Nottingham’s biggest stars were out in force for the first night of Paper Lace’s much-anticipated interactive concert residency in Sneinton.

The team behind the new show – called Paper Lace’s Pilgrimage – have used recycled animatronics from the city’s old Tales of Robin Hood attraction to recreate the band, celebrated as Nottingham’s biggest export, in their ‘1973 prime’.

The show — being performed in a purpose-built 15-seater shipping container on Sneinton Market — is expected to run for around a month.

The dummies ‘perform’ using isolated vocal tracks sampled from the original studio recordings and are accompanied by a live band during the 30-minute show.

Three of the original group members were present at the show as the pioneering animatronics were carried onto stage for the first time.

A tearful Philip Wright, the group’s former lead singer’ was overheard praising the show to a fan in the audience.

‘The likeness, it’s is uncanny. I’m stood here, but it’s like I am…up thereat the same time,” he said.

Fans and celebrity VIPS were treated to a setlist made up of hits ‘Billy Don’t Be A Hero’, ‘The Night Chicago Died’ and ‘The Black-Eyed Boys’. The show was then brought to a close with after just 15 minutes with acoustic versions of Billy Don’t Be A Hero and The Night Chicago Died before a medley made up of Billy Don’t Be A Hero and The Night Chicago Died for the encore.

Budget constraints prevented the team behind the show including the band’s hit with “We’ve Got the Whole World in Our Hands” — their 1978 minor hit with Nottingham Forest — on the setlist.

“Funds are tight at Nottingham City Council so we’ve had to reuse old animatronics from the Tales of Robin Hood attraction, that we closed down back in 2009,” explained chief engineer Phil Talbot.

“There weren’t enough merry men to create the 1978 Forest squad as well as the band so we had to take the decision top leave that song out.

“One bloke left in anger, but the remaining 14 had a great time.”

The launch night was attended by a host of the city’s celebrities including Su Pollard and ex-East Midlands Today presenter Dominic Heale.

Pollard said: “Wow, just wow. They sang about the Night Chicago Died, but let me tell you: this was the night they brought Nottingham to life”

A guy claiming to be city-based singer Jake Bugg’s cousin said: “You won’t need to go all the way to that London for ABBA, ’cause now we’ve got this.”

The show organisers say they hope to continue celebrating Nottingham’s rich musical history with a follow-up show featuring ‘Please Don’t Go’ hitmakers KWS next summer.