Raw Spice: The Unofficial Story of the Making of the Spice Girls (DVD)

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Every once in a blue moon, I'll glance at the jacket of a DVD I receive for review and it triggers what I call a "Star Wars" response. It's the moment when the very first thought that pops into my mind is, "I have a very bad feeling about this..." Now, judging a book by its cover isn't something I normally do, but I still have that strange inkling from time to time nonetheless. Well, this is precisely what happened when "Raw Spice" fell into my lap.

For the record, my uneasiness had absolutely nothing to do with my like or dislike for the Spice Girls. Sure, I'll admit I'm not crazy about them. I haven't purchased any of their albums or downloaded any of their music onto my iPod, but that doesn't mean I'd trash this DVD release just because they aren't my cup of tea. As a critic, I try to look at things objectively, and during their reign the Spice Girls did have nine hit singles on the pop charts and are the best-selling all-female group in history, so obviously they have quite the following. What bugged me, though, was that "unofficial" keyword sneakily inserted into the title. It seemed odd, sticking out like a gigantic pimple smack dab in the middle of Victoria Beckham's forehead, so in all honesty it just didn't sit right with me. I didn't find out exactly why until near the end of the documentary.

In 1994, Chris Herbert, the twenty-three-year-old son of pop manager Bob Herbert, had high hopes of branching out on his own in his father's footsteps. The idea he came up with was to put together a girl group, but instead of focusing on R&B like En Vogue or go down the hip-hop road paved by Salt N' Pepa and TLC, his plan was to concentrate more heavily on pop music with British girls since there really wasn't anything like that at the time.

Melanie Brown (better known as Scary Spice) was among the first to try out and immediately made a lasting first impression with her outspoken and alluring personality. Melanie Chisholm (Sporty) and Victoria Adams (Posh) soon followed, and Geri Halliwell (Ginger) came shortly after. Initially, the fifth member happened to be a young woman named Michelle Stephenson, but due to personal problems with her mother being ill and not being very cohesive with the other four, she parted ways and Emma Bunton (Baby) ended up being her replacement as the final member of the group. The documentary features clips of the actual audition tapes of the young women as they share their dreams and aspirations in life.

A good portion of the footage shows the girls going through the process of working with voice coach Pepi Lemer. Viewers can see them take things seriously as they train their voices going up and down the octave scale and goof off with each other in between sessions. Some of it gets pretty feisty too, as Mel B and Geri clashed personalities and were notorious for their catfight bickering. Meow.

While the girls spent most of their days rehearsing, Herbert set the quintet up to live together in a small house in Maidenhead, England. It not only served as a cost-effective solution for the young producer as he was getting his ducks in a row, but also was a test to see how well the girls were able to get along with each other. Home video footage takes the viewers on a tour of their home. We get to see the bathroom, the kitchen and what's lurking in the refrigerator, their bedrooms, and the thousand bottles or so of beauty products on each of their dressers.