Article #15128

As she releases a clubby new album, Sweat, the former Sporty Spice answers your questions on her raver days, scouse cuisine and Sex Pistols covers

Your acid remix of Jessie Ware’s Free Yourself was a bit unexpected, I admit. Were you a hardcore raver back in the early 90s? Coopertapes
I absolutely was. I discovered raving on my first holiday without parents, just me and three of the girls I was at college with. This was the first environment I’d been in where I heard house music and everyone was dancing, and really expressing themselves. I was like, “Oh my God, I’ve found my people.” That’s where I got the bug. Then we’d also go to a club in Essex called Berwick Manor. I also remember going to the Cross, which was in King’s Cross. It was such a tiny little window of my late teens because the Spice Girls happened so quickly after it. I’d almost compartmentalised it and left it behind until I started DJing eight years ago.

Once the Spice Girls started and your schedule was much tighter, were you ever able to go out like that again? laurasnapes
Absolutely not. That was the thing, although all of my wildest dreams were coming true through being part of the Spice Girls, real life was put on hold. The schedule was brutal. There was very little time for socialising. Also, you remember those times in the 90s, right? The tabloid media and paparazzi were on you like a hawk. So we were terrified. Anything we ever did was usually published in a newspaper, so in our downtime we tried to keep it low key.