GAYLEEDS.COM Review (04/02/2011)

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Spiceworld: The Exhibition

GayLeeds.com attended the opening of Spiceworld : The Exhibition at Leeds Museum last week. Based on local Spice Girls fanatic Liz West’s personal collection of Spice Girls memorabilia, the free exhibition allows you to follow your own journey to stardom through the history of the Spice Girls.

We were treated to Spice Girls covers by a local band, and food from the exhibition’s sponsor, Spice Quarter. After a few speeches, and a couple of drinks, GayLeeds and a gaggle of over excited gays toured the exhibition.

You might think that a collection by a local collector would be slightly underwhelming, but you’d be thinking wrong. Liz’s collection is massive, and there are an overwhelming amount of Spice Girls paraphernalia in this exhibition. Curator Helen Langwick told GayLeeds that there are more pieces in the exhibition than in the entire museum - that’s Spice Power!

There is just about everything that you can imagine or remember about the Spice Girls in this exhibition, including platinum and gold certification plaques, posters, magazines, tour passes and programmes and clothing. There’s even a Spice Girls Polaroid camera. (If there’s a particular piece of Spice Girls memorabilia you clearly remember owning in the 90s, even if no-one else does, it will be in this exhibition!) The exhibition also charts the girl’s solo careers and successes. The most interesting part of the exhibition is close to the end, where theres bookshelves stuffed with thousands of Spice Girls endorsed products.

We met collector Liz West, who is exactly what you’d expect from a Spice Girls fanatic - mental, but fabulous. She told us her favourite Spice Girl is Mel C, and told us all about her journey collecting all the pieces, and rivalry between other collectors. Her enthusiasm certainly rubs off - GayLeeds were soon in the dressing up box and taking, rather unprofessionally, to the Spice Girl karaoke stage. Yes, you can even dress up like your favourite Spice Girl and sing along to your favourite song!

Here at GayLeeds we might be slightly biased (considering we adore The Spice Girls) but this exhibition is definitely worth checking out. It’s a jam packed, fun, colourful trip down memory lane into one of music’s most loved and iconic group.

Spiceworld : The Exhibition is open now at Leeds Museum, and runs until July. Free entry.

Leeds City Museum, Millennium Square, Leeds, LS2 8BH. For more info visit the website.