CityLife

Sugababes @ Apollo

01/04/08

PROVING that pop can be creative and commercially successful, sassy girl trio Sugababes could pack out venues twice or three times the Apollo's size.

That they chose the Ardwick theatre for a sell-out two night stint shows they can mix it up in the right venues, away from their usual arena locations.

The atmosphere in the Apollo heightens with each hit and costume change, with the Sugababes proving themselves as leaders in the field of chart pop.

Backed by an immaculate band and some helpful dancers, the girls kick off with the fizzy pop of 'Hole In The Head' and 'Round Round', early-mid career highlights which appease an expectant audience.

Glitter ball dresses announce 'In The Middle', before the Gary Numan sampling 'Freak Like Me' provides proof of Sugababes' power-pop brilliance. They do a mean cover too, blasting out En Vogue's 'Don't Let Go' with much aplomb.

As expected, there's barely a bad vocal shared by Keisha, Heidi or Amelle all evening.

Props

They keep the stage props to a minimum, and are completely in tune to their all male backing band.

'Too Lost In You', from sickly Brit flick Love Actually is the pick of their ballad section while the summery pop of 'Change' is an understated highlight, and debut single 'Overload' sounds just as fresh as their more successful later hits.

Top five single 'Red Dress' is yet another slice of classic Brit girl-pop, before the faultless encore of number one's 'Push The Button' and 'About You Now' end the show on a thrilling note.

When you put aside the tabloid squabbling and rumours of group in-fighting and concentrate on their very good music, Sugababes are one of the best British pop groups of their generation.

With more performances like tonight, they'll soon be on par with pop's all-time greats.

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