Background
In December 1994, the Spice Girls persuaded their former managers—father-and-son team Bob and Chris Herbert—to set up a showcase in front of industry writers, producers and A&R men at the Nomis Studios in Shepherd's Bush, London. Producer Richard Stannard was originally at the studio to meet pop star Jason Donovan, but he ended up in the showcase after hearing Melanie Brown, as she went charging across the corridor. Stannard recalls:
More than anything, they just made me laugh. I couldn't believe I'd walked into this situation. You didn't care if they were in time with the dance steps or whether one was overweight or one wasn't as good as the others. It was something more. It just made you feel happy. Like great pop records.
Stannard stayed after everyone had left the showcase to talk to the group, he then reported back to his songwriter partner Matt Rowe, that he had found the pop group of their dreams. In January 1995, Chris Herbert booked the group's first professional songwriting session with the producers at the Strongroom in Curtain Road, East London. Rowe remember feeling similarly to Stannard when he first met the group, "I love them. Immediately. They were like no one I'd met before, really." The session was productive as the duo seemed to get along with the group, together they discussed about the songwriting process and what they wanted to do with the record. In her autobiography, Brown recalled that the duo instinctively understood their point of view and knew how to incorporate "the spirit of five loud girls into great pop music".
Read more about this topic: 2 Become 1
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