The Greatest Hits live!
Atomic Kitten – Greatest Hits Tour 2004

Wembley Arena, London 29/2/2004

It’s been over a year since we saw Atomic Kitten perform live on a tour.  Right Here Right Now 2002 was a great tour and the Kittens visited small venues and had a great time, but 2004 was the year that Atomic Kitten were to take on arenas, they had to, they are one of the best loved UK pop groups aren’t they?  Half way in this Greatest Hits Tour, this tour was to be the best of the best and the best it was!  And so we went along to see Atomic Kitten return to London to perform their very best live!  Apparently, there was filming taking place at the event, but I guess we were too far to see the cameras shooting!

We went in to discover the huge number of fans excited for the event, the first thing was to check out the tour merchandise available, clothes, keyrings, the excellent tour programme, signed photos, mugs and more were on sale!  Many queued as these items were sure to go in no time!

We entered the event and being a large venue was quite back from the stage, but nevertheless, we knew the best was to come anyway whether you went near or far!

:: Support Acts
On this tour, there were actually three supporting acts.  First on stage were to violinist duo, Duel who entertained the audience with some excellent talent!  This was followed by the upcoming Scottish pop group, Lemonescent, who were fantastic and performed some of their hits plus their forthcoming new single, ‘All Right Now’ which was a brilliant cover – and they have fantastic dance moves as well!  Finally, we had Top Notch that were made up of DJs who were spinning vinyl’s and vocalist, Kelly who has an excellent voice!  They were all here to warm up the audience (we think anyway)!

There was an interval and recorded music played including Outkast and Michael Jackson!  Then on the screens was a montage of artists including Blue, Justin Timberlake (where many couldn’t resist screaming) and of course, Atomic Kitten where everyone was excited about!  Food and tour merchandise were being sold on the go, then, here’s where the exciting bit comes…

:: Atomic Kitten
After some half an hour, the lights went down and suddenly the intro to ‘Be With You’ played and you could hear excitement among the audience as they were waiting impatiently for something to happen on stage. However, just on the side of the arena was a spotlight and it was none other than Tash, Lil and Jen emerging, wearing coloured tops and jeans, as they got to the stage they jumped into the tune, ‘Be With You’ – a real stonker and definitely a good start to the show! The male dances followed on as they all danced on stage, the audience got up to clap and dance, while others watched and sang along to the tune! The Kittens then asked how Wembley was and everyone cheered! They went on to sing their smash hit, ‘It’s OK!’ which sounds just as good as when they first performed it live on their last tour! Then Jen introduced a tune she wrote on the Ladies Night album entitled, ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’. The Kittens swayed and moved across the stage and up the stairs as they got around! Then they went uptempo as Tash introduced another track from the Ladies Night album, ‘Somebody Like You’, a track Tash wrote, which got some of the audience dancing as they enjoyed the first set of tracks! They disappeared afterwards for a costume change while music was played by none other than the Kittens band, the Phat Cats!

The Kittens reemerged wearing white dresses as they performed a set of mid-tempo tunes starting off with ‘Love Doesn’t Have To Hurt’ which was performed well as the audience swayed to the music! Next, the first single from the Ladies Night album, ‘If You Come To Me’ was such a beautiful tune to perform live and again the audience swayed to the tune was it was performed! Another smoochy tune was the excellent, ‘The Last Goodbye’ which was another fine performance! Tash then introduced a rather anthemic tune, ‘I Won’t Be There’. The Kittens said to the audience that the song was co-written with some well known, ex-Take That member, “A guy named Gary Barlow” shouted Jen. As they got to the chorus, some dancers came on stage to help out! Before going for a costume change, the Kittens sat on the stairs for the beautiful, ‘Nothing In The World’.

When the Kittens returned, the lights when bright as they all dressed in a red skirt and jean top performed a new and updated version of Right Now! This version did sound more upbeat than the original and was a really good version! Along came the dancers for this disco pop tune! Another upbeat tune came along called ‘Loving You’ where at this point everyone was standing (except one person in front of us – they were missing everything!). Then to add spice to the tune, some salsa music was played as the Kittens ran up the stairs and shouted to the audience, “Come on, let’s salsa!”. That got everyone shouting!!! Next was another tune written by Lil called, ‘Always Be My Baby’ which was another excellent performance! Then to end things off from this set of tunes, was another tune from the latest album called ‘Everything Goes Around’ which is becoming a favourite of mine now! While the Kittens went for another costume change, the band were playing instrumental.

The Kittens were back wearing white t-shirt and jeans and sat on stools to perform an acoustic version of ‘Eternal Flame’. The Kittens were with their guitarist, Jules and Tash shouted to everyone, “You know this one!” And she was right, everyone in the audience sang along with Atomic Kitten and we are sure was a definite favourite among the fans around us! Then Tash shouted to the audience, “Do you want to hear our new single?” – the audience screamed! “I said, do you want to hear our new single?” Tash asked once again as she wasn’t convinced – the audience shouted even louder. Lil said: “Alright then, here’s one of our double a-side tunes…” – that being ‘Somebody Like Me’ which included all the Kittens singing to the tune, Tash introduced Duel – the violinist duo to play along! A beautiful tune and definitely a great single to release! Tash said that the next song is one of her favourites from the Ladies Night album, called ‘Believer’. A really sweeping ballad it was and at one point, the Kittens were being carried by a group of dancers – which looked really interesting! Next, the Kittens performed the tune, ‘Feels So Good’ co-written by the queen of pop, Kylie Minogue! Another upbeat tune, the Kittens made sure the audience stood up and clapped along to the tune and why not? The Kittens even managed to sandwich in Madonna’s 80’s classic, ‘Holiday’ (not to be confused with the Kitten version on the Whole Again single!), which fitted in really well! And when the audience had thoroughly enjoyed themselves, the Kittens said that they have come to the last tune, the audience said “Ahhh!” “Yes, this is our last tune and it is called…‘Whole Again’! Now this was the number that everyone wanted to hear! Everyone knew the words and all sang along, the Kittens got the audience to sing the chorus, but they also wanted the back of the audience to participate and so got them to sing it twice! As they got to the end, it appeared the audience finished the tune without the Kittens! They were impressed and joked a bit on stage! But then they sang the end they way they wanted it to be and the audience were happy nevertheless! They thanked the audience while they left the stage…but was it all over yet?

The lights went down and some of the audience were ready to leave (some did), but they didn’t know what was to come up next! The audience wanted more! They stamped their feet and shouted “We want more!”. And then lights went on as Jen shouted, “You want more, well you’re gonna get it whether you like it or not!”. And it was the fourth costume change as the Kittens were in overalls, Tash in yellow, Lil in black and Jen in white. The encore had two brilliant classics, first was the number 1 smash hit, ‘The Tide Is High (Get The Feeling)’ which was again a favourite with the audience and they all danced along to this fantastic tune. Then the Kittens said that this was really the final tune, and Tash said: “It wouldn’t be a great night, if it’s not a LADIES NIGHT!’ – and that’s right, the cover of Kool & The Gang’s ‘Ladies Night’ was the final tune and it was fantastic to see the Kittens among their dancers having a great time and to ends things off, sparks flew and the audience gave a huge round of applause!

This is without a doubt, one of the finest live performances we’ve seen in ages, they have emerged as a brilliant live band who deliver excellent pop tunes! Atomic Kitten did say see you soon, so contrary to the belief to many that think the Kittens have split, the fact is they will be back! After a break, we’re sure they’ll be back to take on the live arena stages once again – so watch out!

:: Facts about the gig
The London gig took place at Wembley Arena, England on the 29th February 2004, halfway on their Greatest Hits 2004 Tour.

Reviewed by Atomic Kitten Active, UK, 2004.