That excitement was palpable on the opening night of the tour in Dublin’s Croke Park. There’d been plenty of speculation: how will it work without Victoria? Would solo material pepper the set-list?
The Spice Girls had a pop dominance that may have been short lived but it was the kind of success that left such a mark that a stadium tour based on only three albums (only two of which were truly hits) didn’t feel that silly. And of course it wasn’t just about the music when it came to Spice Girls. Their exuberant energy, their nicknames and knack for branding made them a marketing dream and larger than life in a way few pop groups manage. They impacted a generation of pop fans from excitable pre-teens taping songs off the radio to those in their late teens and 20’s. And the stats back it up. 85 million records sold, nine UK Number 1s making one of the biggest selling pop groups of all time.