The Spice Girls Reunion O2 Arena London 15th December 2007
On 28 June 2007, the Spice Girls held a press conference in London, announcing that they were to reunite. They revealed that they were going to embark on a world concert tour as a celebration of the group’s legacy and a final farewell to fans. Eleven concerts were announced in North America, Europe, Asia, Oceania, Africa and South America and we were informed that we had to pre-register for tickets on the Spice Girls’ website. Lucky “winners” were sent a code which allowed them to buy tickets for the concerts. Initially only one night in London was planned, but it sold out in only 38 seconds, and more dates were quickly added. Concerts continued to be added, and they eventually played a massive 17 nights in London at the O2 Arena, and 3 nights at Manchester Arena. Laura wanted to see her childhood heroes again and we were lucky enough to get tickets for the opening night, thanks to a friendly Spice Girls fan from Germany who gave us a code to but tickets when they first went on sale, having not been successful ourselves in the initial draw. Our trip to planet Spice started on the train from Durham station down to Kings Cross, onward to a trusty Travelodge to dump our bags, and then to the classy O2 Arena to take our seats for a nostalgic trip back to the days of Girl Power !! 🙂 Laura bought a t shirt (perhaps I should have got one). We had pretty decent seats on the arena floor about half way back and with a great view of the stage. The first bit of excitement came when Will Young took his seat a few rows in front of us, to massive cheers and screams from the crowd.
The show began with a video of five young girls (representing our five heroes) playing inside a house. They find a magic box, open it, fireworks appear, and they all wish that they can become pop stars when they grow up (does it work like that?). Cue the music for “Spice Up Your Life” and videos and press cuttings of the Spice Girls. The girls then appeared on five massive high platforms and the whole place erupted. I have literally never heard such loud screaming go on for so long. The 20,000 strong O2 crowd gave the Spice Girls a reception unlike anything else I have seen. Breathtaking. Girl Power had returned to London.
“Spice Up Your Life” was followed by “Stop” and their reunion single “Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)” closed the first act. The second act had a jazz theme: “The Lady Is A Vamp” and a showgirl-style performance. The girls performed jazz versions of “Too Much” and “2 Become 1” with the girls dancing around pink and white poles. In the third act each of the girls took a solo spot which started with lots of catwalking from Posh to a remix of “Like a Virgin”. Scary then took a male member of the audience and chained him to a ladder while she performed (as of course she did for part of the Spice Girls career) and the four piece band performed “Holler”. She then returned to perform her big solo hit single “It’s Raining Men”, followed by Mel C singing her solo single, “I Turn to You”. The next section included “Mama” with images of the Spice Girls with their mothers and their own children. After a medley they finished with “Goodbye” and the concert ended with the slogan “SPICE – MISSION ACCOMPLISHED”. The encore was (of course) their biggest hit and debut single “Wannabe”. and “Spice Up Your Life”.
Great fun actually.
Back to rock concerts tomorrow.
9 May
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