The Story of Pop: 1998 (Chapter 30)

With more hits from the year that Goodness Gracious Me debuted on BBC Two, when Newcastle United fans draped Alan Shearer’s No. 9 shirt over the newly erected Angel of the North and when Nick Hornby published the novel About A Boy, this is The Story of Pop: 1998. This week: five become four in one of the biggest shocks in pop music that year…

• Artist: Spice Girls
• Song: Viva Forever
• Released: 20/07/1998
• Writers / Producers: Spice Girls / Matt Rowe / Richard “Biff” Stannard
• Highest UK Chart Position: #1
• Weeks on Chart: 16

Strange to relate really, that we’ve got this far into the series mentioning the one act who were still such a dominant force in 1998, but without actually discussing them. But now it’s time to buckle yourselves in, because long before All Saints, B*Witched or Cleopatra popped their girl power heads above the parapet, there were five girls who broke open the barn door for them to follow through – who were sadly on the verge of becoming four.

It’s incredibly easy to forget that the Spice Girls‘ initial run of their career and imperial phase was, all told, from “Wannabe” being released in July 1996 to the end of this year, just a little over two years. And yet they packed so much more into that time then most pop bands manage in 10 years, and it’s only now, all these years later, that you can take in the speed at which it happened.

The previous year, 1997, had seen them start it with awards, number ones, their faces on everything and everywhere, from cans of Pepsi to bags of Walkers Crisps, and of course Spiceworld: The Movie. But fast forward to the end of that year, and in typical “tall poppy syndrome” of the British press, they had left their manager Simon Fuller, and the first rumblings of a backlash were afoot.

Still, when “Too Much”, the jazzy sounding theme from their film became their second consecutive Christmas number one single – making them the first band since The Beatles to pull off the feat, it had appeared that they had weathered the storm. But in an age where number ones and going straight in at the top mattered, their next single “Stop” did just that, missing out on the top spot to “It’s Like That” by Run DMC and Jason Nevins.

So with the next single from the Spiceworld album, there was a pressing need for them to restore themselves to their usual chart topping glory – even if the song which did it became, in some ways, the least crucial element of its release. Originally slated to be a double-A-side with discotastic “Never Give Up On The Good Times”, the flamenco tinged, wistful ballad “Viva Forever” was chosen to accompany it, thus mirroring the fact the last single off their first album was also a double-A-side of “Mama / Who Do You Think You Are”.

It’s gentle guitar flecked and string laden backing was the girls on their full ballad best, in a song that could either lyrically be interpreted as mourning the passing of a holiday romance – “Both of us were dreamers, young love in the sun / Felt like my saviour, my spirit I gave ya / We’d only just begun” – or to the end of a moment, unsure if it really happened: “Back where I belong now, was it just a dream? / Feelings unfold, they will never be sold / And the secret’s safe with me”.

Where it really tugs on the heartstrings is at the song’s chorus, where they all give a beautiful, multi layered performance of their lives – Mels B and C in particular – “Viva forever, I’ll be waiting / Everlasting, like the sun / Live forever, for the moment / Ever searching, for the one”. It was this lyric and sentiment therefore, that, even though it was written less than a year previously on set of the movie, would prove to be fitting for the context it was released in.

By the time the single was being prepped for release, complete with a complex and stunning animated video directed by Steve Box, of the award winning animation studio Aardman, who had been behind Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run, depicting the girls as tin puppet fairies in an enchanted wood, the girls were nearing the end of the European leg of their mammoth world tour, and about to commence the US leg.

No one’s entirely sure to this day whose version of events are the correct one, but the agreed facts are that, with just a few days to go before their final European concert in Oslo, they had flown back into Britain to film The National Lottery Show for the BBC. It was here that Geri Halliwell failed to turn up, to which they cited live on air she was ill, and to get well soon.

Speculation built and built over the following days, before finally, came the news that fans had been dreading on Sunday, 31st May 1998. Read out by her lawyer to the world’s press, Geri released the following statement:

This is a message to the fans. Sadly, I would like to confirm I have left the Spice Girls, this is because of differences between us. I am sure that the group will continue to be successful, and I wish them all the best. I have no immediate plans, and I wish to apologise to all the fans and to thank them and everyone who’s been there.

Lots of love, Geri. PS: I will be back.

The remaining quartet of Emma Bunton, Victoria Beckham, Mel B and Melanie C carried on and duly headed to America to begin their 41 date summer long tour, as plans for the single were immediately pushed back to July, and with Geri’s voice very minimally on “Viva Forever”, and the impossible logistics of having to re-record vocals for “Never Give Up On The Good Times”, it was decided to leave it as a standalone single.

It was the best decision in the circumstances, for “Viva Forever” suddenly became the unofficial soundtrack to the end of their imperial phase, and the end of Geri’s time in the band. With no time to promote the single’s release back home, it became the biggest driver of promotion. And their fans responded in the only way they knew how; it became their seventh UK number one single upon release at the end of July 1998.

Selling over 277,000 copies in it’s first week, it notched up one of their biggest first week sales, and was one of the year’s top 20 biggest selling singles. And even though the candle was now starting to dim where it was once burning so brightly for the phenomenon that was Spicemania, for now it seemed the Spice Girls were as loved by the people that really mattered – their fans – as they had ever been. All eyes then turned to Christmas, where they could properly say goodbye to Geri – but that’s another story for the end of this series…

Don’t forget to follow our brand new playlist on Spotify – updated weekly so you never miss a song from the story of pop in 1998. And you can leave your memories of the songs below in the comments, Tweet us or message us on Instagram, using the hashtag #StoryofPop1998.