Spice Girls Planning Reunion Tour and Album

From People courtesy of AlterNet:

The Spice Girls are preparing for a Christmas reunion tour, sources close to the band tell PEOPLE.

"It should be happening in December," a source tells PEOPLE. "Geri [Halliwell, a.k.a. Ginger Spice] and Emma ["Baby Spice" Bunton] have been in the studio writing new material and they want to do a worldwide tour."

Rumors have circulated recently that the band would reunite for the Princess Diana memorial concert that is to be held on Diana's birthday, July 1, to mark the 10th anniversary of her death.

"They definitely won't be performing at the Diana show. It is too soon and Emma is pregnant," says another band insider. "But plans are afoot for later in the year. It all depends on Simon Fuller. He is the mastermind."

Fuller, 47, was the Svengali manager who turned the five-woman group into the most successful female act of the 1990s and later went on to create American Idol.

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I love Spice Girls, but I still think Simon Fuller is an asshole.

Yeah, this post makes for a pretty big oxymoron what with coming right after my Peter Gabriel post from yesterday. I mean, okay, both of these groups are English and all, but the similarities pretty much end there. Unlike the pretentious and artsy early years for Genesis, Spice Girls were always about prefabricated pop, which didn't really happen to Gabriel's former mates until the 80s, and even then, they knew exactly what they were doing, that is, selling out. Anyway, just because I like jazz and Frank Zappa doesn't mean that I don't dig the occasional piece of pop trash, and I usually feel justified when I do it.

For instance, starkly contrasting other sexy plastic singing groups, Spice Girls always had a marvelous sense of humor about themselves. They knew what was going on, and never seemed to take their stardom very seriously--well, except for Ginger Spice when she left the group, but see where that got her. Spice Girls were about fun. Girl power and all that mid 90s stuff. They also had great producers crafting their music. "Say You'll Be There" for instance has a really groovy gangster synth sound throughout, while liberally ripping off hooks from George Michael and Michael Jackson, throwing in a few Stevie Wonder harmonica licks. Hard to go wrong if you can successfully pull together all the elements, which they did.

See for yourself. Here's the video, which also shows off some of that humor I mentioned. I mean, really, kung fu in the desert...



Anyway, I'm excited about their triumphant return. Hope they head down to New Orleans. I'm sure to be there.

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