Steps

They might be cheesier than a lump of the finest Cheddar and one member down but that did not stop Steps from performing the second of two shows at the O2 in London on their current What The Future Holds tour.

Faye Tozer returned back to the group after contacting Covid only for Lee Latchford-Evans to have to self isolate having caught the virus. With only four members instead of the usual five they worked hard to try and fill in for the missing Latchford-Evans.

In pop music terms Steps should have had their fifteen minutes of fame and not still be selling out arenas across the country. With the group coming up to their twenty fifth anniversary some might think that they are well past their sell by date, though the thousands who flocked to see them at the O2 would disagree.

In an exuberant and uplifting performance that lasted over two hours Steps brought back the colour, fun and excitement that is sadly missing in a lot of today’s pop acts.

With more costume changes than your average Primark changing room on a Saturday afternoon the four members went from 1960’s inspired outfits through to clothes from the Renaissance to ones they first wore when the group first stated.

The four members suddenly appeared out of the stage as they kicked the evening off with What The Future Holds before leading into One For Sorrow which had them and the fans doing all the hand movements associated with the song.

They do not dance as much as they did back in the day, like the rest of us they are getting older - instead they have their own dancers now to do it for them. The six dancers worked tirelessly rightly receiving their own name checks at the end of the show.

The Sixties segment worked well with Baby Love, It’s Not Unusual and You’re My World amongst others getting an airing by each member.

It’s The Way You Make Me Feel saw the four of them dressed in period costumes that would not look out of place in Downtown Abbey.

Steps have always had a knack of knowing which other songs to cover, Five Star’s The Slightest Touch could have been written for them, ditto Bananarama’s Last Thing On My Mind.

Cleverly Madonna’s Vogue is interlinked into Kylie Minogue’s Better The Devil You Know as Steps mix house and pop grooves together.

Respectful of their huge LGBTQ following Ian “H” Watkins proudly says on stage about how he knew he was gay at a young age, fittingly the Steps logo on stage displays all the colours of the rainbow as does the LGBTQ flag.

Towards the end some of the songs tended to mix into one another though it would not have been a Steps concert without them singing Tragedy as they ended the night on a high. Even with one man down Steps had risen up to the challenge on a night that was better best not forgotten.