Robert Herbert (7 February 1942 – 9 August 1999) was an English talent manager. He was the original manager of the

Spice Girls The Spice Girls are an English girl group formed in 1994, consisting of Mel B ("Scary Spice"), Melanie C ("Sporty Spice"), Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice"), Geri Halliwell ("Ginger Spice"), and Victoria Beckham ("Posh Spice"). They have sold over 10 ...

Biography

Early life

Born in

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West (London sub region), West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the River Thames, Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has dive ...

, England, Herbert qualified as an accountant and first got involved in the music industry in 1985. He took a liking to Matt and Luke Goss, twin friends of his son Chris when they were pupils together at Collingwood School in Camberley, Surrey. Although the twins were only 15, they had formed their own pop group called Gloss with the bassist Craig Logan. Realising the blond looks of Matt and Luke could be exploited to market a group that could be the Eighties' answer to the Bay City Rollers, Herbert offered Gloss advice and provided rehearsal space for them in his summer house. He introduced them to songwriters, financed their early demo tapes and plotted their route to success.

Spice Girls

By mid-1994, the Herberts and Murphy had auditioned 600 applicants, and whittled the line-up down to Melanie Brown, Geri Halliwell, Victoria Adams, Lianne Morgan, quickly replaced by

Melanie C Melanie Jayne Chisholm (born 12 January 1974), commonly known as Melanie C or Mel C, is an English singer and songwriter. She rose to fame in the mid-1990s as a member of the pop group the Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Sporty Spice. W ...

and Michelle Stephenson, quickly replaced by

Emma Bunton Emma Lee Bunton (born 21 January 1976) is an English singer, songwriter, media personality, and actress. She rose to fame in the 1990s as a member of the Pop music, pop group the Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Baby Spice, reflecting the ...

. The Spice Girls were however first called Touch but Spice was considered much better. Therefore, the spice girls got their own names. Victoria was Posh, Mel C was Sporty, Mel B was Scary, Geri was Ginger and Emma was Baby. In 1997, the Herberts reverted to their original boy-band masterplan. "We decided to put an ad in ''

The Stage ''The Stage'' is a British weekly newspaper and website covering the entertainment industry and particularly theatre. Founded in 1880, ''The Stage'' contains news, reviews, opinion, features, and recruitment advertising, mainly directed at thos ...

'' newspaper, as we had done when we were auditioning for the Spice Girls," recalled Bob Herbert of 5ive.

Personal life and death

Herbert was married to Ann and had one son,

Chris Herbert Chris Herbert is a British talent manager who has helped oversee the careers of the Spice Girls, Five, Stephen Gately and Hear'Say, B*Witched, The Honeyz, Ben's Brother. He is the son of talent manager Bob Herbert. Career With father Bob Herbert ...

and one daughter, Nicky. On 9 August 1999, Herbert was driving his red MG F through

Windsor Great Park Windsor Great Park is a Royal Park of to the south of the town of Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor on the border of Berkshire and Surrey in England. It is adjacent to the private Home Park, Windsor, Home Park, which is nearer the castle. The park ...

in Berkshire. Suddenly, due to heavy rain, he lost control. The car spun and collided with another car, a silver

Toyota Corolla The is a series of compact cars (formerly Subcompact car, subcompact) manufactured and marketed globally by the Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corporation. Introduced in 1966, the Corolla was the best-selling car worldwide by 1974 and has bee ...

. Herbert's car then collided with a wooden fence around the park. Herbert had to be cut from his car by fire and rescue teams, and was taken to Wexham Park Hospital,

Slough Slough () is a town in Berkshire, England, in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4, M40 and M25 motorways. It is part of the historic county of Buckinghamshire. In 2021, the ...

, by air ambulance, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Herbert, Bob 1942 births 1999 deaths English music managers People from Guildford Road incident deaths in England 20th-century English businesspeople