Melanie Brown

LOVE HISTORY: SHE HAS A BOYFRIEND. AN ICELANDIC BUSINESS MAN, AND SAYS SHE LIKES MEN WHO ARE THE OPPOSITE OF HER - QUIET AND CALM.

CLAIM TO FAME: DANCER. DID PANTO. APPEARANCE IN CORONATION STREET. WENT TO MUSIC COLLEGE WHERE SHE LEARNT TO PLAY THE DRUMS. LOUDLY.

- Tell him/her you fancy them, you've got nothing to lose!
- Be as outrageous and as mad as you possibly can, even if you're by yourself!
- Be proud of your race and colour - it's who you are!
- Do get mullered if you want to, but don't try and blame it on anyone else!
- Don't do anything just to be in a gang or because you think you're hard!

- What is your favourite saying?    "Get'em out for the lasses!"
- How do you win an argument?   "Shout and shout and shout more...even when they've gone!"
- How do you meet guys?   "No hesitation, I'd bowl over to him and tell him I fancy him. I'd chat him up with 'Forget the small talk what's your.....?'"
- What about toilet Hygene?   "I don't go!"
- What do you do before bedtime?   "I just fall down in a comfy position anywhere!"

"I hate organisation in life. I want chaos and spur-of-of-the-moment action. I'm impulsive and strong-willed and I've got a foul mouth, which are all the qualifications you need to be in the Spice Girls. I love what I do now, because there's something different happening every day. I had a job for two months doing telesales for a newspaper where I grew up in Leeds and it did my head in. There was no way I could live that nine-to-five lifestyle, so I was definitely cut out to be an entertainer.

"My mum's probably glad to have me off her hands, because I just had too much energy as a kid, I was a nutter. She had to pack me off to my aunt's every weekend because I was too much for her. That's why she sent me to dancing classes when I was eight too.

"I've had a weird and wild life before Spice Girls. I won a beauty competition, Miss Leeds Weekly News, when I was seventeen. My mum entered me without me knowing and when they asked me to be in the finals I wouldn't let my mum or dad come and watch. I only went and won it though, didn't I! I got a car for a year, even though I couldn't drive, and a trip to Disneyland. I took my boyfriend with me, and he eventually sold his story of our lovelife to the papers, the swine.

"I had a job in panto at the Lewisham Odeon in London for a while and got sacked because I kept giggling. It was a cheap production and there was only one mic to go round. One of the actors had the mic stuck in the middle of his forehead and so I had to say my lines to his head. I kept giggling. I couldn't help it. It was no good. My agent said I'd never work again because I'd been sacked, but I proved him wrong.

"I think it's fate that the five of us have been given the chance to be successful, because we're nothing like normal pop stars. The pop start life is all about stereotypes and fitting into a bracket and we don't want to do that. We don't want to work with the producer that everybody elese is working with and we don't want to wear what everybody else is wearing. I really believe we should all do whatever the hell we like in this band. Not that I'm the driving force behind Spice Girls. Everyone brings a really strong quality to the group, whether it's in a very upfront way or something that's within them. It's just that I'm dead outspoken. Most people think before they speak. Not me. I just come out with whatever's going on in my brain. Sometimes I think 'God, that sounds really horrible' and I'll wish I hadn't said it, but that's the way I am. If I don't like you, I'll tell you.

"If I do like you, though, you're alright. My biggest achievement so far has been doing something for my family for once. My dad was made redundant recently, so I paid off their mortgage for them. It was just my way of saying 'sorry about being a brat when I was younger'. Money doesn't matter to me. I've always spent whatever I've earned. When I go into a shop I'll always buy something for whoever's with me ... let them enjoy some of what I've got too. My house actually burned down not too long ago, but I didn't give a toss about my possesions. I was just freaked out because I could have been killed.

"I started going to a healer after that to try and make myself feel a bit better; I'm really into spiritualism now. You get a lot of good karma from it, your whole soul feels cleansed. I've got a spirit guide now. She's kind of a guardian angel who keeps you in check, leads you to experiences that will take you to the next stage of life.

" It stops worrying about anything now. I've got so many skeletons in my closet that if I sat fretting abou them I couldn't get on with being a Spice Girl. I'm at peace with the way I am and I want to experience as much as possible. If I don't have a mad time and live the life then how the hell will I know if I like it or not?

"What shows I've got Girl Power? The fact that I'm really carefree on the outside. I once went out on a date with someone who was painfully shy and by the end of the night we were sitting around chatting completely naked! I can make people forget themselves and just chill out without even realising it. And that's very cool."