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The racket that went up when the lights went down for the opening night of the Spice Girls’ reunion tour was like something from the days of Beatlemania. On huge screens at the back of the stage, an introductory film showed five children, little Spice lookalikes, opening a magic box. Five platforms rose from the floor — and suddenly they were there, resplendent in their golden, Roberto Cavalli outfits, like birds of paradise standing in a line astride their perches while pandemonium erupted around the 15,800-capacity arena.

After two days of heavy snowfall, Vancouver made an appropriate setting for the latest chapter in a story with more than a touch of the fairytale about it. It had been nine years since the five members of the most successful girl group in the history of pop performed together. Now in their thirties, with seven young children between them to consider, along with all the other competing demands on their attention, could they still pull it off?

Yes, they could. Indeed, their changed circumstances seemed to have made little difference to their irreverent and irrepressible approach.

If this show — colourful, energetic and wildly ambitious — was intended to cash in on past triumphs, there was certainly no stinting on the time, dedication and money spent on it. And, despite the debate, the Spice Girls didn’t mime, from what I could tell sitting in the front row.

The opening sequence of Spice up Your Life, Stop and Say You’ll Be There was a bold reminder of the glory days; instantly familiar songs that they performed with genuine enthusiasm and a neat repertoire of dance moves. The pace flagged briefly with Headlines (Friendship Never Ends), the rather drab new song, which was accompanied by excerpts from its ill-judged promotional video. Then a complete change of costumes and direction brought the brassy music-hall routine of The Lady Is a Vamp into play, an ingeniously arranged song-and-dance routine that still seemed a little unsteady in the execution. An uptempo arrangement of Too Much raised the kitsch factor several notches and then came the Spinal Tap moment as they each emerged from a cocoon of swan wings and danced round a set of barber’s poles while cooing the lovers’ refrain of 2 Become 1.

The turning point came with a storming version of Who Do You Think You Are, heralding the return of Ginger’s Union Flag mini. Melanie B then wielded a bullwhip with fearsome expertise as she performed a version of Lenny Kravitz’s Are You Gonna Go My Way; Melanie C took command of her rave anthem I Turn to You and Emma Bunton gave a bouncy rendition of her hit Maybe.

They all looked in sensational shape, none more so than Geri Halliwell, who seemed to have acquired a new poise as she strutted through It’s Raining Men. Aided throughout by a troupe of supremely athletic male dancers, they all appeared to be enjoying each other’s company — even Victoria Beckham, who took only a brief solo vignette, parodying herself as a celebrity.

The Spice Girls have never been the world’s greatest singers or dancers, but they remain consummate entertainers. Whether shamelessly pulling the sentimental levers with Mama or arriving, at last, at a raucous, celebratory encore of Wannabe, they performed with every ounce of strength in their legs and passion in their hearts.

Mission accomplished, it said on the screen as they left the stage. And accomplished it had been.

— The Spice Girls British tour starts at the O2 Arena, London, on December 15 for 17 nights.

— David Sinclair is author of Wannabe: The Spice Girls Revisited

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