Spice Girls add flavour to pop

Conjure up the sound of Bananarama meets En Vogue, multiply their collective fan base, and you've got the British girl group phenomenon, Spice Girls.

Mel B., Mel C., Victoria, Geri and Emma are following in the footsteps of male acts like Take That and New Kids On The Block.

Young girls and women are screaming, crying and singing along to Spice Girls' No. 1 dance hit, Wannabe, while at the same time adopting the group as role models.

"We're grateful to be in this position," said the combat-pants wearing Mel B. as she sits arm-in-arm with the pig-tailed Emma on a couch in a hotel room.

"I mean, me and Emma are 21. Imagine, a 21 year old in that position. To be able to say to a girl, 'Yeah, practise safe sex.' Or 'Don't screw up with your mother, be nice to her.' And these people listen to ya. So it's quite mad. But it's nice as well because we're giving out something that's positive."

And Spice Girls have their own strong female idols. They are managed by Simon Fuller, whose clients include Annie Lennox, and between Mel B. and Emma they list Neneh Cherry and Des'ree among their favorite singers.

Spice has already sold five and a half million copies around the world since its release last winter (including 100,000 copies in Canada) although the girls won't be doing a world tour until next February.

But the group claims to be self-made after coming together (except for Emma, who joined later) through an ad placed by a manager, who was then promptly dumped.

"He wanted a manufactured thing," said Mel B. "We didn't sign a contract with him so that's how kind of dodgy it was." Despite the fact Spice Girls co-wrote all 10 tracks on their debut, the liner notes would suggest a marketing campaign in high gear. There's an application to join the "Spice Girl Squad" which entitles you to a Spice Girls ID card and the group's newsletter, both of which are guaranteed to give you "instant girl power!"

But Mel B., who at one point during the interview leans over and peels some chapped skin off Emma's lips, says they are driving their own image and not the other way around.

"We're business-minded," she said. "We know if we bring out merchandise it might sell. So we wanted to do it our way."

Emma, looking straight off the set of To Sir WIth Love in white go-go boots, a mini-skirt and a lime green turtleneck, puts it more succinctly: "Why give it to some old geezer who doesn't know anything about it?"

The final bit of merchandise to clear up is the "Spicewatch" poster featuring the girls in red one-piece bathing suits on a beach.

"That was for the lads," said Emma with a giggle.

Adds Mel B.: "That's hysterical. It just goes to show you, you don't have to be all slim and skinny and all model-looking to be a babe. But we aren't taking it too seriously."

Along that vein, the girls say they've run into Eric Clapton and AC/DC in the rock circles they're travelling in these days, but don't harbor any fantasies.

"I wouldn't spend a night with a pop star really," said Mel B.

"'Cause we meet them day in, day out."

Emma, initially anyway, is more forthcoming, on her crush.

"I'd love to have dinner with George Clooney, but I might like to shave his head. He's very sexy isn't he?"

Suddenly, Mel B. gets inspired.

"We might get them to strip down naked so we could have a look and then go, 'Yeah. Thank-you.'

It seems Spice Girls just want to have fun.

The Spice Girls, one by one:

* Mel B., 21, is the hip-hop lover from Leeds with a pierced tongue and a tattoo. Of a recent admission that she was into porn, she says "Isn't everybody though?"

* Emma, 21, is the blonde-haired, blue-eyed, freckled-faced, youngest member from Barnet, just north of London.

* Mel C., 22, is a soccer fanatic from Liverpool and the most streetwise and athletic looking of the bunch.

* Victoria, 22, is the Londoner and designated "fashion guru."

* Geri, 24, is from Watford, outside of London, and is apparently the fastest talking.