Hurrah! It's been well over ten years since I saw them perform their little socks off for the Gold Tour in 2001, but yes as is well publicised - Steps are back! In touring form! I must admit amongst the throng of brightly coloured chino wearing gays and pink cowboy hat toting hen party type groups, i was experiencing a giddly little thrill at the famous five being back together and doing a run through of their hits (though not including After The Love Has Gone, a fave of mine. Boo you whores). Tremendulent! I won't bother doing a full review of the entire concert (it was marv) but here are some highlights and things that I learnt...
- The first support act (whose name i've already eradicated from my memory) was uniformly dreadful. However one of her backing dancers in skin tight leggings was really quite excited by being on stage. I'd say about ten inches worth and circumcised! Mazel Tov...
- Steps arrived on stage to a somewhat futuristic computer generated backdrop that kind of reflected their Here and Now/You'll Be Sorry videos. Lucky really as Here and Now (weirdly one of my least favourite Steps songs) was their opening number...
- Hurrah for a one two punch of You'll Be Sorry and Deeper Shade of Blue. Blend of old and new dance routines. I stuck with the old. As did most of the audience.
- Had they followed this with Baby Don't Dance, I'd have been in blissful heaven. What came next was very good indeed anyway...
- "WE'RE BA-A-ACK" they yell. The crowd went wild. Now hurry up and get a record deal and record new music (though what I think that music should sound like - Steps 2012 - is a topic for another blog)!
- The whole interactive dance game, splitting the team into 5 separate dance moves (one for each member) was both classic Steps and inspired genius. We were team Lee. He was quite buff, so who wouldn't be?? It was a trilogy of pop perfection with Last Thing On My Mind, Better Best Forgotten & Love's Got A Hold Of My Heart. God knows why they dumped Claire with the frumpiest dance move ever invented though...
- (While Lisa got to say "make a fist". Amarz. You don't have to tell the gays twice honey)
- I've learnt that I'm far more tolerant of 5-6-7-8 than I used to be and that the fan videos were actually quite funny. Brava diva.
- Ah, the much ballyhooed Better The Devil-Judas mash up. Hmmm. It worked but not steptacularly well for me. I think it's just cos I wanted the "foul hooker prostitute wench" line in there with Lisa, Faye and Lee giving H&Claire sideways eyes. That would've been quite funny. What I did like was that you got to hear Steps the 2012 Group do a modern pop song and it was pretty decent.
- I like to liken the 5 solo bits (Lee said they were a gift to the fans. Can I return it please? I was never a fan) to RuPaul's Drag Race main stage presentation. If this was the case then Lee was safe, Lisa was a whisker away from winning (how fab to hear Lately as part of the Lately the Beautiful People are in Heaven medley and she looked dragtastic as a little butterfly) but it was Faye with her camp as tits One Night Only that stole my heart. Sure the big pink shoe and boys camping it up in hot pants and heels borrowed liberally from Elouise, Kylie and Madonna, but it was phenom. Love love loved.
- The new intro to It's The Way You Make Me Feel (above) was gorgeous. Just a stunning addition to one of my all time favourite Steps songs. I love that H got a boy partner (and in several other dance routines too). I think I got a little bit emotional during this.
- Ugh, the ballad section. Weirdly as someone who loves ballads, I've never been a massive fan of Steps ballads (ITWYMMF not withstanding). Heartbeat was quite nice though, but When I Said Goodbye could've easily been replaced by After The Love Has Gone for my liking. Some hyper dude in front had tears streaming down his face during it though so I guess one man's vinegar is another man's honey...
- It's raining! on prom night! Men! Hallelujah - it's one for sorrow. With rain! Not real rain, though they could take a trick from Singin' In The Rain The Musical and sort that for a Christmas tour please. Still, it was rather bloody brilliant.
- Was it before Stomp, that rollerskating bit? They looked really unsure on skates, except the Brian Friedman lookalikey. They soon tottered off and a 70s disco good time was had by all. Thank god for the weekend indeed.
- Chain Reaction. You can't go wrong with it really can you? Shame they didn't have two drummers on stage pounding away like their lives depended on it. I love a drummer pounding I do...
- Dancing Queen live was actually really quite charming and delightful. It blended into their hits catalogue seamlessly, though still doesn't give us the Steps 2012 sound i'm craving (perhaps they should check this album out). It was a reet champion time though...
- And of course it all finished with Tragedy. The audience poked each other's eyes out doing guitar moves (sorry guy next to me. My thumb really got into your cornea didn't it?) and did hands by face realness. Christmas tour with Merry Christmas Everybody is now essential. As an October single and album, and a big fuck off Christmas dance smash. Thank you.
Top 21 songs of the week:
21 ~ Simon Curtis, Starlight
20 ~ Madonna, Give Me All Your Luvin'
19 ~ Olly Murs, Oh My Goodness
18 ~ Bright Light x2, Waiting For The Feeling (NE)
17 ~ Delta Goodrem, Sitting On Top Of The World
16 ~ Marie Serneholt, Salt n Pepper
15 ~ Little Jackie, Cock Block
14 ~ fun, Some Nights
13 ~ Scissor Sisters, Only The Horses
12 ~ Auryn, I Don't Think So (NE)
11 ~ Smash, Let Me Be Your Star
10 ~ Alphabeat, Vacation
09 ~ Darin, Nobody Knows
08 ~ Chantal Claret, Pop Pop Bang Bang
07 ~ Marina & The Diamonds, Primadonna
06 ~ Gravitonas, Call Your Name
05 ~ Stooshe, Love Me
04 ~ Madonna, Girl Gone Wild
03 ~ Nicki Minaj, Starships
02 ~ Carly Rae Jepsen, Call Me Maybe
Danny, Amazing (5 weeks)
No comments:
Post a Comment