Mel C was "frustrated" she couldn't sing live as much as she wanted to with the Spice Girls.

Mel C

Mel C

The 43-year-old star - who was part of the 'Wannabe' hitmakers alongside Mel B, Victoria Beckham, Emma Bunton and Geri Halliwell - was shocked at how much the girl band had to mime, appear on TV shows and do interviews rather than perform their songs to an audience.

She said: "I was actually quite surprised at how little time we spent performing.

"There are so many interviews to do, TV shows and then a lot of performances you are miming.

"It's really frustrating as an artist. A lot of people in the music industry have worked their way up and we were successful at this point but we had never done a live show."

Spice Girls performed their first live show in October 1997 - the same month 'Spice Up Your Life', the first single from 'Spiceworld', their second studio album, was released - to 40,000 people in Istanbul, Turkey, and Mel admits it was one of the most "terrifying" nights of her life.

She explained: "There was so much pressure on us, the production was absolutely huge and it was petrifying.

"That was probably one of the most terrifying nights of my life. Everybody was waiting for it and everyone was waiting for us to fail."

Mel recalls being so pumped up for the gig it was almost as if she was going through an "out of body experience".

Speaking on documentary 'Hits, Hype & Hustle: An Insider's Guide To The Music Business' - which airs on BBC Four on January 19 - she added: "I think people expected us not to be able to sing live. I think people expected not a lot of the show to be live. It was almost an out of body experience. Nothing can prepare you for that amount of adrenaline."

Tagged in