Spice making nice?

New song may or may not be fond farewell to Ginger

The Spice Girls have gotten all mushy about this year's unexpected exit of their most ballsy, opinionated and cleavage-exposing member -- Ginger aka Gerri Halliwell -- if their new single, Goodbye, is any indication.

"The times when we would play about, The way we used to scream and shout, We never dreamt you'd go your own sweet way," sing the four remaining Spices on the wistful-sounding ballad, which was released to radio last week.

"Goodbye my friend (I know you're gone, you said you're gone, but I can still feel you feel you here), It's not the end, (Gotta keep it strong before the pain turns into fear)" goes the chorus of the song, which hits record stores on Dec. 8.

But despite those lyrics, Scary aka Mel B, said in an interview earlier this week with Toronto-area Energy Radio 108 FM (it runs at 7:10 a.m., 4:20 p.m. and 7:20 p.m. today), that Goodbye isn't directly about Halliwell.

"Not really, no," says Mel B. "I mean, the actual song goes 'Goodbye my friend, it's not the end,' so obviously it's reminiscing about Geri, but it could be anything really."

Adds Baby aka Emma Bunton: "Everyone has to say goodbye to someone, whether it means they're going to university or on holiday or travelling and I think everyone can identify with it."

Goodbye is being released as a five-song EP and includes Christmas Wrapping, live Wembley Stadium versions of We Are Family and Sisters (a two-hour Live At Wembley Stadium home video was released this week), plus the orchestral version of Goodbye.

Meanwhile, the slick video for the single shows the four remaining Spices being delivered in separate cars (can solo careers be far off?) to a frozen mansion in the dead of night while a pack of wolves (the press?) run beside them.

As is almost always the case with the Spice Girls, breakup rumours abound with Ginger now gone and two Spices pregnant -- the just-married Scary and the soon-to-be-wed Posh aka Victoria Adams.

"Every time something happens to us people say, 'Oh, they're splitting up.' We've conquered that and we're going to do it again," says Baby.

Adds Mel B: "Between the four of us we're going to work together and individually, and take our time on the third album as well. So there's still a lot more to come. Believe me. I mean, between the four of us, the oldest is 23 so nobody wants to kind of retire at that age, do they?"

Meanwhile, the dramatically made over Halliwell, currently on the cover of Allure, appears to have gone on with her post-Spice life quite nicely. In addition to being named a United Nations goodwill ambassador, she has secured a multi-million dollar record deal with EMI that will see her first solo album released in the first half of next year.

In an early November interview with the London Sunday Times, Halliwell says her only regret about leaving the Spice Girls is that she didn't get to appear with them at Wembley.

"That made me feel a bit sad," she says.

And while no member of the Spice Girls has detailed the actual incident that led to Ginger leaving the group, Halliwell says the reasons are personal and perhaps too mature for public consumption.

"There were adult reasons why I left, but our fans are children and I didn't want to shatter their dreams," says Halliwell, rather mysteriously.

Whatever happened, there will be no Ginger replacement in the Spice Girls ranks.

"We wouldn't replace Geri," says Baby. "The four of us work really well together and that's all we need."