AFTER years of waiting for a big name band to grace Salisbury with their presence the atmosphere at the Ray McEnhill stadium on Friday night was always going to reach fever pitch.

Despite slightly disappointing ticket sales the city's teenagers and a fair showing of patient parents arrived at pop's newest venue raring to see chart-toppers Mis-Teeq and a few support acts they had never heard of but were keen to scream at anyway.

Spire FM's DJs got the crowd ready to party on the pitch and an hour and a half after the gates opened up-and-coming Rn'B star, Nate James bounded onto the stage ready to 'make some noise'!

Sadly this proved impossible as technical difficulties meant he had four false starts before he could launch into his opening number, making for a stressful first five minutes for all concerned.

But once the CD player got back on track the talented performer showed real star quality and belted out three catchy numbers that could well earn him a chart position soon.

Feline femmes fatales Da Katz followed oozing pop fun and strange miaowing noises - 'it's cos we're cats see' they helpfully informed us.

Their songs were spirited and fast-paced and gave the audience a taste of the girl-power that was to come.

Equally good were boy band Grounded who got the girls and a good few of the mums screaming along with almost as much gusto as if Westlife or Busted had appeared on the specially constructed stage.

After another good-natured break with a run on hot dogs, flashing head gear and glow in the dark paraphernalia Mis-Teeq were ready for action.

Backed by a live band their R'n'B, garage and disco influences shone through and soon the whole stadium was shaking their funky stuff.

Although they have only been big since 2001, Mis-Teeq are not short on hits.

The majority of the set comprised of their well known singles such as One Night Stand, Be With You and Scandalous.

Their rendition of Why which catapulted them to fame was also well received and two tracks off the latest album Eye Candy showed that Mis-Teeq's hits are going to keep on coming.

There were none of the earlier technical glitches and the first class lighting and sound quality proved that Salisbury can put on a pop concert as well as the next place.

The event ran like clockwork, although the 50 minutes promised were all the audience got and a longer encore with a couple of different songs would have gone down better than Can't Get It Back for the second time.

With tickets priced at £17 this was a costly night out for Salisbury's youngsters.

But at least they had the chance to see the true pop talent right on their doorsteps and they left the pitch full of good spirits having scored a great night out.