“R.U. 18–23?”

In early 1994, a small ad ran in The Stage, the British theatre trade paper. It asked young women aged 18 to 23 who could sing and dance to come to an open audition in London. About 400 turned up on March 4. Four of the five women who became the Spice Girls were picked from that room.

The people who placed the ad were Bob and Chris Herbert, a father and son who ran a company called Heart Management. They built the group, housed it, and trained it for a year. Then the group left them, signed with another manager, and became the biggest pop act in the world.

The Ad in The Stage

British pop in 1994 belonged to boy bands, above all Take That. The Herberts wanted a female version. Chris Herbert, then barely into his twenties, pictured a group of distinct personalities, like the cast of an ensemble TV show, that would appeal to girls and boys alike.

The ad that did the recruiting was blunt. As later reproduced by the Mirror, it read in capitals: “R.U. 18–23 with the ability to sing/dance. R.U. streetwise, outgoing, ambitious & dedicated.” Heart Management described itself as “a widely successful Music Industry Management Consortium” forming “a choreographed Singing/Dancing all Female Pop Act.” Applicants were told to bring sheet music or a backing cassette.

On March 4, 1994, around 400 hopefuls crowded into Dancework Studios in central London. They were split into groups of ten and taught a dance routine to Eternal's “Stay.” Then each sang a solo for the Herberts. Melanie Brown sang Whitney Houston's “The Greatest Love of All.” Melanie Chisholm sang the Pointer Sisters' “I'm So Excited.” Victoria Adams sang “Mein Herr” from Cabaret.

Sunburn, a Recall, and Five Girls

About a month later, ten women were called back. One of them hadn't been at the first audition at all. Geri Halliwell had been in Spain and come home sunburnt, and she talked her way into the recall instead. “She just said she was ill and pleaded to be fast-tracked to the recall,” Victoria later remembered.

The Herberts chose Brown, Chisholm, Adams and Halliwell. The fifth place went to Michelle Stephenson, a 17-year-old who had scored highest at the first audition. The Herberts named the group Touch and moved the five into a rented house in Maidenhead, Berkshire, west of London. There they had daily dance and vocal coaching.

Stephenson didn't last. “She had the best voice but her personality didn't fit,” Bob Herbert later told the Sunday Times. Stephenson has said the choice suited her. “It wasn't my kind of music and they were not living the lifestyle I wanted,” she told the Mirror. Her replacement was Emma Bunton, a former stage-school pupil recommended by the group's vocal tutor, Pepi Lemer.

A Songwriter in the Corridor

The Herberts' group found its songwriters by chance. Richard “Biff” Stannard, who had written East 17's hit “Steam,” was at a London studio to see Jason Donovan. “When I got there I bumped into Chris Herbert who was the Spice Girls' original manager,” he told Music Week in 2020. “Next thing I know, Mel B was there, like, ‘Who are you?’ and she jumped on my back.”

When Stannard mentioned “Steam,” the group sang it back to him, pulled him into a room, and performed a three-song set. He brought in his writing partner, Matt Rowe. “Within ten days we'd written ‘Wannabe’ and ‘2 Become 1,’” he told PinkNews in 2011.

Rowe later described how “Wannabe” was put together. “They made all these different bits up,” he told the biographer David Sinclair. “Just coming up with all these sections of chanting and rapping and singing. And then we just sewed it together.” The group now had two songs that would become UK No. 1s. They still had no record deal.

The Mutiny and the Master Tape

Chris Herbert believed in a long training period before anything was released. The group wanted a single out and wanted to perform. “They became frustrated because we'd rehearse the same routine every day,” he said in a 2020 interview with CLIC. “Ultimately, there was a mutiny. They walked out.”

According to the BBC, the five had never signed a contract with the Herberts. A 1997 Hot Press account says the group's next manager bought their contract out, so the paperwork is disputed. What isn't disputed is that Heart Management held the master recordings of “Wannabe” and “2 Become 1.” Halliwell decided to get them back.

"I don't know how she actually managed to get it – everything was so Bonnie and Clyde. She had it hidden in her knickers, she said, in case Bob and Chris had given chase."

With the tape in hand, the group went looking for new management, working out of Halliwell's battered Fiat Uno. They settled on Simon Fuller, a former Chrysalis A&R man who managed Annie Lennox, and his company 19 Management. Fuller put them back in the studio and started taking them to record labels.

Five Blow-Up Dolls at Virgin

Virgin Records signed them in July 1995. Ashley Newton, the label's deputy director, told Music Week about their first visit: “They caused such a commotion, doing a mad routine in the office, all talking at once and being really funny.” He rang his bosses and told them they had to see it.

On the day they were due to sign, the group sent five blow-up dolls to Virgin's offices in their place, with a chauffeur told to announce that the Spice Girls had arrived. “There were almost heart attacks,” Halliwell said. After the real signing, the dolls were thrown into the Grand Union Canal.

Virgin had doubts about “Wannabe” as a first single, and Stannard has said the label wanted something else. The group refused to budge. Released on July 8, 1996, it entered the UK chart at No. 3, went to No. 1 the following week, and stayed there for seven weeks. The album Spice followed on November 4.

“They Definitely Met Through an Ad”

Once they were famous, the Spice Girls rarely brought up The Stage. The story of five friends with attitude sold better than an open audition run by two managers they had left. In 1996 a Virgin source told the Guardian: “They definitely met through an ad. I don't know why they're not being upfront about it.”

Both versions are true. The Herberts found the singers, put them in a house together, and introduced them to the men who co-wrote their biggest songs. The group decided what to sing, picked their own manager, and insisted on “Wannabe” as the debut single when their label wanted something else.

Chris Herbert has said the walkout hurt, partly because he had become friends with the five. He used the same method again. He went on to work with Simon Cowell on the boy band Five, which sold more than ten million records.

For how those first songs became a 31-million-selling debut, read our review of the Spice Girls' Spice.