some may say it's a Tragedy.

This rock chick has a very dark past, a dark & cheesy past that is. I'd managed to keep my dirty little secret locked away for years, 10 years to be precise, that was 'till at the end of last year it was unleashed into the open once more....STEPS had reformed! When I was younger 'obsessed' was an understatement when it came to this cheesy pop band & now the stalkerish beast had been released & this time it was easier what with the use of twitter & facebook to find out what they were up to. Now forgive me if I'm scaring you a bit but on the 12th April Michelle & I were able to re-trace our steps (ahem excuse the pun) that we'd taken in November 2001 & see STEPS at the NEC in Birmingham once more.

There were signs everywhere warning me to stay calm & remember where my music loyalties lie but I was being sucked in rather rapidly to that fuzzy pink & glittery world full of dance routines & shouting 'oooh oooh' at every given opportunity. I'm worried that if I go back to a rock gig too soon I might turn up with glitter in my hair & a glowstick in my hand & the end result won't be a pretty one.

Getting ready at ma&pa's before hand brought back so many memories of getting overly excited. My old t-shirt still fitted & I managed to chose 1 scarf out of the 5 I had to wear. When I picked up Michelle she had the same scarf on too! Great minds think alike!

We grabbed a programme (but sadly no new scarf boo) & set off for block 15 opposite where we used to sit in block 4 (I remember the year I got row 'H' & I was dead impressed!).

The show was as cheesy & magic as I'd hoped & dreamed, there were a few sound glitches but seeing as everyone was singing along anyway it didn't matter too much. I wasn't too keen on the gaps between the costume changes & stage set ups (it didn't seem to flow that well & lost a bit of it's momentum) but as soon as they were back on stage getting the audience all excited again & dancing along it was like they'd never been away.

Steps & the crowd dancing along to One For Sorrow :)

Saying their goodbyes at the end of a brill show almost 2hrs later & all fellow steppers left with a spring in their step (again, no pun intended!) & a smile on their faces!

The following Thursday Steps played at the 02 arena in London so of course I had to see them again! This time it was the turn of mum&dad (who'd only ever heard a Steps concert from outside the NEC when they waited to pick Michelle, Sarah-May & I up), Sarah-May (another die-hard Steps fan) & closet Steppers Lou & Anna.

After a being told by security that I couldn't take my glowsticks in (huh?!) I sneakily smuggled them up my sleeve, cracked them in the loos (I'm sure people thought I was up to no good in the cubicle - well it takes a while to break 20 sticks while giggling away!) & we found our seats. We were a bit higher up than the NEC (nose-bleed height) but thankfully there was still space to have a boogie & scream/shout/sing along.

It was so much fun to see them again but that's it for now, I managed to keep the dream alive for one extra day by rocking my glitter hairspray to work but I finally had to wash my hair & out came the glitter! Boo! I tried to get a few pics of me rocking my glittery hair-doo while I listened to Steps on my iPod on my way to work but it really just looks like I have bad dandruff!

Well after all this cheesiness who knows when (or if) the rock chick will return?! Watch this space........
Ttfn x