Thursday 12th April 2012. LG Arena Birmingham
Its fitting that the
first tour on my run of reviews was the most recent I attended and
performed by the very first act I ever saw live back in 1999. The
entire Steps comeback still baffles me to this day, was it pure fluke
or one of most cleverly orchestrated schemes in modern pop? I guess
I’ll never know, but what I do know is that the Ultimate tour,
their first in 10 year, was a hell of a lot of fun! The pop five
piece may be older and wiser, but they still knew how to have fun and
most importantly, who their fans were.
Their was dance floor
steps, the brilliant opening section ending with 'Deeper Shade of
Blue'. Sexy Steps, with the inspired mash up of 'Better the
Devil You Know/Judas'. Emotional Steps, 'Its The Way You Make
Me Feel' in period dress, along with 'One for Sorrow'
brining 14,000 peoples fingers in the air waving “Too Too Bad”.
And all out Camp Steps, with 'Stomp' keeping
Disco alive. But the dance instructor section ala 'Just
Dance' or 'Dance Central' was possibly the strongest of
the whole set, 'Last Thing
on My Mind' was perfect and the
line dancing fan videos of '5678' proved
how much love their still was out there for the group. The entire
arena went wild, joining in with all the moves flashing before them
on the big screen.
The
staging was simple but impressive, with the huge screen and moving
panels displaying great visuals. The dialogue between numbers seemed
natural and the group were clearly loving being back on stage. The
dancers, who got little rest at all were all top notch. The Costumes
were perfect, giving steps a modern look while still keeping the
camp. Despite a few clear mic problems along the way, the whole
production seemed well rehearsed and slick. Talking of mic's, it was
inevitable that there would be some miming with a 2 hour set with
near constant dancing. But the large majority of the vocals were
clearly live and actually very strong, especially Claire Richards,
who truly has an incredible vocal talent.
The
only weak point was the inevitable solo section. Whereas in previous
tours, each member would have come out at different points during the
show, singing b-sides and current album tracks, they chose to bring
the solos together, all covers of current or classic chart hits. Each
member performed well, but the section felt like an interval between
the back to back hits. It was inevitable but unnecessary. I would
have preferred shorter arrangements, to make way for the excluded
hits 'After The Love Has Gone',
'I Know Him So Well'
and 'Say You'll Be Mine'.
But
this can be forgiven for one reason alone, the epic finale. 'Tragedy'
has to be one the most over played songs at weddings and bad office
parties over the last 10 years, but this was all forgotten by seeing
the group perform their mega hit together again after so long. The
giddy ten year old inside every member of the crowd went crazy,
playing their air guitars and holding their hands to their heads like
it was 1999. The Ultimate tour felt like the perfect happy ending to
the pop group, but if Steps do release new material and therefore
tour again there is big love for unapologetic pop and a good old
dance routine. Perhaps that’s what the pop world really needs right
now, some fun.
* * * *
* * * *
Set List
- "You'll Be Sorry"
- "5,6,7,8"
- Lee solo: "Moves Like Jagger" / "S&M"
- Faye solo: "One Night Only"
- 'H' solo: "Don't Stop Believin'"
- Claire solo: "I Surrender"
- "Stomp"
- Encore
- 22."Tragedy"
Watch Steps perform 'Last Thing On My Mind', 'Better Best Forgotten' and 'Loves Got A Hold Of My Heart' (Fan made video, no professional recording available yet)
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