(c’85-‘?) Heart Management was run by the father and son team of Bob and Chris Herbert out of Lightwater. In ’85, Bob took a liking to Matt and Luke Goss, friends of his son Chris and pupils together at Collingwood School, Camberley. Only 15 at the time, they had formed their own pop group called Gloss with the bassist Craig Logan. Bob offered Gloss advice and provided rehearsal space for them in his summer house; introduced them to songwriters, financed their early demo tapes and planned their route to success.
Gloss met musician, songwriter and music producer Nicky Graham, who introduced them to music manager Tom Watkins. Unimpressed, Watkins realized that he could mold the group into a boy band for the teen girl market, with Graham and Watkins writing the songs for them. Gloss split from Herbert and signed a contract with Watkins and his management company. Watkins renamed the band Bros.
Bob and Chris, now 21 years old, teamed up and Heart Management and Safe Management came into existence. Early ’94 found Bob handing out flyers in UK cities and placing an ad in The Stage which drew 600 applicants. He stated that “The whole teen-band scene at the time was saturated by boy bands like Take That and the Backstreet Boys. That was all a bit of a yawn for me and only appealed to female audiences…I felt if you could appeal to the boys as well, you’d be laughing.”
The Herberts then, along with financier Chic Murphy – who previously managed the Three Degrees, auditioned the applicants and whittled the line-up down to Melanie Brown, Geri Halliwell, Melanie Laccohee, Lianne Morgan, and Michelle Stephenson. Laccohee was replaced almost immediately with Victoria Adams, and shortly after Morgan and Stephenson were replaced by Melanie Chisholm and Emma Bunton respectively. All five were put up in a semi-detached house in Maidenhead and rehearsed daily at Trinity Studios within the Community Centre, Knaphill.
Originally called Touch, it was during this development phase in ’94 that filmmaker Neil Davies, who’d been looking to make a documentary film about a girl group, filmed the quintet for four months at Trinity Studios and their Maidenhead domicile. There was no guarantee that the group would find success, but Davies wanted to capture the story even if it was a disaster. The group were insecure about the lack of a contract and frustrated by the direction in which Heart was steering them (dress the same and sing cover versions of other artists).
Chris set up a showcase performance for industry writers, producers and A&R men in December ’94 at the Nomis Studios, Shepherd’s Bush. There was a lot of interest in the group and the Herberts quickly set about a binding contract, but all five members delayed signing on legal advice. In March ’95 they parted from the Herbert’s Heart Management and Spice, then the Spice Girls were born.
In ’97, the Herberts reverted to boy-bands and the formation and management of Five, having selected the lads from 3,000 hopefuls who’d auditioned for Bob and Chris. Heart also helped oversee the careers of Stephen Gately, B*Witched, The Honeyz, and Ben’s Brother. Chris represented Hear’Say as part of the music reality TV show, Popstars and managed all the artists from the BBC music show, Fame Academy. In 2001, Chris was awarded the Manager of the Year award by the Music Managers Forum. Chris Herbert was also the manager of Justin Edwards, aka MC Ultra, the source of 2012’s Tulisa Contostavlos sex tape.
Bob died in a car crash in Windsor on 19 August ’99. Chris appeared in Raw Spice, the 2001 documentary about the Spice Girls, filmed by Davies back in ’94, and is still involved in the music industry.
Gallery:
Our Soundscene 