Tonight:
5°c
"My first pop concert" is a rite of passage that, to judge by our fellow Jubilee line passengers on Sunday night, all crop tops and Hula Hoops, generally takes place between "my first grown-up tooth" and "my first kiss".
For my wife and I, and our friends Jack and Lucinda, this educational step took place somewhere between "my first dinner party" and "my first intimation of mortality" - for somehow the full-on pop spectacle had passed us by until now.
Why renege on a lifetime of musical discernment? Simple. The destination was the O2 and Girls Aloud - and the exacting rock fan makes an exception for Girls Aloud, paragons of popular music and beacons of 21st-century womanhood that they are.
I began to suspect that Kimberley, Cheryl, Sarah, Nadine and Nicola were worthy of non-ironic consideration on hearing their 2005 single Biology, which, for spirit, honesty and inventiveness puts 99 per cent of modern rock music to shame.
My admiration only increased when I happened to meet the band's main songwriter, Miranda Cooper, at a gig in Shoreditch a month ago (not for Girls Aloud the shallow protest that they write their own songs - they entrust them to true craftsmen).
I complimented her on the clever rhyme scheme in the delightfully seedy song Watch Me Go. She was delighted I had noticed this quirk, and revealed she is a stickler for proper versification: "Like 'friend' does not rhyme with 'when'," she maintained. This is not the sort of thing that keeps Kings of Leon up at night, I daresay.
Leaving it to the experts has further advantages. If you go to see Kings of Leon, chances are they will have scribbled together their set list on the tour bus. There will not be even the most rudimentary dance routine.
At a Girls Aloud gig, hundreds of skilled pros - choreographers, costume designers, pyrotechnicians - have crafted each aspect of the show so you are at all times entertained. This is a supremely pleasurable experience. When it goes wrong - poor Cheryl experienced hydraulic platform malfunction during The Promise - it is hilarious. When it goes to plan - the video backdrop to Love Machine proved amazingly phallic - it is also hilarious.
And yet for all the artfulness of the show itself, the band, who worked like dogs, never come across as anything less than their unpretentious selves.
On top of all this, it is a bonus that the girls are quite nice to look at. As Jack and I tried to place the quintet in order of comeliness, we did not know whether to be delighted or dismayed that our partners joined in.
Richard watched
State of Play (general release)
Having been inspired to take up journalism by the original TV series, I am now pleased to confirm that it is an entirely accurate account of one's day-to-day working life.
