Girls Aloud
Hydro, Glasgow
The Spice Girls had the girl gang power, Little Mix the voices and the street smarts but Girls Aloud had the songs – playful, infernally catchy pop gems with a patchwork of ideas crammed into each eccentrically formed three minutes.
The Girls revisited twenty of their exultant best on this reunion tour, delivering everything you could possibly want from a pop show, apart from the one thing over which there was no control. Sarah Harding, arguably the most effervescent of the Girls, passed away in 2021, aged only 39.
Tributes to their late bandmate were woven into the fabric of the show, leaving Nicola Roberts, Nadine Coyle, Kimberley Walsh and the mononymous Cheryl free to simply perform, celebrate and interact with their ten-strong troupe of male dancers. Whether floating above the audience in diaphanous pink trains for Untouchable, revving up on motorbikes for a riotous Wake Me Up, or revisiting those simple but effective mic stand moves for debut hit Sound of the Underground, they were, in the words of Something New, “leaders of the pack”.
There was not a weak link in the set. Can’t Speak French, Call the Shots and Something Kinda Ooh all resonated for the sheer love of pop. The wah-wah funk rock of Graffiti My Soul and ecstatic dance tune On the Metro, co-written by Roberts, were lesser known but worthy inclusions. Their Pretenders cover, I’ll Stand By You, was their big, belting ballad moment with Harding’s recorded vocal ringing out, while their take on the Pointer Sisters’ Jump (For My Love) was garlanded with a party popper streamer shower.
There was one final costume change and pop coup to deliver. With a fanfare, the quartet re-emerged in shimmering Jazz Age gowns to close with The Promise, highlighting Harding’s soaring solo and ending the Girls Aloud Show on a graceful but exhilarating high.
