The Stage

Whether to protect Chris from the increasingly likely risk of getting his collar felt the vice squad, or simply to speed up the whole process, in February 1994 they placed an advertisement in showbiz trade paper The Stage - a British weekly newspaper covering the entertainment industry, and particularly theatre. It was founded in 1880. It contains news, reviews, opinion, features, and recruitment advertising, mainly directed at those who work within the industry.

The ad asked: "WANTED: R.U. 18–23 with the ability to sing/dance? R.U. streetwise, outgoing, ambitious, and dedicated? Heart Management Ltd. are a widely successful music industry management consortium currently forming a choreographed, singing/dancing, all-female pop act for a recording deal. Open audition. Danceworks, 16 Balderton Street. Friday 4 March. 11 am-5:30 pm. Please bring sheet music or backing cassette"."Melanie B: I started madly auditioning for summer seasons and West End show, going to London about three times a week. Mum would drop me off at the National Express coach station in Leeds at 6a.m. and then pick me up again at midnight. They were long days, but I didn’t care. I wanted a job really badly. I got The Stage paper every week and read it religiously. I had to find something in the end.'Melanie! Breakfast!’ I run downstairs. The latest Stages was lying on the kitchen table. Great. I noticed my mum had circled a couple of ads as usual. She used to mark the jobs she wanted me to go for and leave the paper open at that page. She knew what I was like, she couldn’t say, ‘Go for those jobs!’ So she’d wait for me to say, ‘That looks good. Oh, and you’ve circled it mum!’One of the ads was for a girl band. I thought, ‘Let’s see what it’s about.’ I used to go to a lot of auditions, for all kinds of different thing. You usually have to sing songs at auditions – something you’ve learnt and something they give you to do on the spot, to test how you really sing.""Melanie C: I was at an audition for a cruise ship when I noticed someone handing out flyers for a girl band audition. I thought: ‘This is it. This is the one.’ For the first audition I wore a lilac knitted little top, some black leggings I borrowed from a friend and my boots.""Victoria Adams: I read about the audition in The Stage. When I turned up there were loads and loads of girls there. The only other girl I remember from the first audition was Melanie C. I recognized her from other auditions and thought she always looked really fit. She was very friendly, too.""Geri Halliwell: I bought The Stage every single week. It was my one link to the chances I was looking for. I missed the first audition because I’d sunburnt my face skiing in Pyrenees, my face had swelled until I looked like the Elephant Man, but I’d ripped the advert out of The Stage and kept it for some unknown reason. Glancing at my reflection in the bedroom mirror, I scolded myself for being so negative. Then a scrap of newspaper caught my eyes. I had taped it to the mirror weeks earlier, after tearing it from The Stage."XX