Spice Girls Kick Off Reunion Tour in Vancouver

Has it been 10 years already? The Spice Girls reunite on stage as they kick off their world tour on Dec. 2 in Vancouver, Canada. (AP Images)

Reunions never go as well as you hope for.

High school reunions just tend to be a reminder of years of teenaged angst and why you haven't kept in touch with all those ex-boyfriends and ex-best friends. At family reunions, you're required to hug and kiss long-lost cousins and uncles with bad ties, not to mention bad breath. Even bands that reunite on tour years after their expiry dates tend to just be midlife crises showcases. So with the announcement that British all-girl group the Spice Girls were reuniting, first on an album and then on tour, a secret feeling of glee filled my little heart - but so did the feeling that, like a balding man who opts for hair plugs, this too could go very wrong.

The Spice Girls were arguably the most popular girl group worldwide in the late '90s. With chart-topping hits such as "Wannabe," "Stop" and "Spice Up Your Life," Melanie "Sporty Spice" Chisholm, Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham, Emma "Baby Spice" Bunton, Melanie "Scary Spice" Brown and Geri "Ginger Spice" Halliwell were best known for their "girl power" stance and cheeky attitudes.

The excited sold-out crowd filling Vancouver's GM Place on Dec. 2 easily slipped into one of the following groups: tween-aged girls wearing sparkly crop tops and pigtails, teenaged girls wearing miniskirts and ho boots and middle-aged women believing that they were still teenaged girls. Oh right, and then there was also the group of uninterested boyfriends/husbands that some women dragged along and the collection of gay men crowding the overpriced Spice Girls merchandise counter. But we'll get back to that later.

Read the remainder of The Return of the Spice Girls: A Reunion Worth Catching in Bodog Nation.