The Spice Girls kicked off their UK & Ireland stadium tour in spectacular fashion at Dublin’s Croke Park at the weekend.
The legendary pop phenomenon, playing their first show since the 2012 Olympics closing ceremony, became the first all-female act to play Croke Park.
Over 71,000 fans were in attendance to see the show and amongst them was the Spice Girls’ manager, Simon Fuller.
“It was a big one, for sure,” Fuller told Music Week. “As soon as you get to stadiums, you’ve got to ramp it up and it was a good excuse to put together a really fun show. The costumes in particular were really amazing.”
Costume designer Gabriella Slade created the looks for the tour. Spice World Tour creative director Lee Lodge worked with Jason Sherwood on set design, Kate Moross on art direction and screen content, Paul Roberts on choreography and Tim Routledge on lighting design.
Fuller, founder of XIX Entertainment, has partnered with Modest Management, who masterminded One Direction’s rise to fame, to manage the Spice Girls, who will play 13 stadium dates, ending with three sold-out shows at London’s Wembley Stadium.
The tour – which doesn’t feature original member Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham – broke sales records when it first went on sale.
“To be honest with you, I wasn’t surprised,” said Fuller. “On the last arena tour [in 2007/08], who knows what we could have sold? We did 17 O2 Arenas and we could have probably done 40!
“There’s something very special about seeing the Spice Girls on stage. They’re so professional and focused when they get on stage, it was a very special night. They know who they are, and this was a mature show. They haven’t done it for a while and they got to relive that magic of being on stage, with tens of thousands of fans looking at them. They really did have a ball.”
While there were complaints about sound problems from some fans on social media, the reviews were positive, with the Irish Times hailing a “gleeful night of pumped-up pop and updated Girl Power”.
SETLIST
Spice Up Your Life / If You Can’t Dance
Who Do You Think You Are?
Do It
Something Kind Of Funny
Military Cadence / Sound Off
Holler
Queer Tango
Viva Forever
Let Love Lead The Way
Goodbye
Car Wash
Never Give Up On The Good Times
We Are Family
Love Thing
Lady Is A Vamp
The Last Waltz
Too Much
Say You’ll Be There
2 Become 1
Stop
Mama
Wannabe
* To read Music Week’s interview with Modest’s Harry Magee about the tour, click here. To read about what their return means for pop music, click here. To subscribe to Music Week and never miss a vital music biz story, click here.
PHOTO: Andrew Timms
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