Book: Catch A Fire - Melanie B (2002)

The Spice Girls were good in their day. I was a bit beyond the girl power thing so I didn’t take an awful lot of notice of them, but you could not ignore their fame. They were everywhere. Unusually for a group where there is normally a front person who is more ‘famous’ then his or her band mates, the spice girls were all equally loved and adored by the fans. There was not one more famous then the other. I had read Geri Halliwell’s honest account of what went on behind the scenes so I was interested to read another band members view. The first book to come my way was Mel B’s. There is nothing much worth mentioning about her story to be honest as it starts with her happy enough home life and childhood and went on to her days of being a dancer in various shows at the end of Blackpool Pier (or similar). She auditioned for a new band and the rest as they say is history. However, Mel B comes across as a big mouth show off. Not really my sort of person at all. She really did live up to her Scary Spice image at every opportunity. I am sure that this girl, should I have been unlucky enough to be at school with her, would have been a bully as this is how she comes across. I think she tries too hard with this girl power thing and I cringed every time she mentioned the phrase (which was a lot believe me). I don’t think she treated people very well, and there is no doubt the break up with Geri was glossed over. Having read Geri’s very honest account of what happened I sort of know what the feelings were at the time amongst the girls and it was Mel B who was the nastiest to Geri. To be fair, Mel did say at one point in her book that she knew she was being a bit of a “cow” sometimes but I think she should have gone further and said that she’d been a bit of a cow pretty much for most of the time.
It is as if she writes her story being proud of her big mouth and nasty ways, maybe she really does want to stay as scary spice forever. Well, I’m sorry lady but you just don’t do it for me.
Score Board: A stressful read. You just wanted to keep giving her a kick up the bum. 4/10