it's not good enough
00:17:20you see you only remember when you're number one
00:17:28i put some huge posters like this eternal number one and i put them in every open space in the label
00:17:36i think guys as long as i'm not number one we stop breathing so let's do it
00:17:41it's not good
00:17:43it's eternal for me was a very slick and sort of soul r&b act but i didn't think it would have that mass appeal
00:17:55girl bands are a different science to boys
00:17:59you've got to get it right on the nose with a girl band
00:18:02my ambition was to put together a young bubblegum kind of pop acts
00:18:11and to have commercial success but on a global scale
00:18:15i was watching tv shows like friends
00:18:27they were so appealing because
00:18:30the audience could identify with at least one character or aspire to be them
00:18:34my idea was to take a band and get every girl to identify with a member in that band
00:18:47so that you can appeal to every sector of the market
00:18:53to appeal to the broadest possible audience chris held auditions with hundreds of girl band hopefuls
00:19:05mel b had a cool look about her but she didn't really know it that was a massive ingredient which we needed
00:19:17mel c was confident her voice really cut through
00:19:26victoria didn't have a lot in the repertoire
00:19:29but she had air and grace
00:19:34she could appeal to an older demographic
00:19:38my ambition
00:19:40is obviously to make it really big really big with the greatest
00:19:43emma had this naive kind of cuteness about her really sweet
00:19:50hello
00:19:51with jerry the doors flung open she went hi i'm jerry
00:19:55i could be a 17 year old with big tits or i could be you know and and she made this entrance and
00:20:01you were like wow what's just happened i'm quite hungry for fame jeremy i just need my ego fed
00:20:07i'll be honest with the auditions done chris had chosen his five wannabes
00:20:13i felt like we could achieve a real kind of cross section of all the different characters that i thought
00:20:19made up the female spectrum really
00:20:29having found his cast of female friends chris now needed to shape them into an all-conquering ensemble
00:20:35you don't actually realize how much work you've got left to do i had a great songwriting session
00:20:46booked for them up in sheffield but i think we said to the girls now you're not ready
00:20:54until you can sort yourselves out i'm not sending you up in this this state so we put the session on hold
00:20:59but if you think about it chris all we get all week is you've got miles to go we don't ever get
00:21:08anybody honestly the only one that comes up is each other that's all we've got i'll tell you what
00:21:12there's millions of kids out there who want to be pop stars do you know what i mean and we're actually
00:21:16taking a step closer and closer to a dream do you know what i mean i love yeah jerry in particular
00:21:22wanted to speed the whole process up and much faster than i was prepared to go there was a massive
00:21:28fallout and i think they slammed the phone down on me with the parting words see you won't want to be
00:21:38and with that the spice girls sacked the spice maker
00:21:42i was gutted i was definitely gutted because you know it was like being having the dirty done on
00:21:54you by a best friend or a you know a girlfriend but they had unwavering ambition and hunger for success and
00:22:06fame while the spice girls were being put together shaz and mel had been trying to kick start their
00:22:21girl band
00:22:30shaz and i were winding for years just me and her we'd go and doing road shows and gigging and up
00:22:36and down the country nightclub pas and all that kind of stuff
00:22:42despite their efforts the duo's first single failed to crack the top 100.
00:22:47now i can look back and see we needed to appeal to a wider range
00:22:53but those were the best days because you're just there in the moment creating this music
00:22:57but while success eluded the duo a close friendship was forged on the road
00:23:17i just thought shaz was the coolest person i'd ever met
00:23:20she was just gorgeous and cool and i just fell in love
00:23:27her friendship was the most important thing to me in those days
00:23:32hey my name's melanie hey i'm shesley oh my god i remember this
00:23:37hello you gotta dance like this you gotta dress like that you gotta look like this and talk like
00:23:47that hello it's my goodness i'm trying to be so cool
00:23:54literally with babies the bass sounds sweet so let's get started baby you and me we party on down we can
00:24:01make chemistry as she grew in confidence shaz had assumed the role of songwriter
00:24:07her lyrics now just needed the right sound behind them yeah all good take two audio track ten
00:24:12i got a call to say there's a girl band looking for a new producer you up for it
00:24:28and at first i was a bit like girl band
00:24:30i was just hip-hop hip-hop hip-hop but i thought give it a go do you know what i mean
00:24:43so i made them a cd full of my tracks which were initially made with rappers in mind
00:24:50and then i got a call to say the girls have recorded a song on one of your beats
00:24:54i got in the car with their cassette i heard the piano dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun and then
00:25:02i know where it's at oh this is dope
00:25:06but it was a hip-hop track with a pop girl band singing on it but i don't think the record company
00:25:27got it and it got shelved and that was the end of that for that for that moment in time
00:25:34failing to convince the record label with their new sound mel and shazny were dropped
00:25:48is this the first time you've been in a helicopter yeah are you good just a bit
00:25:54and as all saints again stalled eternal were taking off with their new sights set on their first number one
00:26:03two
00:26:08look at that crap out there have you ever played to a crowd that big before
00:26:14every time we kind of go out and do a pa it gets bigger the crowd is bigger
00:26:18louise was who i was closest with we were just working so hard to ensure that every song was a hit
00:26:26but their relentless pursuit of a chart tupper was coming at a cost
00:26:37it's very hard to be at number one it's very hard it demands a lot of time a lot of energy ready here we
00:26:45go and play back
00:26:49there are times the music industry can be relentless you record you do an interview you get back on a
00:26:56plane you travel you work and you are either on the train or you're tagging along behind
00:27:03you have a good day one day and then the next day you get home sick all them kind of things build up
00:27:16for me and get me thinking what am i doing i knew that lou had been struggling for a while
00:27:23homesickness and stuff like that
00:27:30i remember her saying to me i i don't think i can do this anymore
00:27:36and then she was like right on i'll go solo
00:27:39i just wanted to kind of make the break at a convenient time rather than do an album and leave
00:27:50halfway through an album everybody sort of gets one chance we all wanted to go out there and do what
00:27:55we feel happiest doing they were like the biggest girls band in the uk at the time for the public
00:28:00everything was going so well and suddenly it goes so wrong you know and you're like why some people got
00:28:07the wrong impression at one point they thought that the white girls being kicked out of the group
00:28:12in the 90s being part of an interracial band they'd make a thing about it oh you know did louise
00:28:20leave because she was white and it just wasn't true why do you think she left i have no idea you
00:28:27know why because i never asked i knew it would change the band because it would never be the same
00:28:34without louise you know i was more on my own so to speak but there isn't really much time for
00:28:44reflection the only thing i could think of is like dory just keep swimming just keep swimming
00:28:49you'll be fine just keep going you'll be fine deep inside i had serious doubts
00:28:56what if they lose the magic of being together
00:29:06now a three-piece and under mounting pressure to succeed the girl's appearance came under scrutiny
00:29:13people were always voicing concerns about my weight and about our weight as a band
00:29:20stylists would come along and say oh this doesn't fit you this doesn't fit you we're talking about
00:29:27an era where being a size zero was popular where women looking like supermodels was important
00:29:38and so they sent us away to this place in the middle of the countryside
00:29:41where they were controlling what we ate
00:29:50it just was
00:29:54you know when i look back on it i think that was crazy but that's what they did
00:29:59i have no idea they never told me that
00:30:04i thought no she was gorgeous
00:30:06the band's first release as a three-piece would be a crucial test
00:30:11and a chance for them to take control of their message
00:30:16the next act we've got everything going for them it's eternal where's louise
00:30:32it made sense for us to release an anthem just really empowering women despite your color your
00:30:45race your size because we were empowered to move forward despite what was going on around us
00:30:51it's very much their statement of intent
00:31:07they're embracing the feminist banger is what they're doing
00:31:21though still not a chart topper the song reached number five to the relief of their record label
00:31:27yes relief is a is an understatement i knew it was the start of the next phase of their career
00:31:35and actually there's this identification process for girls seeing other girls on stage being powerful
00:31:49the girl power stuff from the 90s started at that time
00:32:02that's what love can do eternal had made a feminist anthem
00:32:10but girl power was about to be the property of another band
00:32:19we did have eternal at the time but i wanted to work a girl group
00:32:23i was desperate we were ready for something different that's my forte breaking new bands new artists
00:32:32luckily for nikki up and coming music mogul simon fuller had just signed a new act
00:32:44simon calls me up and he says i found them they've already been put together
00:32:49but i'm managing them and i'd like you to break this act
00:33:04i just remember thinking what is this who is this i want to be their friend
00:33:19we were like whoa where did this come from i was like oh this can't be a record really
00:33:23and everyone was like no no that's it and i was like a zigzag they were like yeah no
00:33:27no no no it's real i was like oh this is a thing
00:33:42the spice girls debut single wannabe showcase their market ready personas using a history making video
00:33:49the video is all filmed on one shot now you know how i feel
00:33:56i can't stress enough how important music videos were back in the day
00:34:02the spice girls had such a strong image that after the first video
00:34:07if you wanna be my lover you gotta get with my friends make it last forever
00:34:14wannabe would be number one in 37 countries making household names of sporty posh baby ginger
00:34:22and scary i mean it was just brilliant piece of marketing because there was a character for
00:34:27every single person in your friendship group jerry ginger was my one she couldn't really sing that
00:34:36well which probably resonated with me because i can't either who do you think i was but at the
00:34:41same time even if you physically didn't look exactly like one of the five you could still identify
00:34:47you know because i i really identified with sporty spice i used to run track
00:34:53i genuinely had a problem with them all the years of work we'd put in and then they just came out
00:35:00and blew up so quickly and were obviously manufactured the band was made for a purpose
00:35:16when i first heard wannabe i wasn't convinced but my daughter then was like i don't know four or five so
00:35:22it took me about two minutes before it came the anthem of the house you know what i mean it was like
00:35:27yeah okay fine i got it yeah right okay yeah fine i mean we knew we had something special i don't think
00:35:33any of us were ready for how huge they came on that global stage
00:35:40a labour prime minister in number 10 after 18 years of conservative rule
00:35:44just over halfway through the decade britain was wee brandon
00:35:58the musical landscape became very brit pop it was pulp it was blur it was of course oasis
00:36:05two billion pounds is what the bankers credit suites reckon the uk music industry will soon be
00:36:13worth double its current value there was that real feeling of renewal suddenly britain was cool again
00:36:30the spice girls became one of the elite bands who flew the flag for the british pop industry
00:36:46and it wasn't long before spice fever reached pandemic proportions
00:36:50i love them this is the best group in the world i watched like a proud older brother
00:37:03i was like oh my god this is this is sensational the spice girls first two albums would sell
00:37:19almost 40 million copies worldwide this could be the new age of all girl bands
00:37:27and their brand became defined by two words
00:37:44girl power please come on girls didn't get more power because of the spice girls
00:37:51yeah it's called emi power is what it was called
00:37:54girl power has found its way onto bags pens boxes there's even something for organized spice
00:38:02spice girls limited operate a mail order business selling everything from jackets to mugs and t-shirts
00:38:09girl power you know our fans always go you were first powerful woman came first yeah then they
00:38:14kind of cottoned on to oh yes this this works this concept we didn't care just as long as women were
00:38:19getting their say and the more women in the industry the better what did girl power mean to you nothing
00:38:27we weren't thinking about girls and boys and we were just thinking of we want to get our harmonies
00:38:32straight and be in the studio despite years of hard work mel and shazney hadn't made it out of the
00:38:39starting blocks we'd already sort of like felt like we'd been in the game for a long time
00:38:45so far their highest charting single had only made it to number 93 to succeed they needed to change
00:38:55we needed to be perhaps more pop or or just
00:39:01yeah just play the game and i've always found it hard to play the game
00:39:06shaz thought we needed more people i wasn't so sure i liked it being just me and her
00:39:16but i complied
00:39:20so on a council estate in suffolk the band were relaunching themselves
00:39:25yes i'm here in derby way newmarket but i've just seen some girls that i don't think are residents
00:39:29to you they don't really look like residents of derby way do they of course they're not because
00:39:32they're the fantastic new girl band they're called all saints
00:39:37looking back i can see why it worked as a foursome
00:39:50all saints finally landed a number four hit
00:40:06nick and i've been best friends since we were 11.
00:40:12our voices when we started singing together it created our own sound quite quickly
00:40:18and also nick and that they've got huge charisma
00:40:27i remember seeing them for the first time they wore like little crop tops and combat trousers you
00:40:32were just like wow what is this everyone wanted to look like an old saint
00:40:43the world needed the cool spice girls
00:40:47spice girls had alienated a lot of older kids because they become so commercial
00:40:54also they proved that you could not sell out but be a cool girl band and do something else with it
00:41:00as part of their rebrand all saints had hooked up with a like-minded record company who they'd
00:41:13hoped would land them a chart topper i think a lot of the labels were quite corporate
00:41:19but london was loud buzzing all the time
00:41:31i mean it was really quite sort of organized chaos it was a big record company
00:41:36they were serious visionaries but it was run by a bunch of lunatics
00:41:43dj was always my life's mission but it wasn't a job that really was going to allow you to kind
00:41:49of buy a house or pay a mortgage so basically i've always had a day job
00:41:52pete tongs nine to five in the early 90s saw him work with salt and pepper shakespeare sister and banana rama
00:42:05you were obsessed with girl bands pete not really but i kind of seem to be quite good at them
00:42:10but we wanted to have hits we always were kind of left of center we'd always sign the kind of more
00:42:20difficult band the kind of cooler band we got given a demo of all saints never ever and i played it to
00:42:28my manager a few questions that i need to know how you could ever hurt me so i don't think he ever
00:42:37played a demo as many times as you play as he played never ever like literally continuously like
00:42:42it finished he played it again it finished he played again but this thing would go on for hours
00:42:51in a departure from her usual style shazni had written a breakup ballad that would set all saints
00:42:57apart from their peers you can tell me to my face it was cool you know it felt quite futuristic
00:43:04it was just so unusual you couldn't you couldn't ignore it and not a copy of the spice girls
00:43:26it's an incredible song it had that chemistry
00:43:28it's a perfect summation of that magic that they had i'm really in awe of it sometimes when i go and
00:43:36listen to it i personally think shaznay lewis is one of the most underrated british songwriting
00:43:42talents that we have like power of her pen is is serious she's a fantastic lyricist
00:43:47you could say shaznay was like the garry varlow of all saints whether she'd like to be known as that
00:44:02or not i don't know never ever is one of those songs that is timeless it will be
00:44:08you know on the radio and being sung along to for for years to come
00:44:28never ever didn't just bring all saints the number one they've been chasing
00:44:32it went on to spend a total of 26 weeks in the charts and sold almost two million copies
00:44:39it was exciting and especially after all the years of work we've put in we were over the moon
00:44:45it was it was incredible it was a dream come true
00:44:49the way i'm feeling yeah it just don't feel right never ever have i ever got so low
00:44:57the genie was out of the bottle then there was no turning back you know the trajectory went from
00:45:02there crazy
00:45:12they're obviously the biggest thing right now and i definitely have to get out of
00:45:16it man our first promotional trip was japan then the rest of the world gets interested
00:45:24well i mean we just hit the ground running didn't have a clue
00:45:30you've become so successful so quickly how do you handle the thing to be honest with you
00:45:35it hasn't really sunk in like that and i don't think it ever will
00:45:37and then suddenly you're at the brits the brit award for the best single
00:45:52and elated and emotional all saints won two awards at the brits
00:45:59they actually went up against the spice girls and cleaned up which comparison would prefer eternal or
00:46:05the spice girls i know when i say this i've got a reaction particular way spice girls the media was
00:46:12always going to like put us against each other it sells papers it makes for an interesting story
00:46:19but we just didn't want to be compared to the spice girls
00:46:26they were just seeing this cooler and a bit more rock and roll
00:46:28the yin to the yang like you had blur and oasis you had the beatles and the rolling stones you
00:46:35can't have one without the other man for me all saints there were girls that you could have a night out with
00:46:42cheers all saints in the house thought they were just really cool
00:46:49i mean we were turning up to kids tv shows on saturday mornings with not one wink asleep it just looked
00:46:56fine just a little bit of vomiting in the toilets prior to cduk but fine i'm sure women were getting
00:47:04off their tits earlier than than the 90s maybe we just didn't care so much
00:47:12as their number one swept them to fame the press became intent on getting behind the pr interviews
00:47:18and into their private lives the tabloids they would talk about anything
00:47:24celebrity boyfriends they like them and there were a lot of celebrity boyfriends
00:47:36put it this way nick and that were highly desirable females and they had their fair share of
00:47:43a-list men on their ass they just enjoyed it man why not
00:47:58nick and that got the brunt of it for sure but they were doing the right thing
00:48:03they were doing what you're supposed to do when you're young rich famous jack nicholson's made a
00:48:08whole career out of it and nobody berates him
00:48:19waiting for sound as usual
00:48:22but whilst all saints were bringing on the booty calls eternal had been praying for their own number
00:48:28one hit obviously you've had huge chart success but you've never actually quite reached number one
00:48:36does that actually bother you or are you genuinely pleased when you say hit number four is that
00:48:40enough for you i never shown any disappointment but this pop music you want to be number one
00:48:51it's not a rock band and album after album you build your fan base until you do wemblay no you don't
00:48:57have 10 years you have you know 10 weeks
00:49:00i think number one's coming time it's not something that just jumps out of the box you
00:49:06don't mean just keep working on it in those days you had to be pop because we were coming off the
00:49:12back of a massive pop explosion and that was what was charting the hits were not anything like ours
00:49:21we all need the support we all need the help from everyone i don't think there's enough support for
00:49:26soul or r&b groups but rather than abandon their sound eternal approached legendary gospel and r&b
00:49:36singer bb winens and went back to their roots i had grown up with the winens the girls had
00:49:45idolized the whole winens family for as long as i can remember it was very much their dream to get to
00:49:51work with bb but the competition was becoming even stronger at the time there were more and more
00:49:59girls band in the chart i said okay fine let's give it a shot five years after forming the group
00:50:07released their latest single and in a twist of fate the job of revealing the new number one fell to the
00:50:15girl group's market leaders it's a new number one and girls are on top yes it's their first number one
00:50:21with beefy winens eternal r it worked
00:50:37it was a marriage made in heaven his vocal and esther's vocal sits so beautifully together
00:50:50and i remember just being so excited that we had that first number one
00:50:54it was just the most electric feeling at last you know it's the cherry on the icing
00:51:01it's crazy to think that we had that huge long career of all of those hits and then we didn't
00:51:18actually have our first number one until 1997. should have happened before should have happened before
00:51:31but it happened so that's that's beautiful
00:51:35but then monday morning you start from scratch 10 a.m it's like okay guys let's go back because now we
00:51:50are we are nowhere you're not number one all your life all the time one day success is gonna go away
00:51:59what you don't know is when it is going to stop working
00:52:07but whilst girl bands were celebrating chart success not everyone was in honored with their antics
00:52:14they're just a big money money making corporate machine aren't they you know advertising crisps and
00:52:19cans of coke and all that nonsense they've got a single out now that you can only buy if you buy 20
00:52:22cans of pepsi you know what i mean i'm not into that but no good luck to them you know they're young
00:52:26girls or are they as young as they say that's what i want to know i'll tell you this right
00:52:30if jerry spice is 24 and she's gonna look rough when she's 30. they're just cultivating this attitude
00:52:37you know like push your way to the top doesn't matter if you've got talent if you haven't got anything
00:52:42you know like go for it look in the mirror every morning and get there and i mean what in fact people
00:52:46are marketing is disgusting behavior i feel like back then there was a really small window where people
00:52:53celebrated the spice girls and celebrated the era of young women suddenly having a voice but it was
00:53:01a small window there was definitely a sort of shift in the way tabloids would write about the spice girls
00:53:10the girls became much bigger than their music so it was about their lives it was about what they
00:53:14looked like it was about what they were wearing because you were public property there are some
00:53:19paparazzi the worst is tabloid press you know one paper calls me a fat old slang soccer and spice
00:53:27announcing their engagement the press could be brutal and back then they had so much power and influence
00:53:34there's a big hate campaign in a certain tabloid newspaper i don't think people realize the mental cost
00:53:41fame can have on you that constant being on was taking its toll
00:53:52it was just a matter of time before one of them broke
00:54:01jerry has asked me to read the following statement
00:54:04sadly i would like to confirm that i have left the spice girls i won't cry
00:54:13anymore it was really it felt really sudden now that you've left me really shocking i thought
00:54:22immediately that that would be the end of the band i don't know how they could carry on wounded
00:54:27rumors of a spice split spilled onto the front pages of the nation's tabloids this morning
00:54:33we haven't split up but we're just doing cello work always a spice girl but always an individual
00:54:43people were left thinking well hang on what were you saying what was all this girl power
00:54:47there was a lot of attention on bands like all saints around will they split up or won't they like
00:54:57how long are they actually going to last
00:55:02a diminished spice girls left an opening for all saints but the london foursome had some life-changing
00:55:09news of their own i'd flown from london to meet them because they were arriving to start their
00:55:17promo trip and i went up to mel and nick and i said how are you and nick said well we're both
00:55:27pregnant and i was like what what wait what i hadn't been with my partner for very long it was
00:55:36definitely a surprise i mean it was wow because it's like my sister's pregnant you know what i mean
00:55:46that kind of thing i was happy for them do you mean it was the machine that wasn't happy
00:55:55it wasn't people congratulating us it was more like this look of dread and worry and then the
00:56:01you know the the realization you know things are going to change
00:56:06then we flew to la and in lax
00:56:08our manager he was behind us telling us to abort our babies
00:56:20we're going to ruin everything it was the end of the band
00:56:28this was the beginning of the huge international tour
00:56:31they were on the cusp of enormous success and management probably thought oh this is throwing
00:56:39a spanner in the works i was like listen it's not the first time a band have had a baby
00:56:49nick and i we've been best friends since we were 11.
00:56:52took pregnancy tests in a hotel room in canada spent that whole night discussing bringing our kids
00:57:01up together it was like one of the best nights ever
00:57:09and it's not really my place to talk about it
00:57:13but unfortunately
00:57:16um so uh it was a very uncomfortable situation because i kept mine she didn't
00:57:28that was a really tricky part part of uh my existence our our existence
00:57:52it's not a secret it's something that nick wrote about
00:57:55the
00:57:57they had different situations with with their pregnancies the path they took was different
00:58:05in the long term though do you think a baby will affect the future of all saints
00:58:09no i shouldn't think so i mean we're you know we're there's four women in this band so you know
00:58:14mel was a very positive pregnant beautiful young woman she was a party in the park which was the
00:58:21huge deal with her belly full out i mean she was proud of it and so she should be
00:58:35when we did party in the park and i was just starting to show
00:58:39i didn't really give a what i looked like when i was pregnant i think i'd barely brushed my hair
00:58:43i was just about that for i just didn't care anymore i wasn't trying to start a movement for
00:58:47pregnant pop stars or anything but i kind of did mel b you know the scary spice and victoria adams
00:58:53nicknamed posh spice i believe to be due to give birth early next year this was the band that gave us
00:58:58so-called girl power but with two falling pregnant some think young girls may take this as the message
00:59:05instead fine but does that mean that their young fans will now want babies treating them
00:59:12as the latest fashion accessories oh well that's bollocks it's a ridiculous thing to say
00:59:17and anyone with an ounce of brain would realize blame the boys get them to put their wellies on
00:59:25we were pretty used to the tabloids just being cunts in general we knew to ignore move on laugh
00:59:35we had the best times of our life but it didn't take much for it to go a little bit wonky
00:59:42i just wish someone would have just slapped me around a bit and said girls come on this might
00:59:47not last forever it didn't after the spice girls we were deluged with girl bands some magazines they
00:59:59wouldn't consider us for a front cover because we were three black girls am i going to make that
01:00:04opinion stop me no it was like romeo and juliet fell madly in love with him the record companies
01:00:13were furious it was definitely bad for the banks one of the only decisions we were all happy to make
01:00:20together is to tell each other to fuck off
01:00:29whoo
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