Steps : The End Of The Road [DVD]

.co.uk Review ------------- For Steps fans, Christmas 2001 will be remembered as the bleak time when the fab five announced that they were splitting. The End of the Road is the of their final performance at Manchester's MEN Arena. Deceptively more polished and cohesive than their previous performances, the show does retain some of the traditions of previous Steps tours. More of a holiday-camp spectacular than a traditional live concert, the majority of the tracks appear to be pre-recorded, with only the slower tracks being performed with "live" vocals. As expected, all of their biggest hits are staged but a disproportionate a of album and new compositions are also included. These impromptu moments were undoubtedly added to provide convenient costume change breaks, with the five each taking turns to perform tracks individually. First off is H who swoops over the audience on a trapeze at the start of his rendition of Cher's "Believe". To anyone other than a star-struck 10-year-old, H's stage behaviour comes across as a tad annoying not to say patronising. He also manages to ruin most of the up-tempo tracks by encouraging the audience to shout "ooh, ooh". In retrospect, the show is fascinating to watch for other reasons, particularly as band member Claire looks close to tears throughout, ominously hinting at her insider knowledge of the impending split. On the DVD: Steps: The End of the Road features the following candid warning: "Our apologies for the slight drop out in the programme. This was unavoidable but it does not mean your copy is faulty!". Luckily the glitch in "Love's Got a Hold on My Heart" only lasts a couple of seconds, resulting in a brief loss of sound, with the visual and audio immediately returning to standard. Appealing to fans of dance computer games, the lightweight extras are focused around mastering 30-second dance routines of some of Steps' greatest hits. --John Galilee

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