Review of Raw Spice

Introduction

There can’t be anyone on this planet that hasn’t heard of the Spice Girls. Their lively pop music plugged a gap in the music market in the mid 1990s and indeed the remaining members are still enjoying chart success to this day.

Ever wondered how it all started though? Well this disc is supposed to provide you with everything you would want to know about how they began their careers as the most famous girl group in the world.

Originally screened a while ago on TV in the UK this disc offers extra footage to keep the public happy but is it an interesting insight into the group or a rather expensive drinks mat?

Video

The picture is non anamorphic full frame 4:3 affair and is, by and large, pretty ropey. I don’t know what equipment they used to film this with but there are numerous scenes which have a circular mark in the bottom left corner of the screen. It was noticeable enough for me to stop the DVD and clean my screen just in case. They must have filmed most of these offending scenes on the same day as it must be down to one of their cameras. The scenes which don’t have a mark on are reminiscent of a home movie, quality wise, but seeing as that’s the angle they were going for I can’t be over critical however they could have at least hired a decent camera.

Audio

Stereo on a DVD simply doesn’t cut it for me anymore. When you can buy top quality audio CDs featuring excellent use of surround a DVD has to at least sport at least a surround track so as such this is a very poor effort. Add to that the fact that the quality of the sound is far from great and it’s an all round duffer.

On the subject of sound DON’T expect to hear any Spic Girl tracks. Legally I doubt they would have been able to use any to be honest but what you do get is the equivalent of audio torture with the same one or two tracks being repeated over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over . . . repeat ‘til head explodes! Were the Spice Girls to read this criticism they would probably comment on how I’ve got it easy as I’m not the one who had to rehearse those same tracks over and over every day for a year . . . well I’m not the one with 20 million quid in the bank either!

Features

Right, so far so bad, can the extras save this disc? Not a hope, in fact it gets worse. You get a trailer which is just a few clips strung together, whoopee! Hang on though, this has about 20 minutes of extra footage, gotta be something worth seeing in the bits they didn’t show on TV? Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, it’s 20 minutes of the girls singing the same 2 songs over and over again but extended versions this time! Help me I’m going mad!!!

Conclusion

Looking past my Spice Girls induced temporary insanity the content of the disc is utter drivel. I’m not what you would call a fan of the Spice Girls but I do like many of their tracks so though this might provide an insight into how they started and, more importantly, we might get to see the bust ups and early fights :). Yes we do get to see how they were formed and we also get to see how their lives were for the year or so preceding their big break but it’s all so terribly dull and uninteresting, and there’s only the one bust up which is itself trivial and dull.

There is simply no meat here at all. This is supposed to also give you an insight into the personalities of the girls as well but you already know everything that you hear on this disc anyway such is the mass media over exposure they have had.

Are there any redeeming points about this disc? Yup, it’s only 78 minutes long.

Poor quality and more annoying than an itchy crack, avoid like the plague.