The Weekend That Taste Forgot

This weekend I saw both Girls Aloud and Revenge of the Sith. One was a manufactured confection that cynically exploited children and ... look, you're way ahead of me here... Girls Aloud were brilliant.

I remember Lee introducing me to them. I'd just finished working on Fame Academy, and was cynical about anything that wasn't Ainslie.

Lee's eyes narrowed and glowed red. As they always do when either ending a life or spotting a Pop Sensation. "Trust me. It's like when a blind poodle plays the piano. It's amazing that they can do it at all."

And he was right. What innocent pleasure's been wrung from The Show, Sound of the Underground, Love Machine, and even, at a pinch and a slap, Jump!

Seeing them in concert was just wonderful. The audience was entirely composed of gays and seven year old girls (insert obvious joke here). With one exception. An ex All Saint turned up with her daughter, and promptly fell asleep.

We screamed and shouted and sang and just adored the whole spectacle. I've lost my heart to bulky dancer Craig. Especially when he turned up in a schoolboy outfit during their version of Teenage Dirtbag.

And the Girls were great. It helped that each one had a professional dance minder, there to keep then roughly in time. Even better they remembered to mime to almost every song - except for one when they just had to move and sing at the same time... with hilarious results.

I'm so happy. Apart from anything else, I realised that this was the first proper actual concert I've been to. I don't think seeing PAs at G.A.Y with your hands down the pants of some novel Swede counts.