When I was a child, I probably should have been medicated about my obsession with The Spice Girls. I had the Buffalo shoes, a customised Baby Spice necklace - when I say custom-made, it was made out of plastic from the local mall - and a Union Jack dress.

In 1997, we took time off, and that's when Oasis broke and Princess Diana died and I was home with my baby hating the music industry. People asked what I thought about the Spice Girls, and honestly, I was so happy to tell them I couldn't be bothered to care.

When I was young I was listening to the Spice Girls and Destiny's Child. I was singing 'Independent Woman' and 'Survivor,' and it was all about Girl Power and being with your friends. I don't think I was singing, 'Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me?'

I was signed to a record label when I was younger. I was in a group, and I just wasn't - personally, I wasn't ready to get out there. I don't know. It was a pop group. Not like the Spice Girls, but when you don't have any control over anything, it's disheartening.

I had everything you could collect. I had these Spice Girls postcards. I also had the stickers and Barbie girls. I had all five of them. I was a real fangirl. They were actually preaching some cool stuff, the thing about girl power and sticking together with your best girlfriends.

S Club 7, in some ways, was a continuation of some of the things I'd have liked to have done with the Spice Girls. It was also a shift in tone. S Club was this equality of boys and girls, very positive, very uplifting, didn't have the edge of the Spice Girls. I didn't want to repeat it.

I wouldn't say there's a need for the Spice Girls, but I'd say there's a place for the Spice Girls. There's certainly a place for them, but you don't promote the Spice Girls at the expense of promoting what I think are good role models for girls. You need to create some kind of equality.

In the early '90s, it was grunge; everybody was fully clothed. Alanis Morissette was one of the biggest artists in the world, never wore makeup, wearing Doc Marten boots, and then the Spice Girls turn up, and suddenly it all looks a bit burlesque; suddenly they're the biggest band in the world.

I wrote 'Lights' a long, long time ago. And I expected it to be on the album, because it was - I wrote it with 'Biff' Stannard. And he wrote every single Spice Girls song and every single pop song of the 90s, basically. So I thought, you know, I was really lucky to work with him, but I didn't think it would be a big song for some reason.

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