Melanie C can be “mouthy” towards “rude” audience members.
The 48-year-old pop star – who is best known as part of the Spice Girls – once shared the bill with rock legends Meat Loaf and Status Quo as part of her solo career but was taken aback to see two audience members staring at her with “disdain” as she played her set.
She said: “Many years ago, I did a little tour and I was supporting Meat Loaf, but Status Quo were playing as well so the bill was me, Status Quo and Meatloaf. It was very random to have me there with those guys! But we did this big stadium in Dublin, it might even have been Croke Park actually where I played with the Spice Girls. And when you’re the first act on, people are milling in and there’s not that many people. But you’ve got your fans. But right in the middle, there was these two people at the front with their Quo t-shirts on and had their arms folded just looking at me with disdain waiting for the Quo. It’s such a funny thing to do, isn’t it? One, you’re waiting for Status Quo and two, just b***** off and let my fans stand in the middle! It’s so weird! I probably did [say something]. I think on stage sometimes – it depends on the mood I’m in – but I can be a bit mouthy on stage. If people are rude in the audience, it really gets my goat.”
Meanwhile, the ‘Viva Forever’ hitmaker – who is also known as Sporty Spice – revealed that when she was working on her debut album ‘Northern Star’ in Los Angeles , she was invited to perform at a punk gig on Sunset Boulevard and mistakenly thought the audience “hated” her when they began swearing and spitting at her, only to learn that it was in fact a “sign of affection.”
Speaking on the ‘Jools and Jim’s Joyride’ podcat, she said: “I remember I did – this is so bizarre – I was in LA working on my first [solo] album and a friend of mine introduced me to Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols and at the time he was working with two of the guys from Guns N’ Roses and the bass player from Duran Duran John Taylor. They were called the Neurotic Outsiders. They had a residency at The Viper Room on Sunset and they invited me to go down and sing a couple of songs. I think I sang a couple of Pistols songs and all the audience were going mad. They were all sticking two fingers up at me and spitting at me. I thought ‘Oh my God, they hate me!’ but they were like ‘No, no, in punk, that’s a sign of affection!”