‘One of the best Pride shows this critic has ever seen’

“Why don’t you deceive me, feed me, tell me you need me – without malice games?” I’ve always loved ‘Biology’, but it’s only, like, my sixth favourite Girls Aloud song. So I was surprised by the rush of pure joy I felt last night when, during the girls’ headlining set at Brighton and Hove Pride, during the energetic, swinging opening of this song, Nadine let loose her soaring, dragging vocal to the crowd.

“Come hug me, hold me, say you’ll love me, not my dirt brainyyyy!” she screamed, surprisingly louder in the mix than on record. And to think this was just the beginning of a uniquely structured song with not one, but two choruses!

The whimsy of “Biology” stopped me in my tracks in 2005, and it did last night, too. Same with “The Show,” a surprising choice of opener: a light, fluffy moment in the girls’ discography soon eclipsed on release by the flashy follow-up “Love Machine.” But the setlist works no matter how you arrange it, because Girls Aloud’s collection of singles is a work of art that is more than the sum of its parts.

Most of GA’s songs, starting with their plot twist of a dark debut ‘Sound of the Underground’, are so distinctive that they instantly evoke flashes of memory. Even those I I don’t like them, I still know them inside out, like ‘Something New’ and ‘Can’t Speak French’. Because they’re all essential to the girls’ story, and they all provided the soundtrack to the adolescence of the 30- and 40-something gay men in the audience. That’s clearly true of former Years & Years star Olly Alexander, who joins the girls on stage for the oh-so-elegant ‘The Loving Kind’, delivering a classy, ​​restrained vocal and looking in his element.

It’s surreal to see five figures on stage after Girls Alouder Sarah Harding died in 2021. Her presence, though, is felt throughout, most poignantly when her isolated vocals are repeated over and over at the end of ‘Whole Lotta History’, lifted by a stunning instrumental crescendo. Her face often fills the large screen on the main stage. At one point, Kimberley turns and sings and dances directly towards her; a moment she may not have anticipated would be captured on camera and projected onto the side screen. A relaxed and unflappable performer, she appears momentarily stunned, as does the audience. It’s very humanising.

They’re down one member, but the band is hardly weakened. Nadine, of course, is an unstoppable force of nature. For her wildly off-piste runs on ‘Long Hot Summer’, I noted ‘punk’ and ‘literally sounds like a guitar’. But all four girls, now women in their 30s and 40s, have developed stronger voices with age. Certainly pop veteran Cheryl, who really hits her stride in places and creates a sturdy foundation for harmonies alongside Kimberly.

Nicola, however, is a revelation. She is poles away from her shy 2000s persona, with a technical prowess that could see her suited to jazz and blues, improvising with abandon over songs in which she previously played a minor role. Her polished demeanor is reflected in her divergent stage look: while the others opt for figure-hugging, warrior-princess-style gold basques – fun but ridiculous – Nicola, in her draped gold sweater and with her hair flowing down, looks like a 1960s supermodel.

If she and the others miss the occasional note, it’s only because they’re a) dancing wildly to extremely complicated choreography and b) in a safe space, embraced by an adoring crowd who would rather see them having fun than being perfect.

They do. Remember Cheryl’s exaggerated facial expressions in the “Love Machine” video? They’re out in force tonight, and irresistibly charming. She literally snarls the line “kitty cats”. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a performer interact with the crowd so much, making hand hearts and blowing kisses at every opportunity. Nadine’s stage presence, meanwhile, is so charismatic it borders on comedy, all hilarious, affected affectations and lashings of beautiful Irish accent. She’s one of the most endearing British pop personalities of the century.

This was a long, generous set, which even found time for album tracks and a cover of Madonna’s ‘Material Girl’. I didn’t even check my watch for the first hour. A thousand hair flips later, we’re in the home stretch, and while the sequined ball gowns reappear for closer ‘The Promise’, the emotional high point that precedes it is actually ‘Jump’, a song that symbolises pure bliss that actually ‘jumped’ to new heights with the detonation of a confetti blaster that made my heart skip a beat.

How pop music can get a crowd so high is beyond me. As such, this band will be a subject of study for music scholars for years to come.

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