Girls Aloud LIVE

It's not often a night out entails getting mocked by teenage girls, getting chatted up by a gay bloke and being accused of going out with a 14 year old girl...but what can I say? Strange things happen at Girls Aloud concerts.

It's no secret that I love Girls Aloud; in terms of fantastic pop records, they have few equals. It matters not, to me anyway, that the girls themselves have little to do with the process (they famously disagreed with Love Machine as a single). A fantastic pop song is a fantastic pop song.

But "live" that isn't always enough.

And whilst you cannot deny that the majority of the classics were there, and that the spectacle itself was, well, spectacular there has always been something missing when it comes to Girls Aloud in the flesh. And this was no exception.

From a personality point of view, the girls leave a little something to be desired and so any in-between song banter is perfunctory at best, and as ever the ballad's section was the cue for quite a few people to have their piss-break.

But, the girls looked like they were having fun, the majority of the crowd were having the time of their lives and there was enough quality pop tunes to make it a good night. But, perhaps to the delight of many snobby music critics, the Girls Aloud "live" experience is far from essential.