Spice Girls fail to stop EMI slump

There is life in the Spice Girls yet and their new album, Spiceworld, is selling better at this stage than the first album, Spice, the group's record company claimed yesterday. EMI said it had shipped 7 million copies of the album to retailers. However, shops have said the record is selling poorly.

The comments came as EMI reported a sharp fall in first-half profits from pounds 146m to pounds 75m, hit by currency factors, a slowdown in the world-wide music market and the economic turbulence in the Far East. Spice added 8 million units to the 9.5 million sold last year. Other strong sellers have included albums from Radiohead and the Rolling Stones. New releases in the second half will include records from Janet Jackson and Garth Brooks.