Thursday 10 June 1999 from Excite News

Ex-Spice Girl Geri Halliwell will miss out on the number
one spot for a second time at the hands of
heart-throbs Boyzone at the weekend.

Her debut solo album, Schizophonic, will be held off
the top by Boyzone's greatest hits album By Request,
unofficial sales figures show.

Halliwell's first single after leaving the band, Look At
Me, only reached number two last month after the
Irish stars' You Needed Me outsold it by less than 100
copies in a nailbiting chart race.

However, this time the gap will be much more
comfortable due to the huge sales of the Boyzone
album.

Last week, in its first six days of release, By Request
sold a colossal 329,000 copies - more than the rest of
the top 20 combined.

The band also joined The Beatles in having their first
four albums go to number one.

Early sales figures suggest Boyzone are outselling
Halliwell by a ratio of five to one in some shops.

And in a double blow for Halliwell, Simon Fuller - the
manager she was instrumental in sacking while with
the Spice Girls - will be celebrating a number one of
his own in the singles chart with new band S Club 7.

The seven-piece pop outfit he assembled looks likely
to hit number one this week in a tight race with
Madonna's Beautiful Stranger, from the soundtrack of
the new Austin Powers movie.

S Club 7 have been a huge hit with young fans due to
their successful fun-and-sun BBC1 TV series Miami 7
and blanket coverage in TV and pop magazines.