Viva Forever

After reading a magazine article about the upcoming Spice Girls musical, Viva Forever, I’ve been reminiscing over my teenage years. This is surprising to me because 1) my memory is awful and 2) I haven’t paid attention to anything spice since 2001. The most prominent memory is my then best friend and I (aged around 12) taking HOURS to record our own version of ‘2 become 1’ – that is one cassette I’d love to find (listen to and then burn).

Another memory is putting on a spice show with my church youth group. My Nan was the church secretary and the group consisted of me, my cousin and two others. We dressed up in true spice fashion and despite having ‘baby’ written all over my face I was ‘posh’ (perhaps something to do with the designer handbags I’d come to love later in life). We performed ‘Wannabe’ to our audience of church goers ranging from 70-80 years old. Looking back, the lyrics ‘If you wanna be my lover’ may have been slightly inappropriate for both performers and audience, but with the spirit of spice, anything goes.

I’ve just downloaded their greatest hits and am enjoying the songs perhaps even more this time round. The quality of singing remains questionable, but then that’s just not what those girls were about.

The Musical, which tells the story of a group of friends who enter a televised talent show, starts showing December at the Piccadilly Theatre, London, and features all the songs we know and love. It’s written by Absolutely Fabulous star Jennifer Saunders (who IS absolutely fabulous!) and produced by Judy Craymer, who brought us Mamma Mia!

I’ve a list of shows I haven’t got round to seeing yet (some of which have ended!) and doubt I’ll get round to watching it. If you do go, let me know what you think.

A thought for today; SPICE up your life!