Really Old News

 

Geri's album sleeve contains some fantastic
shots of our heroine. The cute, girl next door
cover image is balanced by this sexy shot of
Geri which is also included in the artwork.

Hello boys - as they say.

 

'Miaow' G

Spice Girl Mel G, who celebrates her birthday
this weekend in the USA, has had a swipe at
Geri in a documentary the band are filming at
the moment. Discussing Geri's departure from
the group Mel denies Geri was forced out
because she couldn't sing well enough.

"At the end of the day, she wasn't one of the
best singers and dancers, but I'm sure that
wasn't the reason why she left. It must have
been a bit annoying only being seen for your
lips and your boobs." Ouch!

 

Geri feels the strain

Geri is still resting on doctors' orders after
feeling unwell due to the heavy schedule
involved in launchingthe 'Look At Me' single.
Geri has been told to cancel upcoming public
appearances and all appointments,

Her spokeswoman says: 'Everything has taken
its toll on her, she'll be back on her feet very
soon.' Geri should be fully recovered in time
to launch her solo album 'Schizophonic' on June 7.

 

Geri album review

May 24 from dotmusic

Music industry weekly, Music Week has once
again stolen a march on the regular music
press with a brilliant review of Geri's new
album, 'Schizophonic'. Here it is.

"For all the media posturing and hullabaloo,
the music is almost being forgotten as the
defining subject of Halliwell's current
incarnation. This is an eloquently-produced
record whose grooves thrust her solidly into
female George Michael territory. Standout
tracks include Bag It Up and Goodnight Kiss,
more so than sleepy next single Mi Chico
Latino, but this is as complete a package as
the first Spice Girls album ever was. Only
over-exposure might damage sales."

 

Proof that Geri is a real star

Geri has had a star named in her honour. The
star can be found at Cassiopeia RA 01h
47m.61s D 55d 15'23.04 according to the
astronomical co-ordinates. To see it you'll
need a telescope (surpirse surprise) and a
copy of the Hubble Guide Star catalog. Geri's
number is 07368800015. Hope that's all clear.

 

Look At Me down to #5 in UK Charts

May 24, 1999 from dotmusic

Here's the full top 10 this week:

1 Shanks & Bigfoot - Sweet Like Chocolate
2 Boyzone - You Needed Me
3 Shania Twain - That Don't Impress Me Much
4 Sixpence None The Richer - Kiss Me
5 Geri Halliwell - Look At Me
6 Precious - Say It Again
7 Backstreet Boys - I Want It That Way
8 Hepburn - I Quit
9 TLC - No Scrubs
10 Sugar Ray - Every Morning

 

Mtv auctions off some 'Cool Crap'

May 20, 1999 (prices stated are acurate as of the time writen)

Want some "cool crap"? Well Mtv has got it. They have gotten a vast collection of "cool crap" from different bands and singers, to a Beavis and Butthead arcade game. These kick ass items do come with hefty prices though, the cheapest thing so far is a Beavis and Butthead Tour jacket for a cool $320.00. Fancy an appearance with Carson on total request? Got $7,000.00 to spare? No I didn't think so. Amongst the rock n' roll memoribilia, is a piece from our very own Geri Halliwell. If you caught her on Total Request Live (TRL) a few weeks back, you would have seen her draw a "self- portrait". Well, it's up for grabs for the bargain price of only $1,225.00. I'd love to have it, but not a thousand dollars worth. Check it out, and the other cool crap up for auction from Mtv, sponsored on eBay. There's tons of cool stuff you can never have to look at there.

the matted and framed drawing being auctioned

Geri showing off her masterpiece after she drew it on Total Request Live

 

 

Look At Me Enters at #2 in the UK Singles Chart

May 17, 1999 from dotmusic

UK Singles Chart Commentary from James Masterton

1 YOU NEEDED ME (Boyzone)

It was reported that Polydor records had pointed out to Boyzone that for the release of their latest
single they would be going head to head with the first ever solo release from Geri Haliwell and were
given the option of delaying for a week. The same reports said that the boys' answer was no and if
indeed it was their decision to directly compete with Ginger they have been completely vindicated.
Not since the epic duel between Blur and Oasis in the summer of 1995 has the race for the top of
the charts received as much scrutinty with newspapers giving daily updates on the progress of the
two singles. As it turned out, Boyzone took a narrow lead after the first day and maintained it
throughout the week, emerging at the other end as the proud owners of yet another Number One
single. It is a significant achievement in a number of ways. For a start it is the sixth chart-topping
single for the band, just two short of the total notched up by their one-time rivals Take That. You
will note that all their Number One hits to date have come in braces - Words and A Different Beat
in '96, All That I Need and No Matter What in '98 and now When The Going Gets Tough and You
Needed Me in '99. They are the first act to have two Number One singles in 1999 and indeed as
the above list indicates, this is now the third time in four years that they have placed two singles at
the top of the chart. Only two other acts have had more than one Number One hit in three different
calendar years in the 1990s and their names aren't hard to guess - Take That in '93, '94 and '95 and
the Spice Girls in '96, '97 and '98. One final point worth dwelling on is that yet again Boyzone have
taken the 'safe' route of releasing a cover version, You Needed Me having been an American
Number One hit for Anne Murray in 1978 (the song fared less well over here, peaking at Number
22 although this is one of the still rare examples of the same song topping the charts on both sides of
the Atlantic for two different acts). Boyzone are at times accused of being nothing more than a
covers band, a charge which actually fails to hold water when you look at their singles releases to
date. You Needed Me is their 15th single release in this country (every one a Top 5 hit - another
record) of which only five (Love Me For A Reason, Father And Son, Words, When The Going
Gets Tough and You Needed Me) had previously been hits for another act whilst a further two
(Baby Can I Hold You and I Love The Way You Love Me) were songs that had been recorded by
other artists but had never before been hit singles. Have we missed anything? Oh yes, the recent
string of hits from Westlife, Backstreet Boys and now Boyzone means that this is the first time that
there have been three successive Number One hits from boy bands. Records galore then, and to go
looking for something negative to say would be churlish in the extreme. Happily it means I can save
my venom for whoever it was that designed the new edition of British Hit Singles.

2 LOOK A ME (Geri Halliwell)

Let's make a quite list of the amount of promotion this single has received. First there is the
one-woman publicity machine that is Geri Haiwell, then there was the TV documentary, the video
that MTV keeps cutting off before we've seen her climb naked out of the swimming pool
(bastards!), the dotmusic mini-site, the nationwide first play of the record - not to mention the
interviews in just about every publication going (except maybe Mother And Baby but she is
probably working on that one as well). The only way to avoid the hype has been to live on a rock in
the middle of the Atlantic for the last month and you can bet your life that Miss Halliwell would
probably have even visited you there in her role as a United Nations ambassador. The reward for all
this hard work? A Number 2 single. Technically this is the first ever solo single from a Spice Girl,
whether current or former. The two Mels have also released singles outside the group but both were
duets - Mel C with Bryan Adams and Melanie Brown/Gulzar making a guest appearance but getting
the primary credit on a Missy Elliott track last summer. As such the single was bound to attract a
great deal of attention and to be fair deserves most of it. Analysis of the track has been done to
death in many places, yes she does do a pretty impressive Shirley Bassey impression (and lets face
it Geri isn't the world's greatest singer and to try and be Elaine Paige would have been pushing it
slightly) and yes, the track is, depending on your point of view either a close relative of the
Propellerheads' History Repeating or the music from the IBM "Solutions For A Small Planet" TV
ad. At the end of the day it hardly matters, this track was going to be a smash hit no matter what
and the only point of significance is that both she and EMI have been denied a Number One hit by a
band who existence predates even the Spice Girls themselves.

 

 

Mel G: 'Geri wasn't forced to leave'

May 10, 1999 from dotmusic

Mel G has contradicted Geri Halliwell's recent claim that one of the Spice
Girls forced her to leave when she quit the band over a year ago.

Mel told dotmusic: "It's not true we wanted her to leave, though, it was her
own decision. There's mutual respect between all of us.

"I saw her documentary and I thought it was alright, I thought 'good on
her'. It was good she expressed herself, she showed a different side to her.

In the revealing Channel 4 documentary 'Geri', which was shown last week in
the UK, Geri opened herself up to the cameras and talked about life after
the Spice Girls. She talked freely about her feelings of loneliness and her
need for love. She also disclosed how one of the Spice Girls - widely
believed to be Mel G - forced her to leave.

Meanwhile, Mel G told dotmusic about the work she has been doing on her new
solo material. Her forthcoming single is a cover of Cameo's 'Word Up' which
was originally a hit in the 80s. She also has plans for a solo album.

"I've already written three songs for it," she says. "One's a sort of
acoustic Des'ree type number, and next week I go to Minneapolis to work with
Jam & Lewis and Teddy Riley. I met up with them on the Spice Girls US tour
to prepare the ground. I explained I didn't want the album to be too
classic R&B or too smooth, because that's not me.

"I want it to be more underground than commercial. I'm not sure how it's
going to turn out, but it will have a bit of an edge to it."

 

Geri is Rehearsing with a band!

May 06, 1999 from dotmusic

Geri is rehearsing with a band, according to the webmaster on the official dotmusic Geri site.
That means a tour might be coming up ahead!

They also said that if enough people request Geri coming in for a live chat or something like it, they might be able to fix that!
So start requesting! You can use the forum on the Geri page or email them!

 

 

Geri through the looking-glass

Wednesday, May 5, 1999 Published at 17:10 GMT 18:10 UK By royal appointment: On stage at the Prince of Wales' party

By BBC News Online's Darryl Chamberlain

Molly Dineen is already a respected film-maker, but she
can add agony aunt to her list of talents after making
this documentary about Geri Halliwell.

While most people would have called their best friend,
Halliwell started shooting her own video diary as her
Spice Girls career started to crumble in May 1998, and
then called for Dineen.

What follows is a candid, if overlong portrait of a celebrity
tormented by the fame she craves.

She is seen arguing with Dineen about who has creative
control of the film ("What's the point of making a film to
destroy my public image?") and hinting at the hurt she
feels about her exit from the group.

'Symbolic poor kid'

While the group are playing
the final date of their world
tour, Geri is seen at sunset
outside her rented farmhouse
in Hertfordshire sneering at a
press quote from Mel B:
"That just about says it all,
'We don't need her
anymore.'"

Without the Girl Power
security of the Spice Girls
machine, Geri is frequently
seen lapsing back into being
the nervous youngster
lacking in confidence - the "symbolic poor kid" at school.

She writes to the Prince of Wales for advice, and asks
Dineen what phrases she should use in the letter.
Dineen refuses to help. "But you're of the right calibre, I
don't want him to think I'm a commoner," she says.

But there are highs. When her Union Jack dress sells for
£36,000 she is ecstatic.

Her mother, brother and sister also star in the film; her
mother cheerfully dispensing wise advice from the
kitchen sink, her brother giving her lifts whenever she's
near home. So does her late father, who she clearly still
misses.

Cosmic shopping list

She shows her "cosmic
shopping list" hidden behind
her picture of him. In it she
wants to marry George
Michael, and, as Dineen
notices, be "admired and
respected by the whole
world".

Her new career moves to
New York, where the United
Nations wants her to be its
spokesperson on population
matters - but without giving
her any time to prepare for a press conference. She
rehearses her answers to the camera.

The film lingers backstage at the Prince of Wales' 50th
birthday party. Before she sings happy birthday to the
Prince, she tells Dineen she wants fame because "the
more of a public figure you are, the more you can do with
it".

But she is upset when she sees Channel 4's The Big
Breakfast the following morning, and watches host
Johnny Vaughan gently poke fun at her performance.

Halliwell turns on Dineen for filming too much of her
mother - even though she is happy to take part in the
film, and later tells her: "This really gets on my nerves.
Before I was just desperate for company, so I thought I'd
make you my friend."

Dineen replaced by a dog

Eventually, Dineen is replaced by a new friend - asmall dog,
picked while Halliwell is touring Battersea
Dogs' Home with George Michael.

The end of the film sees
Halliwell move into a new
mansion house - where she
is shown alone with her dog.

It may be long, but Dineen's
insightful film will certainly
bring the film-maker the
attention and the finance to help her with her less
populist projects.

But whether there is a happy ending for Halliwell is
unclear. Despite the Girl Power bravado of old, she still
clearly feels she is the little girl from Watford.

Her personal assistant tells Dineen: "She'd be happier
living on a farm with a husband and two children. But it
isn't going to happen, is it?"

Halliwell will be hoping the film marks another milestone
in a rollercoaster career, rather than the swan-song of a
faded pop icon.

 

 

May 05, 1999 from BBC News

Wednesday, May 5, 1999 Published at 10:01 GMT 11:01 UK

 

Geri tells all on TV

Former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell is profiled in a British TV film on
Wednesday night - and she tells how fame left her feeling desperately
lonely.

Two weeks after she left the Spice Girls, Halliwell asked award-winning
film-maker Molly Dineen to make a documentary about her new life.

The result is a 90-minute epic, to be screened on Channel 4. But the film
shows an unhappy side to the singer who made fans around the world as cheeky
Ginger Spice.

"There's nothing I do when the work stops. Every weekend I start crying,"
she says.

"I just want some love in my life."

She also speaks about her lack of self-esteem, her past thoughts of suicide,
her anorexia, and her loneliness.

Perched on a parapet at a Paris hotel, she looks at the paparazzi and
comments: "Imagine if they got a shot of me. They'd think I was committing
suicide - that'd sell a few papers, wouldn't it?"

She ends up telling Dineen she asked her to make the film because she "was
just desperate for company. I thought I'd make you my friend".

She also tells her: "You are part of my world. People become my friends -
like my accountant is my mate. He has been more than an accountant. Maybe
I'm sad, that that's who my mates are."

She also says "one particular member" of the Spice Girls wanted her out of
the group.

Meanwhile, in the June issue of music magazine Q, she talks about her
friendship with singer George Michael - and how her first thoughts of him
were less than platonic.

"I heard George talking about losing his mother. I was a fan," she said.

"I thought I was going to marry him - I was so drawn to him. I gave him my
telephone number, gave him big eyes and tried to flirt with him thinking I
had a chance.

"How wrong was I? I got second best and we became friends."

Both come from Watford, north of London, and Halliwell adds: "It's not a
celebrity friendship. I can't stand that lovey-dovey stuff. We're both
famous and part of the music industry.

"But we've both lost a parent, both come from Watford, both have a
Mediterranean parent - and both were ugly kids who blossomed."

Geri: The Girl Can't Help it, is on Channel 4 on Wednesday at 2100 BST.

 

Geri the Spice Ghoul

Star Gingers Up Comeback From Grave

Tressed To Kill: With long extensions to her famous ginger hair, Geri unveils a dramatic new look for her return to the pop scene

By JAMES SCOTT
FORMER Spice Girl Geri Halliwell is back to rock the pop world with a hairy, scary experience for fans.
Her ghoulish debut-single video is set in a graveyard and features nuns and a priest.
Geri, 26, has taken on a dramatic new look. She wears long ginger extensions to her own famous locks and is dressed in a flowing white outfit with red shoes.
The £250,000 video starts with a Victorian funeral procession winding through Highgate cemetery in London. In another part of the action, Geri leads a group of nuns around tombstones. An insider on the production, which was also shot in Prague, said: "Geri looks like a cross between Kate Bush and Madonna.
"It's definitely a change of direction for her. The video will shock a lot of people. Geri wanted to get away from the niceness of the Spice Girls. She wanted to try something more challenging and appeal to an older audience. "I am sure that some of the scenes will cause a lot of controversy. But that sort of thing never hurt Madonna's career. I think Geri knows exactly what she's doing. She's very shrewd."
Surprise
Geri had to sit for hours in rollers while experts worked on her hairdo and make-up artists applied finishing touches.
And between takes, the star was spotted smoking a few cigarettes to pass the time. Millionaire Geri got the idea for the video after she moved into a former monastery near Slough, Berks, next door to an order of nuns. The video was made for the song Look At Me, the first single from her solo album due out early this summer. Songwriter Paul Wilson said: "This single will surprise many people. Geri wanted to do something completely different, but still keep her pop edge. This track has definitely achieved that."
Look At Me will be released on May 10, almost a year after Ginger Spice Geri walked out on the other Girls. A pal of the singer said: "Many people criticised her for taking so long out of the pop arena. They said that she had lost the moment and would be forgotten.
"But after all the madness surrounding the Spice Girls she decided to take a well deserved break. She pursued other interests and she's ready to come back with a bang."

 

ROLL ON: Before the video shoot,
hours of hair-styling.

IT'S A DRAG: Another lull, but a
cigarette breaks the wait

LET'S GO: Action - Geri leads nuns
around the tombstones

 


From dotmusic March 23, 1999

Geri releases new single May 10th!

Former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell releases her Shirley Bassey-sounding first solo single, Look At Me, on May 10. The song has been deliberately chosen as her first post-Spice Girls material in order to make a statement.

EMI:Chrysalis managing director Mark Collen admits even he is surprised. "It doesn't sound like anything anyone expected," he says. "It comes somewhere between Shirley Bassey, Serge Gainsbourg and images of Tony Curtis driving around the south of France in an open-top Mercedes Sports car with Raquel Welch and her scarf blowing in the wind. It's certainly not a piece of bland pop. She's totally upfront. Her vision is complete and bang on and she's unbelievably receptive to the ideas of people she's working with. I've never worked with an artist like her."

As with much of her so-far untitled album, Look At Me is co-written by Geri and the Spice Girls writing team of Paul Wilson and Andy Warkins. Wilson says, "I think the single will surprise people. Geri wanted to do something completely different but still keep her pop edge. This track has definitely achieved that." The video was shot in Prague last week by Vaughn Arnell, who directed the Brit Award-nominated videos Outside for George Michael and Robbie Williams' Let Me Entertain You. Collen adds: "The track makes a statement 'look at me' - so the video will represent the different strands of Geri: is she serious or ginger, saint or sinner, virginal or not?"

Geri has been recording at London's Olympic Studios since January behind closed doors but dotmusic has learnt that only last week a 60-piece orchestra arrived for the sessions. The studio also contains several record boxes stuffed with classic 70s disco favourites that will doubtless influence the final product including future singles. Geri's new material was originally not expected until late in the year but her debut solo album could now be released as early as June. Her manager, Lisa Anderson, says, "She's powering on all cylinders right now. We were both keen to go early if possible, so we're delighted. But she was very prepared. She was able to go into the studio completely ready."

Mark 'Spike' Stent, currently working as co-producer with Noel Gallagher on Oasis's fourth album, has mixed of the tracks. The other co-writer on three tracks is understood to be Tracey Ackerman, who is believed to
sing backing vocals on Look At Me, and who has enjoyed success writing with B*Witched.

 

 

Here's a little article that doesn't have to much to do with Geri, but I thought it was kinda cool :) so read on...

A Phrase of the day that won't go away

By César G. Soriano

USA TODAY

At the end of the day, it's the cliche to say.

From impeachement trial pundits to sports moguls to Spice Girls fans, "at the end of the day" is the fad phrase getting more than it's 15 minutes.

The British buzzwords have all but replaced "when it's all said and done" or "in the end."

Go on, say it. "At the end of the day" makes you sound cool,educated. It makes you sound like someone trying to sound cool and educated.

Never mind that William Safire declared the metaphor dead last year in his New York Times column, "On Language."

Never mind that the British say it's old and tired. American's can't get enough.

"At the end of the day, this isn't a charity," San Diego Padres owner John Moores said recently of his team.

" 'At the end of the day' is very big," says CNN talk host Larry King. "I ask what's going to happen with the impeachement and two of the five guests will say it." Trend-loving Madonna uttered the phrase twice Monday night on Larry King Live.

Sample: "At the end of the day, it's hard for anybody, famour or not, to be in a relationship."

The Guinness Book of Curious Phrases says it "is now almost exclusively used in its metaphorical meaning" as opposed to a literal time reference like "at the end of the day, I got to sleep."

The 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary refers to the circa-1974 saying as "a hackneyed phrase." Jargon: Uses & Abuses says: "It sounds wearily wise and sagaciously long-sightedm but at the end of the day it doesn't mean a great deal. Politicians are fond of it."

If fad phrases had a spokesmodel, former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell would turn these letters. She utters the six words in every interview she gives.

Sample: "At the end of the day, we're just entertainers."

Not surprisingly, the phrase has been picked up by her fans. "It's her signature phrase and a running joke with us fans," says Rhonda Meister of Huston, who built a Web site called . . . at the end of the day. "It's become popular among young people. It's kind of the 'in' thing to be a little more Europen and anything London is HOT."

Its origin is a topic of lexicographical debate.

"Briticisms are coming to American English in large numbers and have been doing so for some while," says John Algeo, a linguist who is writing a book on the subject.

"In some cases, Americans allude to British phrases, names or spellings when they are trying to pick up on some air of class or sophistication," says Frank Abate, editor of Oxford's U.S. dictionaries.

Or maybe to sound royal: "At the end of the day, I want my eptaph to say: A Loyal, Dedicated Mother and Friend," writes Sarah, Duchess of York, in her new diet bool.

But a the end of the day, it's just another cliche that's all been said and done.