Bob and Chris ran a father-and-son management named Heart Management who were the original managers of the Spice Girls.
Bob Herbert[]
Biography (7 February 1942 - 9 August 1999)[]
Early life[]
Born in Brentford, England, Herbert qualified as an accountant and first got involved in the music industry in 1985. He took a liking to Matt and Luke Goss, twin friends of his son Chris when they were pupils together at Collingwood School in Camberley, Surrey. Although the twins were only 15, they had formed their own pop group called Gloss with the bassist Craig Logan. Realising the blond looks of Matt and Luke could be exploited to market a group that could be the Eighties' answer to the Bay City Rollers, Herbert offered Gloss advice and provided rehearsal space for them in his summer house. He introduced them to songwriters, financed their early demo tapes and plotted their route to success.
Touch (later to become Spice Girls)[]
- Main article: Touch
By mid-1994, Bob handed out flyers around UK cities before eventually placing an ad in The Stage which drew 600 applicants, and whittled the line-up down to Melanie Brown, Geri Halliwell, Melanie Laccohee replaced immediately with Victoria Adams, Lianne Morgan, quickly replaced by Melanie Chisholm and Michelle Stephenson, quickly replaced by Emma Bunton. He explained his purpose of doing this saying:
"The whole teen-band scene at the time was saturated by boy bands like 'Take That' and the 'Backstreet Boys'. That was all a bit of a yawn for me, and only appealed to female audiences...I felt if you could appeal to the boys as well, you'd be laughing."
In March 1994, the girls didn't agree with Chris Herbert's idea to dress them all the same and sing cover versions of other artists, thus leaving the management with a backlog of their own written materials.
In 1997, the Herberts reverted to their original boy-band masterplan which subsequently formed five:
"We decided to put an ad in The Stage newspaper, as we had done when we were auditioning for the Spice Girls. Up until then, no-one knew that we'd put the Spice Girls together and suddenly, it hit the press: the media went crazy for the auditions. The headlines read: `Spice Boys Wanted, Boy Power!' We were being talked about on every TV and radio station. Thousands of lads turned up. It was madness." - Five: The Official Book (1998)
Personal life[]
Herbert was married to Ann and had one son, Chris Herbert and one daughter, Nicky. He died in Windsor, Berkshire in a car crash on August 19, 1999.
A statement was released by the Spice Girls commenting on the tragic death in which they said:
"We were all shocked and saddened to hear the news, our deepest sympathy goes out to his family. We know he will be sadly missed."
Chris Herbert[]
Biography[]
Spice Girls[]
By mid-1994, the Herberts and their financier Chic Murphy had auditioned 600 applicants, and whittled the line-up down to Melanie Brown, Suzanne Tinker (soon replaced with Geri Halliwell), Victoria Adams, Lianne Morgan (quickly replaced by Melanie Chisholm) and Michelle Stephenson, (quickly replaced by Emma Bunton).
Chris Herbert also commenting on the same prospects as his father of finding a girl group :
"There are a lot of boy groups around at the moment. Umm... and we thought it was time to sort of get together a white girl singing, dancing group beacause there is just a need for it." - Spice Girls's documentary Raw Spice.
Personal life[]
Chris is married with his wife Shelley and have together a son.
He appeared in Spice Girls's documentary Raw Spice.