Spice Girls: Geri Apologizes for Quitting Smoking in 1998

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Legend of the mediaSpice Up Your Life – Live in Wembley

Geri Horner apologized for leaving the Spice Girls in 1998, as the band played the last date of their reunion tour.

"I have to say something that I should have said a long time ago," she told the fans and her fellow bandmates at Wembley Stadium.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry to be gone – I was just a kid – it's so good to be back with the girls I love."

Geri, aka Ginger Spice, left the group at its peak 21 years ago.

At the time, she said that she was suffering from exhaustion and that she needed a break.

Years later, in the documentary Giving You Everything, she explains that she's distanced herself from the rest of the group.

"I felt that I did not belong to anything anymore, they did not need me anymore, really, and I felt really superfluous."

Geri's apologies were made on the 13th and final day of the Spice Girls stadium tour in the UK, just before the band played Goodbye, the number one single that spoke of his departure.

And it was not the only emotional moment.

The group brought their mothers and children on the stage during the recall, to serenade them with Mama, while Emma Bunton was reduced to tears during Viva Forever.

"She's gone," said Mel C. "The Bunts are gone, we had a little wager on who would cry first."

"I have a nasty scream, is not it?" Emma asked. "It's the last night, we are all very moved."

But overall, the atmosphere was at the party, with bands like Stop, Who Do You Think You Are and Wannabe, as if it was the first time they played them.

The quartet arrived on the stage in front of a huge semicircular podium, wearing the new version of their iconic outfits from the 1990s – Scary in a leopard catsuit, Sporty in a diamond sportswear, Ginger in a Union Jack balloon dress and baby in a blur of pink and mats.

With fireworks in the sky, they jumped into Spice Up Your Life, a salsa-riffic scene, while the video screens updated the Girl Power manifesto to include all "ages, races, abilities, sexualities, religions and beliefs ".

The sound problems reported at the beginning of the tour had disappeared, even though the band was sometimes overwhelmed by the volume of 80,000 singing fans.

The set-list wisely stuck to their first two albums, and the song arrangements were tight and imaginative. Even Holler, the unmarried single of Post-Geri, underwent a tropical revision which made it briefly tolerable.

But most importantly, the group's insolent and stupid chemistry was still intact.

"Our audience has become much hotter," Mel B observed at one point.

"It's probably because our audience is no longer eight years old," Mel C. answered.

The atmosphere was certainly more nocturnal than the pajama nights – but at a time when pop stars were increasingly highlighting their fallible human side, it was refreshing to see the Spice Girls celebrate the fun and the fun. friendship.

Their attachment was evident everywhere, with hugs of support, a sweet mockery and a good read of the agenda. The supposed rift between Mel B and Geri, caused by the revelation that they had once slept together, was forgotten or incredibly well disguised.

Instead, they found themselves in stitches during a karaoke stripper segment, where the musicians played excerpts from the Spice Girls' solo hits, to discover that the singers could not remember the words. (However, they knew the words of Adele's hello, which was a stroke of luck, since she was in the audience.)

"Do you know what's going to surprise Wembley?" asked Mel C, sarcastically. "We have not repeated this piece."

A high-profile Victoria Beckham cameo failed to materialize and the group changed Wannabe's words jokingly to reflect his absence: "Easy V does not come for free … Where is she?"

And when the audience became particularly noisy, Geri suggested organizing hearings noting: "There is always room for a fifth member."

But to be honest, they did not need it.

Without wanting to criticize Absent Spice, the tumultuous spontaneity of Scary, Sporty, Baby and Ginger was enough to prove that the Spice Girls remain the best female band in Britain.

Of course, Girls Aloud had more innovative songs, the Sugababes were more cool and Little Mix were better singers – but the Spice Girls had something else: they talked about freedom, self-confidence and disobedience, times when the pop star – pop stars in particular – were supposed to shut up and behave. Imagine what it was like for a teenager of the 90s.

For 21 years now that the Spice Girls have not played for the last time at Wembley, the reality has broken some of these dreams, for the band and their fans, but for two brief hours Saturday night, they all remembered what they felt before.

"It's a night to celebrate," said Mel C. "Being in Spice World is amazing."

Legend

The Union Jack dress with crystals by Geri Horner was designed by Gabriella Slade

SETLIST

Spice up Your Life
If you can not dance
Who do you think you are?
Do it
Something funny
Interlude: Miltary / Sound Off (from Spiceworld: The Movie)
bawl
Interlude: Tango Queer
Viva Forever
Let love guide
Goodbye
Interlude: car wash
Never give up the good times
We are a family
Love thing
Lady is a vamp
Interlude: The last waltz
Too much
Say you'll be there
2 become 1
stop
Mum
Wannabe

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