The Spice of life for Charlotte
SPECIAL EXHIBITION LAUNCHES
A HOST of stars were spicing up their lives as a huge new exhibition celebrating girlband The Spice Girls launched in Manchester.
Spice Up Manchester has opened at Manchester Central for the next two weeks, celebrating the music, fashion and memorabilia of the global pop icons.
And at a special red carpet launch last night, famous faces were unleashing their inner Scary, Baby, Ginger, Sporty and Posh to get the first look at the exhibition.
Corrie star Alexandra Mardell was a huge fan of the Spice Girls – and even attended the wedding of Spice Girl Melanie Brown when she was just five years old as their mums were friends.
She said: “Emma Bunton was always my favourite but I was always Scary Spice at school.
“My mum and Mel’s mum were friends and I even went to Mel B’s wedding when I was five. I went to all their concerts and I’d love them to all get back together again.”
Musicals star Jodie Prenger attended the launch with former Emmerdale star Natalie Anderson, while model Charlotte Dawson was in glam form to check out the exhibition.
Glamour girl Rhian Sugden and her former Corrie star fiancé Oliver Mellor posed up with cardboard cutouts of the Spice Girls.
Rhian was wearing a zig-a-zig-ah T-shirt in honour of the band’s Wannabe song and said: “Sporty Spice was always my favourite.”
Big Brother star Lisa Appleton wore a Union Jack dress in homage to one of Geri Halliwell’s most famous dresses in the band - and posed up with displays of the girls’ dresses.
The exhibition has been delighting fans in London before opening up in Manchester.
It is here from today until September 4, with tickets priced at £10.
Spice Up Manchester will be showcasing thousands of items of memorabilia, alongside hundreds of the Fab Five’s iconic stage costumes as part of a celebration of, and tribute to, the biggest girl-group of all time.
In addition to displaying merchandise from around the globe – ranging from the rare and unseen to the peculiar and unusual – the exhibition will be showcasing just how significantly and successfully the Spice Girls went from band to brand on a scale that truly took over the world. Alan Smith-Allison, the curator of the event, has teamed up with renowned Spice Girls collectors from around the world, including Manchester’s own Guinness World Record holder, artist Liz West, who owns more than 5,000 individual items ranging from branded crisp packets and clocks, to the jacket Mel B herself wore to meet Nelson Mandela.
The original Spice Bus which appeared in the smash hit 1999 Spice Girls blockbuster Spice World: The Movie will go on display as a landmark outside the Spice Up Manchester Exhibition.