To ensure that this stamp collection truly captures the essence of the Spice Girls’ remarkable legacy, Royal Mail collaborated closely with the band and Bravado, Universal Music Group’s brand management and merchandise division. Together, they carefully curated and selected images that showcase the group’s iconic performances from 1997 to 2012.

The main set of 10 stamps features captivating images of the Spice Girls both as a group and as individuals during their live performances. These images include memorable moments such as their electrifying performance at the BRIT Awards in 1997, Melanie Chisholm’s captivating solo performance at the BRIT Awards in London in 1998, and their unforgettable closing ceremony performance at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

This stamp collection is a testament to the Spice Girls’ immense impact on the music industry and their status as one of the most successful British bands in history. It is a fitting tribute to their incredible achievements and will undoubtedly be cherished by fans and collectors alike. A further five stamps, presented in a miniature sheet, complete the set. These stamps feature individual images of the girls from the iconic Spice World photoshoot. Victoria Beckham took to Instagram to express her excitement. She said, “Honored to be the first girl group to be featured on a commemorative stamp and so proud of everything we’ve achieved.”

The Spice Girls, consisting of Victoria Beckham, Emma Lee Bunton, Geri Halliwell-Horner, Mel B, and Melanie C also known as Posh, Baby, Ginger, Scary and Sporty Spice, formed in 1994. They have become the biggest female group of all time, with record sales exceeding 100 million worldwide. At a time when girl groups were not seen as commercially viable, the Spice Girls led their own rise to chart dominance. Their infectious pop sound and empowering “Girl Power!” philosophy revolutionised the music industry and inspired countless artists and fans.

In 1996, Spicemania took over the world with the release of their debut single, “Wannabe.” Their influence extended to every aspect of modern life.

David Gold, Director of External Affairs and Policy, commented, “The Spice Girls have been a force to be reckoned with since they formed as a group in 1994. We are proud to celebrate the most successful female music group ever seen, not only for their music but their enduring influence over so many aspects of our lives.”

The stamps can be pre-order from www.royalmail.com/spicegirls and by telephone on 03457 641 641. A Presentation Pack including all 15 stamps in the set is priced at £19.65. The stamps go on general sale on 11 January.

Speculations surrounding the iconic girl-group have been circulating for months, and with 2024 marking three decades since their initial formation, fans have been calling for a special Pyramid Stage reunion. The hypothetical performance would see the group return to the stage for the first time since 2019, when four out of five members – Mel C, Mel B, Emma Bunton and Horner – last toured together.

Check out “Who Do You Think You Are” from the 2019 tour:

Now, in an interview with The Sunday Times, Horner has dismissed these claims as untrue, insisting that plans for any kind of appearance at the world-famous UK festival are not on the cards. The singer did, however, provide Spice Girl hopefuls with some consolation, teasing that “at some point there will be something”. 

Rumours regarding a 2024 reunion gained momentum earlier this year after a report by The Sun claimed the members were in talks to reform for a surprise performance on the main stage at Glastonbury. A source allegedly told the tabloid: 

“Victoria will be 50 next year, and the girls turning 30 seems like two ­anniversaries too good to miss. The group have been in talks to headline Glastonbury and this would sit with Victoria’s ‘cool’ aesthetic. All five are on board to mark 30 years in some way, shape or form. It’s very exciting.”

A proper reunion, of course, wouldn’t be complete without Victoria Beckham, a.k.a. Posh Spice, who last performed with the Spice Girls at the London Olympics closing ceremony in 2012. The fashionista continues to carve herself a prodigious career as a successful businesswomen and has always maintained that she is too busy to find time for her old pop group.

Check out the Spice Girls 2012 Olympics performance:

In 2022, upon being inquired about the possibility of returning, Beckham explained: 

“I had so much fun being in the Spice Girls. But I think that now, with everything else that I’ve got going on with my fashion, and my beauty line, four children, I couldn’t commit to that.”

Earlier this year, however, Mel B hinted to The Sun that, even despite Beckham’s busy schedule, a reunion could be imminent: 

“We’re just finishing off perfecting what we’re going to be doing together, all five of us, but it’s going to be something that the fans are really going to love. Obviously she’s [Victoria] got a bunch of kids so it’s just about finding the right time and we’ve managed to do that so there should be an announcement pretty soon.”

It seems Spice Girl fans will just have to wait and see. In the meantime, watch Victoria Beckham’s recent karaoke performance of the group’s stone cold classic “Say You’ll Be There” below:

@victoriabeckhamWarming up the vocals in Miami! More to come!!♬ original sound – Victoria Beckham

The 12-inch vinyl was listed for sale on eBay, with bids reaching £7,100 before its removal from the website. The listing received over 80 bids, with tracks now having been shared online without permission.

Speaking to The Sun, an unnamed source commented, “It is unclear how someone got hold of this vinyl but they shouldn’t sell it. The contents should never have been made public and it is unfair to the group to have these unfinished songs shared, as it is against their wishes.”

Fans are guessing that the tracks may have been scrapped from the album titled Forever, released in 2000. The newly leaked tracks do not feature Geri Halliwell, also known as Ginger Spice, who controversially left the group in 1998.

The previously unheard songs include “Woman”, “Too Hot” and “Go Go Go”, with these not being the first tracks that The Spice Girls have seen released without their permission.

In December 2022, a track provokingly titled “C. U. Next Tuesday” was uploaded online following a security breach, with band member Mel C (also known as Sporty Spice) commenting, “C.U. Next Tuesday was never used because it’s a pile of shit. It would be a big rip-off if Virgin put it on a greatest hits album now.”

Another unnamed source spoke to The Sun regarding this track, saying, “The Spice Girls are all at a very different place in their lives now than they were when this song was first written as a tongue-in-cheek track in the Nineties. It is obviously a bit embarrassing given the cringeworthy title, as they wouldn’t use the c-word in their own lives.”

The source continued, “It is a bit of a mystery how on earth it has got out but they aren’t going to dwell on it. The group have other projects they are looking forward to in 2023 so are focusing on them and hoping this song — which they were never particularly fond of — is forgotten.”

The group (minus Victoria Beckham a.k.a Posh Spice) reunited for a sell-out stadium tour back in 2019, with fans eagerly awaiting their next moves.

It was rumoured that the band would reunite for Glastonbury Festival, however Mel C said in January that those plans “no longer fit the girls.”

Mel C has given fans hope for a full-blown reunion in the future though, with this one including Victoria Beckham, who hasn’t performed with The Spice Girls since the 2012 London Olympics.

Speaking to NME, Mel C shared, “Of course we had incredible stadium shows in 2019. And you know, there’s definitely a bit of fomo for [Beckham], so I’m a big optimist. We were all at Geri’s 50th a couple of months back and Victoria was the first one on the dance floor requesting Spice Girls songs,” ultimately giving the fans hope that they’ll be able to spice up their lives soon.

The festival’s lineup and event schedule span an impressive ten days, ticketholders are able to obtain access to a varied offering of events and activities. Representing the music aspect of the festival is an impressive lineup of acts spanning from various genres and eras.

CHELTENHAM LITERATURE FESTIVAL LINE-UP REVEALED

From 7 to 16 October, we’ll be taking over the town for #CheltLitFest

Check out our brochure: https://t.co/Sl7Ve5VqjS

And keep your eyes peeled at 10am when you can head to our website and start creating your wishlist pic.twitter.com/AKZNHSEBWl

— Cheltenham Festivals (@cheltfestivals) August 11, 2022

Billed to appear on the festival’s first day 7th October 2022 is Mel C, the former Spice Girl will be in discussion with Cathy Newman during the Cheltenham Literature Festival. The pair’s back and forth will be live broadcasted via The Ladder, Newman’s Times Radio show. A description of Mel C’s appearance states, “Mel C reveals all about the good and bad times of her fame and life with The Spice Girls in her long-awaited memoir Who I Am: My Story,”

Set to take the stage on 14th October 2022 is Nick Cave, the iconic musician will be speaking with Sean O’Hagan, a journalist for the Observer and a friend of Cave. The creative pair will be discussing their recent collaboration, Faith, Hope and Carnage. The book charts six years of Cave’s life and draws from over 40 hours of interviews between himself and O’Hagen.

Scheduled to be released on 20th September 2022, a synopsis provides further details concerning the book, “Faith, Hope & Carnage promises to be a thoughtful book about Cave’s inner life over the last six years, a meditation on big ideas including, faith, art, music, grief and much more, It is a project prompted by lockdown, and one that sits comfortably alongside Cave’s weekly mailing list The Red Hand Files. It is at once borne of and in some sense a tribute to the stillness – and imperative period of reflection – wrought by a global pandemic.”

The next day on 15th October 2022, British icon Jarvis Cocker will be appearing at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, the former Pulp frontman will be discussing his book and “reveal secrets from his early life in Sheffield”. The singer’s memoir Good Pop, Bad Pop was originally released in 2020 and was named as BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week. A synopsis of the book states, “From a Gold Star polycotton shirt to a pack of Wrigley’s Extra, from his teenage attempts to write songs to the Sexy Laughs Fantastic Dirty Joke Book, this is the hard evidence of Jarvis’s unique life, Pulp, 20th-century pop culture, the good times and the mistakes he’d rather forget. And this accumulated debris of a lifetime reveals his creative process – writing and musicianship, performance and ambition, style and stagecraft.”

On the festival’s last day 16th October 2022, U2 frontman Bono will make an appearance at the event’s The Times & The Sunday Times forum. During his slot, the “With Or Without You” singer will be discussing and reviewing his upcoming memoir. Entitled Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, the book has been given a publication date of 1st November 2022 via publishing house Alfred A. Knopf.

Tickets for Cheltenham Literature Festival are not yet available for purchase, Cheltenham Festivals Members will be able to access the sale on 31st August and general ticket release will open on 7th September 2022.

Click here to purchase tickets.

Melanie C –  the eighth studio LP from the Spice Girls alumna – topped the UK Independent Albums chart last October and peaked at number eight in the Official UK Albums Chart. It received glowing reviews from critics, with The Independent calling it her best solo record to date and the NME describing it as “…an invigorating, uplifting record that not only serves as its creator’s best work in decades, but as a source of much-needed strength and positivity.” The Observer went further, labelling Melanie C “a genuine statement” which “lands some serious punches on a mature, embracing album with nods to neo-disco and deep house.”

In an admirably frank interview with BBC News last summer, Chisholm spoke about how the uplifting quality of her music still offered something to modern pop pickers. The Widnes-raised product said “Obviously, I’m making a pop-dance record and I’m a mature artist, so I have to accept that some radio stations are not going to be playing me anymore. That’s something to overcome. But I want people to enjoy this album, I want people to dance to it, I want people to be empowered by it. And when coronavirus has finally done one, I want to get out there and perform it live.”

Mel C’s last major outings on stage came on the Spice Girls 2019 ‘Spice World’ tour. That thirteen date tour of the UK and Ireland saw the group play together for the first time since the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics – albeit without Victoria Beckham/Posh Spice in tow – and is reported to have generated the four participants a cool £10million each.

Chisholm has said that the memory of that successful tour, and a backstage encounter with Spice Girls superfan Adele, had driven her on to release an LP in the bleak circumstances of the pandemic. She told Today FM: “Seeing all those fans made me feel so proud. I wanted to make something upbeat and celebratory. 2020 has been a really difficult year but I wanted to give it to the fans.”

Her bandmate Mel B/Scary Spice has suggested that a 25th anniversary tour could be in the works this year, although it remains shrouded in coronavirus-related uncertainty. The Yorkshire native (and surprise recent contestant on ITV’s The Masked Singer) told the Mirror: “Until the virus gets under control I don’t think anyone can securely say ‘I’m definitely going on tour’. When it comes to putting on a show or concert, I don’t know how people are going to do it without the proper guidelines and information, because things change on a weekly basis. Us lot are definitely up for it – it’s just a case of timings and safety.”

The description included on the official website reads, “The #ILoveLive memorabilia prize draws were arranged to support the unsung heroes of the live music industry – the people behind the scenes that make the magic happen, the crew and the technicians. Most of these people are self employed and no shows means no income. Although Government support has helped, there are still many that have slipped through the cracks and need our support.”

Artists who donated prizes for fans to win via donation include Sam Smith, Radiohead, Robbie Williams, Melanie C, FKA Twigs, Foals, The Cure’s Robert Smith and many more. Prizes were incredible memorabilia such as Smith’s Schecter ‘Fibonacci Sequence’ UltraCure guitar, hand-painted lyrics by Florence and the Machine, Melanie C’s jacket worn on the Spice World Tour in 2019, and even FKA Twigs’ Commedia dell’Arte masks.

Friday I’m in love … https://t.co/RaA2vjgl84

— Stagehand (@StagehandFund) December 12, 2020

The founder of Stagehand Andy Lenthall told NME, “There are people who have been able to get alternative work, and there are people can survive on self-employment income support, and there are people who have been furloughed – but we’ve lost  lot of people due to redundancies and 20% of our self-employed crew have fallen through the cracks and had nothing.” As well as the money raised, GiftAid gave an additional £10,882 (estimated), bringing the total up to £546,722.