Bob Herbert (manager)
Encyclopedia
Robert “Bob” Herbert was an English talent manager. He was the original manager of the Spice Girls
Spice Girls
The Spice Girls were a British pop girl group formed in 1994. The group consisted of Victoria Beckham , Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm and Geri Halliwell. They were signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single, "Wannabe" in 1996, which hit number-one in more than 30...

.

Early life

Born in Brentford
Brentford
Brentford is a suburban town in west London, England, and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It is located at the confluence of the River Thames and the River Brent, west-southwest of Charing Cross. Its former ceremonial county was Middlesex.-Toponymy:...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, 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.

Spice Girls

By mid-1994, the Herberts and Murphy had auditioned 600 applicants, and whittled the line-up down to Melanie Brown
Melanie Brown
Melanie Janine "Scary Spice" Brown , often better known as Mel B, is an English pop singer-songwriter, actress, author and television presenter...

, Geri Halliwell
Geri Halliwell
Geraldine Estelle "Geri" Halliwell is an English pop singer-songwriter, author and actress. After coming to international prominence in the late 1990s as Ginger Spice, a member of the girl group the Spice Girls, Halliwell launched her solo career in 1998 and released her album Schizophonic...

, Victoria Adams
Victoria Beckham
Victoria Caroline Beckham is an English singer-songwriter, dancer, model, actress, fashion designer and businesswoman. In the late 1990s, Beckham rose to fame with the all-female pop group Spice Girls and was dubbed Posh Spice by the July 1996 issue of the British pop music magazine Top of the Pops...

, Lianne Morgan, quickly replaced by Melanie Chisholm
Melanie Chisholm
Melanie Jayne Chisholm is an English singer-songwriter, actress and businesswoman professionally known simply as Melanie C . She is best known as one of the five members of the girl group Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed "Sporty Spice"...

 and Michelle Stephenson
Michelle Stephenson
Michelle Stephenson is a British singer and TV presenter. At the age of 17 she was briefly a member of the English vocal girl group that would go on to become the Spice Girls...

, quickly replaced by Emma Bunton
Emma Bunton
Emma Lee Bunton is an English pop singer/songwriter and TV and radio presenter. She was a member of the 1990s girl group, the Spice Girls, in which she was known as Baby Spice as she was the youngest member. In 2010, she joined the judging panel on ITV's Dancing on Ice...

 . The Spice Girls were however first called Touch but Spice was considered much better. Therefore the spice girls got their own names. Victoria was Posh, Mel C was Sporty, Mel B was Scary, Geri was Ginger and Emma was Baby.
In 1997, the Herberts reverted to their original boy-band masterplan. "We decided to put an ad in The Stage newspaper, as we had done when we were auditioning for the Spice Girls," recalled Bob Herbert in 5ive

Personal life

Herbert was married to Ann and had one son, Chris Herbert
Chris Herbert
Chris Herbert , is a talent manager who has helped overseen the careers of the Spice Girls, Five, Stephen Gately and Hear'Say...

 and one daughter, Nicky. He died in Windsor, Berkshire
Windsor, Berkshire
Windsor is an affluent suburban town and unparished area in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. It is widely known as the site of Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the British Royal Family....

.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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