Girls Aloud LIVE

Exactly a year to the day after the sublime "front row" Girls Aloud experience it was time for the Manchester date of the Girls' first (and no doubt last) Arena tour.

An early start (in the pub for 3pm, not including my pre-meeting Brocket liquid lunch) meant that I was suitably oiled for the show itself. And once again, if I dare be so vain as to say so myself, the ticketmaster pulled through with some cracking seats which, if I didn't know that my camera has a crap flash, would have made me regret not taking my camera.

Now we all know that I've been on a bit of a downer as regards the Girls, but I stand by it. Disregarding the quality music, the Off The Record documentary did the girls no favours by not only showing them at their worst, but also stripping away any mistique they had and revealing them to be ever so slightly dull. Although if you were to take the time to check out my 2005 concert reviews, I pretty much said the same thing then. As a five-piece manufactured pop act they have a certain brilliance...as "stars" in their own right they are pretty unremarkable.

Still, it seems as if the Girls Aloud "team" realise this. Banter inbetween the songs is kept to a minimum (and is more often that not limited to the usual banal "is everybody still having a great time?" stuff) and for the most part the songs are aloud to speak for themselves. Which is no bad thing.

Kicking off with Biology, a good idea being that it's one of the best songs of the 21st Century so far, the Girls started off in a, high concept here, Chemistry lab with one of the dancers overdosing on medicine at one point. Anyway...killer versions of No Good Advice and Waiting followed, and this part of the set was finished off with a less than stellar version of Love Machine (but more on my general gripes at the end).

Then we switched to bikini tops and hot pants for what one could term the "Hot Summer" portion of the concert. So inevitably this bit kicked off with Long Hot Summer, which once again proved that it's not as bad a song as people make out, before, as ever pop band who's ever sung a ballad these days has to, they proved they could really "sing" by doing a largely acoustic version of Whole Lotta History. Watch Me Go followed and then they played this section's trump card, the cover version of I Predict A Riot. The Kaiser Chiefs have never sounded better, even if a band who say "shit" in at least two of their songs and have lyrics like "a PHD with her legs apart" somewhat surprsingly refused to say the word "condom", instead replacing it with "bus." Way to go; regale impressionable young girls with tales of cheap tarts and whores, but whatever you do, don't mention condoms.

Off it was for another costume change, and a beautiful version of See The Day. Sound Of The Underground then followed, to a great reaction before they annoyed me completely by a superfluous "musicals" medley. Off for another costume change and the jewel in the crown of The Show. Models and Racy Lacy raced by, to be finished off with I'll Stand By You. And yes, ISBY is pretty ropey on record, but live, you have to give credit here, it's pretty powerful.

The encore finally sent me wild by starting off with Wild Horses, but then they annoyed me by only doing about a third of it before it morphed into Wake Me Up. Finish off with Xavi's favourite Jump and you have a pretty good evening's entertainment. The snotty critics won't like it at all of course, but music isn't purely about erstwhile singer-songwriters plucking their guitars to morose tunes. And as an afficianado of pop extravaganza's, I've seen few arena shows that matched this one for entertainment.

Of course, I cannot be wholly positive. As ever the eternal quandry of having to have a live band for a show proved problematic (I want to hear, for example, Love Machine as a pop record, not one bastardised by being played "properly") and again, in between the songs the girls show little personality. Still I doubt many in the audience cared, or even noticed. I doubt anyone went away from the MEN disappointed. And lets face it, will there be another concert this year where you can hear 5 (No Good Advice, The Show, Wake Me Up, Love Machine, Biology) classic pop singles in one night? With the exception of the Pet Shop Boys probably not....