A Night With Ginger Spice

In the generation-defining smash hit song, Spice Up Your Life, the Spice Girls sing, “When you’re feelin’ sad and low, we will take you where you gotta go.” Well, those lyrics never rang more true for me than they did last night. In the midst of the sadness and new current low dealt by the continued shorthand that is Melissa’s health, I got the opportunity to meet one of my lifelong heroes, Geri Halliwell-Horner, otherwise known as Ginger Spice of the Spice Girls.

Unfortunately, due to her health woes, which I’ll revisit in a revamped version of Thank You For Being A Friend, Melissa had to sit this one out. She had just literally had surgery the day before and as she remains in the hospital even at the time of this writing, there was no way she was getting the opportunity to meet Geri. This is a true tragedy because while everyone may assume Melissa’s favorite Spice Girl is Posh Spice, Victoria Beckham, it’s actually Ginger Spice, Geri. She most identifies with Ginger and all the spiciness she brings to the ensemble.

This is quite par for the course for Melissa and I though. Life has a tendency to go more simplistically for me whereas it seems to throw a few dozen more curveballs in her direction. This Geri meet and greet being the latest in an ever increasingly long line of examples.

Despite it all, I wasn’t about to squander the chance to meet someone who has been a HUGE part of my life since 1996, so for quite literally twenty-nine years now, my entire life (basically). Now while I was very much prepared to go on my own, my second wife, Nancy, was able to accompany me. Suffice it to say, we both had THE BEST time spicing up our lives!

Geri was in St. Louis promoting her latest young adult novel in her critically-acclaimed, best-selling Rosie Frost series. While I’ve failed to read the first installment, you can best bet I’ll be reading it alongside the sequel, which is what the book tour was promoting. Our ticket included a SIGNED COPY of Rosie Frost: Ice on Fire and I purchased a SIGNED COPY of Rosie Frost & the Falcon Queen, so you can catch me on the couch reading for the next several nights!

Anyone who was alive in the 90’s remembers Spicemania and how could one not!?! They took the entire world by storm! Victoria, Posh Spice; Emma, Baby Spice; Mel C., Sporty Spice; Mel B., Scary Spice; and of course Geri, Ginger Spice had the entire world in the palm of their hand. Two massively successful albums that each sold well over of twenty million copies, a fury of infectious singles, a blockbuster movie, and licensing deals with just about every major brand out there made them impossible to escape. They ushered the return of pop music to the mainstream and for that the world will forever be indebted. Their imperial phase ended though when Geri quit the group in 1998, leaving the other four girls to go on without her, still achieving success, just not the dizzying kind they had before.

Ten, eleven, and twelve year old me was most definitely caught up in Spicemania. They were my Britney Spears before Britney Spears was my Britney Spears. I knew every lyric to every song – erm, correction – I should’ve wrote that in the present tense as I still very much know every lyric to every song. I always think my favorite song is Spice Up Your Life, but I know it’s actually Viva Forever. I’m a big ballad guy and Viva Forever isn’t just their best ballad, it’s one of the best ballads there ever was! It ranks amongst my 100 most played songs just about every single year and this one will certainly be no exception. I just love them and their music so much. It takes me back to a place and time that floods me with magical memories and never-ending happiness.

That’s what great music does though, it transports us to wherever we were and whatever we were doing during the era of that sound. For me, the Spice Girls represent that coming of age period where I was taking in the world around me. I would most definitely credit their message of Girl Power (which Geri said last night has gone on to evolve into Inner Power) as a reason why I absolutely believe in equality amongst the sexes and always remaining true to you, no matter what anyone else might think or say.

Everyone always thinks their generations music was the best and I’m no exception to that, but when you look at a group like the Spice Girls, it’s impossible to not see how they literally changed the entire global landscape. They weren’t just giving us jam after jam, they were giving us a way of life, a celebration of self all through the power of positivity. Each girl has gone on to have an incredibly successful solo career in all forms of media, and that power of positivity has propelled each one of them to further heights. It’s propelled their fans too.

For many of us, fandom isn’t a phase, it’s a lifelong commitment to a love that only strengthens with time. Geri Halliwell-Horner coming to my city, St. Louis, Missouri, was the next step in that lifelong love. When I got to stand next to her for all of ten seconds to take that photo it was a cumulation of nearly three decades of adoration, admiration, and love, all coming together in a singular instant.

The line for photos moved incredibly swiftly and honestly, thank goodness, if you would’ve given me another two seconds with her I would’ve been sobbing. I was holding in those tears the entire time and thankfully all I could muster was, “thank you for being you,” but that felt like enough. I did receive the world’s greatest compliment though when I came around the corner to take my photo she goes, “OH, WOW!” in reference to my red coat. Getting that style acknowledgement from one of the world’s most beautiful and glamorous individuals was the chef’s kiss and kickstarted those ten seconds that I’ll never, ever forget.

So really and truly, thank you Geri (and Emma, Victoria, and the Melanies) for all of you just being yourselves because there’s no doubt about it, you definitely helped me be me and there’s no one else I’d rather be. VIVA FOREVER!

As always, THANK YOU so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a comment below as I LOVE reading and responding to them! I’ll be back soon with another all-new post, so until then, I wish you all, all the best!