Spice Girls - Sean Smith

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extraordinary. They were not easy to find.

      Melanie Brown, an irrepressible eighteen-year-old from Leeds, was the first name on the Spice Girls team sheet. She had a spark and exuberance that could poke your eye out. She had no idea that she had the ideal profile to become a member of a new five-piece girl group when she left her parents’ house in Kirkstall at the crack of dawn to catch the early coach to London.

      She had seen the ad for a ‘female pop group’ in the Stage newspaper – or, at least, her mother Andrea had – but she was just as interested that day in trying out for a spell as a cruise-ship dancer. That job was for the summer months so there would be sun and sea for starters, as well as a regular wage. Still, she had never come across an advertisement for a girl band before so it was worth taking a look at that as well, especially as it was in the same building off Oxford Street.

      Her colour had seldom been an advantage for Melanie, growing up in some of the tougher areas of Leeds. She was mixed race – not black – an important distinction. The locals were confused by her heritage, not sure whether she was black or white, but that didn’t stop her being the innocent target of prejudice and bullying – even being called the N-word. Fortunately, the insults didn’t curb her natural high spirits.

      While such treatment was upsetting, it didn’t signal an unhappy childhood – far from it. She had a loving and supportive family, as well as a best friend, Sherrell Russell, who lived round the corner on the council estate in the Hyde Park area of Leeds where Melanie spent her first few years. The modest family home was a mile from the famous Headingley cricket ground. Sherrell was also mixed race and the two girls became inseparable, forging a lifelong bond. It helped that their mothers were also best friends.

      Melanie’s parents always encouraged her to fight her own battles, fully aware of the hurdles she would face. Life had been much more difficult for them in facing the full wrath of ignorant discrimination. Her father, Martin Wingrove Brown, was from Nevis, an island in the Caribbean renowned for its beautiful beaches and its reputation as a safe tax haven. As a baby, Martin was left behind to live on a small farm with his grandmother while his parents formed part of the Windrush generation of the 1950s seeking a better life in Britain.

      Melanie describes her handsome father as a ‘cool, charismatic dude’. On a Christmas Eve night out in Chapeltown, Martin, aged nineteen, met seventeen-year-old bubbly blonde Andrea Dixon. The attraction was mutual. She lived in the district of Seacroft, an area on the east side of the city, where the black population was practically non-existent at the time and skinhead gangs were thriving – which Melanie found particularly upsetting as she grew up.

      They had been going out for more than two years, as well as taking the daring step of moving in together, before Melanie Janine Brown was born on 29 May 1975 at the Maternity Hospital in Leeds. They married three months later at the city’s register office, which was the first time their families had met.

      Melanie still recalls being told of bus journeys when, as a baby, she would be handed to Martin to protect him, not her, as he was less likely to attract trouble when he was holding a tiny girl. Fortunately, in time, Martin and baby Melanie were properly accepted by Andrea’s family – and she by his, although everyone understood the difficulties they would face.

      For much of her childhood, Melanie shared a room with her sister Danielle, who was five years younger. They got on about as well as sisters normally do – Melanie would be mean to her sibling who would run off and tell Dad.

      Andrea had left school at fifteen and took a number of low-paid jobs to do her bit for the family’s finances. She worked at the local C&A clothing store for eighteen years, as well as cleaning in an old people’s home. Her earnings would be invaluable when they discovered that their high-spirited daughter had a passion for dancing, which proved to be a good way of channelling her boundless energy. It was the one pursuit guaranteed to tire her out.

      Melanie, aged nine, enrolled at the Jean Pearce School of Dance in Horsforth, a ten-minute bus ride up the road from the new family home in Kirkstall, Leeds. Jean was the doyenne of dance in the city. She had set up the school in 1945 and over the years had choreographed many amateur productions and pantos in the north of England.

      Jean had also been responsible for the dancing in the popular Yorkshire TV series Young Showtime, which helped launch the careers of Joe Longthorne, Bonnie Langford and the Emmerdale favourite Malandra Burrows.

      At dance classes Melanie made new friends, including a local girl, Charlotte Henderson, who remains her closest friend, despite all the ups and downs of later years. Another was Rebecca Callard, a petite, pretty girl, whose mother is the popular Coronation Street actress Beverley Callard, who plays Liz McDonald in the evergreen soap.

      The two teenagers saw little of one another at Jean Pearce but became best pals when they started senior school and bumped into each other on the first day. They were the new girls at the Intake High School in the West Leeds district of Bramley. The focus there was less on traditional academic work and more on the arts subjects that interested them – music, drama and dance.

      Rebecca, who would go on to become a successful actress, had already appeared on TV, was good fun and introduced Melanie to the delights of smoking Marlboro Lights. She also joined her for sticky-bun binges. The two girls used to spend their lunch money on cakes and pastries and eat the lot in one break. Surprisingly, Melanie never seemed to put on weight. The teenagers were very much partners in crime, even double-dating twin brothers at one time.

      Neither girl was considered star material at school. They managed very small roles in a version of the musical Godspell but that was about it. The Brown household was not especially musical, and Melanie’s love of dance was not matched by an overwhelming desire to become a concert pianist or a professional singer. She didn’t have singing lessons until much later, preferring to release her pent-up energy by bashing the drums.

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