the spice girls reunion: why it will flop

With the risk that always comes with making a prediction in public, I will stick my neck out and predict that the upcoming Spice Girls comeback onslaught will be a damp squib.

The first clue came with the pictures from their reunion announcement. Four of the group were dressed almost identically in black body-con outfits, as dictated by the pages of Grazia magazine, while Geri was clad in a floaty floral maxi dress, also sanctioned by the fashion press.

Unfortunately the winning Spice Girls formula of five distinctive, yet mutually complementary looks had been forgotten. The question of whether the reunion would be a genuine return to form, or an ill-advised vanity project began to form.

N0w I was never a Spice Girls fan, but I could see why so many other people were. When they burst on to the scene in the mid nineties they had an air of not caring what anyone thought about them. They turned platform shoes and Union Jack prints into must have items for under-15s.

It doesn't bode well for their comeback that they seem to have lost their devil-may-care charm and energy.

But as Britney demonstrated this week, the biggest media, marketing, and fashion disasters can be averted by a great pop record. Unfortunately the buzz on the pop blogs about their new song Headlines (Friendship Never Ends) does not look good for the group.

The video that accompanies the song is even worse. Desperate and embarrassing. Look at us gyrating in our bras! Stroking our hair! Gazing wistfully through the shadows! Showing off the bodies that have been ravaged by various eating disorders over the past decade!

For women who have reunited on their own terms, with complete creative control, they are failing to enact even the most basic 'girl power'.

Of course people who are desperate to indulge in pop-culture nostalgia, and have forked out £75 for a ticket to the tour might be able to convince themselves that the group still has what it takes, but it doesn't look like they'll be winning over any new fans.

kate s-b

If you liked this post, you might enjoy

britney's comeback

this ain't a scene it's a goddam marketplace

dick and dom: the saviours of radio one