Geri's 1990s: My Drive To Freedom


Geri's 1990s: My Drive To Freedom

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Transcript


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This programme contains some strong language.

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For me, the '90s was the decade of Britpop and Cool Britannia...

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Music was the focus of youth culture and youth culture was culture.

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..of grunge and girl power...

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If you don't like Wannabe, you've got a dead soul.

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..of rave and reconciliation.

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It was a decade of opportunity, of hope,

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of change in all areas of life.

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A time when young people gate-crashed the mainstream

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and took over art and television.

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I think it was one of the few decades in British history

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where it doesn't pay to be posh.

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It felt like we had won, and it was completely brilliant.

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SHE LAUGHS

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-CROWD:

-Girl power!

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And there were some wild moments along the way.

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When she reached 18, nothing stopped her.

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She actually went like a volcano.

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-Those were the days, Ange.

-They certainly were, darling.

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During the '90s, I went from teenage raver to Ginger Spice to solo star.

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And I look back on it as a time of real opportunity,

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when Britain was at its very best.

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Just looking back, I've realised the '90s really was a snapshot

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of a time when, yes, it's OK to be you, it's OK to be yourself.

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We will celebrate that.

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# See our friends

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# See the sights

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# Feel all right. #

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So this is me in 1990,

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a year of massive changes all over the world.

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The great Nelson Mandela walked to freedom.

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Europe celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall.

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And Britain's Iron Lady, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher,

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resigned following the poll tax riots.

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We are leaving Downing Street for the last time,

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after 11 and a half wonderful years.

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Yes, I was one of Thatcher's children,

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a teenager during the '80s.

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And I was brought up in Watford, North London.

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And even as a kid, I was dreaming of fame and fortune.

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And that's me with my lovely dad.

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We weren't a typical working-class family.

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Dad was British, my mum was Spanish, and much younger than him.

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She's lived here longer than most,

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yet she's still got a really strong accent.

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She's never lost it.

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She's always been a very happy child

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and very happy girl,

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and she was very kind with people too.

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But I never thought, honestly, truthfully,

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I never thought she would be so famous like that.

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-You always tried to show off.

-Really?

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Look at several people, "Ah, look at me, look at me, look at me."

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Singing all the time.

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You loved performing.

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It must be a bit annoying.

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Yes, you get on people's nerves.

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-But it was all right. You know?

-I understand.

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-But you're a lovely girl.

-Mwah!

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Dammit!

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It's really funny being here. Really brings back so many memories.

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My dad used to run his second-hand car dealer business from here.

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And so he would always have lots of different cars outside,

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like, Hillman Imps, about three of them,

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and he'd be tinkering along, and all his fingers were all greasy.

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And the phone would always be going.

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Thanks to my dad,

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one of my favourite toys was a little red sports car.

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I dreamed of owning a real one just like it.

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I remember, actually, when I was a little girl, I was probably about,

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I would say about seven or eight, and we had a loo in the back garden.

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OK, an outside loo. And there was a little step.

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And I remember sitting on that step

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writing my first kind of song-poem thing.

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So living here, I had this big master plan, like, yeah,

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somehow I'm going to, you know, get rich and famous.

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That was the dream. Ha-ha.

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# Every day I hear a different story

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# People saying that you're no good for me... #

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For two local North London boys,

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that pop dream had already become a reality.

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I loved Wham for so many reasons.

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They were great fun, and the music was just brilliant.

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I remember, like, all these girls would go and stand outside

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Andrew Ridgeley's house, you know, because he was the good-looking one.

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But I liked George.

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I had no idea what side of the fence he was on.

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In latter years, I tried to flirt with him and it didn't work.

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# I don't want your freedom... #

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To begin with, I didn't really fit in at school.

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I felt like an outsider -

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a girl from the other side of town.

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But getting into grammar school was one of the best things

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that ever happened to me.

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This was a life-changing experience.

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The education that it gave me was fantastic.

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But it also had a lot of tradition.

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You know, I had to wear a boater, you know,

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one of those straw boaters.

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So it's quite funny, you know,

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little scrappy kid from the other side of Watford

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coming here, wearing a boater.

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And really having to fit in with these girls that were from

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probably much more privileged backgrounds, actually.

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I have such great memories of my schooldays.

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But there were times when problems at home were difficult to deal with.

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Like a lot of people, and more so these days, my parents divorced.

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And I think I was at that age

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where I was old enough to understand what was going on,

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but not really old enough to have the sort of tools to process it

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and cope with it properly.

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It was a tough time. But whenever I struggled with anything,

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I'd turn to my music.

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So this song, looking back, is, you know, quite meaningful

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because I think ABBA were going through their own break-up.

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# One of us is lonely

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# One of us is only

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# Waiting for a call

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# Sorry for herself

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# Feeling stupid, feeling small

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# Wishing she had never left at all... #

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You know, songs that have always been

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like the soundtrack of our lives.

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You know, so you hear that again, you are transported back.

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So that song means something to me.

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As a teenager, I was very insecure and really lacked confidence,

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especially with boys.

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So when Madonna became a star in the mid-'80s,

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it made me and millions of other girls

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feel so much better about ourselves.

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I think teenagers can connect to feeling trapped.

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You're too old for the teacup ride,

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but you're not big enough for the big wheel.

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You're somewhere in between.

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I think great pop records,

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when they wrote about that kind of thing, you really connected to it.

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And I think that's why I connected to Madonna.

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# And you can dance for inspiration... #

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I remember going to see Desperately Seeking Susan...

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# Come on... #

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I knew you had to be 15.

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# I'm waiting! #

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And I think I may have been 12,

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and I remember putting socks in a bra, I didn't even wear a bra.

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I got in, I was like, "Yes!"

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# Get up on your feet, yeah... #

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It was very, very un-airbrushed.

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It was, like, "Yeah, this is me, with all my little rubber bangles.

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"And this is me with my three bras on at the same time."

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You know, the music was great, the story was great,

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I was just blown away by it.

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So that is me at 17, in 1989.

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A wannabe Madonna who decided to quit school.

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And even though Mum didn't agree with me, she always supported me.

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She stood up for me and has been by my side.

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She's got this very strong character.

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You look like Marilyn Monroe there. It's nice.

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No matter who you are, whoever I have introduced her to,

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she is like, "Well, what do you want?

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"What do you want with my daughter?"

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Here's my home-made silver rave outfit.

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When I turned 18, August, 1990, the new music scene

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gave me the opportunity to be even more rebellious.

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I loved being part of the rave scene and the way it united young people

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in clubs, warehouses, and fields across the nation.

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The '80s, if you were doing well out of it,

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was an individualistic decade.

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It was the decade of the yuppie, of the bond trader,

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the big bang in the city.

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About me, me, me.

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And the culture that arrives at the tail end of it

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isn't about that at all.

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It's a revolt against it.

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It's about loving each other.

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The ethos of rave and of club culture at that time

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was this real thing of togetherness, of shared experience,

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that we were all in it together.

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The music I think of at this time was early Chicago House,

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Frankie Knuckles, Ten City, Joe Smooth.

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Tracks like Promised Land which have this almost reverential kind

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of slightly biblical, gospel-like air to them.

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# Sometimes I feel like putting my hands up in the air... #

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God bless my mother.

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I'd been such a good girl up until I was 17,

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and then suddenly, I'd met these people who would say,

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"Come raving," and I remember coming back to my mother, going,

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"Mother, I've found my people."

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And she was, like, horrified.

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When she reached 18, nothing stopped her.

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She actually went like a volcano.

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-So was I a nightmare, a bit?

-Ah, well, you was a nightmare

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but it's better you be a nightmare when you are a teenager.

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Yeah.

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The cross-section of music that I was loving was such a wide range.

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There was like Frankie Knuckles, there was Candi Staton,

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Little Louie, Alison Limerick...

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# Don't reach out to me with an apology... #

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# Don't reach out for me with an apology

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# I'll never suffer your desire... #

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I loved it when it was like a really heavy bass,

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but then something really melodic that touches you,

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and you are like, "Yeah, I feel it."

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# So why don't you take my hand?

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# Come away, come out of your blues... #

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I knew that something was special about this song,

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and I was gobsmacked...

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..at how, that so many people

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in a room could react to one song.

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-That was nice.

-SHE LAUGHS

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It was really cool.

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The mix that it got in America

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with Frankie Knuckles and David Morales

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just took it to another level,

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and it's that mix that went on to be loved

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by lovely, lovely, lovely audiences around the country and in America.

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I've had people who have said that they wouldn't have been born

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if it hadn't been for my song,

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which is SLIGHTLY worrying.

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Along with my old friend Angela, I started hanging out

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in The Game Bird pub in Watford.

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It was a great meeting place for hundreds of young ravers.

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-It used to be packed, didn't it?

-Yeah.

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And there was a DJ as well, wasn't there?

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-Those were the days, Ange.

-They certainly were, darling.

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I can picture you in platform boots and a big furry,

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fluffy coat that came up to about here,

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and you walked in and everyone was like, "There she comes."

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But it included everybody, didn't it?

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I just remember all these cars just lining up

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and all going off to the venue and it was like OUR club, OUR secret.

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Back before the internet and mobile phones,

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we'd have to wait in the pub

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for news of secret raves, like Sunrise and Biology.

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When Biology was on down the road, I mean,

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everybody turned up here and it was like,

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you couldn't get a car in the car park,

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there was cars parked all the way down that road.

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And you came in, and the place was buzzing and then,

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all of a sudden, it's like, "This is where it's going to be."

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And the whole pub just emptied.

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Listen to this.

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MUSIC: Where Love Lives By Alison Limerick

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-Takes you back, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

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Did you have that sort of dance, really crap dancing?

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-People would do that sort of big box, little box.

-I know, yeah.

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THEY LAUGH

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It was brilliant while the party lasted.

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-Go, go, go!

-Go, lads, go, go, go!

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But soon the government and the police took action to clamp down

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on the rave scene.

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It is time to get back to basics,

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to self-discipline and respect for the law.

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Soon, new laws were passed to control the scene

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and make outdoor raves illegal.

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You've got this government legislation,

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the Criminal Justice Act, which is insane, looking back,

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makes reference to music with repetitive beats.

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That's in legislation, right?

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The government legislated against dance music.

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That's how much they didn't like it.

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I never understood why people couldn't go out and party.

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It seemed to be ridiculous

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to stop people wanting to enjoy themselves.

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They were thinking it was like the '70s, I suppose.

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They were thinking it was like a political uprising.

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When, actually, it was just a whole load of people who were dancing

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and taking drugs.

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I was a London raver,

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but the scene had a real impact throughout Britain,

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especially Manchester.

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# Son, I'm 30

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# I only went with your mother cos she's dirty... #

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I cannot emphasise enough what a great place

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The Hacienda in Manchester was.

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I mean, it's arguably the most famous club that's ever been.

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# What you get is just what you see, yeah... #

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# I see it so I take it freely... #

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Everything was sort of vivid, Day-Glo primary colours.

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And everyone wore great big, wide-flared trousers.

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And long-sleeved T-shirts.

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My mum told me I looked triangular around that time,

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which was the desired effect.

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And my hair was centre-parted and grown down here

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in what was elegantly known in Manchester as a bumhead.

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Manchester lads, Happy Mondays and Stone Roses

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were two of the biggest bands to come out of the scene.

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When both made it on to Top Of The Pops,

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it seemed like a real breakthrough.

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Things like that would happen and you'd feel like

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something that you knew about had somehow got to sneak in.

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# The pack on my back is aching... #

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It felt like we had won, and it was completely brilliant.

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SHE LAUGHS

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Things were changing, and not only in politics and music.

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New youth shows suddenly made it seem like

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we were also taking over TV.

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The television that was going on, it felt like it was for us.

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That people that were making it were from our generation.

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It wasn't some stuffy adults.

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All of those kinds of programmes that were under the umbrella

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of Planet 24, Charlie Parsons.

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I was, like, "Yeah, that was just really impressive."

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I felt, and Channel 4 agreed,

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that there was an appetite

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for an entertainment show

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which would be very different, aimed at 16 to 34-year-olds.

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And that, essentially, was what The Word was.

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I think you've got to be really drunk to watch this show.

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If I had a body like you,

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I probably wouldn't want to take my top off either.

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It was a reaction, if you like,

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to the rather staid world of TV that had been before

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and, in some ways, a reaction to some of the youth programmes

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of before which were a little bit sort of pompous and pretentious.

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And it's the end of this part of the show

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and it's also probably the end of my career,

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but thank you so much for giving me the chance.

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Goodnight.

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The Word was for my generation.

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It had energy and attitude.

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It was great to see the spirit on morning television too.

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-Hello.

-Hello.

-It's me. How are you?

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The ethos of the production company was

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that we put so much work into it,

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every individual show was so carefully crafted

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and had so much in it,

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and, I think in TV terms,

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it actually changed the way TV was made.

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Let's see the carpet!

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Like most teenagers, I wanted to be famous.

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Ideally, a pop star like Madonna.

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Or even a cool TV presenter.

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So when I saw an ad to present The Big Breakfast,

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I grabbed the opportunity.

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-Here's Chris and Paul.

-No, I'm Gaby!

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Peter!

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I had all these motivational things, like,

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there was a picture of Charlie Persons,

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look what he's done.

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I had, you know, things like, "persistence beats resistance."

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My first encounter with Geri was when she sent an audition tape

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to a strand we had on The Big Breakfast

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called Trash Store,

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which kind of encouraged people to be wannabe presenters.

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OK, coming up, we've got news, reviews and...

0:18:010:18:03

Girls, you're in for a treat.

0:18:050:18:06

I don't think it got very far and I've got a feeling

0:18:060:18:08

Gaby was a little bit rude about it.

0:18:080:18:10

It was in a whole series of things and we just had a bit of fun.

0:18:100:18:13

We've got that quarterback, Dan Marino, coming over.

0:18:130:18:16

OK, 100%...

0:18:160:18:18

OK, I'll see you right after the break.

0:18:180:18:21

Gaby Roslin, she took the mickey out of me and she went,

0:18:210:18:23

"Blah-blah-blah-blah-blah." And I was like, "Oh, my God."

0:18:230:18:26

And I really liked her. I was so gutted.

0:18:260:18:29

It was like, "Oh, that's my first go."

0:18:300:18:33

Never mind.

0:18:330:18:34

It was a bit of a setback.

0:18:360:18:38

But I didn't give up.

0:18:380:18:39

I soon got work on Live TV's Fashion Police.

0:18:410:18:44

Maria, what are you wearing?

0:18:440:18:46

You're in serious need of a makeover.

0:18:460:18:48

And had a Madonna cameo appearance on Dance Energy.

0:18:480:18:51

Strike a pose!

0:18:510:18:53

But my first proper TV success came

0:18:530:18:55

when I appeared in front of millions in Turkey.

0:18:550:18:57

Hard to believe now, but I recorded many shows over there.

0:18:570:19:01

And became one of the glamour girls of Turkish television.

0:19:010:19:05

Hug that pillow, Geri.

0:19:050:19:06

It's a bit like The Price Is Right.

0:19:060:19:08

But this was called Let's Make A Deal.

0:19:080:19:10

In Turkish it's Sec Bakalim.

0:19:100:19:12

And so I had to wear a gown and love that television and, like,

0:19:120:19:16

I signed my first autograph.

0:19:160:19:18

It was a great job at the time.

0:19:190:19:21

But I wanted to focus on my music and go back home.

0:19:210:19:24

Since my parents divorced,

0:19:250:19:27

Dad had lived on a high-rise council estate in Watford.

0:19:270:19:31

I'd always remained close to him,

0:19:310:19:33

and I'd visit him whenever I could.

0:19:330:19:35

My dad, he had, like, this massive collection of books

0:19:350:19:41

that he would share with me, and also a big record collection.

0:19:410:19:45

He was just like a real character, a real character.

0:19:450:19:48

And he was also one of these people that, you know

0:19:480:19:51

when someone doesn't quite fulfil their potential

0:19:510:19:54

but had so much of it?

0:19:540:19:55

For various reasons, we all get dealt stuff in life,

0:19:550:19:58

and you just think, "Aw, I feel for him."

0:19:580:20:01

You know? Cos, you know, deep down, he was a good man.

0:20:010:20:05

But in late 1993, while I was writing songs

0:20:110:20:15

and determined to have a career in music, everything changed.

0:20:150:20:18

I was just in my little zone and then what really threw me,

0:20:200:20:22

I think...

0:20:220:20:24

It was in the November period, my father died.

0:20:240:20:27

I was so... I was almost paralysed by grief.

0:20:310:20:35

I didn't have the tools to process it.

0:20:350:20:37

I have this theory, and I don't know if it's true,

0:20:400:20:42

but I think success comes from three places. One is preparation.

0:20:420:20:47

One is opportunity. And one is need.

0:20:470:20:50

And I think my father's death gave me that need,

0:20:500:20:53

it's like a death energy.

0:20:530:20:55

It drove me into sort of really militant work.

0:20:590:21:02

OK, I'm going to do this.

0:21:020:21:04

And that went on to, you know, suddenly,

0:21:040:21:06

I met, you know, the girls in the band.

0:21:060:21:09

And suddenly I found something that I could belong to

0:21:090:21:12

and sort of distract myself from what, you know,

0:21:120:21:15

all that sort of pain and grief that I just didn't understand.

0:21:150:21:19

In March, 1994, I answered a small ad in The Stage newspaper.

0:21:200:21:25

They wanted five streetwise girls to join a new band.

0:21:250:21:28

No prizes for guessing the ringleader.

0:21:280:21:32

This would be the beginning of my greatest adventure.

0:21:320:21:35

The launch pad for an all-conquering girl gang.

0:21:350:21:38

We are so lucky.

0:21:380:21:40

We are doing exactly what we want to do. We are pursuing a dream.

0:21:400:21:43

I tell you what,

0:21:430:21:45

there's millions of kids out there that want to be pop stars.

0:21:450:21:47

THEY SCREAM

0:21:470:21:50

I love you, Jason, I love you!

0:21:500:21:53

# Help me escape this feeling

0:21:550:21:57

# Of insecurity... #

0:21:570:21:59

But success was still two years away.

0:21:590:22:02

# I need you so much... #

0:22:020:22:03

In the meantime, five Northern lads began to drive teenage girls wild.

0:22:030:22:09

# But if we all stand up in the name of love... #

0:22:090:22:12

I mean, the thing I always liked about Take That

0:22:120:22:14

was that they were Northern

0:22:140:22:16

and there is a charm to their Northernness, I think.

0:22:160:22:19

The great appeal of Take That?

0:22:190:22:21

Teenage girls, hot boys, good songs,

0:22:210:22:25

and it had been a while since anybody came along

0:22:250:22:28

and tickled their fancy.

0:22:280:22:30

# Relight my fire

0:22:300:22:33

# Your love is my only desire

0:22:340:22:37

# Relight my... #

0:22:370:22:39

They were approachable and they were funny, you know?

0:22:390:22:42

I think especially after something like, say,

0:22:420:22:44

New Kids On The Block, they just seemed miles away, you know?

0:22:440:22:46

Whereas Take That looked a bit more like somebody you might know.

0:22:460:22:52

# With the lights out, it's less dangerous

0:22:520:22:55

# Here we are now... #

0:22:550:22:57

So while Take That were wowing teenage girls,

0:22:570:22:59

the Teen Spirit of Nirvana and American grunge

0:22:590:23:02

was dominating rock music.

0:23:020:23:04

I wasn't into the grunge scene. Too dark for me.

0:23:050:23:09

But I liked the way young British guitar bands responded.

0:23:090:23:12

Britpop was genuinely a bit of reaction to grunge, really.

0:23:130:23:16

And it was also a kind of magazine conceit.

0:23:160:23:21

They put them all together and said, "Hurray, here we are.

0:23:210:23:23

"It's a new British invasion. We are just as good as grunge."

0:23:230:23:27

To me, Britpop was fresh, vibrant with cool and clever bands

0:23:290:23:33

like Pulp, Suede and particularly Blur.

0:23:330:23:37

They drew on the sound and spirit

0:23:370:23:38

of British music from the swinging '60s.

0:23:380:23:41

Well, when I think of Blur's early music,

0:23:410:23:43

I kind of think of me and Graham and Damon staying up all night

0:23:430:23:48

and going insane just making, like, sonic terrorism.

0:23:480:23:52

# There's no other way

0:23:520:23:55

# There's no other way... #

0:23:550:23:57

I remember the record company coming down and absolutely freaking out...

0:23:570:24:02

Spitting nails, just going...

0:24:020:24:03

"British... British pop? You're mad."

0:24:050:24:09

"British pop, it's never going to work."

0:24:090:24:12

# All the people

0:24:120:24:15

# So many people... #

0:24:150:24:19

We were young, what? 20? 21?

0:24:190:24:22

And being in the thick of it as it happened

0:24:220:24:25

just made us feel quite proud to be British,

0:24:250:24:28

and I think we kind of knew we were onto something.

0:24:280:24:33

# Parklife... #

0:24:330:24:35

Blur had their own way at the start,

0:24:350:24:37

so things got really interesting

0:24:370:24:39

when Oasis crashed the Britpop party.

0:24:390:24:42

Sparks flew, and there was laddish rivalries in the pop playground.

0:24:420:24:46

Take pictures. Don't ask questions.

0:24:460:24:48

# Is it my imagination

0:24:480:24:52

# Or have I finally found something worth living for?... #

0:24:520:24:58

They themselves said,

0:24:580:24:59

"There's nothing that complicated about our group.

0:24:590:25:02

"It's about cigarettes and alcohol

0:25:020:25:03

"and having a good time with your mates."

0:25:030:25:05

I think that's pretty much the verbatim Noel quote from that time.

0:25:050:25:08

But they were just very different. They weren't art school.

0:25:080:25:11

# Cigarettes and alcohol.... #

0:25:110:25:14

The extraordinary ordinary person was very much to the fore

0:25:140:25:17

in that time and it really, really made a difference

0:25:170:25:19

because it just generally makes people think, "I could do that.

0:25:190:25:23

"I don't have to have any privileges."

0:25:230:25:25

Boys being boys, it was bound to happen.

0:25:280:25:31

I remember how, in 1995, the two heavyweights of Britpop

0:25:310:25:34

squared up in the battle for number one.

0:25:340:25:37

# Don't let anybody get in your way... #

0:25:370:25:40

'The Manchester band Oasis and their archrivals, Blur,

0:25:400:25:43

'have released new singles today,

0:25:430:25:45

'each hoping to reach the number one spot next week.

0:25:450:25:48

'The music industry hasn't seen anything like it

0:25:480:25:49

'since the Beatles fought it out

0:25:490:25:51

'with The Rolling Stones in the '60s.'

0:25:510:25:53

But despite their swagger, those northern upstarts, Oasis,

0:25:530:25:57

came off second best.

0:25:570:25:59

But tonight, there's no denying, Blur are Top Of The Pops.

0:25:590:26:03

I think it's easy to overlook

0:26:050:26:07

what a tribal thing music was.

0:26:070:26:11

# City dweller

0:26:110:26:13

# Successful fella

0:26:130:26:14

# He thought to himself

0:26:140:26:16

# Oops, got a lot of money... #

0:26:160:26:17

I don't know where it went wrong, really.

0:26:170:26:20

But, boy, it did, didn't it?

0:26:200:26:22

# He lives in a house

0:26:220:26:23

# A very big house in the country

0:26:230:26:26

# He's got a fog in his chest so he needs a lot of rest... #

0:26:260:26:29

Pop culture was still about the boys.

0:26:290:26:31

Britpop became the soundtrack to the new lad culture.

0:26:310:26:35

And now all-day drinking was legal,

0:26:350:26:37

the party seemed to never end.

0:26:370:26:40

Being in the band in the '90s was basically

0:26:400:26:43

a licence to misbehave, get drunk, tell everyone to fuck off

0:26:430:26:48

and shag their girlfriend.

0:26:480:26:50

Happy days.

0:26:520:26:53

For me, you know, Blur were cheeky chappies, Oasis,

0:26:550:26:58

great songs, really good songs,

0:26:580:27:00

but what they were emanating was a little bit too aggressive for me.

0:27:000:27:05

You know, and that was sort of that whole ladette culture.

0:27:050:27:08

I couldn't connect with that.

0:27:080:27:10

# I need to be myself... #

0:27:100:27:12

Lots of girls got in on the action too.

0:27:120:27:15

On one hand, lads and ladettes got bad press in the tabloids.

0:27:150:27:18

But on the other,

0:27:180:27:19

there were celebrated by new magazines like Loaded.

0:27:190:27:22

Loaded became like a rock star.

0:27:220:27:25

And actually, I think that the way women were portrayed

0:27:250:27:28

in the women's magazines which were all about hair and beauty

0:27:280:27:32

and relationships, like that's all that women care about,

0:27:320:27:34

didn't represent a lot of the women I knew.

0:27:340:27:38

# Drive boy dog boy

0:27:380:27:39

# Dirty numb angel boy... #

0:27:390:27:41

Lads was the first cover line used on Loaded magazine.

0:27:410:27:44

So if you were involved at all in that scene,

0:27:440:27:46

and you expected to be taken as seriously as any of those men,

0:27:460:27:50

then somehow you became a ladette.

0:27:500:27:52

# You had hands girl boy and steel boy... #

0:27:520:27:54

Loaded gets historically misrepresented.

0:27:540:27:57

You know, "It's full of naked women." And it genuinely wasn't.

0:27:570:28:01

We were just honest about the fact that we fancied women.

0:28:010:28:04

And I think then somebody came up with the phrase ladette,

0:28:040:28:06

and it was just like, you mean, lasses?

0:28:060:28:09

To be honest, lads mags or the ladettes, it was just a tag.

0:28:090:28:15

A media tag, as far as I was concerned.

0:28:150:28:17

And actually, I thought these women were great.

0:28:170:28:19

The likes of Zoe Ball and Sara Cox that went out there and they did,

0:28:190:28:22

they stayed out late, but they were still at work on time the next day.

0:28:220:28:25

So what? And they were hot. And?

0:28:250:28:28

The lads had ruled the charts for too long.

0:28:300:28:33

In the summer of 1996, everything was about to change.

0:28:330:28:38

The time was right for the world to be conquered by girl power.

0:28:380:28:42

# Yo I'll tell you what I want What I really, really want

0:28:420:28:44

# So tell me what you want What you really, really want

0:28:440:28:46

# I'll tell you what I want, What I really, really want

0:28:460:28:48

# So tell me what you want, What you really, really want... #

0:28:480:28:51

Whenever Wannabe comes on the radio,

0:28:510:28:52

you just want to hear it over and over again. It's just great.

0:28:520:28:55

That is a great pop single.

0:28:550:28:58

You know, you can't really pull it apart and say,

0:28:580:29:00

"Hey, if I want to make a great pop single

0:29:000:29:02

"I'm going to make this song called Wannabe."

0:29:020:29:04

But it's a brilliant pop single and the video is hilarious.

0:29:040:29:06

If you don't like Wannabe, you've got a dead soul.

0:29:060:29:10

# Get your act together,

0:29:100:29:11

# We could be just fine... #

0:29:110:29:12

They were ideal kind of pop fodder, I suppose, really.

0:29:120:29:15

And, you know, they had all the things

0:29:150:29:17

that you have with a great band.

0:29:170:29:18

They had really good tunes, they had one for somebody to fancy,

0:29:180:29:22

that's, you know, which one do you like the best?

0:29:220:29:24

# You've got to get with my friends... #

0:29:240:29:26

And everybody was saying, "Well, what's a zigazig ah?

0:29:260:29:28

"What does that mean?" Well, who cares?

0:29:280:29:30

Who knows what a-wop-bop-a-loo-bop a-wop-bam-boom means? Nobody.

0:29:300:29:34

Top Of The Pops magazine gave them all their little Ginger Spice,

0:29:360:29:40

Scary Spice, Baby Spice, Sporty Spice and Posh Spice monikers

0:29:400:29:43

and that's all kind of stuck.

0:29:430:29:45

It's a very British record, so you've got this diverse group and

0:29:450:29:50

then halfway through, it's got this patois bit.

0:29:500:29:53

# Slam your body down and wind it all around... #

0:29:530:29:55

Slam your body down and wind it all around.

0:29:550:29:57

That's from a reggae record, what's that doing there, right?

0:29:570:30:00

Well, the answer is, it's got the full multicultural glory of Britain

0:30:000:30:03

is kind of in there somewhere. It's clever.

0:30:030:30:05

# Friendships never ends

0:30:050:30:06

# If you want to be my lover. #

0:30:060:30:08

Wannabe was number one all over the world but it hadn't been an

0:30:130:30:17

overnight success.

0:30:170:30:18

We'd worked two hard years to write the music and gain control.

0:30:180:30:22

The spirit of the '90s had empowered us to become international stars.

0:30:220:30:27

I think the word "girl power" existed before, you know,

0:30:270:30:30

it was ever said by the Spice Girls

0:30:300:30:33

and what I think was good about it was it felt...

0:30:330:30:36

It felt less harsh than the word feminism.

0:30:360:30:39

At that time feminism was,

0:30:400:30:42

for me, felt like a very harsh bra-burning word.

0:30:420:30:48

Sometimes in life you have to hide vegetables in chocolate.

0:30:480:30:52

You have to wrap it up so it's much easier to digest.

0:30:520:30:55

I think it is first base feminism and any form of feminism

0:30:550:30:58

is fine by me, so if you've got young women saying to other young

0:30:580:31:02

women, "You can do what you want, wear what you want, go out,

0:31:020:31:05

"enjoy your friends, they're just as important, if not more

0:31:050:31:08

"important than blokes," that is fine by me.

0:31:080:31:10

And they did that all the time.

0:31:100:31:12

Then came the 1997 Brit Awards which I was really proud to be part of.

0:31:140:31:19

It was a great moment to celebrate our country and girl power

0:31:190:31:23

had made the front pages.

0:31:230:31:25

I remember I got given a black Gucci dress by this stylist and I

0:31:250:31:31

said, "I'm going to stitch a flag onto it."

0:31:310:31:34

And she went to me, "No, that's National Front."

0:31:340:31:37

And I just thought, "No, that's not how I feel."

0:31:370:31:39

I love all different kinds of races and I think most of us do.

0:31:390:31:42

That's what's brilliant about Britain.

0:31:420:31:44

And so just because of what she said,

0:31:440:31:46

I stitched on the back a peace sign, just to say...

0:31:460:31:49

To rebalance it. Just to make sure. And that's all that was about.

0:31:490:31:53

It was just saying, "Britain is great and it includes everybody

0:31:530:31:58

"and I want to celebrate it."

0:31:580:31:59

And I think it was how everyone else was feeling.

0:31:590:32:02

Something patriotic was happening in Britain and it wasn't just

0:32:050:32:08

me in my Union Jack dress.

0:32:080:32:11

There was Noel Gallagher with his Union Jack guitar,

0:32:110:32:16

David Bowie with his Alexander McQueen coat.

0:32:160:32:18

Without a doubt, the Jack was back.

0:32:190:32:21

It was interesting because we used the Union Jack and the Union Jack,

0:32:230:32:28

for a long time, had had really odd connotations.

0:32:280:32:32

Only a few years before that, the British flag is still

0:32:320:32:35

associated with the right wing, with National Front, with skinheads.

0:32:350:32:41

For me, this is finally a time when it's your ability to

0:32:410:32:45

reinterpret what Britain is that suddenly starts to count.

0:32:450:32:50

I think mid '90s really made its mark as Cool Britannia.

0:32:550:33:02

Music, fashion, culture. It was just a fantastic place to be.

0:33:020:33:07

Cool Britannia spread throughout, capturing the public imagination.

0:33:090:33:15

Everyone was just about doing stuff, getting stuff done,

0:33:150:33:18

getting stuff made and it made for this tremendous flowering of creativity.

0:33:180:33:23

On that basis, it's an important concept because it gave

0:33:240:33:28

legitimacy and status to all these young creative people who otherwise

0:33:280:33:33

might just have remained on the margins of society or culture.

0:33:330:33:37

The really key thing that happened

0:33:380:33:40

in the '90s was there was a massive art revolution.

0:33:400:33:45

Art was still something totally new.

0:33:450:33:47

Nobody knew what the boundaries were, how rich you could get,

0:33:470:33:50

how stupid you could be. I mean, it was brilliant.

0:33:500:33:53

# I could've stayed at home and gone to bed... #

0:33:530:33:58

There is Tracey Emin's bed which is

0:33:580:34:02

fantastically controversial because it's an unmade bed.

0:34:020:34:06

That's what it looks like, anyway.

0:34:060:34:08

It's actually a comment on all the ways that women have been

0:34:080:34:11

portrayed in art.

0:34:110:34:13

I don't think there's any point in me making

0:34:130:34:15

a painting that was already painted 50 years ago by someone else.

0:34:150:34:20

There's no point in making art which has already been made.

0:34:200:34:23

For example, you won't have a scientist reinventing penicillin.

0:34:230:34:27

It just won't happen.

0:34:270:34:29

The young British artist movement made stars out of working class

0:34:310:34:34

talent who captured the public's attention with their

0:34:340:34:37

upfront attitude and provocative images

0:34:370:34:42

Obviously, you have Damien Hirst and his shark which becomes the

0:34:420:34:45

iconic work of the '90s.

0:34:450:34:48

It's a beautiful, powerful, problematic and puzzling piece

0:34:480:34:53

of work so these figures, Damien especially, Tracey Emin,

0:34:530:34:56

become household names.

0:34:560:34:58

They go from being young, at some point impoverished art students,

0:34:580:35:02

to becoming fabulously famous.

0:35:020:35:04

At the beginning of the '90s, modern art was a complete joke.

0:35:060:35:09

It was written in italics or inverted commas whenever it

0:35:090:35:11

was referred to in the newspapers.

0:35:110:35:14

By the end of the '90s, Tate Modern was the most visited tourist

0:35:140:35:19

attraction in Britain.

0:35:190:35:20

Greater opportunities for everyone allowed Kate Moss to emerge

0:35:220:35:26

as one of the most successful supermodels.

0:35:260:35:29

Kate Moss is a prime example.

0:35:290:35:31

She's an absolutely brilliant model but she's not

0:35:310:35:34

a conventional model by any means.

0:35:340:35:35

Kate Moss is pretty much the icon of the '90s.

0:35:350:35:38

I think it's one of the few decades where it doesn't pay to be posh.

0:35:380:35:41

A fantastic journey for a working-class girl from Croydon.

0:35:440:35:48

Even from the day you start, it just takes a long time to realise that

0:35:480:35:51

you've got the option to say yes or no, to choose what you want to do.

0:35:510:35:55

And like me, she'd worked really hard to get there.

0:35:550:35:58

I just remember being a Watford girl,

0:36:010:36:03

just coming into London as a treat,

0:36:030:36:07

and driving in and thinking, wow, this is an amazing place.

0:36:070:36:11

And so I feel pretty, looking back,

0:36:110:36:14

pretty proud to have experienced being part of that.

0:36:140:36:18

# It's coming home It's coming home

0:36:180:36:21

# It's coming Football's coming home.

0:36:210:36:24

# We'll go on getting bad results Getting bad results... #

0:36:240:36:27

But Cool Britannia didn't just influence art and fashion and music,

0:36:270:36:31

it even found its way onto the football field.

0:36:310:36:34

# It's coming home It's coming

0:36:340:36:37

# Football's coming home. #

0:36:370:36:40

By some tremendous stroke of luck,

0:36:400:36:42

the European Championships arrived in England.

0:36:420:36:45

Everybody liked it, didn't they?

0:36:470:36:49

"Three Lions on a shirt, Jules Rimet still gleaming."

0:36:490:36:51

I mean, the lyrics were quite well turned.

0:36:510:36:54

And it was, by association, it was kind of a Britpop record.

0:36:540:36:56

MUSIC: Three Lions by The Lightning Seeds

0:36:560:36:59

'Tony Blair that autumn, I guess,

0:36:590:37:01

'when he makes his conference speech, just shamelessly takes it.'

0:37:010:37:06

Labour's coming home!

0:37:070:37:09

LOUD APPLAUSE

0:37:090:37:10

17 years of hurt never stopped us dreaming Labour's coming home!

0:37:120:37:18

By that point, it's like he was in power.

0:37:210:37:24

People look back and they forget that John Major lingered on.

0:37:240:37:28

In May 1997, with New Labour's landslide victory,

0:37:310:37:36

Tony Blair found himself in Number Ten.

0:37:360:37:38

We were away on tour at the time

0:37:380:37:40

but there was a real feel-good factor back home.

0:37:400:37:43

'I remember there were all those people,

0:37:430:37:46

'lots of Labour Party supporters waving little mini Union Jacks.'

0:37:460:37:50

And it just had this sense of something different,

0:37:500:37:54

something fresh, something new.

0:37:540:37:55

-CHANTING:

-Labour, Labour!

0:37:550:37:59

And this new Labour government will govern in the interests

0:37:590:38:03

of all our people, the whole of this nation, that I can promise you.

0:38:030:38:08

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

0:38:080:38:10

'I mean, it was absolutely amazing when Tony Blair was elected,

0:38:100:38:13

'it really was.'

0:38:130:38:15

We suddenly got someone who was young, whose family was young,

0:38:150:38:18

who seemed quite young.

0:38:180:38:19

'It felt like an old generation had gone.'

0:38:210:38:24

Regardless of your politics,

0:38:270:38:29

one great thing about the new government was the number of women.

0:38:290:38:32

Girl power had arrived in Parliament.

0:38:320:38:35

'Suddenly, you know, 101 Labour women MPs,

0:38:350:38:38

'it was such a large number.'

0:38:380:38:42

And I suppose it was going to happen that they'd try and find

0:38:420:38:45

some way to give a badge to this.

0:38:450:38:47

And so the badge was Blair's Babes.

0:38:470:38:50

I have to say, at the time, I wasn't that fussed about it.

0:38:520:38:55

I was so over the moon about us winning a general election,

0:38:550:38:59

and it really spoke to women outside of politics as well.

0:38:590:39:04

And it was part of that sense that anything could happen.

0:39:040:39:08

I mean, obviously, going down to Parliament was so exciting.

0:39:090:39:12

It was like starting some sort of school

0:39:120:39:14

but it was like no school I'd ever been to.

0:39:140:39:16

It was like Hogwarts-plus sort of thing like this, that building.

0:39:160:39:20

And, at that time,

0:39:200:39:23

my favourite was the Texas song Say What You Want.

0:39:230:39:26

So, every time when my husband and I were driving into Westminster

0:39:260:39:29

in those first few weeks, we had the tape set up just for that track.

0:39:290:39:32

And, as we got round the corner of Parliament Square, we'd put it in

0:39:320:39:36

and that would be our theme tune as we went into Parliament.

0:39:360:39:39

# Well, you can say what you want But it won't change my mind

0:39:390:39:43

# I'll feel the same about you. #

0:39:430:39:46

-TV:

-'The man who likes to hang around at number one

0:39:460:39:48

'reached Number Ten today.'

0:39:480:39:50

-REPORTER:

-Is Government going in the right direction, Noel?

0:39:500:39:53

'In the summer of 1997,

0:39:560:39:58

'their Britpop party reached Downing Street.'

0:39:580:40:02

Having Alistair Campbell who came from a newspaper background

0:40:020:40:06

to manage his spin, if you like, as it was called later,

0:40:060:40:09

was very, very important in both his victory and the way he performed.

0:40:090:40:13

I think one of the differences between the '90s

0:40:130:40:15

and maybe the '70s and '80s was the machinations of government

0:40:150:40:20

became more apparent.

0:40:200:40:21

There was a lot more visibility, there was much more transparency

0:40:210:40:25

in the way that politics was spun.

0:40:250:40:28

'Part of the spin thing is that we had had

0:40:280:40:33

'pretty much of a battering from sections of the media.'

0:40:330:40:35

So there was, if you like, message discipline

0:40:350:40:38

but it was from trying to make sure we did everything we could

0:40:380:40:43

to enable Labour to be seen as credible

0:40:430:40:46

and confident in what we were doing in government.

0:40:460:40:49

# I need some love like I've needed love before

0:40:490:40:52

# Wanna make love to ya, baby. #

0:40:520:40:55

'It was a time when everyone began to recognise

0:40:550:40:58

'the power of positive publicity.

0:40:580:41:00

'And it didn't do us any harm.'

0:41:000:41:02

'It was an amazing adventure for the Spice Girls

0:41:030:41:06

'who were travelling the world, constantly touring and promoting,

0:41:060:41:09

'rubbing shoulders with royalty

0:41:090:41:12

'and becoming the biggest selling girl group of all time.'

0:41:120:41:15

I'd joined Smash Hits as an editor.

0:41:150:41:19

And we'd get the charts faxed over, because it was the '90s,

0:41:190:41:22

and it would be, they were number one in 39 territories.

0:41:220:41:26

And you just go, what?!

0:41:260:41:28

They were having hits in countries they'd probably never heard of.

0:41:280:41:32

It was phenomenal.

0:41:320:41:33

For me, when I got my first fat cheque,

0:41:360:41:41

there was one thing that really epitomised, you know,

0:41:410:41:45

OK, freedom, optimism, and that was the little red car

0:41:450:41:51

that I'd envisioned when I was a child,

0:41:510:41:54

if you had that open-top car,

0:41:540:41:56

and that was one of the first things I went and bought.

0:41:560:41:58

The first thing I did was go and buy this very car

0:42:050:42:09

and I was like, wow, I've arrived!

0:42:090:42:12

And, for me, money represented freedom as well.

0:42:120:42:15

This car was like, yeah, you know,

0:42:150:42:17

I can have a say in my own destiny, this is it.

0:42:170:42:20

Whoo! SHE LAUGHS

0:42:200:42:23

MUSIC: Fastlove by George Michael

0:42:240:42:30

With Britain at the centre of the world

0:42:350:42:38

at the height of Cool Britannia,

0:42:380:42:40

tragic events in Paris reminded us of our own mortality.

0:42:400:42:43

-TV:

-'Diana, Princess of Wales, has died after a car crash in Paris.

0:42:430:42:47

'She was taken to hospital in the early hours of this morning.

0:42:470:42:51

'Surgeons tried to save her life for two hours

0:42:510:42:54

'but she died at four o'clock.'

0:42:540:42:56

One of the things that really struck me when Princess Diana died

0:42:560:43:01

was the outpour of grief.

0:43:010:43:04

And, you know, there was a huge amount of grief

0:43:040:43:07

that sort of flooded the nation.

0:43:070:43:10

Obviously, she embodied so many qualities that we all admired.

0:43:140:43:19

And the only thing I think that came positive out of it is that,

0:43:190:43:24

as a nation, everyone came together and was incredibly supportive

0:43:240:43:27

and very affectionate with each other in grieving.

0:43:270:43:31

'I mean, it was just, just so inexplicable, really.'

0:43:370:43:41

And, of course, a lot has been said since, but I think Tony,

0:43:420:43:48

the words he found on that day just seemed to speak to the country

0:43:480:43:54

and very much reflect people's sorrow

0:43:540:43:57

at what happened to this young mum.

0:43:570:43:59

And I was a young mum, and I could identify with that as well.

0:43:590:44:04

She was a wonderful and a warm human being.

0:44:070:44:12

Though her own life was often sadly touched by tragedy,

0:44:130:44:19

she touched the lives of so many others

0:44:190:44:24

in Britain, throughout the world, with joy and with comfort.

0:44:240:44:29

She was the People's Princess. And that's how she will remain,

0:44:300:44:36

in our hearts and in our memories forever.

0:44:360:44:41

'Princess Diana's death had a huge impact on everyone, including me.

0:44:490:44:54

'It was this, followed by a visit to South Africa

0:44:540:44:58

'for an inspiring meeting with Nelson Mandela

0:44:580:45:00

'that made me reflect on my own path in life.'

0:45:000:45:03

'I think meeting Mandela, it was one of those,

0:45:030:45:05

'an absolute privileged moment.'

0:45:050:45:08

He was charming and gracious and humble and welcoming.

0:45:080:45:13

So, to be able to have met that man of that stature was just amazing.

0:45:130:45:18

You're as young as the girl you feel, and I'm 25!

0:45:180:45:21

LAUGHTER

0:45:210:45:23

'So, when I got back to the UK,

0:45:230:45:25

'I made the biggest decision of my young life.'

0:45:250:45:28

After days of speculation, Geri Halliwell,

0:45:280:45:30

otherwise known as Ginger Spice, has confirmed

0:45:300:45:33

that she has left the Spice Girls.

0:45:330:45:35

'At the age of 25, it was hard leaving the band.

0:45:370:45:40

'It had been an incredible experience for a Watford girl.

0:45:400:45:43

'But my Spice Girl journey had come to an end.'

0:45:430:45:46

I've found in life,

0:45:480:45:49

when you're going through a series of challenges,

0:45:490:45:52

you find out two things.

0:45:520:45:54

One is what you're made of,

0:45:540:45:56

and who really are your good, true friends.

0:45:560:46:00

And I think, you know,

0:46:000:46:01

there was a period of time after I'd left the Spice Girls,

0:46:010:46:04

and I was really needing a little support and direction,

0:46:040:46:08

and I found a really good friend, and that was George Michael.

0:46:080:46:13

'He said to me, "Do you want to come to my house for the weekend?"'

0:46:150:46:19

And I'd met him a few times and, by then,

0:46:190:46:21

I'd realised I'm not his kind of girl,

0:46:210:46:23

I'm not for him, it wasn't going to happen.

0:46:230:46:25

But instead he became a really good friend.

0:46:250:46:27

And he said, "Come and stay with me."

0:46:270:46:28

So I did, and I stayed quite a while.

0:46:280:46:31

I don't know if I overstayed my welcome but I did stay.

0:46:310:46:34

# Oh, but I need some time off from that emotion

0:46:340:46:40

# Time to pick my heart up off the floor. #

0:46:400:46:44

They always say, be careful about meeting your idols

0:46:440:46:47

because they never can live up to what you think.

0:46:470:46:50

But actually he became something better.

0:46:500:46:52

'For me, there's one track that really captures George at his best.

0:46:550:46:58

'It has to be Freedom. I really love this song.'

0:46:580:47:02

# I will not give you up

0:47:020:47:05

# Gotta have some faith in the sound

0:47:050:47:08

# It's the one good thing that I've got

0:47:080:47:10

# I won't let you down So please don't give me up. #

0:47:100:47:14

'During the making of this documentary,

0:47:140:47:16

'I heard the sad news that George had passed away.

0:47:160:47:20

'As well as a great artist,

0:47:210:47:24

'he was kind and generous,

0:47:240:47:27

'he loved his family, and was a good friend.

0:47:270:47:30

'I'll never forget him.'

0:47:300:47:32

MUSIC: Freedom by George Michael

0:47:340:47:37

'In the summer of 1998,

0:47:450:47:47

'I started to take decisions about life after the Spice Girls

0:47:470:47:51

'and sell off some of my most treasured possessions to charity.'

0:47:510:47:55

I was moving on from the band,

0:47:590:48:01

and I wanted to say, "This is a fresh start."

0:48:010:48:04

And I thought maybe we could do some good

0:48:040:48:06

about all the things I'd accumulated,

0:48:060:48:07

so I sold off some of my clothes for charity, and that car.

0:48:070:48:11

And it was one of those things, you know, it felt, yes, very cleansing.

0:48:110:48:15

But, I think, I was always a little bit nostalgic

0:48:150:48:19

and a little bit regretful, if I'm honest.

0:48:190:48:22

And I would always harp on about it and think,

0:48:220:48:25

"Oh, that was such a cute car."

0:48:250:48:27

'I accepted the invitation to become a goodwill ambassador

0:48:300:48:32

'for the United Nations,

0:48:320:48:35

'educating young women around the world on sexual health.'

0:48:350:48:39

I believe that everybody deserves to have control of their life,

0:48:390:48:42

and that means having control over your fertility.

0:48:420:48:46

'What I learnt was that most people want to be heard,

0:48:460:48:51

'and we all deserve education.

0:48:510:48:52

'And when you give people education, it gives them choices.'

0:48:520:48:56

And you can bring the world's press with you and go,

0:48:560:48:58

"Look, I don't know the answers but look at this."

0:48:580:49:01

And suddenly I saw the government might change a policy

0:49:010:49:04

for some school kids that wanted education on reproduction.

0:49:040:49:08

So I was very proud to be able to do something positive.

0:49:080:49:11

-TV:

-'The issues raised by Geri Halliwell today

0:49:110:49:14

'will be discussed at a special UN conference later in the year.'

0:49:140:49:17

'And I was incredibly honoured and extremely nervous

0:49:190:49:22

'when asked to sing at Prince Charles' 50th birthday.'

0:49:220:49:25

# Happy birthday to you

0:49:250:49:30

# Happy birthday to you

0:49:300:49:35

# Happy birthday, your Royal Highness

0:49:350:49:41

# Happy birthday to you! #

0:49:410:49:46

APPLAUSE

0:49:460:49:48

'When you're a young age, it's very enchanting to meet royalty.'

0:49:480:49:51

So, singing to him, I just felt privileged and delighted to do it.

0:49:510:49:56

Of course, you know, it makes your mother proud!

0:49:560:49:59

He was fantastic.

0:50:010:50:04

First, because I have always loved the Royal Family,

0:50:040:50:07

because it's stability in the country.

0:50:070:50:09

So, when she did that and she saw in her mind it was Marilyn Monroe,

0:50:090:50:14

I thought, I don't know about Prince Charles, what he thought he was,

0:50:140:50:18

it's Kennedy, I suppose.

0:50:180:50:20

But, in the fantasy world, it was fantastic.

0:50:200:50:24

I'll never ever forget about that, it was very good.

0:50:240:50:28

MUSIC: Jumpin' Jumpin' by Destiny's Child

0:50:280:50:32

'The '90s might be best remembered for the Spice Girls,

0:50:320:50:36

'rave, boybands, Britpop and Cool Britannia,

0:50:360:50:40

'but it also saw the emergence of many strong female artists.

0:50:400:50:45

'Independent women in charge of their own destinies.'

0:50:450:50:48

I think society goes through waves. It's like a pendulum that swings.

0:50:480:50:53

And suddenly we had a real flush of great female artists.

0:50:530:50:58

And normally when it comes out, it comes out very proud.

0:51:010:51:04

The Spice Girls opened the barn door for other women to come through.

0:51:040:51:09

And you really can't underestimate what they've done in terms of

0:51:090:51:12

just allowing other women to find a voice, have a voice.

0:51:120:51:16

'Deep down, I was scared to go solo.

0:51:190:51:22

'With a clutch of new songs I'd written,

0:51:220:51:24

'in 1998, I joined up again with producers Paul and Andy

0:51:240:51:28

'from Absolute who'd worked with me in the Spice Girls.

0:51:280:51:31

'I wrote and recorded my debut solo album

0:51:310:51:34

'back at the old studio on the Thames.

0:51:340:51:36

'It's now a windows factory.'

0:51:360:51:38

Oh, my God!

0:51:380:51:40

-Do you remember any of it?

-Yeah, I do, but obviously it's changed.

0:51:400:51:43

-There used to be a pool table there.

-Pool table, yes.

0:51:450:51:48

It's like the chill-out bit with everyone hanging out.

0:51:480:51:50

We used to have all our discs on the wall there.

0:51:500:51:52

-That sounds pretentious, but, yeah!

-THEY LAUGH

0:51:520:51:54

Didn't we used to have all our platinum discs there!

0:51:540:51:56

'We had a blind optimism that

0:51:560:51:58

'she would be accepted because of who she was.'

0:51:580:52:01

And that people would accept what she did musically.

0:52:010:52:04

And it turned out we were right in that respect.

0:52:040:52:06

-This is where we used to do all the writing.

-Yep.

-Oh, my God.

0:52:060:52:09

We had a computer down there, a mixing desk there,

0:52:090:52:11

speakers at the back. Sofa.

0:52:110:52:13

-OK, I'm being transported back.

-Are you?

-Yeah, oh, my God.

0:52:130:52:17

Every day, we'd just go to the studio, write,

0:52:190:52:23

and it was just a really liberating, freeing thing to do.

0:52:230:52:28

She would come in and go, I want a bit of this, a bit of this,

0:52:280:52:30

listen to this, listen to this, listen to this!

0:52:300:52:32

-You'd usually want it all in one song, about 35 different ideas.

-Yes.

0:52:320:52:35

The reality is, we'd be going, how the hell are we going to do this?

0:52:350:52:38

Hence the title of the album became Schizophonic because it changes,

0:52:380:52:40

-it was all over the place.

-It was so all over the place.

0:52:400:52:43

The album was called Schizophonic.

0:52:430:52:45

And it kind of meant, it means split sound.

0:52:450:52:48

But actually it was saying, there's two sides of me.

0:52:480:52:52

And Look At Me, the first song, was very much about saying,

0:52:520:52:57

look at me, but actually can we really see?

0:52:570:53:00

Really look at me. Not just on face value.

0:53:000:53:03

# Look at me

0:53:030:53:06

# You can take it all because this face is free

0:53:060:53:12

# Maybe next time use your eyes and look at me. #

0:53:120:53:16

'I think my most creative memory of that whole album

0:53:160:53:19

'was just the production of Look At Me.'

0:53:190:53:22

It was like a revolving door of musicians and ideas.

0:53:220:53:25

# I can even do reality. #

0:53:250:53:30

It was just the track we all fell in love with off the album,

0:53:300:53:33

and got the most excited about writing.

0:53:330:53:35

'Then we got to the middle eight and thought,

0:53:350:53:37

'I don't know what we're going to do.

0:53:370:53:38

'Geri was like, I do know what I'm doing in the video.

0:53:380:53:41

'I'm going to kill Ginger Spice.

0:53:410:53:44

'I want the middle eight to be all about the death of Ginger Spice.'

0:53:440:53:47

LAUGHTER

0:53:470:53:50

-Wow!

-That's the vocal booth.

0:53:500:53:52

This is where I would have my emotional moment, "I'm scared."

0:53:520:53:55

I'm sure I made you cry a few times.

0:53:550:53:57

Yeah, I'm sure I cried a couple of times.

0:53:570:53:59

Because you feel vulnerable when you're singing

0:53:590:54:02

and putting yourself out there.

0:54:020:54:05

You know, I was scared. There was always a little bit of scepticism.

0:54:070:54:11

And so when it did well, it was just so validating

0:54:110:54:15

and brilliant to feel that connection with people.

0:54:150:54:20

This next lady took a huge risk going solo, but what a result.

0:54:200:54:24

She's just done the treble, she's back on top, it's Geri! See ya.

0:54:240:54:30

# Take me back to my sweet lavida

0:54:300:54:34

# Find my love, my dolce vita. #

0:54:340:54:39

'I was thrilled by the success of the album.

0:54:390:54:42

'Mi Chico Latino was inspired by my Spanish roots.

0:54:420:54:45

'Thank God I followed my heart. It got me four number one records.'

0:54:450:54:50

Geri burned really brightly really quickly

0:54:500:54:53

and she did some really smart videos,

0:54:530:54:55

in a time when video really mattered.

0:54:550:54:58

'She was really good at making herself relevant the whole time.'

0:54:580:55:02

And she Geri'd it up.

0:55:020:55:03

FIREWORKS EXPLODE

0:55:050:55:08

When a new millennium arrived, Britain celebrated in style.

0:55:090:55:14

Looking back on the '90s, the world had changed so much

0:55:180:55:20

in so many different ways, it had been a magical decade for me.

0:55:200:55:25

One of real opportunities, and I still feel that, in many ways,

0:55:250:55:28

it was such a positive time to be young and British.

0:55:280:55:32

The '90s for me were incredibly exciting

0:55:320:55:35

because a lot of alternative, interesting, artistic people

0:55:350:55:38

came through and made their mark,

0:55:380:55:40

and they changed things, they really did change things.

0:55:400:55:42

The values involved at that time were all about possibility,

0:55:420:55:46

were all about openness.

0:55:460:55:48

I think, for those reasons, it's important to celebrate the '90s.

0:55:480:55:54

It was probably the last great opportunity to be ridiculous

0:55:540:55:57

and get away with it.

0:55:570:55:59

'What better way to end my decade,

0:56:060:56:09

'celebrating femininity, and with humour, at the 2000 Brit Awards.'

0:56:090:56:15

'I don't think we knew much about the actual Brit performance.

0:56:160:56:18

-'We were invited.

-She did tell us a bit about it.'

0:56:180:56:20

She said, "You're going to be quite surprised what I'm going to do."

0:56:200:56:23

I think she kept it from us, yes, so it was like...

0:56:230:56:25

I don't remember, but kind of going, look, a big pair of legs,

0:56:250:56:28

and Geri's going to come flying out of a vagina!

0:56:280:56:30

On top of that, she's pole dancing.

0:56:320:56:34

So, it's like... It wasn't subtle, that's for sure.

0:56:340:56:37

# Cos men are from Venus And girls are from Mars. #

0:56:370:56:40

# Bag it up, don't drop the baby Boot it up, no buts or maybe

0:56:400:56:44

# Wind him up, and make him crazy Whoa! #

0:56:440:56:48

I think it's important to be able to have humour.

0:56:480:56:51

I think it's a very British way to sort of get through

0:56:510:56:55

some of the painful stuff, to laugh at yourself.

0:56:550:56:57

You think, "Oh, God, you're taking yourself way too seriously, love,

0:56:570:57:00

"get over it."

0:57:000:57:01

So, I think, that album, for me, was a really good reminder that,

0:57:010:57:07

just be honest, be yourself, get on with it.

0:57:070:57:10

It was a good end to that decade.

0:57:100:57:14

'We've come a long way.

0:57:160:57:18

'That little kid with a red car.

0:57:180:57:20

'The little girl who became Ginger Spice.'

0:57:200:57:22

It is absolutely, it is nothing like anyone imagined.

0:57:240:57:26

It's not glamorous at all.

0:57:260:57:29

'But I've realised, however much we've changed over the years,

0:57:290:57:33

'we're still the same people at heart.

0:57:330:57:36

'I guess this journey back in time has helped me look forwards too,

0:57:360:57:40

'towards the road ahead, and the next stage of my life,

0:57:400:57:42

'and making more music.

0:57:420:57:45

'And, if there's one thing that will always remind me of the '90s,

0:57:450:57:48

'it's this, the little red car I dreamed of as a child.'

0:57:480:57:53

On my birthday,

0:57:530:57:54

my lovely husband found the very car.

0:57:540:58:00

I think it was 17 years later since I sold it.

0:58:000:58:04

The guy that had bought it in Yorkshire had still got it.

0:58:050:58:09

I swear to you, I started crying when I saw it.

0:58:100:58:14

I couldn't believe it.

0:58:140:58:15

'This car represents a '90s dream, the freedom.'

0:58:190:58:23

And this little MGB Roadster is me. I just love it.

0:58:230:58:28

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