POP EYE

AULD SPICE: Can Virgin Records repeat its Spice Girls formula with a new group?

The label has another act that has also combined music and a good measure of sex appeal to be the right act for its time, leading to big success at home and an eye on the U.S.

The new group’s time, though, is more like 1598 than 1998.

The Mediaeval Baebes, a group of 12 English women led by Katherine Blake, formerly of the folk-industrial group Miranda Sex Garden, was a left-field hit in England last year with its largely a cappella renditions of medieval classical and folk pieces. It even hit the U.K. pop charts last December with “Gaudete,” a traditional carol sung in Latin.

Phil Fox, Virgin’s U.S. director of product management, says that while the temptation is there to market the act as the classical Spice Girls when the album “Salva Nos” is released here in September, he hopes to avoid any trivialization of the music.

“Although the [sex appeal] adds a nice layer to it, it’s really about how they do a wonderful job in harmonizing and interpretation,” he says.

But they’re not exactly downplaying that angle either. Says Fox: “Sometimes you have to put your tongue in cheek and move forward. And I think ‘babes’ was actually a real term from medieval times.”