In 1994 Chris and Bob Herbert set about creating an all female band that could compete with the high number of boy bands that were dominating the pop music scene at the time. In March 1994, Heart Management - which was run by the Herberts together with financier Chic Murphy - put an advert in The Stage trade magazine which read: "R U 18-23 with the ability to sing/dance? R U streetwise, ambitious, outgoing and dedicated" The response was startling; hundreds of girls responded - the applicants were eventually whittled down to just five finalists that consisted of: Victoria Adams, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm, Geri Halliwell and Michelle Stephenson. The group was named "Touch" and they were all moved into a house in Maidenhead which was being paid for by Heart Management and each of the girls was claiming unemployment benefit.

They soon realised that Stephenson did not have the qalities that were needed and was really not fitting in very well with the rest of the group, because of this a decision was made to fire her from the group. Bob Herbert said that "she just wasn't fitting in... she would never have gelled with it and I had to tell her to go". However, Stephenson went on to say that it was her decision to leave the group because of an illness that her mother had, (she was diagnosed with breast cancer). Victoria later dismissed that claim saying Stephenson "just couldn't be arsed" to put in the same amount of work as the rest of the group. The Herberts went on to search for a replacement for Stephenson first coming across Abigail Kas, who did not impress them at all, and then were led to eighteen-year-old Emma Bunton at the recommendation of vocal coach Pepe Lemer. Bunton instantly impressed the Herberts and was quickly invited to meet the group in July 1994 who instantly welcomed her with open arms. Soon after Bunton joined the other girls a discontent started to grow amongst the group and their management team. The girls started to feel insecure about the lack of a contract that they were having with the management and were frustrated by the direction that they were being steered in.

They eventually persuaded Bob Herbert to set up a show for them in front of industry writers and producers in December 1994. There was a lot of interest generated thanks to the show and due to this the Herberts quickly drew up a binding contract for the band. The girls however went out to seek legal advice before taking any further action, they spoke to many solicitors and friends - even talking to Victoria's father Tony Adams.

In March 1995, fueled by their frustration at the management team's unwillingness to listen to the girl's ideas and views about the bands direction, they left Heart Management even managing to take their discography so that they could keep control of their own work. The very same day they managed to talk to record producer Eliot Kennedy who had been to their show in December, and they managed to persuade him to work with the group. Back in October 1994, the group had begun to tour management agencies, after a while they were introduced to the record producers Absolute, who then brought them to the attention of Simon Fuller of 19 Management. After a brief period the girls began working with Simon Fuller and then signed with him in March 1995.

Over the summer of 1995 the girls started touring record companies in London and Los Angeles, eventually deciding to sign a deal with Virgin Records in September of that year. Over the next year the girls continued to write songs for their first album and tour the West Coast of America, while doing this they signed a publishing contract with Windswept Pacific.