This page is a running tally of all the concerts I've been to - half to inform you as to who's great, mediocre, or shitty live, and half to remind me where I've been (you know how the mind starts to go...). So enjoy!
My weekend was one of Lasts. Friday, it was (formerly known as S Club 7) S Club's last gig ever (EVAR!), and Saturday, it was bis's last London gig ever (the "last gig EVAR" distinction goes to Glasgow in a few night's time).
I've been meaning to see bis for years now, but since this is their last tour ever, it was definitely a "now or never" type affair. I kinda felt out of place because I only knew Return to Central plus a few scattered singles, and this was
much more of a "let's play really old album tracks and b-sides to thank the fans" setlist. They played a huge block of their older punk stuff, then Eurodisco (weee!), then a slightly shorter set of newer electro stuff. I thought it was kinda interesting that their encore consisted of "Today Of All Days" (their last single) directly followed by "Kandy Pop" (their very first single). Awww. :) And to the flip side of the S Clubs, I've never seen a BAND have so much fun onstage in a long time.
My weekend was one of Lasts. Friday, it was (formerly known as S Club 7) S Club's last gig ever (EVAR!), and Saturday, it was bis's last London gig ever (the "last gig EVAR" distinction goes to Glasgow in a few night's time).
S Club Juniors (soon to be known as "S Club 8") are reeeally disturbing onstage. They actually look a bit older than their photos, but the Grease stage set and the whole "I'm dressed like a cheerleader and gyrating on a pink Elvis bed" really freaked me the hell out. Buuuut, they did finish with "One Step (Closer to Heaven)" which was the only one I really wanted to hear from them, and clearly their best song to date. Then S Club came on directly after them (no intermission - since 60% of the audience was under the age of 10, I think they had bedtimes in mind), with a massive underground mountain lair set - bubbling potions, huge screens, cloning equipment, a mad scientist, etc... Jo (the blonde one that does all the singing) had hurt her back so she stayed out of the dance routines, but the group brought so many extra dancers with them it didn't make much of a difference anyway.
For me, the highlight of the night was when the dancers came out in full ninja gear and S Club proceeded to choreograph-fight them ! rawk!! nothing beats NINJA FIGHTING!! nothing! except maybe a massive drop-down stage over the floor audience ("haha! your seats suck now!"), complete with an S Club medley including "Reach (For the Stars)". Only they showed the video up on the big screens, making it OBVIOUS during Paul's solo that, err, they weren't singing live ("gosh, really??"). They filmed their last single to air on CD:UK the next morning, and then finished with "Don't Stop Moving", which I've had in my head since the concert, despite about 25 plays of the mp3. d'oooooh. I feel confident this performance is going to be released as a DVD in the near future, which should be interesting since that's never happened to a gig I've been at... But I don't think I've had this much fun at a concert in a long time (I'm using my selective memory to cut out the ballads, btw).