Gig played on 28/05/05

Amongst all the Live 8 hysteria, one of the more telling rumours was that Bob Geldof had declined the offer of a Spice Girls reunion to mark the occasion, on grounds of taste and ability to pull in the crowds. Whether true or not, the fact the story got so much mileage shows how little regard there is for pop at the moment, as does the predictable white-boys-with-guitars line up Geldof has announced.

A grave mistake, on tonight's evidence. Because if a second-hand Spice Girls can be as massively popular and enormously fun as Girls Aloud are tonight, imagine what the real thing could do on July 2. From the moment a stomping, gleefully frivolous version of "The Show" begins, the Girls are met with a wall-of-sound screaming from an overwhelmingly young, female audience who obviously adore the fivesome, warts and all.

And, yes, there are warts. Like the Spice Girls, there is something amateurish about Girls Aloud, and they are all the more charming for it. Compared to the robotic efficiency of Kylie or Britney live, experiences as precise and clinical as minor heart surgery, a Girls Aloud show is a slapdash, giggly occasion. If Sarah Harding can't really sing, who can tell over the screaming? If Nadine Coyle dances like she's on her sixth Bacardi Breezer, who are we to judge? We are too.

And when people are having as much fun as the Girls are up on the Hammersmith stage, it can't help but be infectious. With the giggling, the school uniforms, the bumping into each other and the raucous singing, it's a Blackpool Hen Night set to music. But such good music! Of a host of covers, their hyperactive version of Duran Duran's "Girls On Film" works best, while a dreary run through the Pretenders' "I'll Stand By You" is a brief deflation of energy.

But their own material works best of all. "No Good Advice" is still an effortless mix of knowingly modern magpie pop topped off with an old school monster chorus, while unofficial anthem "Love Machine" is as exuberant and fizzy as the girls themselves. Only "Sound Of The Underground" sounds a little tired, perhaps a little too sulky for the setting.

All told, you should have been here, Mr Geldof.

by Jaime Gill