Copyright 1997 Guardian Newspapers Limited
The Guardian (London)
October 8, 1997
SECTION: THE GUARDIAN FEATURES PAGE; Pg. T12
LENGTH: 1997 words
HEADLINE: PORTRAIT: GERI
BUILT;
Geri Halliwell is known as plain Ginger, just one of the
five ingredients in the Spice Girls. We've read all about her,
and yet nobody seems too sure even of her age. That's because
they never speak out as individuals. Until now. Tim Hulsefollows
Ginger Spice's glory trail
BYLINE: Tim Hulse
BODY:
Picture this. In a photographer's studio in east London, Geri
Halliwell is sitting on a chair wearing black lacy underwear and
a huge fake fur stole.Around her, various assistants are busying
themselves. One is holding her hair back, while another adjusts
her necklace. Another is undoing her shoes and a fourth is
checking her make-up. As this goes on, Geri gazes serenely into
the mirror she's holding in front of her face and looks pleased
with what she sees. It's a scene that would have made a fine
subject for a Renaissance painting: 'Queen Geri Amidst Her
Handmaidens', an allegory of ambition fulfilled.
Because this is what Geri Halliwell, the Watford wannabe, has
spent most of her life dreaming about - to be the centre of
attention, to be famous. Fame - that elusive, late 20th-century
Holy Grail. For years, she's tracked it and hunted it down with
single-minded devotion. Now it's hers and it sits looking at her
from the other side of the mirror. No wonder she looks pleased.
I knew most of the landmarks on Geri's journey - club dancer in
Majorca,glamour model, gameshow hostess and so on because I'd
waded thorugh a huge pile of press cuttings. Fleet Street's
finest had apparently left no stone unturned, but their story was
almost entirely third-hand. Friends, relations, ex-lovers, even
vague acquaintances - they'd all been quizzed, but the central
character in this little saga had remained largely silent. She'd
been interviewed plenty of times, but it was always in the
company of the perpetual hen party that is the Spice Girls - the
result usually little more than high-spirited banter. This was
the first major interview she'd done alone.
So here, in her own words, is the true story of Ginger Spice.
The
Life of Spice
'When I talk about Girl Power, I fucking well believe in it.
Everyone wants to see it as some great marketing ploy. It's not,
it's something that has helped me, it's given me strength.'
Let's get this straight. Sporty Spice - she's into sport. Baby
Spice - she's young and childlike. Posh Spice - she's posh,
obviously. Scary Spice - she's intimidating and in-your-face. And
then there's Ginger Spice - she's . . . what? She's got ginger
hair, basically. In the Spice Girls' mixed bag, Geri seems to be
the only one who doesn't really represent anything.
'I quite like that, actually,' she says, 'All I represent is
myself,basically. If people want to see a bubbly redhead with
large breasts, thenthat's fine. But, then, if people can maybe
subconsciously receive a message -you know, the average woman is
a size 12 or 14, and they can see that I'm not a skinny
supermodel and I can still be up there. The Spice Girls are five
imperfect girls - I'm far from perfect. I'm flawed and I'm aware
of my flaws, but it means that with the right spirit and with a
good heart, you can achieve anything.' If the story of Geri
Halliwell represents anything, then this is what it is: the
triumph of the ordinary.
Time to go back to the beginning . . .
Childhood
'First and foremost, I came from great poverty. My parents didn't
have any money, they were basically on the breadline. I didn't
get things handed on a plate to me. It's a cliche, it's a sad
story, but that's the way it was.'
There's a persistent rumour that Geri is older than she says she
is. I think 33 was the highest of various ages mentioned to me.
Judging from the early press cuttings, it's possible she (or
someone else) may have knocked a couple of years off her age when
the Spice Girls became famous, but for quite a while now her
stated age has been the one confirmed by her birth certificate.
She was 25 in August.
Her father suffered from asthma and a bad hip and barely worked
from the day Geri was born. Her mother was the family
breadwinner. When she was nine, her parents split and her father
moved out. She was a classic latchkey kid.
'I used to tie my own bunches and get myself to school. I'd go
home and no one would be there and I'd make my own dinner. So
I've always had to provide for myself. It had a massive effect.'
To make things worse, she was short for her age, and a late
developer. 'My sister was always the beautiful one. She had loads
of boyfriends, while I was just the giggly kid in the corner
dancing around to Madonna. Anyway, I was very much a girls'
girl.' And a dreamer more than anything, from as far back as she
can remember. So when Geri reached 16...
The
Quest Begins
'I basically just ran off and that was it. I was just like Dick
Whittington, really searching for . . . whatever.'
So began Geri Halliwell's quest for fame. It was an unfocused
quest and apsychologist might conclude that it stemmed from the
lack of attention she'dsuffered as a child. It began with a year
at college studying business and finance. She didn't go back for
the second year, but got a job at a videocompany. Quality
control. She soon realised it was time to move on.
'One lunch time I thought, 'Hold on a minute, what are my dreams?
This isn't what I dreamt of.' And I walked out and never went
back.' Club dancing came next. She was paid to dance at London's
Astoria and was offered a nine-month contract at the BCM club in
Magaluf.
Those
Pictures
'I mean, to be honest, where do you draw the line at what's
tasteful and
what's not?'
Geri's breasts had finally appeared at the age of 17. Almost
overnight, the ugly duckling was transformed, if not quite into a
swan, then at least into a bird with a pair of 32D whoppers.
Certainly her charms weren't lost on the Spanish photographer,
Sebastian Amengual, who snapped Geri's first nude photo session
shortly before she left Majorca.
'I had to catch my breath, she looked so fantastic,' he told the
Mirrorearlier this year. 'I've never seen a body like it. I was
fighting to control myself. I've photographed many girls, but
they were all so skinny. Geri had a fantastic figure with huge
breasts.' In fact, he had initially chosen Geri's dancing partner
Kelly Smith for the shoot, but he hadn't counted on Geri'shunger
for fame.
'Basically,' says Geri, 'I did it because I've always been 5ft 2,
and didn't think I could ever be photogenic.' She knew a girl who
knew a model agency in London, so the dream took another turn -
she was going to be a glamour model. If you want to see a record
of her work, take a surf around the Internet. I found one site
alone which had 76 different pictures of Geri in various states
of undress.
'I was doing nude stuff, although I didn't do any crotch shots -
that wasn't my thing. It was great money and I was getting some
attention. Then, after a while, the novelty wore off and I
thought, 'What the fuck am I doing?' Time for another change.
The
Quest Continues
'I remember getting down to the last four to present The Disney
Club. I'd always get so near, but yet so far.'
Next came a job as a gameshow hostess on Turkish TV.
'They wanted a girl who looked half decent, but who had some
personality, and it was great. They flew me out there every
weekend.' At the same time, Geri had also returned to college to
do an English Literature A level. She'd met a director who was
casting for a play set in a lunatic asylum. There was a part for
a woman as The Nurse. She got down to the last two, but just
missed out.
'He said to me: 'You almost got that, but what's the last book
you read?' So I went back to college. I read Sons And Lovers and
Hamlet and things like that, it was a really stimulating time.'
This last statement is interesting, because it shows that Geri's
quest was as much a quest for knowledge as it was for fame.
But back to the dream. Her next idea was music. 'I had this plan.
I thought, 'Right, I'm going to get a hit record out.' So, I had
this bet with a friend of mine and she said, 'If you haven't made
a mark in a year's time, you've got to do a streak at Wimbledon.'
' I wondered what she would have done if the Spice Girls hadn't
happened.
'I probably would have been a journalist,' she said.
Men
'Some of these stories make me laugh. One guy said I did a
four-hour romp with him, but I know he only kissed me on the
cheek, that was it. What does that say about the media?'
We can safely skip the kiss'n'tells from Geri's earlier life and
concentrate on her only significant relationship since she became
famous. At the end of last year, she started dating Giovanni
Laporta, the 27-year-old owner of a double-glazing company.
'Geri's absolutely crazy about him and he feels the same way
about her,' one of her 'closest pals' revealed. Six weeks later,
it was all over and Giovanni had returned to his old girlfriend.
'I only started dating her because it was a challenge,' he told
the Sun. 'She's a Spice Girl, after all.' In fact, Geri had ended
the relationship, by means of a dictated, typewritten letter.
'Does that sound cold?' she laughs. 'Actually, it is cold, but he
obviously deserved it.' Geri doesn't have a current boy-friend.
Perhaps the only man missing from her life is her father, who
died in 1993, aged 71. He always encouraged her in her dream, but
sadly he didn't live to see her achieve it.
'I'm gutted that he never got to see any of my success, as he's
the one that believed in me. I could have taken him out, spent
money on him, taken him on holiday. I still cry now when somebody
asks me about him.
'But it's like every lesson in life, it changed me. It makes you
aware of mortality. I suppose I've been running ever since. It's
like time's running out- I've got to do this, I've got to do that
. . .'
Fame
at last
'What does it mean anyway? I had an idealistic thought of what
fame is. I thought, yes, lovely, I'm going to be famous and
everything will change. But it doesn't.'
Going through the stack of press cuttings about Geri Halliwell
before I met her, I tried to read between the lines and work out
what sort of person she really is. There were plenty of positive
points. Kind, conciliatory, ambitious, independent, outgoing,
generous - I wrote these down and they were all confirmed. But I
also felt there was a sense of loneliness at the centre of her
life. So I asked her who she calls when she's feeling down.
'When I'm down I'm quite difficult, because I'm one of those
people that I try to hide it. Although I love communicating with
people, sometimes I find it very difficult to express how I
really feel. Sometimes I'll go and cry in the toilet, rather than
show it.
'I don't know if I'm always lonely,' she said. 'I wouldn't like
to sound like a sad and wilted lonely person.' She said that
loneliness and independence often go hand in hand, and she's led
a very independent life, practically from the day she was born.
The problem, of course, is that if your life has been based on
the single-minded pursuit of a vague notion of fame, what happens
when you achieve it? 'As you grow, your mind grows and you think,
okay, what's next, what do I want to achieve? I realised the
other day that maybe the point of my fame is bringing goodness.
Some of us visit sick children and put a smile on their face. Now
doesn't that give your life worth? It gives it some meaning and
there must be some meaning, otherwise you'd starve emotionally.'
So, in a sense, the quest still goes on. It's become a quest for
meaning. Maybe that's what it was all along.
The
end
'Don't get me wrong. I'll never forget that I had no money and
was on the dole for years. I'd really hate myself if I turned
into a stuck-up wanker.'
I wondered if she would turn into Cilla Black one day. 'Who
knows?' she said. 'She's done well for herself and she's got a
great pair of legs. I will always be a part of the Girl Power
movement, that's for sure.' It was time to go. I left Geri
looking at the Polaroids of the cover shoot she'd just done. She
looked pleased with what she saw.
This article is taken from the November issue of Arena, which
goes on sale on October 9
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: October 9, 1997
