"It is a longer show now and it's 100 times better," she is saying down the line from London recently. "(Before) we'd only just gone out on the road. We'd only had a few weeks rehearsal and were quite new. But now we've had a lot more experience. So it is a very different show."

Mel C, who says the Spice Girls have no plans to work together for the next year, said she also feels more comfortable as a frontwoman. She's backed by a five-piece band.

"I'm just getting more experienced. I'm having a great time on stage. I've always loved it, but it's not as frenzied as it used to be. I think I'm a bit more in control now."

In other words, it's less about screaming fans and Spice Girls-style choreographed moves and more about singing.

"It's funny because I used to dance -- I was a dancer for years -- but I've never liked singing and dancing at the same time. I think so much is lost in the singing then. For me, it's about music. You're trying to express yourself with song, and it's just getting messed up by thinking about dance routines and timing and everything. I think it's a bit of a '90s thing."

Much like the Spice Girls themselves, whose last album, Forever, stiffed, leading to widespread speculation that the group would disband. Mel C's own comments, in particular, helped fuel the breakup rumours, most recently in an interview with Reuters, but the Spices remain together. All four members are pursuing solo careers, however.

"Everyone's got a fascination with all the relationships between the Spice Girls," says Mel C. "And you know, we're just like any group of friends. Sometimes we don't speak for a couple of weeks and then we'll call up each other or we'll go and hang out. It's just like any friendship, there's no big mystery to it."

But for Mel C, lingering Spice Girl memories meant that her solo album -- which has sold 40,000 copies in Canada and 2.2 million worldwide -- took a while to catch on.

"I think people were quite skeptical at first. It took a long time for them to get over the Sporty Spice tag and, like anybody, I'm not a one-dimensional person. I think just as more singles have come out and more people become aware of the music, they realize that it is good."

Her most successful markets, per capita, have been Northern Europe and Scandinavia.

"It's quite bizarre -- all northern territories went for it, so my next album's going to have to be called 'Southern something," jokes Mel C.

She hopes to begin recording her second solo album next month and has already expressed the desire to hook up with Eminem as a duet partner. As for others on her wish list, Mel C said a duet with The Material Girl isn't in the works.

"Madonna is someone I've longed to work with for a long, long time, but I don't know whether it's the right time. She's living in London now, but I've never approached her. I'm sure she's heard the rumours, so I'd have to wait until I have enough courage to ask her, really."