Taken aback by Spice Girl interest

Geri Halliwell, otherwise known as Ginger Spice of the Spice Girls, always knew the British girl-power group would get together again but says she never imagined how much excitement a reunion would generate.

Just weeks after announcing they were reforming seven years after they split, the mid-1990s pop sensations have had to add extra dates to their world tour to satisfy demand and may add still more as demand keeps rising. The 14-city itinerary begins in Canada on Dec. 2 and ends in Buenos Aires Jan. 24, 2008.

“I always felt in my heart the reunion had to happen and it was the right thing to do,” Halliwell said in an interview Friday in London. “Having said that, we haven’t been together for many years, and so when we put up the availability to register to come and buy tickets, you don’t know, maybe two people want to come [to see us], maybe lots.”

As it turned out, 3 million people registered online to buy tickets -- “amazing and outrageous and beyond what we could have imagined,” Halliwell said.