Now-October 1999
Sporty Spice Sprints For Solo Gold
LONDON, ENGLAND -- It's pissing rain in London, but Melanie C, aka Sporty Spice, is sunshiny at the prospects of her pumped-up punk-popster solo shot -- a carefully orchestrated working vacation from her day job as a Spice Girl.
The strategically designed album, Northern Star, is equipped with expertly lacquered pop songs divided equally between twinkly, knock-kneed ballads and scenery-chewing electro-corkers, both garlanded with devastatingly cliched lyrics -- falling stars, shoulders to cry on, flowers leaning toward the sun, the works.
On the plus side, she is the Spice with the pipes.
But will the same legions of young maidens -- who, along with their supportive moms, packed halls all over the world last year for the first Spice Girls tour -- buy the transformation of our fair Sporty into Melanie C?
Pray tell, what are they to make of lyrics talking about taking "forbidden steps" toward things "I might regret"? Can a heroine rant and pogo and paint the ether blue and still walk proudly among her subjects?
"People can put me down or think badly of me for saying 'fuck' in interviews," she counters. "But the truth of the matter is, I was brought up saying 'fuck' and a lot of people say 'fuck.' This is me. Take it or leave it.
"I don't want to hurt anybody or be offensive. But I don't want to not be me. Everybody in life is a chameleon. I swear in real life -- probably too much -- though I don't swear in front of my gran. We adapt to every situation.
"It's really hard to accept the knowledge that I am a role model," she adds during an exclusive one-on-one with NOW. "It was something we had to think about, and we don't take it lightly. Young people do listen to us and are influenced by us.
"But then again, I don't want to compromise who I am, because that's a girl-power message."
Seeing as the Spice Girls' coven of advisers are spectacularly adept at manipulating mass perception, it's certain they'll figure out some way to pour Melanie Chisholm back into her Adidas in time for the next Spice platter, due in 2000. Nothing in Spice World is left to chance.
That much is clear in the hotel bar where, prior to the interview, a subtle screening process is administered by the local Virgin rep.
This weary, rumpled and cellphone-enslaved fellow is cheerlessly doing a job usually tackled by colleagues currently away on holiday.
It's -- sigh -- international press day, and while no one's naming names, somebody in this court of assembled Spaniards, Italians and French isn't quite up to snuff, interview-wise. This, we are informed, is very bad, albeit par for the course, when the subject is a Spice cadet.
The Spice Girls are many things -- chick-centric, cheeky, watchable, fun. But they are not blueprint-shredding pop innovators or saviours of the Brazilian rain forest. So relax already, dude, and turn that frown upside down.
"Obviously, the success of this album is very much in question," says Chisholm, who debuts the new stuff Monday (October 4) at the Guvernment. "Who knows where it's going to go, and my being a Spice Girl is no guarantee of anything, although I hope it'll benefit the sales."
So declareth Melanie C, who persuaded an elite corps, including but by no means limited to producer Rick Rubin (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beastie Boys), Marius De Vries (Neil Finn, Madonna) -- who co-wrote and helped remix -- twiddler to the stars William Orbit (Madonna, Blur) and singer Lisa "Left Eye" Lopez of TLC, to abet her as she followed her dream.
That's more than old Ginger can boast, and as close to a sure thing as one can get.
Certainly, Chisholm seems relaxed about the release as she pads around a posh suite at the Langham Hilton while a staff of assistants bustle in adjoining rooms.
True to that queerest of pop-star phenoms, up close Chisholm is not only not larger than life, she's shorter than most.
Still, she admits with a gold-toothed giggle that even she dwarfed Bryan Adams, with whom she's done duets, and who co-penned two songs ultimately left off Northern Star (out October 26) and who could convincingly masquerade as a pencil.
Fitted in blue jeans and a tight black tank that enhances her, um, Spice rack, Chisholm is fresh-faced, forthright and chatty.
"I know I'm not a great singer," she allows when asked about the preponderance of album collaborators who made their mark with mega-voiced divas. "But I love to sing and I like to use my voice in different ways. I wouldn't say I worked with these people because I was looking for a particular vocal sound.
"I worked with them because I loved what they had done before -- and because they really wanted to work with me, which helps. Nobody turned me down. Not everybody was available scheduling-wise, but there's always the second album.
"I don't want to be daft and say I had some spiritual awakening or something," she goes on. "But I really did come of age in Los Angeles, where we recorded the album. I had my own little house and my own little circle and I really got to feel how the city ticks."
Unlike the actor who secretly yearns to direct, Chisholm doesn't talk much about seeking artistic control with her solo disc. Every song on the album had major assists and can be stylistically traced to her hero, Madonna.
Similarly, Chisholm admits freely that she worked with session hotshots in the studio and welcomed guest appearances by ex-Sex Pistol Steve Jones and members of Beck's band.
But even as the studio doors continually swung open and closed, no one lost sight of the bottom line. Chisholm is dumbstruck when asked if she ever considered releasing the disc under an alias, just to see how an orphan would fare apart from its powerful clan.
"Never even occurred to me," she admits.
Instead, she insists her love of performance is at the root of the matter, at one point gushing, "I love being onstage and I love to perform. To be honest with you, I'm more comfortable performing than I am in an everyday situation, which I can't quite explain."
But the apple never falls far from the tree.
"The funny thing about making this record and being away from the girls and on my own in L.A. is that it allowed me to reflect on how much we've accomplished," Chisholm offers.
"I've been walking around thinking, 'Fucking hell, how lucky am I?'"