Showing posts with label Geri Halliwell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Geri Halliwell. Show all posts

Thursday, 10 July 2025

Disporting myself like a painted harlot again

'Oh God, does this mean I've got to go back on the game?' asks Geri

Geri Halliwell has looked at her household finances after her husband’s sacking, faced facts and defeatedly put in calls to the other Spice Girls.

Christian Horner’s shock dismissal from Red Bull means the couple will miss mortgage payments and have the electricity cut off unless his wife digs out her old Union Jack mini-dress and goes back to the life she had hoped to leave behind.

She said: “I never wanted it to come to this. I dreamed I could live out the rest of my days as a respectable woman, never again disporting myself like a painted harlot.

“But Chris has been let go from his position as a energy drink salesman and I haven’t got any other saleable skills, so it’s back in the platform boots and back on stage, grinding out a miserable living.

“The other girls are up for it. Not Victoria of course, who’s gone all respectable and pretends she never lip-synched for money, but the Mels need the cash and Emma’s in it for the sheer wanton thrill of exposing herself as usual.

“I’ve been on to our old pimp Simon and he’s booked us a 168-date world tour. There’s still the demand, he says. These new girls can’t satisfy rich older audiences like we do. He’s promised us the Glastonbury legends slot if we shake our asses right.”

She added: “Girl Power. Didn’t really work out that way, did it?”

The Daily Mash

Of course.

[The "real" story.]

Saturday, 6 August 2022

I'm a drama queen if that's your thing, baby


[click to embiggen]

You know you're getting old when...

...you discover that "Ginger Spice" Geri Halliwell is 50 years old!

It seems like only yesterday that we first encountered the "musical-hen-party" that was the Spice Girls, leaping all over the place and picking fights with Noel Gallagher! I was never a huge fan of them as an ensemble, but they certainly were a phenomenon - and Geri always took centre stage, with her campery and chutzpah.

When she finally departed the group, it was this track that converted me to the lady's talents - I adored it back in 1999, and still adore it today:

She had a prodigious run of hits, including this...

...and this one (another fave):

We even queued for hours to see her live on stage at G.A.Y. at the sadly-missed Astoria! She was superb.

Of course, despite marriage, motherhood and a stint as a UN goodwill ambassador, the lure of a Spice Girls reunion was rather inevitable, culminating in a blockbuster sell-out tour in 2019 - and as the hoo-ha builds over their 25th anniversary, there are rumours they'll be on the road again.

Geri, you're an icon!

Many happy returns, Geraldine Estelle "Geri" Horner, née Halliwell (born 6th August 1972)

Thursday, 9 November 2017

Everlasting baby



We have a new apprentice in the office starting soon, who was born in... 1999 (!).

With that terrifying news ringing in my ears, I thought it opportune that we should have a little timeslip moment, back to that very year - when Boris Yeltsin handed over to Vladimir Putin, and Bill Clinton was acquitted in his impeachment trial; the year of the Kosovo War, Harold Shipman, The Matrix, Tracey Emin, Bill Gates, the Jonathan Aitken trial, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones' wedding, Jill Dando's murder, Family Guy, the Columbine massacre and the Admiral Duncan gay pub bombing, the deaths of Dusty Springfield, Victor Mature, Stanley Kubrick, Madeline Kahn, Ernie Wise, Oliver Reed and Dirk Bogarde, and the births of East Timor, the Euro, MSN Messenger, the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly and - ahem - SpongeBob SquarePants.

In the news in November 1999: Gary Glitter was jailed for possession of child pornography, Australia voted in favour of retaining HM The Queen as Head of State in a referendum, an inquest began into the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 off the Massachusetts coast (in which 231 people were killed), International Men's Day (November 19th) was launched in the UN, and the (then) largest corporation in the world ExxonMobil was formed; in the ascendant (literally) were the Millennium Wheel (now the London Eye) and China's first Shenzhou space craft; but we bade a fond farewell to Quentin Crisp, who died (while on a tour of his one-man show across the UK) in the inauspicious town of Chorlton-cum-Hardy. In our cinemas: East Is East, The Sixth Sense and Milk. On telly: Walking with Dinosaurs, DIY SOS and MacIntyre Uncovered, and Julie Goodyear returned as Bet Lynch in a Corrie spin-off After Hours.

And in our charts this week eighteen years ago? There was evidently a flurry of new releases, as Savage Garden, Jennifer Lopez and Another Level crashed into the Top Ten to join the likes of Christina Aguilera, Macy Gray, Westlife, R Kelly and Five. Also leaping into the upper echelons were Tin Tin Out featuring Emma Bunton with What I Am at #2, and this slice of loveliness from Our Geri, straight in at the top slot. Where she belonged:


Like the seasons ever changing
Everlasting baby, like you and I
It's going to be alright
But when my sky clouds over

(Lift Me Up) When the day is over
(Take me up) When the sun is going down
(Show me love) I will be your angel now
(Lift Me Up) When the lights are fading
(Talk me down) When I'm flying way up high
(Show me love) And I'll be your angel for life
Your angel for life


Flap, flap.*

[*Additional lyrics added by moi.]

Sunday, 10 November 2013

Pop potpurri



Time for another round-up of some of the newer music that has caught my ear lately...

Let's get this one out of the way first. Our favourite Spice Girl, Miss Geri Halliwell has made a rather half-hearted attempt at a comeback with her new self-penned single Half of Me. Not likely to put a dent anywhere near the charts, methinks. Bless 'er!


A far more classy musical comeback has been in our hearts, minds and ears all year - that of David Bowie! Here's his latest, Love is Lost - with a new "Hello Steve Reich Mix" by James Murphy that pays glowing tribute to the classic Ashes to Ashes...


A word from our sponsor... Here's a trailer for the new album Quicksilver from our friend, the "macabre" Mr Marcus Reeves (whose launch show I hope to get to see at the Lost Theatre in Wandsworth on 22nd November)...

[2019 UPDATE: Needless to say (as a trailer), this is no longer on YouTube]

Guitar-based American "alternative" rock bands are not normally my first choice in music, but the band calling itself The Neighbourhood has a rather good choon out (and video - watch out for a flash of the lead singer's own "neighbourhood"!) - it's the hypnotic Afraid:


Another welcome return - the lovely Mr Boy George, who asks "What's the word on the street? Have I lost my crown, or will I be king again?". Judging by the excellence of his latest single King of Everything, he has little to worry about apart from dodgy facial hair:


Something very new, now. Dropkick is the musical project of Give 'em the old Razzle Dazzle regular Cusp, obviously a great talent in the waiting. Here's the remarkably Scissor-Sisters-esque Trapdoor - it's rather fab, actually!


While still recovering from the rumbustious cabaret provided by Miss Eve Ferret last Monday (and we're going to see her again tomorrow!), I looked up her erstwhile partner-in-crime from the New Romantic era at Steve Strange's "Blitz" club Mr James "Biddie" Biddlecombe, and came across this hilarious clip - I've Never Been In Boyz. I just had to share...


And finally, we may be a little late for Hallowe'en, but here is the latest ever-fabulous underwear advertising campaign from Andrew Christian. These boys can Suck...


As ever, enjoy! (And let me know what you think...)

Friday, 6 August 2010

I'm a drama queen, if that's your thing, maybe?



Many happy returns today to everyone's favourite Spice Girl - the only one of that po-faced lot who appeared to have a sense of humour and a personality - our very own Miss Geri Halliwell!

I love this song - Happy Friday!


Geraldine Estelle "Geri" Halliwell (born 6th August 1972)

Wednesday, 14 January 2009

The final curtain



Take a bow, the night is over
This masquerade is getting older
Light are low, the curtains down
There's no one here
There's no one here, there's no one in the crowd

So we wave goodbye to The Astoria this week - with an aptly-named "Demolition Ball" tonight. We have had some great nights at G-A-Y there over the years, dancing on podiums, queuing for hours to see Geri Halliwell, seeing the first public performance of Steps and the last performance of all three original members of Bananarama...

The Astoria Theatre was built by Edward A.Stone and was a conversion from a former pickle warehouse. The theatre was built in 1927 with a large auditorium capable of seating 2,000 in some comfort. It operated as a cinema until 1976, when the building was converted (against the trend at the time) into a venue for live performances.

Although some very major bands played there over the years, The Astoria was always a run-down venue, occupying as it does a rather undesirable position next to a busy road junction and opposite the ghastly Centrepoint complex. Its saving grace came when G-A-Y took over certain nights of the week, packing in the punters.

Yet despite this success, we are going to lose one of the biggest central London auditoriums for the sake of public transport... It is a crying shame!



RIP

Thursday, 13 March 2008

Where the boys are



So Ken Livingstone has confirmed that The Astoria Theatre on Charing Cross Road, home to G-A-Y, is to close and be demolished to accommodate the new Crossrail station development at Tottenham Court Road.

I always had a great time when went to G-A-Y! The premier home for that exquisite breed - the teenage queen - Mr Joseph’s inspired combination of kitsch music, cute boys, podiums for posing, and top chart acts (Kylie, Madonna, Christina, various Spice Girls and boy bands have all played there) was always guaranteed to bring a smile to anyone’s face.

We saw Geri Halliwell there in 2000 (pic above); the last ever performance of all three members of Bananarama; Right Said Fred; Steps; Scooch; Ash; Indigo, and many many more fab acts!

So where will it go now?

What other venue could supply such an atmosphere? Nothing beats teetering precariously on a banquette on the balcony, dancing to You Spin Me Round, sixty feet above the dance floor (until the bouncer sits you down). Where is the replacement enormous stage, large enough to accommodate singer, band, troupe of dancing boys in sparkly shorts, speakers and the inevitably tearful Jeremy bearing a bouquet? And what other venue has ceilings that high, to drop enough giant balloons to lift a small car into space?

Heaven won’t suffice (although that is the most likely venue according to the rumours). Come on Jeremy Joseph - let the punters know!

News article about the closure

http://www.g-a-y.co.uk/

Saturday, 28 July 2007

Old Spice

Bored already with this bloody Spice Girls reunion! What is Geri thinking of?

According to reports, each member of the new Old Spice will use their own private jet to accommodate their entourage of assistants, family members, and massive egos. Each is planning to take 10 hair stylists and make-up experts, as well as fitness trainers, nutrition advisors, personal assistants and child minders. No mention of the people who airbrush their publicity photos...