single. The trigger for the Spice Girls' launch was the release of the "Wannabe" music video in May 1996. Its quick success on the British cable network The Box sparked press interest, despite initial resistance to the all-girl group idea. The same month, their first music press interviews appeared in Music Week, Top of the Pops, and Smash Hits, and their first live TV slot was broadcast on LWT's Surprise Surprise. A month after the video's release, the song was receiving intensive airplay on the main radio stations across the UK, while the group started to appear on television—mainly on kid's programmes such as Live & Kicking—and doing interviews and photo shoots for teen magazines. A full-page advertisement appeared in the July issue of Smash Hits, saying: "Wanted: Anyone with a sense of fun, freedom and adventure. Hold tight, get ready! Girl Power is comin' at you". The group appeared on the television programme This Morning with Richard and Judy, and performed at their first Radio One road show in Birmingham. "Wannabe" was first released in Japan on 26 June 1996 as a maxi CD. In the United Kingdom, the song was issued on 8 July 1996 in two single versions. The first one, released in two formats—a standard CD single and a cassette single—included the radio edit of the track, the Motiv 8 vocal slam remix, and the B-side, "Bumper to Bumper". The group wrote "Bumper to Bumper" with Paul Wilson and Andy Watkins—the songwriter-production duo known as Absolute—and British singer-songwriter Cathy Dennis. The second version, released on maxi single format, featured the radio edit, an instrumental version, the Motiv 8 dub slam remix, and the Dave Way alternative mix. This version came with a fold-out postcard inlay and a stickered case. During the weeks following the UK release, the group began promotional visits abroad. They did three trips to Japan and brief visits to Germany and the Netherlands. On a trip to the Far East, they visited Hong Kong, Thailand, and South Korea. In January 1997 they travelled to North America to do a promotional campaign that Phil Quartararo, president of Virgin Records America, described as "absolutely massive". In Canada, the group did interviews for newspapers and radio stations, appeared in television programmes such as Hit List, and MusiquePlus, and attended an autograph signing at Montreal's HMV Megastore. During their visit to the US, the group met with