sign in sign up
<<
Home , Spice Girls

READ

What makes professional women abandon everything for a glimpse of THE SUPERFANStheir idols? EMILY GULLA goes on tour with them

Photographs ANTONIO PETRONZIO to find out ›

80 · COSMOPOLITAN COSMOPOLITAN · 81 READ

Natasha, 31, juggle their Behind me I hear two male wouldn’t be enough. leave days off in order to obsessions with full-time fans grumbling. “F*cking staff emerge and feed my habit,” she tells me. careers and the demands autograph sellers,” says call out a handful of names, The furthest she’s travelled of friends and family. one. “And the paparazzi…” inviting individually for is more than Yes, they may be loitering replies his friend. selected fans inside to meet 4,000 miles to Dubai, just in the doorways of hotels Later, I find out that her – each of whom has to meet them at the airport. and queueing for hours Michael and Adam have been carefully chosen by For this tour, to celebrate outside concert halls, but both been the singer’s their 30th anniversary, she’s they’re also sitting next waiting here PA for their been to 18 gigs in the UK to you in your office, since 3am – and homages to alone, with more to come working in the shops and they’re unhappy Miley online. in Europe. And she’ll often restaurants you go to, and about these “‘I once went Perhaps the camp for 48 hours outside atasha standing opposite you on “professionals” to eight gigs “membership the venues in order to be Nglances down at her watch your morning commute. getting in the in nine days,’ card” that the first to enter. She once quickly, not wanting to And I would know because, way of “real” Michael went to eight gigs in nine peel her eyes away from secretly, I’m one too. fans’ celebrity she tells me” envisages now days, putting her NHS the glass doors in front of interactions. takes the form lanyard on between shows. her. She doesn’t have very The paparazzi of a Miley- “I’d often get back home at long; it’s approaching 8am chew gum lazily dedicated midnight and have to start and a familiar weariness THE PRICE OF FAME and chat to one another, social-media account. work at 8am,” she says. “It has settled within her It’s with a sense of their cameras slung around Like these die-hard Miley was really exhausting but bones. She’s been standing familiarity that I find their necks. The autograph fans, Natasha’s love for I’m so glad I did it.” outside Radio 2’s studios myself jostled by a 50- hunters begin to unwrap Take That comes above With concert tickets in since last night, strong crowd at 8am in brand-new Hannah most things. It’s the reason becoming notoriously tightly wrapped up in the morning, shivering in Montana vinyls from she continues with her expensive, plus travel and layers of scarves and paper-thin tights. I used cellophane, ready to be NHS job. “I’ve been able hotel costs to contend with, jumpers, guarding her to scour social media for signed. Next to them is a to go crazy because I work it’s not a cheap hobby to from the frosty night. ’s hotel middle-aged man standing shifts and weekends, so fund. “It’s basically £200 Finally, at just past the Natasha often goes details and skip school to beside the door with his I can get extra annual a time for a front-row › hour, she gets a glimpse to gigs before work await Ed Sheeran’s arrival hands on the shoulders of the person she’s been at the BBC studios. Now of what I assume to be waiting for – sandy-haired sprays some Batiste into I’m here, outside Capital his young daughter, ready and emerging from a her hair and changes her FM in London’s Leicester to push her forward at black Mercedes. “Gary!” blouse for the 10am start. Square, to find out what any second. He too, I’m she yells, waving her arms With no sleep at all, she makes women like Natasha told, makes a living from in his direction. “I need embarks on an eight-hour – and myself – give up doing this, touting signed to go to work!” shift, before she tracks their time, money and merchandise online for The Take That frontman down Take That again, creature comforts, just for profit. The daughter, her When Harry spots her, flashes a smile ahead of their performance a glimpse of their hero. hair tied in a cascading and comes over. He knows at the Royal Albert Hall. How deep is The throng simmers ponytail, is “bait”. met Emily… what she wants, recognising You think you know her love? Really with resentment. If they “I think that when you her from the 28 other selfies superfans. They’re teenage deep actually… get a whiff that I don’t sign up [to be a fan] you he’s taken with her over girls, screaming at concerts, Natasha with love Miley Cyrus quite should get a membership the years, and the countless sweaty and crying, like they do, I could be card,” says Michael, arms times he’s seen her perched desperate for their idol Gary Barlow in trouble. There’s the folded as he glares towards front row at his gigs. to catch their eye among short, scowling fan who the door. He wants Selfie acquired, Natasha the masses. But walking keeps shouting at us all something that proves dashes to make the past the groups gathered to “stay in line” each his real-fan status for the 40-minute journey to her outside gig venues and time someone shuffles a times when the genuine office, where she’s a senior radio stations, you’ll see few steps to avoid the early can’t be differentiated

administrator in the NHS. not just the teen crowd, morning lorries dropping from the greedy. Emily, 21, kisses Harry Sneaking into work before but people of all ages off supplies to the But in this instance, (in cardboard form)

anyone can see her, she – many of whom, like TOPSHOP; DRESS, WEARS JUMPER, HER OWN; EMILY RIGHT: LEFT TO PREVIOUS PAGE, JEANS, BONPRIX. HER OWN; AND TRAINERS, WEARS T-SHIRT OFFICE. NATASHA SANDALS, OFFICE. NENEH WEARS TRAINERS, VINTAGE; LOOT TOP, ADIDAS; WEARS TRACKSUIT, MEG JEANS, BONPRIX HER OWN; AND TRAINERS, T-SHIRT surrounding restaurants. even a Miley face tattoo

82 · COSMOPOLITAN READ Seoul- seat, or sitting in the first because she flew thrusting a London. I’d waited since searching apart from of the stars they loved. But couple of rows,” says to Korea to see digitally altered 6am, informed of his those of as long as you don’t cross Natasha. “Wonderland, the BTS without photo of her location by myriad the past is it, where is the harm? previous tour, was two Neneh, and her “I was like cuddled up next “update” accounts I’d undoubtedly Waiting with all the years ago. I put everything mum definitely ‘YOLO!’ and to her favourite programmed to send the invention Miley fans, cameraphones on credit cards and dealt doesn’t BTS member, notifications directly to of social media. poised, excitedly sharing with it later. I think it understand: bought plane Suga, into my my phone. I was powered Fans now have theories of her next move, must have been about “She’s never tickets” hands. She has by a night of broken sleep increasing access brought me back to my £12,000 in total.” loved anything not met any of (and pure excitement) to real-time own superfan stunts, and Neneh’s colleagues see as much as I love the BTS boys and four years’ worth of information helped me forget things a charismatic, smiley boy bands,” in real life, but impatient anticipation. on celebrities’ like the cost of my rent and woman, whose ability to Neneh tells me. this CGI picture feels Neneh was also there whereabouts, my growing pile of unpaid talk to anyone makes her Like Natasha, Neneh, special to her. She travelled on that day. Before she all available 24/7 bills, even just for a few ideal for her job as a studio 27, has travelled the world to a studio in Paris for it, became dedicated to BTS, and in the palm hours. It was comforting, tour guide at a popular for BTS, going to their and tells me many fans she had routinely camped of their hands. It a flashback to a simpler tourist attraction. But concerts in Paris and New queue overnight for the outside Harry’s shows, means that where time, when getting that she keeps her identity as York. “I was like ‘YOLO!’ same privilege. once for six nights at a once fans used signature and photo were a BTS superfan very well and bought plane tickets. time. Somehow, being their love of pop mattered. hidden. She’s blocked When I came home, I was a superfan is less about stars as a form of teenage So next time you see colleagues on social media instantly poor.” She once the actual stars – they rebellion, now being a fan those groups huddled so that she can skip shifts spent £5,000 on flights to HOPELESSLY DEVOTED can be interchangeable. is more about finding outside door, to see the K-pop , Korea, not to see the band As I wait in vain for Miley (When Take That split, for your community – rare or camping on the but also to avoid being perform, but simply to see to emerge, people come example, the Jonas Brothers companionship to combat pavement outside a radio teased – she was once the country they hail from. up and ask us what we are filled the void for Natasha.) Neneh visited South the increasing loneliness or TV station, don’t judge mocked so much that “I did the BTS Tour around doing. When they hear, Rather, it’s more about the Korea to feel closer of modern life. Research them too harshly. They she ended up crying in Seoul, where you can go to most roll their eyes before action of dedicating your to her beloved BTS shows that a weak sense are simply the physical the toilets at work. places they’ve been and walking away. Ever since time to someone you of belonging correlates embodiment of the things Previously she’s fallen restaurants they’ve eaten the of the idolise, having somebody from to stand Heart’s studios). When we with depression, and we all crave deep down: out with her best friend at,” she tells me before ’60s, fandom has been to cling to when things get shivering on the street meet, she proudly shows people who feel more a sense of belonging and dismissed and sneered at. tough. It’s no different to outside ’s me a worn-out wooden connected have lower rates the affirmation that we’re Every superfan I’ve spoken buying a season ticket to London home. “No matter plaque embossed with an of anxiety. So in a world part of something bigger. ◆ Meg with her autographed Spice to has tales of being called the football or queueing what kind of a bad day image of the Spice Girls, where everything from our Girls plaque “pathetic”, “stupid” or overnight for the release I’m having, I can put on which first signed global-warming-affected BEHIND THE SCENES “crazy”. Most were reluctant of a new computer game their music and it’s just in 2007 (not visible in the weather to who’s running to speak to me at first, as – things that thousands of so positive.” She’s loved picture, far left, as it has the country is constantly Emily Gulla they were so used to being people do across the globe, the Spice Girls most of faded over time). Meg has changing, can we really “After we met, portrayed in the press in a rarely attracting the same her life and seeks them spent the past 12 years blame fans for seeking out Meg offered me a spare ticket to bad light. When I confessed judgement and dismissal out whenever she comes trying to collect the rest something constant? For join her at the Spice Girls’ first Meg with I was once a superfan, they that female music fans do. to London. Geri, she says, of the band’s signatures investing their time and Wembley gig. Looking around, Baby & Ginger began to open up. I spent For Natasha, becoming was pleased to see her. – today, Mel C’s is the money in a hobby that I saw adults waving frantically the two days before my a superfan coincided As was only one still missing. gives them stability? Of at the stage and holding each GCSE English exam with the breakdown of (who she once waited 12 But, unlike the flash- course, there will always other, crying as the show ended. I used to feel the same huddled behind a barrier her relationship. “When hours for in a shopping mob-style antics of be a line – and everyone at 1D concerts. If they ever outside a -star hotel I split up with my ex, mall) and Beatlemania, what sets I spoke to was careful that reform, I’ll be on the front row.”

in Manchester hoping apart from my family, USING COETZER, JOLANDA HAIR AND MAKE-UP EMMA FIRTH. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BOTH MERCIER AND AVEDA, USING LAURA LONE, MUZHDAH AND AVEDA; DECAY URBAN MUG, PIN AND CAP, SPICE GIRLS T-SHIRT, AUSTIN. LILY STYLING LHA REPRESENTS. AT ALL SPICE GIRLS OFFICIAL MERCHANDISE (STORE-UK.THESPICEGIRLS.COM) (when she met her outside these present-day superfans they remained respectful to catch a glimpse of I had no one – no friends (the then-whole) One whatsoever,” Natasha tells Direction. Three years me. “ Joining [online] Take STAN SAME FACES STILL WAITING SASAENGS later, I would finally That discussion groups and A portmanteau Used among Take Rivals to Take That’s How K-pop lovers SUPERFAN of the words That fans to refer to “Same Faces”, this is describe the more achieve my dream finding like-minded people “stalker” and “fan”, the small group the name given to obsessive fans, of meeting Harry was part of the attraction.” referring to the found on the front the fans who haven’t who they think Styles, spotting him It’s a sentiment echoed spellcheck song. row of every gig. met the band yet. go too far. outside Radio 1 in by Meg, 30, who travelled

84 · COSMOPOLITAN COSMOPOLITAN · 85