OLD LYME, CT – It was intended to be a big thank you and a fitting farewell to their fans, but when the Spice Girls announced their plans for the "Return of the Spice Girls" tour, they had little idea what a huge success their tour would turn out to be. Now the five girls can look back on 47 sell-out shows – a success backed up by Sennheiser technology.
As usual, the Spice Girls' series of concerts broke all records. They filled the O2 Arena in London 17 times, and gave six concerts in the New York area, including a sold-out show at the legendary Madison Square Garden. Their farewell tour took the five girls across North America and Europe, in the company of Sennheiser's wireless technology.
The Spice Girls sang using very special microphones. Their SKM 935s were lavishly adorned with rhinestones; even the ear pieces on their evolution wireless monitor receivers were decorated. The band used (much plainer) evolution wireless guitar systems and all the microphones were used with EM 550 twin receivers. Ray Furze, the tour's FOH engineer says, "For the Spice Girls tour, we needed great sounding vocal mics with rock-solid wireless performance. The 935 capsule proved to be an excellent choice. We had no wireless drop outs on the whole tour and I found they were highly resistant to feedback, even with all five mics about twenty yards in front of the PA."
Monitor technician Matt Napier adds, "After Ray Furze and I reviewed all the wireless systems that were available for the Spice Girls tour, it quickly became obvious that Sennheiser was the logical choice. With five girls, lots of quick changes and a huge set, not only would we need equipment that sounded good, but something that was durable and had rock-solid RF." In total twenty channels of wireless were used for the tour, during which they would be visiting multiple locations, often with very short set-up times. "There were many days when the quick scan function became invaluable," continues Napier. "The small pack size of the G2 wireless monitors was an instant hit with the girls, and the G2 mics have taken a battering and worked flawlessly. To date we have not had one drop out. Technical points aside, the best part of working with Sennheiser has been the fantastic back-up. From the planning stage with expert technical help (many thanks to Dave Hawker from Sennheiser UK) to on-the-road back-up from Mark Saunders and Kristy Jo Winkler, Sennheiser has done a fantastic job."
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