Simon Cowell ‘desperate’ to make Spice Girls album

Simon Cowell wants to make a Spice Girls album.

The 56-year-old music mogul – who famously failed to sign the girl group when they auditioned for him at the beginning of their career – is reportedly "desperate" to team up with the band to mark their 20th anniversary.

A source told The Sun newspaper: "Simon is desperate to make a new Spice Girls album. He doesn’t want to miss out after the first time around. He spent the X Factor auditions last week quizzing Mel about the band and said he would do ‘something mega’ if they signed with him.

"He kept asking if they were going to be producing new music and said if so, he wants to do it with them. He even went as far as warning Mel that they’d better not talk to any other labels before meeting with him. Mel deliberately kept coy and told him they ‘hadn’t finalised everything’, but he wouldn’t leave it alone."

Meanwhile, the father-of-one previously revealed not signing the group – which includes Victoria Beckham, Emma Bunton, Mel C, Geri Horner and Mel B – was the biggest "regret" of his music career.

He said: "Spice Girls is probably my biggest mistake. I offered them a deal, but they didn’t want to sign to me, so that kind of hurt at the time."

Even an audition in the car park couldn’t secure it for the girls, as Mel B previously revealed.

She recalled: "Simon was coming out of work and we kind of hijacked the car park he was in and just sang for him. We said, ‘Look, we’re going to be famous one day, can you sign us?’ He said, ‘No, it’s not going to work.’"