WANTED: R.U. NEXT?
Before they were The Spice Girls, they were just many beautiful, young girls looking for something new to do. The first managers of the band placed an ad in Stage Magazine that yielded a ton of results. The ad read, “WANTED: R.U. 18–23 with the ability to sing/dance? R.U. streetwise, outgoing, ambitious, and dedicated? Heart Management Ltd. is a widely successful music industry management consortium currently forming a choreographed, singing/dancing, all-female pop act for a recording deal. Open Audition. Danceworks, 16 Balderton Street. Friday 4 March. 11 am-5:30 pm. Please bring sheet music or backing cassette.”
Photo by Brian Rasic/Getty Images
No surprise, about 400 women answered the advertisement, and the managers had their pick of aspiring pop stars who wanted in on this one-of-a-kind opportunity. Among those women were four of the five who became The Spice Girls. One, however, was unable to do the audition. Geri Halliwell saw the ad but failed to attend because she had just returned from skiing in Spain and had a sunburnt face!