The Steps show had all the pyrotechnics one expects from a big pop concert - dancers, explosions, costume changes and fancy sets. Yet behind it all, the band's strength lies in a repertoire of remarkably polished, memorable songs. Where most bands are all posture and no substance, Steps are a model of what pop should be.
They were formed in 1997 and have had a handful of hits, most notably a sparkling cover of the Bee Gees's Tragedy.
If anything, the elaborate stage show on occasion got in the way of the songs and of the five singers' wonderfully plain dance routines. Highlights included Last Thing On My Mind, Better Best Forgotten and (kept until last) Tragedy. But Steps are surprisingly good on ballads also - the dark When I Said Goodbye and Claire Richards's fine solo rendering of I Think It's Love.
Various influences are apparent. Most of the time, they sound like Abba, but there's also a touch of the Carpenters and of Kylie Minogue-style '80s pop (their producer, Pete Waterman, was the man behind Minogue's early successes).
All in all, pop music at its finest.
One complaint - the band were very late in coming on stage, and the audience was in the meantime subjected to nearly half an hour of noisy advertising on big screens (everything from Sky Television to Soft & Gentle deodorant). It seems crass to subject a young audience to this kind of enforced advertising for so long. Surely enough money is made on expensive tickets and merchandise?