I was never allowed to use phone much when I was younger. 
Maybe that's why I'm such a phone-aholic now. When I was living at home I'd rush to pick it up as soon as I heard it ring. That was partly because if my dad answered it he'd say sternly,' WHO IS THIS?'  when he heard a male voice at the end of the line. I had to grab the receiver away from him as quick as I could before he said something else to embarrass me.
In the weeks that followed our trip to surrey I spoke to Melanie , Geri , Victoria and Michelle quite a few times. The idea of being together in a girl group was so exciting for us all that we didn't bother with the kind of preliminaries that characterise most new friendships. We just jumped straight in , feet first . Melanie phoned the most. One of the first time she rang she said,'It's a bit confusing that we've got the same name , isn't it?'
I agreed. it was going t odo everyone's head in. She'd have to be Melanie C and I'd be Melanie B.
Then Chris called to say that he and Bob had found us a house in Maidenhead from JULY ONWARDS. The idea was that we'd live together, be self-sufficient and spend our days rehearsing at Trinity Studios again. We'd have to be self-disciplined, he said , because there were no set times for doing anything. It was up to us when we got up in the morning and went to the studio, how long we rehearsed and how much work we out in . There would be nobody wagging the finger. This was a test to see if we really were motivated.
I didn't have to think twice. I was definitely up for it. We all were. I took a few changes pf clothes , enough to tide me over for a few weeks , and got on the bus wearing the red bomber jacket that Claire Cattini had given me in Blackpool over a denim jacket and tight high-waisted jeans , with multicoloured imitation Kicker boots. I met up with Melanie at Waterloo Station and we took the train to Maidenhead together.
The house we were going to be living for the next nine months (although we had no idea it would be that long at the time)was one of Chic's houses, a small grey semi on a typical sixtiesestate. I was really impressed to see it had a downstairs loo. I'd always wanted one at home .
Upstairs there were 2 bedtooms , a bathroom and a tiny box room that was more of a cupboard than anything.
I shared a double bed with Mel C and slept on the right nearest the door.Melanie snored very loudly because she had something wrong with her sinuses. Our room was really cool. It had light pink chipwood walls and red bedding. I put a red lightbulb in the main soket, which made the room look like a brothel from the outside.
Eveyone gathered in our room because our bed was the biggest and we could all fit on it and chat. Michelle and Vicky shared a room with twin beds and Geri was out in the little cubbt hole because no one could stand to sleep in the same room as her. Her mind was too hyperactive and eccentric. She was so specific about everything. She seemed like a bit of loon.
In the early days , Victoria hardly spoke, Mel C was too timid to say much and Michelle was fairly quit. Geri was definitely the most confident and had more of a mature outlook on things. She was on it , a workaholoc , and her mind would race nineteen to dozen. She was a go-getter and she wasn't going to let this fail. She had too much counting on it. If it went wrong for the rest of us , we'd just go off and do more auditions , get a cruise , go into acting or do a West End show. Michelle even had a place at university if she wanted it. We four had a backup, but for Geri this was her one chance. She'd already spent quit a while trying to break into show business, without much success and she wasn't trained dancer or singer. If she didn't succeed at this , she'd be fucked. You really got that feeling from her.
Victoria was very organised , ladylike and quit fussy. I could never understand why she wore one particular outfit so much. A white shirt with big collars and cuffs and a blacktank top over it , with a little black skirt and boots. She ate nothing but breadstucks and dips . I can picture her now , sitting in a chair on the right side of the front toom, with a bowl of dips in front of her , all ngiht . She'd watch TV sucking her thimn while clutching a furry rabbit toy. Strange.
I'd never known a Victoria before and I find the name Victoria a bit pretentious, to be honest , so I called her Vicky from the start , even though she didn't like it. I couldn't see what the problem was. Melanie was the same about 'Mel'. She preferred to be called Melanie. As far as I'm concerned , people can call me what they like, as long as it's not the c-word.
I found Vicky fascinating . It was amazing to see her planning in advance exactly what she was going to wear, from her eye make-up down to ger toenails. She corrected her hair every five minuted. There was something very sexual about her , although she probably didn't realise it herself. It wasn't just that her legs were so long and cellulte-free. It was the way she sat , the way she talked, everything. Her clothes were just fantastic ,mainly because she looked after them. I was the opposie. I might save up for ages to buy one little top from the designer shop in Leeds , but it would be ruined within a month because I couldn't be arsed to look after it properly.
To me Vicky was inspirational. I don't care what anybody syays, she has got a touch of'Royalty' about her. It's hard to imagine her in her pyjamas, farting and burning . She's incredibly elegant. 'I can't wear flat shoes because they hurt my feet' she told me soon after we first met. I couldn't understand it.
If Bob and Chris hadn't brought us together I don't think I would ever have made friends with someone like Victoria. She's the type that I would see in a club or a bar and literally turn my back on, not because i didn't like the look of ger but because I could tell that we had nothing in common.
As it turned out we did have something in common- our sense of humour. We were always the ones that laughed at the stupidest, most ridiculous jokes about pooing yourself or someone leaving a stench in the toilet. As I later found out , humour is as important to the Adams family as it is to mine. Her mother Jackue and father Tony are hillarious. Vicky was a little bit more cautiuos than I was, thougH. She was never really rowdy.
Melanie semmed quit and shy and easygoing at first and it was only later that she came out of her self. We bonded instantly-partly because were both Northerners living with a bunch of Southerners who just didn't get it a lot of the time , but mainly because we were really compatible as friends and flatmates.
We were very different too. I still had a major thing about toiletries and I filled the whole shelf on my side of the bedroom with bottles and beauty products. I was so obsessed that I'd write lists of all the products I had: Exfoliator gloves , hair mousse , shampoo, conditioner etc. Mel's shelf on her side of the room had about three things on it. One day were were having a half-jokey argument and she said,'Watch this!' Suddenly she whacked her arm along the whole legth of my shelf , sending the bottles and tubes flying. It just killed me , although I didn't show it.
Michelle was sweet , veru upper class and very well turned out . I got on with her but I used to shout at her a lot because everytime we took even a minute's break in the studio she'd be outside worshipping the sun.'Michelle! Get back in here now, you crazy cow!'
She didn't see, that bothered. She wasn't a worker like the rest of us. While we were dancing our arses off in the studio , all she could think about was topping up her bleedin' tan. Or that's how it seemed at the time. I don't think Michelle had ever struggled for anything in her life,
I did quite a bit of snooping arounf the bedrooms. One day I was looking under a bed when I saw a massive pair of Knickers with skid marks all over them. Eurgh! I found a pencil and used it to pick them up, then called the others. Three of them came in to me swinging this pair of knickers around shouting.'Woohooh!' They all screammed at once.
'oh my God! Skiddy knickers!' It was ridiculous really. We were like eight-years-olds.
Whose were they ? Most of us wore G-strings , apart from Geri, but Geri's room was two doors down. They couldn't have been hers. I had a good idea who they belonged to , but it's not the kind of ting you can bring up very easily.' Um, about those skiddy knickers under your bed...'
We tented yo work hard during the week and flop the weekend. The house was a Do Not Disturb zone on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
Michelle had a saturday job at Harrods and her mum used to pick her up and drive her there. Normally she was up and ready to go , but one morning , after a late ngiht , she was still asleep when her mum arrived and start pressing the front door bell frantically.
'Are you there Michelle?' she shouted through the letterbox. No answer.
She knocked and buzzed and shouted again.
A few minuted later this pieringly shrill mega-decibel screeching voice answered , 'I'm coming! I'm coming Mummy!' It woke the whole house up. To this day we can make each other cry with laughter by mimicking that call.
She wasn't a great dancer. Not as bad as Geri but... I have Geri a really hard time about her dancing. I often reminded her quite nastily that she wasn'y trained like the rest of us. 'Durr! Haven't you got it yet ?' It was unfair of me . After all , she hadn't spent the previous ten years going to five dance classes a week like I had. But I was impatient (like my mum!) and she was always standing at the back saying 'What?'
We'd spend ages learning a routine and then have to go over it a million times waiting for Geri to pick it up. After a while we'd agree to move onto the next routine and she'd practice in her room for hours when we got home. I did feel a bit sorry for her but I didn't show any sympathy at the time .It didn't matter anyway because Geri was a good speaker , extremely articilate .Everyone had key roles in the group and hers was more verbal than anything . She was also good at coming up with ideas for strategies and outfits . There was no question of her importance to the group.
Iin our eyes , though, Michelle just didn't seem to be making the effort. 
By this point the group had really taken shape. We were very independent and began behaving as though we were running a company. Business-minded and self-sufficient to the extreme , we never let up with each other. One night the rest of us had a talk and decided that Michelle wasn't right for the group. When we discussed it with Bob and Chris , they agreed.She had to go. Maybe if she'd looked into a crystal ball and seen how successful we were going to be she'd have put more into it.
Who knows?
It was Pepi who suggested Emma Bunton as Michelle's replacement. Emma was blonde , pretty and good singer according to Pepi. She'd spent six years at Sylvia Young's stage school and done Grange Hill and Eastenders. She sounded perfect, but would we like her ?
We went to pick her up at maidenhead station in Geri's battered old green fiat uno. As the train pulled up , we began to get exited . 'What's she going to look like ? What's she going to be like ?' Geri instantly moved into mature , motherly mode. 'Everyone stay calm , Okay ? We'll see her in a minute.' Geri could be really annoying at times.
The train pulled away and we watched a pretty young girl walk across the station forecourt, her mother by her side. She was wearing a short white dress , a fluffy white top and a beige reversed hat. Her hair was in pigtail plaits and she had a really cute face with wide open big blue eyes , a button nose and pink lips. She and her mum looked very alike. We said hi and she said hi. We were all conscious of being extra polite , what with being our first meeting.
What a really nice girl ! I thought to myself. Not my kind of girl , but nice and sweet. We got in the car. Geri and me always sat in the front and I could see that Geri's staring eyes were fixed on the wing mirror, cheking out the new girl. She couldn't stop watching Emma's every move and hardly looked at the road as she drove us back,which was typical of Geri anyway.
Geri had minor crashes quit regularly. She hit the kerb on the way to Trinity Studios once. The car skidded off the road and swerved into a muddy ditch. 'Oh My God!' the rest of us shouted. But Geri just revved up , drove back onto the road and we went our way again. It was like wacky Races.
Back at the house we showed Emma where her room was and explained taht she'd be sharing with Vicky. Then we showed her round the rest of the hosue and went off to bed. As I was taking off my clothes I thought, Why am I going so early ? I'm really hungry. So off I went downstairs again .Emma must have heard me because she followed me down.
'What are you doing ?' she whispered.
'I'm just cooking some scrambled eggs'
She let out a huge sigh of relief and laughed. 'Thank god somebody else eats round here!' (Vicky picked at breadsticks and dips; Melanie's meals were usually made up of mushed vegetables; and I hardly ever saw Geri eat.)
We sat down , ate scrambled eggs together and had a really good chat.
She told me all about her Greek boyfriend, who didn't sound ideal.
'Why are you with him ?' I asked.
'I really like him' she said.
'He has to go,' I said later. Not long afterwards she realised he wasn't right and dumped him.
That night Emma and I realised that we were night hirds of feather.
This was the first of many late night talks and they continue today.
I didn't really like Mark, Vicky's boyfriend. Although he seemed like a nice guy, good-looking with long legs and jet-black hair , I just didn't connect with him. Mark was an alarm fitter and Vicky had met him when he came to do some work in her parents' house. I used to tease her and say 'Yeah you shagged him on your mum's bed when he came to fit your alar,.'
She'd be outraged.'No I did not , Melanie!'
Teasing was a way of like for us and we wound each other up all day and night. We'd be shouting things into each other's room ling after we'd gone to bed. It was constant- a bit like being with my aunties , in fact.
Humour, work and even things like watching TV and cooking together brought us closer by the day.
As the weeks passed we told each other everything and became compeletely involved in each other's lives. It must have been terrible for our boyfriends. None of us made a move without asking the others and we really did have a big impact on the outcome. It's no surprise we became so close. We were living in each other's pockets. We even linked arms as we walked to the corner shop together.
'He said this and that to me. What shall I do ?'
'Say this , do that and go for it . Now!'
We'd all be waiting ti find out the latest on someone's relationship or friendship. It was like being in a school gang. We should have walked around with a sign saying, ' Watch out , Girl Power's about!' as a warning to the chaos we were about tot create. We didn't invent Girl Power but we definitely lived it.
Although we developed a good understanding of one another once we settle into the house , after a couple of months I began to miss my friends in Leeds. I wasn't homesick when we were working and everything was lively and spontaneous, but there we only a certain amount of times I could sit down and watch TV before I started thinking I could be doing this at home.
Mmaidenhead was totally dead and there were hardly any black people living there. No one popped in to see me , like Charlotte and Sherrel did in Leeds. I didn't have my mum to talk to , I wasn't in familiar surroundings and I felt like I was missing out on the Leeds scene. I used to phone Charlotte and my mum in tears. 'Come on, just stuck it our a little bit longer' They'd say. In my heart I knew that I would be able to stick it out. I just phoned them to have a good old cry and feel sorry for myself.
It didn't help that we were without a contract . My mum and dad went on and on at me to hassle Bob and Chris, but they just wouldn't budge. The moment we asked they'd give us a slightly patronising look and say, 'Let's see how it goes,' or 'You're not ready yet.' To be honest , this just made us wonder what they were up to. We were working really hard but began to feel unappreciated and insecure about our future with Heart Management. Strangely though , instead of making us feel sorry for ourselves, Bos and Chris's lack of enthusiasm just strengthened our self-belief. We reassured each other a lot and constantly reaffirmed that we were 'in this for us' and nobody else was going to take control.
At first I went back to Leeds every weekend. Then I gradually brought my belongings back on the bus with me and the house in Maidenhead began to feel  more like home. Sometimes Chic invited is over his house , which had a lovely pool with his daughter's initials painted onto the tiles at the bottom. Our mouths dropped open the first time we went there. I was so posh. Vicky was the only one who wasn't totally amazed.
I guess she was quite used to that sort of thing, because she came from a really nice background and a beautiful home, I , on the other hand , was runnung round like a headless chicken.
I took Chic's kids to one side and said , 'Show me around the house, everywhere!' They took me upstairs to one of the bathrooms , which was done out in peach , all mirrors and marble . There was a low basin with taps beside the toilet. I stepped into it , turned the taps on and watch water gush over my feet. Chic's kids looked at me as if to say, ' Are you crazy or someting ?' Well I'd never seen a bidet before.
I couldn't quite work out what Chic was about. I was also fascinated by Chic's wife's life. Did she work ? What did she do ? She alwyas looked amazing and well groomed and their house had a lovely vibe. We'd go there and play with the two kids while Chic was having meetings with his strange cockney rhyming friends.
One afternoon we were all in the pool and Chic started telling Melanie and Vicky that they should lose weight. 'You could fucking lose a few fucking pounds , couldn't ya? What's wrong wiv ya ?' He spoke like a read East end cat.' You'd better fucking start watching what you're fucking eatin'.' You just didn't know whether sit there and take it or say 'Fuck off ' back to him. More often than not we'd just sit there in shock. Nobody had ever spoken to us like that before, especially not a man.
He was always saying things like ' I'll tell you what you need to do, You need to do a bit of this.'Then he'd go into some old Temptations dance routine, clocking his fingers in a showy display of 'rhythm'. We'd look at him blankly.' What ?' He just wasn't speaking our language.
We also went round to Bob's quit a lot . We'd get drunk at his big sunday barbecues and spend evenings in front of his widescreen TV watching films. He had a great tacky benidorm-style bar where we poured ourselves cocktails and pretented to be posh ladies. We were like kids in a sweet shop at Bob's house and he really made us feel welcome.
One week Melanie had tonsillitis and went to stay at Bob's house. Bob's wide was a lady of leisure and went on these courses where she learnt all about colour co-ordination, based around the colour of your eyes. 'Your irises are brown with a hind of yellow, Melanie , Well, that means yellow is your colour of this season.' She'd go for hours on end about it.
Bon and Chris's favourie subject was Bros. They were perpetually showing us scrapbooks with Bros cutting in them.As they told it , they'd made Bros and Bros had let them down and run off. That seemed like a good moment to ask for a contract.'All in good time, all in good time.' Bob would say with that look in his eyes again. Oh , right. Thta means you don't think we're good enough yet, we'd think.
Geri and I started spending most of our weekends at the house together. Vicky and Emma went home and melanie went to mad parties in Sidcup. A lot of Mel's friends were in Sidcup, including her best friend , because tat's were she went to dance college. They 're a full on , crazy , lovely bunch of people . I went down there a few times because I fancied one of her mates.
Vicky used to as many clothes home  with her as possible but she couldb't take everything. So Geri and me raided her wardrobe. We spent ages putting everything back neatly , hopomg that she wouldnn't realise( But when I read Vicky's book I found out that she did realise. Damn!)
Sometimes Geri and I went to bed on Saturday afternoon , woke up around 2 a.m., got dressed up and went to all-nighter at Ministry of sound. We used to drive down to motorway with our boobs out for a laugh. It was husterical until we noticed a weird looking guy driving alongside us with a manic grin on his face.
'oh My God!, Geri, he looks like he's wanking!'
Suddenly we were scared . It was really frightenning. For all we knew he was a compeletly nutter with an axe/ Geri swerved into another lane and eventually we lost him . We were really shaken.
Did it stop us flashing our boobs? NO!
Geri became my best , best friend. I'd found my friend for life , or so I thought . Instinctively I knew her down to a T and she knew me just as well and we had a very similar sense of humour
. We even started going out in matching outfits. One Saturday we went to Marks and spencer in our pyjamas.. Why ? For a laugh, of course. As we were wandering around the racks of bras and pants Geri suddenly came to a standstill. She looked down at herself, raised her eyebrows to their highest point and exclaimed dramatically' Oh My GodI'm still in my pyjamas!' As though she'd only just realise it.
'Oh my God, so you are!' My expressioon was pure shock. Then I looked down at myself and screeched.' So am I!'
And on it went we acted out mad scene and everyone turned to look at these strange girl in their bedclothes. It made us giggle for days afterwards.
We were like boyfriend and girlfriend in that we could have horrific arguments always knowing that we'd make it up afterwards , even though everyine around us at the time would be saying,'Christ , they are never going to speak to each other again!'
We had infuriating rows, got irritated over the slightest things and swore like fishwives at each other. Our arguments went off with a band from the moment they started. They were really dramatic and at times you'd have thought that she's cheated with my boyfriend or something.I remember being in her little Fiat Uno shouting 'ou fucking little shirt. Why don't you fucking shut up!' The other three sat silently in the back. Then five minutes later everything was fine again. It never took long for one of us to laugh or say, 'All right , I'm SORRY!' and that would be that.
If I had something I wanted to say to Geri I wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything else Until I'd got it out. It would eat me up/ Sometimes it was personal , like I wouldn't like the way she was behaving towards me, the way she looked at me in a meeting , or spoke over me when I was saying something. At other times it would be anout the strtegy of the group . Our disagreements didn't stop us being inseprable though. I got on really well with the others but Geri was the one. We were so close that when her eating disorder  spiralled out of control, I was the one she confided in. Until then she'd been very secretive about it , but after she opened up she was able to say things like 'I'm having a bad week. Do you mind if I don't come food shopping with you ?' I knew nothing about eating disorder really , never having had that problem myself. No one close to me had suffered from anorexia or bulimia before so I wasn't aware of the warning signs. Geri never explained what she was going through in fepth and I didn't dig. It seemed like she was keeping it under control so I didn't worry about het too much. I didn't know her when she was overly thin , as she had been a couple of years before she joined the group , and I never saw her as fat later on, because to me the bigger she got the better she looked.
Decding that she needed a professional help, Geri found out about a hospital that specialised in eating disorders and booked herself in for a week. I DROPPED HER OFF. She old the other girls that she had to go home to sort out a family crisis. No one thought to question it and obviously I said nothing , I desperately hoped that Geri would find the kind of help that she was looking for, because it was awful to see her unhappy . She did seem better when she came back , but unfortunately eating disorders are very difficult to get rid of permanently . She managed the cope , though . I really admired her to the way she kept fighting back.
There was one (that's right one!) disco in Maidenhead . Called The Avenue , it was as suburban as its name. Emma and I used to go there on a Wednesday night when they played jungle music and charged 1 (pound) a pint. One night I went with Geri I was wearing a bright orange hot pants suit and she was in a bright blue hot pants suit , with long socks and trainers to match ,'Yes! it's the two lippy girls,' smirked the bounver as he walked up, He was referring to our Camden Market hot pants, which were so tight that we both had VWs. 'Oh he's disgusting!' we exlaimed , dismissing him with a flick of the wrist as we walked in. Once inside, Geri went behind the Dj's decks and annouced, 'Hey everybody, Touch is in the house!' She really made me laugh. The only other night spot we visited was the little pub at the bottom of our road. When we weren't totally broke we'd wander down there for a pint and a game of snooker.
The five of us got on well because we didn't pretend to be anything we weren't. We were totally open with each other. For instance none of us shut the bathroom door, even when we were on the toplet. We got a reputation for going to the loos together in clubs. Whether we were having a wee or a poo we'd leave the cublic doors open so that we could look at each other in the mirror and chat. One by one we admitted.
'I'd never do this back home. The door would be well locked.' It was something we had a good giggle about . Our other friendships were different. None of us had ever been to the toilet in front of our mates before.
I think ther others used to dread it when I had a bath because I'd always put on the same Mary J Blige song full blast and sing along it. I played it so loud that everyone in the house , wherever they were , would be singing along too. There was a really high note that I could never reach, however hard I tried , and I know that they were all thinking . Oh God, here comes the high bit. Is she going to get it ? I'd take a deep breath, let out a massive screech, then get out of the bath.
In the mornings, the others went to the gym while me and Emma stayed in bed until it was time ti et up for Home and Away at 12:30 p.m. Then we'd jump in Geri's car and zoom off to the studio to practice songs and work on our dance routines. Sometimes Bob and Chris would come down to wat, dismissing him with a flick of the wrist as we walked in. Once inside, Geri went behind the Dj's decks and annouced, 'Hey everybody, Touch is in the house!' She really made me laugh. The only other night spot we visited was the little pub at the bottom of our road. When we weren't totally broke we'd wander down there for a pint and a game of snooker.
The five of us got on well because we didn't pretend to be anything we weren't. We were totally open with each other. For instance none of us shut the bathroom door, even when we were on the toplet. We got a reputation for going to the loos together in clubs. Whether we were having a wee or a poo we'd leave the cublic doors open so that we could look at each other in the mirror and chat. One by one we admitted.
'I'd never do this back home. The door would be well locked.' It was something we had a good giggle about . Our other friendships were different. None of us had ever been to the toilet in front of our mates before.
I think ther others used to dread it when I had a bath because I'd always put on the same Mary J Blige song full blast and sing along it. I played it so loud that everyone in the house , wherever they were , would be singing along too. There was a really high note that I could never reach, however hard I tried , and I know that they were all thinking . Oh God, here comes the high bit. Is she going to get it ? I'd take a deep breath, let out a massive screech, then get out of the bath.
In the mornings, the others went to the gym while me and Emma stayed in bed until it was time ti et up for Home and Away at 12:30 p.m. Then we'd jump in Geri's car and zoom off to the studio to practice songs and work on our dance routines. Sometimes Bob and Chris would come down to watch us , but mostly they left us to it.
On the way to the studio we stocked up on the bread and doughnuts at Cullens. We were high on bread and ate toast non-stop. In the evenings I often cooked corned beef and rice for everyone, then Geri would help me write letters to Julian in prison ( Yes, 'the man upstairs' became the man inside' for a couple of years!) Meanwhile Melanie sat in the front room and watched Take That in concert over and over again, so much so that we all ended up watching and copying their routines. We were fascinated by their freestyling particularly Jason's.
There was one particular routine they did with mictophone stands. We perfected it , especiallt the bit when Mark wiggled around, gyrating with the mic between his legs . I liked the drum solo, when a boy with very pale skin, coiffed hair and a drum around his neck led a march across the stage. Little did I know at the time that it was Max Beesley , onje of my future boyfriends. On the video he looks like a little gay boy with his white vest and baggy jeans. I later found out that Jason Orange is Max's best friends.
In moments of madness me and Melanie played this intense game where we'd come head to head, with our faces pratically touching, and sing Neneh Cherry songs at each other, including the raps. So you say uou wanted monet but you know it's never funny when your shoe's worn through and there's a rumble in your tummy, but you had to have style,get a gold tooth smile , out a girl on a corner so you can make a pile. Committed a crime and went inside. It was coming your way but you had to survive.When you lost your babe , you lost the race .Now you're looking at me to take her place.
We'd go and on, getting faster and faster and more intense until one of us tripped up or got a line wrong.'Ha! I won!' At that point the veins would be pratically popping out of your neck because you were concentrating so hard on getting it right. It was great, totally mesmerising, like a musical duel.
Melanbie is the kind of person who will not defeated. I remember asking her to open a bottle of beer for me when I couldn't find the bottle opener. After a couple of tries I told her not to bother and started searching for the opener again.'No!' she said,'Just give me a minute.I will open it!' She won't allow herself to fail at anything. She also does the best imitation of Kate Bush singing'Wuthering Heights' that I've ever seen. If she performed it on Stars In Their Eyes she would win hands down.
We had a lot of time on our hands and sometimes we sat in and got a bit drunk together(Or, I should say, I would get drunk myself.) We opened our hearts up about things like ex-boyfriends, dance auditions and how our mum does your head in. I used to get battered but Melanie didn't really drink much until she got into lager( and I really encouraged her!) Geri never got drunk but was always there with her own brand of analysis. 'It's really good that you told that story. Now we can all undertand you from a different point of view. What do the other think about that ?' She was like a therapist mediator.
We did our weekly shop tpgether- tuna and pasta and corned beed and rixe, not forgetting Vicky's breadsticks and dips of course. In some ways we lived a very carefree life. We didn't bother with a TV license and were always doding the housing benefit inspector. We were extremely serious about taking cintrol of our careers, though. Our goals and dreams meant everything to us.
We had a rota stuck up on the fridge alongside a cut-out of some hunky guy's face. Everyong had a different job around the house, although of course it never quit worked out that way. Laundry was the job I dreaded being lumbered with. I knew how to cook and clean and do general domestic things, but mum had always done my laundry for me. I had no idea how to work a washing machine. Luckily Melanie told me that everything had to be colour segregated. 'Can't I just put everything in together?' Vicky would have killed me!
Our kitchen had a wet patch on the carpet. You could tell well someone had forgotten about the patch because they;d be walking rund with one sock on and one sock off. 'Ha ha, you've stepped in the wet patch!' There came a point when you knew the house so well that you could walk arounf the kitchen half asleep and avoid it. But if you weren't thinking you'd step in it. It was so annoying.
As the time went by we became quit friendly with our neighbours. One of them entertained us with his wicked record collection when we went over to watch him playing hos decks. Another was a city boy with long hair and I quite fancied him , but never did anything about it. I was going out witha guy from Manchester at the time-'Micky Manchester Man' as Vicky called him(let's call him Triple M for short). I'd met him a few months before I went to Maidenhead. After an audition Charlotte and I had pulled into a garage in Manchester- and by chance there were loads of horgeous guys there. One of them was tall and mixed race. He was a bit rough-looking but his eyes were beautiful. I got talking to him, we went out, had a drink, played snooker and I ended uo staying with him about three weeks, at his mum's house in Moss Side. I heard a lot of gunshots in those three weeks.
I didn't know what Triple M did but it wasn't an issue. As long as he was nice to me it didn't matter. Once when he came to visit me in Maidenhead we got locked out of the house. Geri and I were always losing our keys and knocking up the nice old couple next door to borrow their ladder. This time, before we could think, Triple M whipped out his credit card, slipped it between the lock and the frame and the front door swung open . We were amazed. How did he do that ? Another time he proudly showed me an array of what looked like rough crystals , laid out on a board. They glinted in the sun.' Og what lovelt diamonds,' I said admiringly.' Are  they yours?' He laughed. I was so naive.
After a few months I began to lose interest in Triple M. One Saturday night Geri let him in ,even though I'd told her not to.'We've got to  think of an excuse why he can't stay,' I whispered in her ear. So she went to her room, wriggled into flamboyant dress and came down looking really smart with her hair up.
'Me and Melanie are going to the opera,' She annouced. What? Couldn't she have thought of a netter excuse? She went into a long explanation about how much we loved theatre and opera. 'Culture, it's so inspiring, so good  for the soul!' It was some typically mad story and I didn't know what to do apart from go along with it.
Triple M left looking pissed off. If we were going to get away with it, we realised , we would have to follow through with the story pretend to go out. He was still parked outside when we left the house. Obviously he sispected that we were lying and was trying to catch us out.
'Oh God , what are we going to do ?'
'Let's drive around the block and see if he's gone.'
'Oh no, he's still there!'
'Quick, grab those skirts off the back seat. One each , put  it over your head . Then he won't recognise us.'
As if. We drove round and round like idiots, with skirts over our heads, giggling manically. I didn't see Triple M again. He sold a story when the spice girls became known but I didn't read it. All my stories were about sex and how great I apparently was. I suppose it was good for my man-eating profile, but boring for me to read. Mel shags five times a night! Big deal.
As the weeks in Maidenhead turned into months, the group got bettwe and better. Our routines were slick and we were excellent at harmonising, although the material wasn't great. We now had three new songs written by other people, to go with 'Take me away' . They were fairlt similar, bland and boring. We put as much pzazz into then as we could, but the lyrics were a nothingness, so Geri and Melanie began to rewrite them. We wanted to sing line that we could relate to, about real situations, instead of cheesy meaningless rubbish about falling in love.
One night we were lolling about in front room, feeling a bit restless and bored.
'Let's write a song.' suggested Geri.
'Yeah1 what shall we write about ?'
'Mmmmmm....'
'Iknow,' she said,' Let's write about how we're feeling right now.'
It was called' Just One Of Those Days', a song about feeling restless and bored and wondering what to do next. It wasn't a masterpiece abd didn't really have much a tune, but it was a start. Melanie and Rmma were brilliant at harmonies, which always made everything sound fantastic. Right there and then was the moment that we got the buzz for writing our own material. We didn't want to be robots any more , we wanted to do our own thing.
But we still weren't getting anywhere with Bob and Chris. We went on hassling then about a contract but it was like talking to a brick wall. It was so frustrating. The idea of being in a  girl group had  seemed so great when I first went to Maidenhead, but we still weren't earning money. They weren't paying us and there was no sign of a contract. My mum started saying' Well we still haven't heard of you. Why dont you just leave and get a jog?' She wasn't bothered what I did. It didnt matter if I was in a pop group or an office, she just wanted me to be independent with a jpg and a wage.
Bob and Chris obviously didn't have much faith in us, but we persuaded them to let is do a mini showcase at Trinity Studios. Chris invited a few people and we did thew or four numbers, including' Take me away' and 'We're going to make it happen.' We wore baby doll dresses and long socks. Mine were pop socks with stripes on then and I had my hair in bodules at the front and back. Geri wore a red baby doll dress with aa polo neck underneath. Emma was in pink with her hair in bunches, Melanie had a blue theme and Vicky wore black with her hair down. We looked good , even though baby dolls weren't really our style, except for emma. Afterwards we got our first feedback.
'They thought you were great, but you need more work,' said Chris.
Fine, we thought. We work our arses off anyway and we enjoy it. So we went on driving to the studios armed with bags fukk of Cullens bread. We practised and practise. We sang scales with Pepi until we were blue in the face- and we changed our name from Touch to Spice.
If we couldn't have a contract, then we wanted another showcase. Maybe Bob and Chris didn't believe in us , but someone out there would. We were determined to be heard and give the industry a taste if what we were about.
The big day was planed for November, back at Nomis Studios in Shepherds Bush. Shelley, Chris's girlfriend, styled us. Round and pretty, with clear skin, bright eyes and really slick black shiny hair, she was a buyer for Sock Shop, which we all thought was amazing. We'd been impressed by her from the begining and really took on board she had to say.
Shelley brought round a big black bin liner and tripped it upside down on a lounge floor. Out trumbled a pile of second-hand Adidas tops in different colours that she'd bought at Xamden Market. We all chose one and that was that. Jeans and tops , plain and simple. We dresses alike, except for my Kangol hair , because I had a thing about my Kangol hat and wore it all the time. Of course Geri  wore a beret, because she loved her beret, and Melanie wore tracksuit bottoms instead of jeans. With a red and white pirate scarf on her head. We couldn't help adding those personal touches. Our different personalities were brusting to come out. But Bob and Chris wanted is in uniform, so we did our best. Sort of.
The showcase at Nomis Studios confirmed what we already knew. We had something. We did our set several times during the day and a constant stream of people from the music industry, from producers to A&R, and they all seemed to like us. It was a bit shocking how much they liked us in fact. It out us on a huge high.
It got us thinking. Why should it take a whole bunch of people to tell us we're good ? We know we're good. If Chris and Bob aren't aware of that now , they can piss off. As it happened Bob and Chris were seriously impressed by the industry response to us. Within days we had our own contracts, long boring documents with lauses and sub-clauses. The ball was in a court now. They wanted to sign us. But did we want them after all ? It was out turn to hesitate. Finally we had a bot of real power.