SCOUSE IN THE HOUSE: Mel C
by LORRAINE CARPENTER
“Things are quite quiet here in England, which is lovely.” Mel C, born Melanie Chisholm but perhaps better known as Sporty Spice of the Spice Girls, is referring to the relative calm of the tabloid press, at least as far as she’s concerned. She has occasionally been subjected to the paparazzi and the rumour mill, particularly during the heyday of the Spice Girls, but has been overshadowed in that respect by her more outspoken, celebrity-entangled bandmates. The most intrusive offence against Chisholm was an allegation that she was a lesbian, generated by innocuous photos of her and a female personal assistant lying on a beach and, presumably, all those tracksuits. (The papers are currently reporting that she and her boyfriend are considering having a child.)
The media and the public have been good to Chisholm, widely regarded as the only Spice Girl with a substantial voice. Her first solo album, Northern Star (1999), went triple platinum in the U.K., though its follow-up, Reason (2003), was a disappointing gold, leaving her on the outs with her longtime label, Virgin/EMI.
“I was quite relieved to be set free, actually. It’s tough times in the record industry, so I think to own your own copyright is really the way to go,” says Chisholm, who promptly founded Red Girl Records. “To be completely independent was such a big, big change from where I’d started, being part of a pop group and being signed to a major label, to starting your own label and self-financing—it was a big challenge, but a lot of fun.”
Her latest album is This Time, a collection of lively pop songs and big ballads, as well as a few homespun ditties co-written with singer-songwriter Adam Argyle, who sings on “Don’t Let Me Go,” and also contributed to her last album, Beautiful Intentions (2005). Their working friendship was cemented by the fact that Argyle is a fellow northerner. Chisholm is from Liverpool, a city with pop music heritage to spare, and a devoted fanbase for its football club, to put it mildly—Red Girl is named after the red stripe on their logo.
Chisholm also shows her support for the team with a Liver bird tattoo on her posterior, one of 11 tats. Others include a Celtic cross and armband, a flaming phoenix, a Chinese dragon and, on each wrist, the words “love” and “happiness” in Tibetan. Though she declined to comment on the current controversy about the Tibet independence movement and the Olympics, Sporty was happy to discuss a recent feat of her own: performing one of her famous back flips in Toronto, at the final show of the Spice Girls reunion tour (witness the fitness at www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6RJp_Jxm_A).
“I hadn’t done one for about four years,” she says. “It’s something that, every now and again, I used to get on the grass just to see if I could still do it, but I had quite a bad knee injury four years ago and I’ve never had the confidence to do it again. But on the last day, I just went for it. I’m quite proud of myself. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to continue to do it until I’m a grandmother. That’d be cool, wouldn’t it? A party trick.”
by LORRAINE CARPENTER
“Things are quite quiet here in England, which is lovely.” Mel C, born Melanie Chisholm but perhaps better known as Sporty Spice of the Spice Girls, is referring to the relative calm of the tabloid press, at least as far as she’s concerned. She has occasionally been subjected to the paparazzi and the rumour mill, particularly during the heyday of the Spice Girls, but has been overshadowed in that respect by her more outspoken, celebrity-entangled bandmates. The most intrusive offence against Chisholm was an allegation that she was a lesbian, generated by innocuous photos of her and a female personal assistant lying on a beach and, presumably, all those tracksuits. (The papers are currently reporting that she and her boyfriend are considering having a child.)
The media and the public have been good to Chisholm, widely regarded as the only Spice Girl with a substantial voice. Her first solo album, Northern Star (1999), went triple platinum in the U.K., though its follow-up, Reason (2003), was a disappointing gold, leaving her on the outs with her longtime label, Virgin/EMI.
“I was quite relieved to be set free, actually. It’s tough times in the record industry, so I think to own your own copyright is really the way to go,” says Chisholm, who promptly founded Red Girl Records. “To be completely independent was such a big, big change from where I’d started, being part of a pop group and being signed to a major label, to starting your own label and self-financing—it was a big challenge, but a lot of fun.”
Her latest album is This Time, a collection of lively pop songs and big ballads, as well as a few homespun ditties co-written with singer-songwriter Adam Argyle, who sings on “Don’t Let Me Go,” and also contributed to her last album, Beautiful Intentions (2005). Their working friendship was cemented by the fact that Argyle is a fellow northerner. Chisholm is from Liverpool, a city with pop music heritage to spare, and a devoted fanbase for its football club, to put it mildly—Red Girl is named after the red stripe on their logo.
Chisholm also shows her support for the team with a Liver bird tattoo on her posterior, one of 11 tats. Others include a Celtic cross and armband, a flaming phoenix, a Chinese dragon and, on each wrist, the words “love” and “happiness” in Tibetan. Though she declined to comment on the current controversy about the Tibet independence movement and the Olympics, Sporty was happy to discuss a recent feat of her own: performing one of her famous back flips in Toronto, at the final show of the Spice Girls reunion tour (witness the fitness at www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6RJp_Jxm_A).
“I hadn’t done one for about four years,” she says. “It’s something that, every now and again, I used to get on the grass just to see if I could still do it, but I had quite a bad knee injury four years ago and I’ve never had the confidence to do it again. But on the last day, I just went for it. I’m quite proud of myself. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to continue to do it until I’m a grandmother. That’d be cool, wouldn’t it? A party trick.”
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