ON the first night of their latest UK tour, The Saturdays stormed the BIC.

Slowly descending from the ceiling in a cage, the five Saturdays – Una, Frankie, Mollie, Vanessa and Rochelle – soberly dressed as bespectacled, stereotypical secretaries, suddenly exploded into Bad Girls.

Backed by a solid four-piece band, and augmented by six versatile male dancers, The Saturdays delivered a genuinely spectacular show.

The vocals are strong, the harmonies tight, and the choreography slick and raunchy.

Costumes are vibrant and colourful, lighting is dramatically effective, and the overhead projections imaginative.

Superb use is made of stage equipment, with the girls magically appearing from trapdoors and the dancers tumbling into pits.

Most of the numbers are stonkin’ thumpers with the pounding I Feel Alive and the hooky I Just Can’t Get Enough outstanding, yet the occasional ballad works well, particularly Wish I Didn’t Know and the quirky Me And My Heart We Got Issues with its edgy lyric: “...can’t decide if I should slap you or kiss you”.

The theatrical finale featured the girls popping out of Christmas present boxes in Santa coats to croon an almost jazzy version of Walking In A Winter Wonderland.

The encore was their current single Where My Heart Takes Over as the stage slowly rotated and the snow gently fell.

Finally Una, the newly-pregnant Saturday, was given a Christmas gift – a tiny Babygrow – by Eliza in the adoring audience.

The Saturdays are getting better and better.