Nicki Chapman on the ‘intense and painful’ early days of the Spice Girls

Thirty years ago this week, British music changed for ever. 

On 8 July 1996, the Spice Girls – Victoria Adams, Emma Bunton, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm and Geri Halliwell – released their debut single, Wannabe, introducing the world to Posh, Baby, Scary, Sporty and Ginger Spice.

The hit, which Victoria later said “changed everything” for the five young women, entered the UK charts at No 3 before climbing to No 1 and staying there for seven weeks. Infused with the band’s trademark “girl power”, it was the beginning of a cultural movement that remains indelibly imprinted on British culture – and Nicki Chapman had a front-row seat as a juggernaut of global fame evolved.

Now known for presenting the BBC’s Escape to the Country and an evening show on Magic FM, Nicki, 59, was then the Spice Girls’ “plugger”, responsible for getting their songs played on TV and radio. Her stellar CV already included work with David Bowie, Prince and Take That. 

“None of us can imagine what that media gauntlet was like for them,” she says. “I have no idea – I was standing next to them, but I didn’t live it. It was pretty intense and very painful at times. It did take its toll. But they’ve come out stronger, and I admire them. 

“It was my job to get them exposure,” she tells us, recalling the first time she met the Spice Girls, after she told their manager, Simon Fuller, that she wanted to work with “a feisty girl group”.

“I was like: ‘Come on, impress me,’ sitting there with my arms folded,” she says. “They came into the office on rollerblades, backflipping up on the desk, singing a cappella. I was like: ‘Wow.’ I had never seen anything like it.”

There was straight talking from the start. “Geri said to me: ‘If we work with you, Nicki, we’re not going to be getting up early, and we have a strong idea about what TV we want to do.’ I said to her: ‘If we do work together, you do what you’re good at and I’ll do what I’m good at and we’re always going to get on.’ And she went: ‘I really like you.’”

The early days were tough. “It wasn’t as easy as we thought,” Nicki recalls of trying to generate hype around the band. “Radio didn’t want to know.” She instead turned to TV, and credits Isobel Hatton, a producer on Cilla Black’s Surprise Surprise, for giving the Spice Girls their big break after she was treated to an acoustic performance in the bathroom. “I told them this was the next big thing.”

Nicki was in Japan with the band when they heard that Wannabe had reached No 3. They recorded a performance for Top of the Pops there, Nicki having carried a cardboard logo with her on the plane. “They had no sleep, landed in a hotel, got their clothes out and went straight down and did it in the searing heat. Backflips, the lot,” she says.

“You always hope,” Nicki adds of their phenomenal success. “But the honest truth is that we didn’t realise quite what we had on our hands.”

Life with the Spice Girls 

Nicki was at the Spice Girls’ side as they took the world by storm, borrowing Geri’s red bikini top to tie up a male model as they shot the video for Say You’ll Be There, meeting Nelson Mandela in South Africa and flying to America. 

She recalls one instance in the US where the girls returned her support. “It was a massive TV show and they had really pushed their luck with what they were expecting us to do. I asked the big exec: ‘Can we have a conversation, because I’m not happy – we haven’t agreed to any of this.’ And the girls all stood at the door with their arms folded. They were like: ‘Nicki, go on.’ They were really supportive of me.”

Happy memories include a meeting with Prince Charles that has gone down in history. “He was, as ever, a delight,” she recalls of a charity gala for The Prince’s Trust in 1997, when Geri reportedly patted the future King on the bottom.

“We were doing the meet and greet with His Majesty and they smothered him in lipstick. Someone from the palace took me to one side and said: ‘It’s not really how it’s done, Nicki.’ I said: ‘When you’ve got the Spice Girls around you, you know exactly what you’re letting yourself in for.’

“And I didn’t see any complaints from His Majesty. He was giggling with them.

“What I was so impressed by was that they were their own people,” she continues. “There were no men behind the scenes pulling strings.

“If the press went in on one of them about their private lives, the others would defend their honour. They were like a family. As a woman in the music industry who had seen an awful lot, that was so refreshing and powerful.”

Nicki worked with the band until 1998, the same year that Geri departed the group. In February 2001, they officially disbanded, and in 2007, she returned as their tour manager for their reunion world tour.

“It was probably one of the highlights of my life,” she says. “It was an extraordinary experience; there were children, nannies, dancers. We had a huge plane and we all flew around the world together. Standing by the stage, I was like [their] mum – I was so proud of them.”

She’s still in contact with all five and, alongside Emma Bunton, attended Mel B’s wedding to Rory McPhee in London last year. “I bumped into VB [Victoria Beckham, 52] last year – she was off to Paris for Fashion Week. We were at St Pancras Station and I went: ‘VB! VB!’ really loudly. Then, of course, everyone turned around and was looking at her.” 

Will the Spice Girls ever reunite?

Whether they’ll reunite is a “golden question”, she says. “I’d love to see them all back on the stage again, but what’s so inspiring about the girls is that they’re all doing brilliantly in their own way.”

What if they asked her to plug another comeback? “They would run the show,” she laughs. “As their publicist, I’d be asking them how they wanted to do it.”

Now, Nicki has recorded a documentary for Magic FM examining the legacy of the band through interviews with celebrities including the Little Mix singer Perrie Edwards, the pop star Natalie Imbruglia and the West End performer Fleur East, who reflects on how “groundbreaking” Mel B’s public persona was.

“Fleur said to me: ‘It was the first time I’d seen someone with Afro hair, a young woman, giving it everything, wearing what she wanted, not making any apologies – proud of her heritage and the way she looked.’ They were at the forefront of changing the way we viewed ourselves,” Nicki says.

It’s something she can testify to now, she adds. “I didn’t really credit them for the effect they had on me. In hindsight, I developed as a woman and got strength, independence and confidence through working with them.”

30 Years of Girl Power: How the Spice Girls Changed the World is on Magic Radio on Sunday 12 July at 6pm

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