It was madness."The pressure was on because they had already secured a deal for the potential project with RCA Records "We knew what we were looking for," said Herbert "But there was no guarantee that we were going to find it It was more a case of the right guys finding us And we got lucky. The headlines read: `Spice Boys Wanted, Boy Power!' We were being talked about on every TV and radio station Thousands of lads turned up. "Up until then, no-one knew that we'd put the Spice Girls together and suddenly, it hit the press: the media went crazy for the auditions. Signed to Virgin for a pounds 500,000 advance and launched in the autumn of 1995, the Spice Girls broke all records, becoming the most successful female pop group of all time, with combined sales of their two albums reaching the 35 million mark.In 1997, the Herberts reverted to their original boy-band masterplan. "We decided to put an ad in The Stage newspaper, as we had done when we were auditioning for the Spice Girls," recalled Bob Herbert in Five: The Official Book (1998). Fuller ousted the Herberts and offered them a five-figure settlement. The aim was to attract female performers who were "18-23 with the ability to sing/dance, streetwise, outgoing, ambitious and dedicated".By mid-1994, the Herberts and Murphy had auditioned 600 applicants, and whittled the line-up down to Melanie Brown (who became Scary Spice) from Leeds, Geri Halliwell (Ginger) from Watford, Melanie Chisholm (Sporty) from Liverpool, Victoria Adams (Posh) from the Home Counties and Michelle Stephenson, quickly replaced by Emma Bunton (Baby) from London.Originally called Touch but subsequently renamed the Spice Girls after an early song called "Sugar and Spice", the five lodged together, took singing lessons, rehearsed dance routines and honed the "girl power" attitude that would eventually help them take control of their own careers.Unfortunately for Bob and Chris Herbert, a showcase in December 1994 attracted not only the interest of Virgin Records but also the attention of a rival manager, Simon Fuller.

However, Chris had a better idea: why not create a girl group reflecting the cultural diversity of Britain? They began handing out flyers around UK cities before eventually placing an ad in the show-business trade journal The Stage. He introduced them to songwriters, financed their early demo tapes and plotted their route to success. However, they couldn't sign a legally binding management contract until they were 18. When that time came, the pop Svengali Tom Watkins moved in, took over their management and signed them to Columbia Records. Renamed Bros, the trio scored hits in 1988 with "When Will I Be Famous" and "I Owe You Nothing", but were soon out of favour with the fickle teenage market and nearly out of money.Undeterred, Herbert joined in a management venture with his son Chris and the entrepreneur Chic Murphy to launch a boy band to rival Take That, who had taken the British charts by storm in 1993. 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.

Although the twins were only 15, they had formed their own pop group called Gloss with the bassist Craig Logan. However, Herbert persevered and put together the boy band Five, which has recently created a sensation among teenage girls. Born in 1942, 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. The accountant-turned- band manager Bob Herbert missed out when the pop groups Bros and the Spice Girls opted for the services of other impresarios just as they were about to hit the big time. "At the end of the day it's not the dating agency industry that suffers, it's vulnerable people looking for love.".

THERE ARE untold riches to be made in artist management - provided your act signs a cast-iron contract. Meanwhile it is left to the ABIA to try to find dream dates for the backlog of dissatisfied lonely hearts who have fallen out of love with Club Sirius."It's the members I feel for," says Lynn Davies. And anyway the ABIA represents only a tiny minority of dating agencies. Also, it is run by those people who already run their own agencies, so it's not independent."Club Sirius says it is now looking at setting up a rival industry body, better to represent members' interests.

It also took them three weeks to send us a standard letter."Conrad Morris of Sirius says he is not losing any sleep over the ABIA, either "This isn't going to affect us greatly We're the only one with the BSI award. We don't want to give that away to our competitors." Ironically, another reason why he didn't join was ABIA's failure to provide adequate information about the organisation "It was also really expensive. They wanted us to pay pounds 10 to get an application form and a further pounds 220 to join. It's run by people who want to know all your trade secrets and client information. They told me that they had given the award for the Club Sirius manual.