"The ginger dynamo who put Spice into Girl Power"
It is one of the most famous and enduring photographs of our time ...
Former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell's Union Jack mini-dress was the sensation of 1997's Brit Awards, helping establish her as one of the icons of the late 20th century.
Geri was the driving force behind the band she has now quit. It was Geri who screamed "Girl Power" at every opportunity, helping a generation of teenage girls to believe in themselves. She made the Spice Girls believe in themselves too when she masterminded the sacking of manager Simon Fuller so they could control their own destiny.
Dreams
Wannabe was their first hit and a wannabe is what Geri always was. She set her sights on fame one day in her humdrum job as a quality controller for a video company in Watford, Herts. She says, " One lunch time I thought,' This isn't what I dreamt of.' I walked out and never went back." It was not the first time the young Geri had walked out on a secure role in search of something greater. She always believe in herself as she rose from a penniless broken home to world-wide fame and riches.
Born on August 6, 1972, Geri grew up in Watford, Herts, with her Spanish mother Anne Marie, elder sister Natalie and brother Max. Her father Laurence split with her mother when Geri was just nine. Laurence suffered bad health from the day Geri was born. Her mother, a cleaner, was the family breadwinner.
Geri says, " I came from great poverty. My parents didn't have any money, they were basically on the bread line. I didn't get the things handed on a plate to me. I used to get up early and go with my mum to the library where she was a cleaner before I went to school. While she was hovering, I'd stand on one of the huge tables and sing into a big mirror" Along with her passion for singing came growing independence. She recalled, "I used to tie my own bunches and get myself to school. I'd go home and no one would be there so I'd make my own dinner. I've always had to provide for myself. It had a massive effect. My sister Natalie was always the beautiful one. She had loads of boyfriends - I was just the giggly kid in the corner dancing to Madonna."
When Geri left school her dad arranged for an agent to get her work - but her mother would not let her follow it up. "It drove me on. I believe in Oscar Wilde's philosophy that the only way to cure temptation is to yield to it," she says. "I really believe in Girl Power - it has given me the strength. I left home at 16 because I wanted my independence. I really didn't know what I wanted to do. I'd had dreams of becoming famous, but nothing had really fuelled them."
Geri started a finance and tourism course at college, then quit after a year to join the video company, watching hours of tape to spot unwanted swear words. Then it stuck her that if she was going to fulfil her dreams of fame she would have to do something about it herself. She hit the London dance club scene, making friends with anyone she thought could further her chances of stardom, and got a job as a paid dancer at London's Astoria for 40 pounds on Saturday nights. At 19, she landed a job as a dancer at the BCM, Europe's biggest club, Majorca. She told the manager she would do anything to be famous and ended up dancing practically naked in a cage above the dance-floor. But it was not enough Geri. When her tall, glamorous flatmate was photographed topless by Spanish photographer Sebastian Amengual, she saw a chance of fame and pleaded with him to do shots of her too.
They were the first of many raunchy photos - and she was not afraid of show off a body she was proud of. When the Spice Girls hit the big-time and the nude shots became public, Geri just laughed. She says, "I was doing nude stuff. It was great money and I was getting some attention. Then, after a while, the novelty wore off."
Geri returned to England and began working out in the gym to tone her body for the fame she knew was just around the corner. Every week she bought show biz paper The Stage, scouring ads for her big break. She auditioned to present TV's The Disney Club, reaching the last four, then took a job as a game show hostess on Turkish TV. She auditioned for a part in a play jet in a lunatic asylum, but again missed out. So she went back to college to get an A-Level in English Literature. It was at college that she learned her father had dies, aged 71.
"I'm gutted that he never got to see any of my success as he's the one that believed in me," she says. "I could have taken him out, spent money on him, taken him on holiday. I still cry when somebody asks about him. But it's like every lesson in life. It changed me."
Geri missed the first Spice Girls audition because she was suffering from depression. "I rang the management out of the blue to ask if they'd filled all the spaces and they told me to come down. So I jumped the queue into the last 12," she says. "I thought the management was crap but the girls were great and there were no other female groups. I really did believe in it. I had this feeling that I had to be utterly focused on the Spice Girls."
Geri had no time for men in her life. Any she did become attached to, such as millionaire Giovanni Laporia, were dumped at any hint of betrayal. She wrote to called off their romance after Laporta secretly dated another girl - sending the letter to him by taxi. Geri can spot time-wasting men a mile off - and a career opportunity at a similar distance.
She, more than any of the group, knew the importance of the Brit Awards in 1997. Her spectacular Union Jack dress stole the show. But she hated it when the Spice Girls were portrayed as Tory supporters. The Girl Power manifesto is above party politics. And though she was thrilled to be voted the sexiest girl in pop in a tabloid's poll in 1996, she prefers to be recognised as a powerful, independent, successful woman.
She says, "If people want to see a bubbly redhead with large breasts, then that's fine. But maybe people can subconsciously receive a message - that I'm not a skinny super model and I can still be up there. With the right spirit and a good heart you can achieve anything."
